Bluegrass Classics is a 1963 album from Jim and Jesse McReynolds and the Virginia Boys, recorded during the brothers' peak years as one of the most technically refined duet acts in the music. Jesse McReynolds's cross-picking mandolin style — a technique he developed by applying banjo roll patterns to the mandolin — was already fully formed by this period and distinguished the group unmistakably from every other bluegrass act. Jim's high baritone and Jesse's tenor blend with the smooth precision of siblings who had been singing together since childhood in Coeburn, Virginia. The album stands as a document of the Virginia Boys at the height of their powers — tight, clean, and technically dazzling without sacrificing the emotional directness that made their music endure.
Tracklist
- 1 Las Cassas, Tennessee 2:25
- 2 Drifting and Dreaming of You 2:28
- 3 The Grass Is Greener (In the Mountains) 2:21
- 4 What About You 2:48
- 5 I Wonder Where You Are Tonight 2:33
- 6 Why Not Confess 1:58
- 7 Nine Pound Hammer 2:09
- 8 The Violet and a Rose 2:39
- 9 Take My Ring from Your Finger 2:22
- 10 The Little Paper Boy 2:53
- 11 When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again 2:29
- 12 Just When I Needed You 2:36