Bluegrass: The Greatest Show on Earth cover

Bluegrass: The Greatest Show on Earth

Various Artists

Album · 1982 · Sugar Hill SH 2201

Bluegrass: The Greatest Show on Earth records a single concert at Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., put on by the Birchmere, the Alexandria, Virginia, club where the Seldom Scene held a weekly residency. Sugar Hill Records issued it in 1982 as SH-2201, with Barry Poss as album producer. It is a bill of five groups rather than one band: the Seldom Scene, the original Seldom Scene, the original Country Gentlemen, an “Almost Original” New South and a later Country Gentlemen lineup.

The Seldom Scene set has Phil Rosenthal on guitar, Ben Eldridge on banjo, John Duffey on mandolin, Mike Auldridge on dobro and Tom Gray on bass; the original Seldom Scene segment puts John Starling in Rosenthal’s place. The original Country Gentlemen are Charlie Waller, Eddie Adcock, Duffey and Gray. The New South segment has Tony Rice, J.D. Crowe, Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas and Todd Phillips, and the later Country Gentlemen are Waller with Kent Dowell, Rick Allred and Bill Yates. The 22 tracks include “Hickory Wind,” credited to Gram Parsons and B. Buchanan, which the Seldom Scene lineup performs with Duffey singing lead and Auldridge and Rosenthal on harmony.

Tracklist

  1. 1 Doin’ My Time alt version 4:07
  2. 2 California Cotton Fields alt version 2:47
  3. 3 Band Intros - Live 1:16
  4. 4 Hickory Wind Source Recording Bob Buchanan, Gram Parsons · key C · 120 bpm · 3/4 4:25
  5. 5 Panhandle Country - Live 2:10
  6. 6 Muddy Water alt version 3:02
  7. 7 Rawhide alt version 2:31
  8. 8 Baby Blue alt version 3:27
  9. 9 City of New Orleans alt version 2:59
  10. 10 Grandfather’s Clock alt version 3:23
  11. 11 The Fields Have Turned Brown alt version 2:48
  12. 12 Hit Parade of Love alt version 2:33
  13. 13 Will the Circle be Unbroken alt version 5:38
  14. 14 Pickaway - Live 2:50
  15. 15 Dark Hollow alt version 2:12
  16. 16 Small Exception of Me - Live 3:01
  17. 17 If I Were a Carpenter - Live 3:00
  18. 18 Old Gray Bonnet - Live 2:26
  19. 19 C & O Canal - Live 3:12
  20. 20 Georgia Rose - Live 2:55
  21. 21 Colorado Turnaround - Live 2:39
  22. 22 He Rode All the Way to Texas - Live 2:40
  23. 23 White Line - Live 3:20
  24. 24 Rider - Live 7:32
  25. 25 House of the Rising Sun (Instrumental) alt version 5:34
  26. 26 Out Among the Stars alt version 5:19

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