Hide Head Blues by Jim Mills, released in 2005, showcases one of the most technically gifted banjoists working in the Scruggs tradition in the contemporary era. Mills, a multiple-time IBMA Banjo Player of the Year, brings an almost orchestral sense of tone and dynamics to three-finger picking that elevates the album above the ordinary demonstration record. The title's blues inflection is not accidental — Mills has always been interested in the melodic and harmonic possibilities latent in the Scruggs style, and this album pursues those possibilities with focus and taste. The supporting musicians are drawn from the Nashville bluegrass community, and the production gives Mills's banjo the room it needs to breathe. For listeners interested in what the Scruggs tradition sounds like at its most refined in a post-Scruggs era, this is a key document.
Tracklist
- 1 The Hide Head Blues 2:58
- 2 Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar alt version 2:50
- 3 Pick Along 2:00
- 4 I Started Loving You Again 4:00
- 5 Standing in the Need of Prayer alt version 2:35
- 6 Cowboys and Indians alt version 2:23
- 7 Theme Time Source Recording 2:17
- 8 Black Mountain Blues 2:14
- 9 Guitar Rag 3:02
- 10 Temperance Reel alt version 2:39
- 11 Daddy Frank 4:06
- 12 The Old Hen 2:37
