Industrial Strength Bluegrass (Smithsonian Folkways SFW 40238) is a studio compilation from Smithsonian Folkways presenting the contemporary bluegrass scene centered in Kentucky and the surrounding states, documenting the generation of performers who inherited the tradition's technical and aesthetic values and carried them into the twenty-first century. The cast includes Dan Tyminski, Russell Moore, Don Rigsby, Ronnie Bowman, Joe Mullins, Jamie Dailey, Josh Williams, and Sierra Hull, among many others, each contributing individual tracks in full ensemble bluegrass settings. The album's title — a deliberate echo of the music's working-class industrial heartland — captures both the geographic origin and the physical intensity that separates the hard-driving Kentucky sound from the smoother bluegrass of other regions, presented in a format that surveys the tradition's contemporary health.
Tracklist
- 1 Readin', rightin', route 23 3:36
- 2 20-20 Vision alt version 2:46
- 3 Suzanne alt version 2:48
- 4 From life's other side 5:35
- 5 Dark Hollow alt version 2:53
- 6 A Face in the Crowd alt version
- 7 Larry Sparks medley: 5:20
- 8 These Ole Blues alt version 2:44
- 9 When He blessed my soul 3:03
- 10 The rolling mills of Middletown 3:56
- 11 Family reunion 3:26
- 12 Mountain strings 3:42
- 13 Stone Walls and Steel Bars alt version 2:25
- 14 Are You Missing Me alt version 2:49
- 15 Once More alt version 2:28
- 16 Barefoot Nellie alt version 2:31
- 17 Garden tomb 2:47
- 18 Baby Blue Eyes alt version 3:59
- 19 We'll head back to Harlan 2:27