Live at the Birchmere (Rounder 0191, 1984) captures the Johnson Mountain Boys at the Birchmere venue in Alexandria, Virginia, on April 5, 1983. Dudley Connell on guitar and lead vocals, David McLaughlin on mandolin, Eddie Stubbs on fiddle, Larry Robbins on bass, and Richard Underwood on banjo perform the hard-driving traditional bluegrass that made the Johnson Mountain Boys one of the most admired neo-traditionalist acts of the 1980s. The Birchmere, then in its original Silver Spring Road location, was already one of the premier acoustic music rooms in the mid-Atlantic region. The album was reissued on CD in 1994, extending its availability to a subsequent generation drawn to the band's exacting standard of classic Monroe-style bluegrass at a moment when such playing represented a conscious counter-current to the more progressive tendencies in the genre.
Tracklist
- 1 Introduction By Red Shipley - Live At The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA / April 5th, 1983 0:41
- 2 Opening Theme: Wake Up Susan - Live At The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA / April 5th, 1983 0:29
- 3 We Can’t Be Darlings Anymore alt version 3:07
- 4 Highway of Sorrow alt version 3:01
- 5 Big Rufus - Live At The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA / April 5th, 1983 2:07
- 6 Wasted Words - Live At The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA / April 5th, 1983 2:52
- 7 I'm Dying A Sinner's Death - Live At The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA / April 5th, 1983 3:25
- 8 Sugarloaf Mountain Special - Live At The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA / April 5th, 1983 2:30
- 9 Making Up Stories - Live At The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA / April 5th, 1983 3:11
- 10 Tragic Love - Live At The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA / April 5th, 1983 2:50
- 11 Let's Part The Best Of Friends - Live At The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA / April 5th, 1983 2:35
- 12 Wild And Wicked World - Live At The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA / April 5th, 1983 4:19
- 13 Blue Yodel #3 alt version 3:24
- 14 She's Young (And I'm Growing Old) - Live At The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA / April 5th, 1983 4:13
- 15 Georgia Stomp - Live At The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA / April 5th, 1983 2:51
- 16 I'll Never See You Anymore - Live At The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA / April 5th, 1983 3:02
- 17 Get Down on Your Knees and Pray alt version 2:59
- 18 Cumberland Gap alt version 3:44
