Five of the strongest second-generation bluegrass players walked into Doc Holliday Recording in Atlanta in late 1980 and cut what would become the canonical statement of post-Monroe bluegrass. No leader, no marquee vocalist, no concept beyond playing the old songs the way they ought to be played. J.D. Crowe on banjo. Tony Rice on guitar. Bobby Hicks on fiddle. Doyle Lawson on mandolin. Todd Phillips on bass.
Released on Rounder in 1981, the record defined the sound of acoustic bluegrass for the next forty years. Arrangements are unadorned and precise. The playing is virtuosic without ever calling attention to itself. The vocal trio of Crowe, Rice, and Lawson reads like a textbook on close harmony. Most of the material is first-generation — Blue Ridge Cabin Home, Molly and Tenbrooks, On My Way Back to the Old Home — and the band’s commitment to the source material is what gives the record its weight.
The series ran six volumes plus a Compact Disc finale, but Vol. 1 remains the one. If you want to know what bluegrass is, start here.
Tracklist
- 1 Blue Ridge Cabin Home 3:11
- 2 We Can’t Be Darlings Anymore 3:03
- 3 Molly and Tenbrooks 3:07
- 4 I Believe in You Darling 2:32
- 5 Model Church 4:16
- 6 On My Way Back to the Old Home 2:32
- 7 Gonna Settle Down 2:53
- 8 Toy Heart 3:03
- 9 Pain in my Heart 3:14
- 10 Chalk Up Another One 3:08
- 11 River of Death 2:22