The Bramble and the Rose was the Lynn Morris Band’s second album for Rounder, released in 1992 (Rounder 0288). Lynn Morris sings lead and plays guitar, Tom Adams plays banjo, Peter McLaughlin mandolin and Marshall Wilborn bass, and Stuart Duncan of the Nashville Bluegrass Band plays fiddle on every track. Ken Irwin is credited as producer and Bil VornDick as engineer, and the sessions were recorded in part at Bias Recording in Springfield, Virginia.
The twelve tracks mix songs from several corners of country music with the band’s own. Morris sings Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors,” Tom T. Hall’s “The Engineers Don’t Wave from the Trains Anymore,” Mike Williams’s “Blue Skies and Teardrops,” and two Jim Eanes songs, “Why Tell Me Why” and “I’ll Pretend It’s Raining.” The title song was written by Barbara Keith. Wilborn takes the lead on Johnny Cash’s “Hey Porter” and on his own “My Younger Days,” and Morris adds clawhammer banjo to the Tom T. Hall song. The band’s own material comprises four originals: Morris’s “Love Grown Cold,” Wilborn’s “My Younger Days” and “Heartstrings,” and Adams’s banjo instrumental “Red Line to Shady Grove.”
According to the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, the album reached the top of Bluegrass Unlimited’s album chart in 1992 and stayed in the Top 10 for nine months.
Tracklist
- 1 Blue Skies And Teardrops 3:00
- 2 Coat Of Many Colors 3:24
- 3 The Engineers Don't Wave From The Trains Anymore 2:55
- 4 Why Tell Me Why 2:45
- 5 Love Grown Cold alt version 3:49
- 6 The Bramble and the Rose Source Recording 3:01
- 7 I'll Pretend It's Raining 2:15
- 8 Hey Porter 2:34
- 9 New Patches 3:17
- 10 My Younger Days 2:23
- 11 Red Line To Shady Grove 3:11
- 12 Heartstrings 3:00
