The GreatestBluegrass SongsEver Recorded 30 SONGS

The Greatest Bluegrass Songs Ever Recorded

The recordings that built the music

30 songs

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Bluegrass is barely 80 years old, but a few dozen recordings define what it sounds like. These are the ones — first-generation Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers’ high-lonesome harmony, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs’ barnstorming sound, and the older traditional and gospel songs they all carried into the recording era. A few, like “You Are My Sunshine,” belong to American music as a whole, but bluegrass pickers claimed them so early and so thoroughly they hardly sound like anything else now.

Listen through this list end to end and you’ve heard the music. Each song’s page on Picker’s Guide has its history, the canonical recordings, chord charts, and lyrics — so when you’re ready to play one, the resources are there.

  1. 1. Blue Moon of Kentucky Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys (1954) · by Bill Monroe
  2. 2. I’ll Fly Away Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss (2000) · by Albert E. Brumley
  3. 3. Will the Circle be Unbroken by A.P. Carter, Ada Habershon
  4. 4. Blue Ridge Cabin Home The Bluegrass Album Band (1981) · by Louise Certain, Gladys Stacey
  5. 5. I Saw the Light Hank Williams and His Drifting Cowboys (1948) · by Hank Williams
  6. 6. Keep on the Sunny Side The Carter Family (1928) · by Ada Blenkhorn, J. Howard Entwisle
  7. 7. Little Cabin Home on the Hill Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys (1948) · by Lester Flatt, Bill Monroe
  8. 8. On and On Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys (1956) · by Bill Monroe
  9. 9. Can’t You Hear Me Callin’ Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys (1950) · by Bill Monroe
  10. 10. How Mountain Girls Can Love The Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys (1958) · by Carter Stanley
  11. 11. In the Pines Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys (1941) · by Traditional
  12. 12. Nine Pound Hammer The Tony Rice Unit (1979) · by Traditional
  13. 13. Sitting on Top of the World Doc Watson (1964) · by Walter Vinson
  14. 14. Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys (1951) · by Traditional
  15. 15. Angel Band The Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys (1958) · by W.B. Bradbury, Rev. J. Hascall
  16. 16. Dark Hollow The Del McCoury Band (2009) · by Bill Browning
  17. 17. Banks of the Ohio Tony Rice (1977) · by Traditional
  18. 18. Long Journey Home J.D. Crowe and the New South (1994) · by Traditional
  19. 19. Little Maggie The Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys (1948) · by Traditional
  20. 20. Shady Grove Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder (2001) · by Traditional
  21. 21. Lonesome Road Blues Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys (1961) · by Traditional
  22. 22. All the Good Times Are Past and Gone Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys (1971) · by Traditional
  23. 23. Bury Me Beneath the Willow Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice (1980) · by Traditional
  24. 24. Mountain Dew The Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys (1960) · by Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Scott Wiseman
  25. 25. You Are My Sunshine Norman Blake (2000) · by Jimmie Davis
  26. 26. Don’t This Road Look Rough and Rocky The Bluegrass Album Band (1982) · by Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs
  27. 27. Little Georgia Rose The Seldom Scene (1973) · by Bill Monroe
  28. 28. On My Way Back to the Old Home The Bluegrass Album Band (1981) · by Bill Monroe
  29. 29. Big Spike Hammer The Bluegrass Album Band (1983) · by Pete Goble, Bobby Osborne
  30. 30. Your Love is Like a Flower The Bluegrass Album Band (1982) · by Earl Scruggs, Everett Lilly

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