The 8 best Bluegrass tracks of all time
Bluegrass
A named invention rather than a folk drift: the line-up Bill Monroe assembled in 1945 — mandolin, banjo, fiddle, guitar, bass, no drums — playing string-band music at bebop tempo with a solo order borrowed from jazz.
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Bill Monroe / Blue Moon of Kentucky
A waltz, until Elvis took it at double speed eight years later and Monroe then re-recorded it that way himself. Few records document a handover so cleanly.
Flatt and Scruggs / Foggy Mountain Breakdown
Earl Scruggs's three-finger roll, played faster than seems physically reasonable. The banjo stops being a rhythm instrument here and never goes back.
The Stanley Brothers / Man of Constant Sorrow
The high lonesome sound at its most severe — Ralph Stanley's tenor is not trying to be pleasant. An old ballad the Stanleys made permanently theirs.
Bill Monroe / Uncle Pen
Monroe's tribute to the fiddling uncle who raised him, which is also a statement about where the whole music came from. The mandolin break is his best on record.
The Stanley Brothers / Rank Stranger
A man returns home and recognises nobody. Bluegrass gospel at its most genuinely unsettling, and the harmony does most of the work.
The Country Gentlemen / Fox on the Run
A British pop song, rearranged for banjo and turned into a bluegrass standard. The tradition has always been more porous than its purists.
John Hartford / Steam Powered Aereo Plane
Hartford wrote Gentle on My Mind, took the royalties and made exactly the records he wanted. Newgrass begins here, loose and funny and entirely competent.