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Across the Blue Ridge #137 - Two Youthful Bands Evoke Classic Sounds Of The Past With New Interpretations

by Paul Brown

High Fidelity is one of two bands of young adults featured this week on Across the Blue Ridge who are intentionally continuing traditions, playing the sounds they like. High Fidelity presents classic bluegrass. Also on the show, Steam Machine, whose repertoire spans the Midwest to the Southeast, keeping the group’s fiddling and singing inspirations in mind. Russ Carson, courtesy Rebel Records

This week we enjoy a selection of powerful traditional old time, pre-bluegrass and bluegrass music.  As we take a little tour of the evolution of bluegrass from old-time mountain music, gospel and blues, we encounter two new bands that seriously honor the old traditions without smothering them.

High Fidelity has just released an album on Rebel Records, and the band has been getting great reviews since 2016.  We hear selections from the album, The Hills of Home, plus some of the group's heroes from the first generation of bluegrass.  

Steam Machine brings a broad repertoire of old-time and bluegrass songs and tunes to its new album – with a distinct Midwest accent including melody-strong, long bow fiddling from A.J. Srubas and three-finger banjo picking from Aaron Tacke that straddles the line between bluegrass and down-home old-time square dance music.

Along the way, you'll hear the connections among traditions and find excitement in understanding the similarities among styles and musical sensibilities of Americans in the mid-Atlantic, the southern mountains and the Midwest, from European and African ancestry.

Playlist

  1. Waves On The Ocean
    New Ballard's Branch Bogtrotters
    Bogtrotter Blues
    New Ballard's Branch Bogtrotters
     
  2. Cotillion
    Emmett Lundy
    Library of Congress Recording
    Library of Congress
     
  3. Richmond
    Mike Seeger
    Old Time Country Music
    Folkways
     
  4. Stillhouse
    Kevin Fore & band
    Round Peak, The Tradition Continues
    Heritage
     
  5. Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow
    Pine Ridge Boys & Patsy
    Stringband Music From Mount Airy
    Heritage
     
  6. Scraps From Your Table
    Lynn Morris Band
    You'll Never Be The Sun
    Rounder
     
  7. Durang's Hornpipe
    Roan Mountain Hilltoppers
    Down Home
    Roan Mountain Hilltoppers
     
  8. Break 1 - The Big Scioty
    Matt Brown & Greg Reisch
    Speed Of The Plow
    Matt Brown & Greg Reisch
     
  9. On Some Foggy Mountain Top
    Monroe Brothers
    Volume 1
    BMG Rounder Select
     
  10. You've Been A Friend To Me
    Carter Family
    Volume 2: 1935-41
    Country Classics
     
  11. Forsaken Love
    Flatt & Scruggs with Mother Maybelle Carter
    Songs Of The Famous Carter Family
    Columbia
     
  12. I'm Gonna Settle Down
    Flatt & Scruggs
    1948-59 Volume 2
    Bear Family
     
  13. The Hills & Home
    High Fidelity
    Hills and Home
    Rebel
     
  14. My Savior's Train
    High Fidelity
    Hills and Home
    Rebel
     
  15. Gray Eagle
    High Fidelity
    Hills and Home
    Rebel
     
  16. Break 2 - Durham's Reel
    Lyman Enloe
    Fiddle Tunes I Recall
    County
     
  17. Birdie
    Steam Machine
    Steam Machine
    Steam Machine
     
  18. This World Can't Stand Long
    Steam Machine
    Steam Machine
    Steam Machine
     
  19. Steam Machine
    Garry Harrison & The Mule Team
    Red Prairie Dawn
    Garry Harrison
     
  20. Fourteen Days In Georgia
    Lyman Enloe
    Fiddle Tunes I Recall
    County
     
  21. Back in '89
    Steam Machine
    Steam Machine
    Steam Machine
     
  22. Sail Away Ladies
    Kenny Baker
    Baker's Dozen
    County

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