Skip to main content

J.D. Crowe and the New South

"J.D. Crowe and the New South" is the best bluegrass album according to u/qmb139boss on r/Bluegrass.

I honestly don't know enough about bluegrass to even have an opinion, but bold online opinions like this make me listen to an album and I enjoyed it.

J D Crowe died in 2021, so we're not talking an album hot off the press, but there's something timeless about internet opinions. 

He was born in Lexington Kentucky in 1937, when the Hindenburg crashed, on fire. Oh the humanity. Amelia Earhart had disappeared. 

Steve Martin was the first banjo player that entered my consciousness, and he was a comedian, wasn't focused exclusively on bluegrass music. 

The New South was founded in 1971. 



I went to a bluegrass festival sometime in my childhood with my father, stepmother and sisters. I don't think I've ever seen any other live bluegrass, but I think it's really cool.

I think music is always seeking authenticity and bluegrass seems to have the most easy access because you can't say you're trying to be really cool by choosing this genera, it's like putting on a bow tie for style. Of course the new hot thing isn't always the best thing. 

Closely allied to it is folk music, and country music. There's a well defined aesthetic even if most musicians don't like to be boxed in by genera. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tenorio jr

There's a movie on Netflix, They Shot The Piano Player (2023). It's about the disappearance of Tenório Jr. I'm really surprised, I couldn't find a previous post about  Tenório Jr .  Born in 1940, he disappeared in 1976 when he was 34, just coming into his powers. He came out with his first and only album in Embalo in 1964 ( Spotify ). He's an accompanist on many other albums. I tracked down all the albums mentioned on the Wikipedia page on Spotify and made a playlist . Lots of the albums were not present, and some had to be hunted for, did not come up on the search for the title.  Embalo on YouTube .

Female vocalist I like

My friend asked for more women vocalists. I sent him Right Back To It by Waxahatchee, which is my current favorite. Kathryn Crutchfield is the singer. Unfortunately when I’m meditating, these kinds of questions obsess me as a kind of distraction.  My first thought was Joni Mitchell , and Brandi Carlile . Those two are giants. There’s nobody like Ella Fitzgerald , I think she’s the top. I like her work with Duke Ellington best. Billie Holiday is a favorite. I love it that J. Edgar Hoover sent an agent to get the dirt on her, and he fell in love with her. I love her albums with Lester Young .  Alison Krauss has such a sweet voice, from bluegrass to pop. Her latest albums have been with the guy who sang for Led Zeppelin.  Linda Ronstadt constantly amazed me. Blue Bayou is amazing. Lately I've been listening to Sophie Milman . Indigo Girls have some solid hits. Galileo , Closer To Fine , Tiny Desk Concert . Tiny Desk Concerts are amazing. Power of Two on Spotify . ...

Kurt Elling

I saw a post asking about male jazz singers. Kurt Elling was the top one, so I'm listening to him. He was born in 1967 in Chicago. His father was the musical director at church and he was into music with the family from the time he can remember. Basically he didn't have any training until after college, and he sang in choirs in high school and college. He toured Europe in college with his choir. He had good conductors. He learned from experience, hanging out in clubs. He was encouraged to sit in. He says he had plenty of strikeouts too.  I know online music has killed the music industry, perhaps, perhaps not, because I listen to a lot more music with instant gratification. To get a fraction of a cut of the advertising seems unfair, but then again people used to want to get their records played on the radio.  Looks like he's in Poland now, then he goes to Washington. Birdland 1/8-11, then Orlando, Miami, Tucson, LA. A gig in Baton Rouge, Baltimore, then Ann Arbor. Seems like...