Best $1 Bluegrass CD…and More!

If you love bluegrass instrumentals, treat yourself to a great and inexpensive gift from your local Dollar Tree store.  Don’t be fooled by the cardboard jewel case for the album Smokey Mountain Memories, thinking it might be amateurs.  The group un-named) is clearly composed of topflight performers on banjo, guitar, base, and mandolin.  You get 10 tunes, some familiar standards and some not heard often.  There are two vocal numbers, one forgettable, the other not bad.  You won’t find the fiddles and flutes claimed on the wrapper, but this is still a great CD, with some wizard playin’ especially in “Billy in the Lowground” and “Cherokee Shuffle.”
 

Review: “Susanville” by Dixie Bee-Liners

A GPS computer voice intones,

“Enter highway. Drive more than 2000 miles.”

And so begins the Dixie Bee-Liners concept album, “Susanville.”  The concept is a road trip, but this isn’t Leon Copas or C.J. McCall telling epic tales of the road.  There aren’t a lot of songs about trucks, or truck stops and diners, or truck stop girls, although there are token songs such as “Truck Stop Baby,” “I Need Eighteen Wheels” and “Trixie’s Diesel-Stop Café.”  The concept is way too high a trajectory for me.  In fairness, there is a tag line of this CD that reads, “Every car on that highway has a story.”  So, maybe it’s just eavesdropping on conversations, laments, internal monologues, rants, etc.  It surely isn’t like National Lampoon Road Trip, either.

Bluegrass Time

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and Bluegrass Time by Phil Zimmerman is more than a collection of photographs. The book also contains a host of stories, biographies and interesting bluegrass facts, from the secrets of Bill Monroe’s mandolin to the famous jam on the back of the flat bed truck.

The book spans a vibrant time in bluegrass history from the early 1970’s to the early 1980’s. A time when giants walked the earth and today’s big names were just starting out. Festivals at this time were just starting to become three day events and bands like the Grateful Dead were rubbing elbows with groups like Charlie Moore and the Dixie Partners.

Remington Ryde: The Ryde

I really like the Remington Ryde, in the same way I really like local historical museums, small-town fireworks on the 4th of July, and mom-and-pop stores that aren't big-box chains. I like the Remington Ryde the way I like minor-league baseball, but let's be clear: that's not a put-down, that's a compliment. Minor league baseball is where you feel the players striving towards their ambitions, with the experience made all the more dramatic by not knowing which of the baseball players are on their way up, which on their way down, and which have plateaued at Triple-A.