And JD to. JD has been my biggest inspiration since I stared playing banjo 20 years ago. Rock salt and nails was also the first song I learned on guitar.
So many great bluegrass bands to listen to....and none any better than this one. I get chills everytime I listen to this video...and tears knowing two of em are gone. How I miss the old days...😪
You are absolutely correct!!! I must agree. Tony's hair today is as messed up as any time in his or my life, and if I could play like he does, I'd be happy with that hair. Brilliant!
burrencrawler it was 1975 !! I saw Scaggs many times around the Bay Area of California in the '70's. He use to play/ harmonize with Emmylou & The Hot Band. Today he has grey hair like Emmy does today. We were all young. Our hair & clothing style changed; especially for women.
Damn. I had Rounder 0044 and always thought it was the best ever, dunno why I'm only NOW realizing it was a "supergroup" rivaling Strength in Numbers for sheer genius/instrumental virtuosity. And now understand why people have written what a bluegrass tragedy it was when Tony Rice lost his voice. Wonderful group!
Well, I'll be damned. I loved this band, but had forgotten their names and had no idea how their individual careers progressed. It's so funny that I have been listening to each of them in recent years (except JD) without realizing that I knew them when! They performed at The Factory (or was it Studio 54?) in NYC that same summer, and the after party in the East Village was such a shock to these boys that we escaped to their Winnebago to recover with some proper bourbon and branchwater. The band was perfect dynamite, each one was a brilliant musician -- and they were delightful gentlemen, too!
Well this video takes me back to 1975, 19. I have followed every one of these guys since. Each will be in the bluegrass hall of fame. I'd say NYC did blow their minds. Devil tried to get a hold of a couple of them but like we say down here in the south, back off devil! ;-)
I thought it was the 2nd best line up ever, and 2nd best album ever. But I cannot sit here and tell you for a fact that you believing it is the best is wrong. lol
00:09 Rock Salt and Nails 3:05 Band chatting 4:08 Old Home Place 6:48 Band chatting 7:28 Nine Pound Hammer 10:08 Band chatting 11:12 Ten Degrees and Getting Colder 13:29 Band chatting 15:19 Sin City 17:58 Band chatting 18:38 Train 45
Most of them were young in in this, but Jerry Douglas was just 18 years old - pretty incredible. It is really neat to see him perform before he was the polished dobro machine everybody's familiar with.
Spoken like a true bluegrass fan right there, pursheatin’ the wood and the catgut part of the equation. oh yeah and then there’s the cats playing those works of art
I do not believe I have seen a bridge on a 1922-24 F5 as high as that one is...the string action doesn't look too high...must have a helluva neck angle
This band and these songs are really something special. Such soulful harmonies and virtuosic playing, it makes your heart swell. A kind of warm, wistful purity that brings a tear to the eye.
In 1975 these talented young men drew a bluegrass line in the musical sand, and here in 2019 no tsunami has ever been able to erase it. That’s what I call a statement!
It would be awfully easy to proclaim this line-up as the greatest Bluegrass band of all time, both in fame, playing ability, and wide-ranging influence of its individual players.
Too many great acts to proclaim something like this. Many phenomenal artists who've contributed and evolved the ethos. Excellent brotherhood and musicianship. But this line-up was definitely brilliant
Thank you so much for posting these videos. Bobby Slone was my great uncle, and I used to visit him in Renfro Valley and Elkhorn a lot growing up to see him play (I especially loved watching him play fiddle, but I have yet to find any videos of him with one). It's really comforting to have these videos of him to watch whenever I think about him, and I'm playing them right now for my one-year old son who never got to know him. He was hands down one of the most sweetest, genuine, and humble people I've ever known, and I still miss him so much... (I also just noticed my cousin's comment below as I was typing this, lol - the small world of bluegrass. But it's funny I wasn't expecting a reminder to reconnect with her and others in more distant parts of my family just by playing this song for my son. So in a way, thanks for that, too! :) )
Definitive - particularly the first track -this haunts bits inside me that I don't fully understand - it shivers 70 year old parts in ways I don't yet fully understand - but there's the power of it.
Oh, this music is in touch with parts of life we all share; love and loss, hard times and celebration, work and rest...that's why criticisms of musicians based on "authenticity" are such poser bullshit. If you can make the music, if, as a human being and a musician, you're in touch with those things that the music touches...you're authentic as need be.
J.D. Crowe, a pioneering banjo player with his progressive bluegrass group the New South, died Friday morning, according to a post on the musician’s Facebook page. He was 84.August 27, 1937 - December 24, 2021) “This morning at around 3 a.m. our dad, JD Crowe, went home,” Crowe’s family wrote. “Prayers needed for all during this difficult time.”
one of the best bg bands ever. they weren't together long but they left a lasting impression on me. outstanding, each and everyone. what i'd give to see a live 1975 concert. thanks, from he bottom of my heart. kt
Thanks for sharing this. My great-uncle was Bobby Slone and it is great to see him talking in this video since most he's only playing. I'll share this with my grandmother! We miss him terribly.
I used to sit backstage at Renfro Valley & talk to Bobby while the band was on break during the comedy acts. He was a great musician & a really great guy to go along with it!!!!!!! I only got to pick with him a couple times, but he would always leave our sides hurting from laughing at his jokes & stories. Jerry Isaacs (The Chicken Man) had this video of him acting out this character they had made up called Burford Belcher. It was hilarious!!!!!!! Bobby knew a lot of bluegrass history & how some of the now iconic tunes came to be. I was only 18 at the time & I later learned just how many great influential bands he had been a part of.
There was a gospel group that came to a singing we did in Castlewood, Va. Several Slone's in the group. I'm almost certain Bobby came with them a few times. Did he have brothers that played? These guys were kin, but I can't remember the connection. Research and search time for a cassette.
Bobby came to the Breaks one evening when we were having a family reunion and played with some of our friends and family for us. We had a bean and cornbread supper that evening.
I listened to this full video many years ago - I can still watch it over and over. Superb musicians. Vocals -top class, not to speak of the picking - these guys can pick!!! Thanks for sharing this. From South Africa - we don't get to hear Bluegrass here except on RU-vid. SO that's where I go.
What an unbelievable group! i have liostened to thousands of hours of these guys over the years.Sadly weve lost Tony Rice,and now JD.They will never be forgotten.
I would agree this is one of the best. The only one better in my opinion was Ralph Stanley's All Star band that included Skaggs, Roy Lee Centers, and Keith Whitley. What a book Ricky Skaggs could write about what he has seen and who he has played with.
Check Martha White Flour Hour vids. These guys were, and still are to a large degree, the cream of the 2nd and 3rd generation bluegrass players but I'd be hard pressed to say these guys surpassed the 1st generation of Innovators that defined the genre.
I was with a band in 1980 called "Gospel-Grass Band" and we played at the bluegrass festival in Warren Ohio put on by Jerry Douglas dad John Douglas I remember all these guys.
Incredible lineup, super influential band, great setlist, amazing hair - this video has everything! Ten Degrees is a particularly powerful song and a bit overlooked these days
Had the pleasure of meeting JD Crowe and Ricky Wasson a few years back when they had been working on Hats off to the Hag. Very humble and kind folks. Rest in peace JD
One of the best of the New Grass/Progressive Bluegrass bands of the 1970's. Along with the New Grass Revival, these folks infused the traditional art form with a whole new modern and youthful sensibility. And they were as technically crack as musicians as any of the old Bluegrass masters. Thanks so much for posting.
Funny how today they would be classified as traditional. I remember when Tony came on the scene and all the old hard core traditionalists didnt like him cause he didnt sound like Roy Lee Centers or Larry. Most of those folks finally came around.
JD Crowe and the New South was the house band at the Holiday Inn in Lexington when I was a student at UK in '74&'75. I had to sneak in under the 21 age limit with a fake ID, but it was well worth it! In my memory Bobby Slone was playing fiddle (left-handed, just the way he's playing bass) and I remember seeing Keith Whitley with them - don't know if as a guest or a member of the band. That and having John Hartford come through town pretty regularly was very inspiring to an aspiring fiddler!
The story I heard was the Tony decided take on the persona of black bluse-man. Talking gruffly he ruined his voice. I'm sure smokes didnt' help either.
