Can't You Hear Me Callin' - Bluegrass: 80 Years of American Music [Box set]

Amazon.com
No musician in modern times has cast a greater shadow over a genre of music than Bill Monroe. Indeed, the father of bluegrass's sway over the music he nurtured is so overwhelming that the casual fan might forget that his predecessors laid the groundwork for his revolutionary innovations, while his many disciples have refined and modernized his teachings in the decades since his breakthrough. Can't You Hear Me Callin' demonstrates the span of the music Big Mon defined, tracking its development from the early days of the recording industry (the oldest selection here is Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers' 1925 track "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues") to 2002's pop-inflected "Tortured, Tangled Hearts" by the Dixie Chicks. Four discs and more than 100 songs strong, the box draws from parent label Columbia's rich vaults, but also raids the stockpiles of Mercury, RCA, Capitol, and Rounder to round out an appropriately broad perspective. Billy Altman's sharp liner notes polish off a package that now stands as the definite overview of a genre that has survived the passing of its avatar and established itself as a great American music. --Steven Stolder

Can't You Hear Me Callin' - Bluegrass: 80 Years of American Music,Various Artists,Sony,Bluegrass,Bluegrass Collections,Contemporary Bluegrass,Country,Old-Timey,Pop,Progressive Bluegrass,String Bands,Traditional Bluegrass,Traditional Country

Average customer rating: Blue Grass Music You're bound to discover something new about the genre Sony Doesn't Understand Bluegrass! Nice, far-ranging overview...

Can't You Hear Me Callin' - Bluegrass: 80 Years of American Music Various Artists Manufacturer: Sony ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Country | Styles | Music Old-Time Country | Traditional Country | Country | Styles | Music General | Traditional Country | Country | Styles | Music Bluegrass | Compilations | Country | Styles | Music General | Bluegrass | Country | Styles | Music Contemporary | Bluegrass | Country | Styles | Music Traditional | Bluegrass | Country | Styles | Music General | Contemporary Folk | Folk | Styles | Music Traditional Folk | Folk | Styles | Music General | Strings | Instruments | Classical | Styles | Music Bluegrass | Country | Box Sets | Stores | Music Classical Music | The Sony BMG Masterworks Store | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music Classical Instrumental Music | The Sony BMG Masterworks Store | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music Similar Items: Classic Bluegrass From Smithsonian Folkways Classic Mountain Songs from Smithsonian Folkways Hand-Picked: 25 Years Of Bluegrass On Rounder Records Appalachian Stomp: Bluegrass Classics Bluegrass: A HISTORY 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION (Music in American Life) ASIN: B0002YCVR4 Release Date: 2004-09-28

Tracks:

1. Soldier's Joy - Gid Tanner And His Skillet Lickers
2. Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues - Charlie Pool And The North Carolina Ramblers
3. White House Blues - Charlie Pool And The North Carolina Ramblers
4. Bill Mason - Charlie Pool And The North Carolina Ramblers
5. Cannon Ball Blues - The Carter Family
6. D Blues - THe Blue Ridge Ramblers
7. Keep On The Sunny Side - The Carter Family
8. What Would You Give In Exchange (For Your Soul)? - The Monroe Brothers
9. I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes - The Carter Family
10. Great Speckle Bird - Roy Acuff And His Crazy Tennesseans
11. Orange Blossom Special - Roy Hall And His Blue Ridge Entertainers
12. Ida Red - Roy Acuff And His Smoky Mountain Boys
13. Pretty Polly - Coon Creek Girls
14. Lonesome Old River Blues - Roy Acuff And His Smoky Mountain Boys
15. Mule Skinner Blues - Bill Monroe And His Blue Grass Boys
16. Wreck On The Highway - Roy Acuff And His Smoky Mountain Boys
17. The Drunkard's Grave - The Bailes Brothers
18. Rocky Road Blues - Bill Monroe And His Blue Grass Boys
19. Searching For A Soldier's Grave - The Bailes Brothers
20. Blue Moon Of Kentucky - Bill Monroe And His Blue Grass Boys
21. Dust On The Bible - The Bailes Brothers
22. I Heard My Mother Weeping - Molly O'Day And The Cumberland Mountain Folks
23. Will You Be Loving Another Man? - Bill Monroe And His Blue Grass Boys
24. Blue Grass Breakdown - Bill Monroe And His Blue Grass Boys
25. It's Mighty Dark To Travel - Bill Monroe And His Blue Grass Boys
26. Molly And Tenbrooks (The Race Horse Song) - Bill Monroe And His Blue Grass Boys
27. Black Mountain Rag - Roy Acuff And His Smoky Mountain Boys

Tracks:

1. Can't You Hear Me Callin' - Bill Monroe And His Blue Grass Boys
2. Foggy Mountain Breakdown - Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs And The Foggy Mountain Boys
3. Poor Ellen Smith - Molly O'Day And The Cumberland Mountain Folks
4. The Drunkard's Hell - The Stanley Brothers And The Clinch Mountain Boys
5. The Lonesome River - The Stanley Brothers And The Clinch Mountain Boys
6. On The Banks Of The River - Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper With Their Clinch Mountain Clan
7. The Fields Have Turned Brown - The Stanley Brothers And The Clinch Mountain Boys
8. The White Dove - The Stanley Brothers And The Clinch Mountain Boys
9. Sunny Side Of The Mountain - Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper With Their Clinch Mountain Clan
10. I'm A Man Of Constant Sorrow - The Stanley Brothers And The Clinch Mountain Boys
11. I Wonder How The Old Folks Are At Home - Mac Wiseman
12. Uncle Pen - Bill Monroe And His Blue Grass Boys
13. Stoney, Are You Mad At Your Gal - Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper With Their Clinch Mountain Clan
14. When The Angels Rolled The Stone Away - Molly O'Day
15. Earl's Breakdown - Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs And The Foggy Mountain Boys
16. Don't Get Above Your Raising - Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs And The Foggy Mountain Boys
17. Are You Missing Me? - Jim & Jesse And The Virginia Boys
18. Why Did You Wander? - Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs And The Foggy Mountain Boys
19. Flint Hill Special - Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs And The Foggy Mountain Boys
20. I'll Go Stepping Too - Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs And The Foggy Mountain Boys
21. Love And Wealth - Carl Story And The Rambling Mountaineers
22. 20/20 Vision - Jimmy Martin
23. My Lord Keeps A Record - Carl Story And The Rambling Mountaineers
24. I Love The Hymns They Sang At Mother's Grave - Carl Story And The Rambling Mountaineers
25. Reunion In Heaven - Carl Story And The Rambling Mountaineers
26. Don't You Hear Jerusalem Mourn - Carl Story And The Rambling Mountaineers
27. Hitch Hiker's Blues - Jack Youngblood

Tracks:

1. The Martha White Theme - Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs And The Foggy Mountain Boys
2. Don't Let Your Deal Go Down - Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs And The Foggy Mountain Boys
3. Seven Year Blues - The Webster Brothers
4. Get Down On Your Knees And Pray - Bill And Mary Reid And THe Melody Mountaineers
5. Somebody Touched Me - Carl Butler
6. Feudin' Banjos - Arthur Smith
7. Ruby, Are You Mad - The Osborne Brothers
8. Knoxville Girl - The Louvin Brothers
9. Once More - The Osborne Brothers
10. Twin Banjo Special - Joe Maphis (King Of The Strings)
11. Gosh, I Miss You All The Time - Jim & Jesse And The Virginia Boys
12. You Don't Know My Mind - Jimmy Martin And The Sunny Mountain Boys
13. Rank Stranger - The Stanley Brothers
14. My Empty Arms - Jim & Jesse And The Virginia Boys
15. Foggy Mountain Top - Earl Scruggs
16. Beautiful Moon Of Kentucky - Jim & Jesse And The Virginia Boys
17. Stoney Creek - Jim & Jesse And The Virginia Boys
18. She Left Me Standing On The Mountain - Jim & Jesse And The Virginia Boys
19. Sunny Side Of The Mountain - Jimmy Martin And The Sunny Mountain Boys
20. Just Joshing - Arthur Smith
21. (It's A Long, Long Way) To The Top Of The World - Jim & Jesse And The Virginia Boys
22. Cotton Mill Man - Jim & Jesse And The Virginia Boys
23. Since Wedding Bells Have Rung - Don Reno
24. Rosalee - Grandpa Jones
25. No More Goodbyes - Sara And Maybelle Carter
26. The Ballad Of Jed Clampett - Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs And The Foggy Mountain Boys
27. Rabbit In The Log - Jim & Jesse And The Virginia Boys
28. Rocky Top - The Osborne Brothers
29. Mountain Dew - Grandpa Jones
30. Dueling Banjos - Eric Weissberg

Tracks:

1. Turn Your Radio On - Grandpa Jones
2. Black Mountain Rag (Soldier's Joy) - The Byrds
3. Pretty Boy Floyd - The Byrds
4. Bristol Steam Convention Blues - The Byrds
5. Farther Along - The Byrds
6. Contentment - Don Reno
7. Can't You Hear Me Callin' - Herb Pederson
8. Cora Is Gone - Herb Pederson
9. Choking The Strings - Don Reno
10. Uncle Pen - Ricky Skaggs
11. Till The End Of The World Rolls Round - Earl Scruggs
12. A Vision Of Mother - Ricky Skaggs
13. Big Country - Edgar Myer
14. If I Could Be There - The O'Kanes
15. So Long, So Wrong - Alison Krauss
16. BP - Edgar Meyer
17. The Boy Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn - Alison Krauss
18. Little Maggie - Bluegrass Reunion
19. Carrie Brown - Steve Earl And The Del McCoury Band
20. Tortured, Tangled Hearts - The Dixie Chicks
21. Walls Of Time - Ricky Skaggs
22. Is The Grass Any Bluer - Rhonda Vincent
23. Daniel Prayed - Patty Loveless
24. Twelve Gates Of The City - Ralph Stanley
25. Soldier's Joy - Mark O'Connor

Amazon.com

No musician in modern times has cast a greater shadow over a genre of music than Bill Monroe. Indeed, the father of bluegrass's sway over the music he nurtured is so overwhelming that the casual fan might forget that his predecessors laid the groundwork for his revolutionary innovations, while his many disciples have refined and modernized his teachings in the decades since his breakthrough. Can't You Hear Me Callin' demonstrates the span of the music Big Mon defined, tracking its development from the early days of the recording industry (the oldest selection here is Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers' 1925 track "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues") to 2002's pop-inflected "Tortured, Tangled Hearts" by the Dixie Chicks. Four discs and more than 100 songs strong, the box draws from parent label Columbia's rich vaults, but also raids the stockpiles of Mercury, RCA, Capitol, and Rounder to round out an appropriately broad perspective. Billy Altman's sharp liner notes polish off a package that now stands as the definite overview of a genre that has survived the passing of its avatar and established itself as a great American music. --Steven Stolder

Customer Reviews:

Blue Grass Music.......2007-01-09

I have been a lover of Bluegrass almost from its beginning and have a rather large collection of it. Can't You Hear Me Callin' is a collection that would be hard to beat, a new Bluegrass fan as will as old timers like me would do well to acquire a copy, it spans Bluegrass from the beginning to recent, if I should lose my collection, this album would be the first I would attempt to replace. No I don't work for the recording company, I just find this work to be outstanding. The Dixie Chicks are the only losers and fortunately they have but one song.

You're bound to discover something new about the genre.......2005-01-07

This 4-CD box set with 109 songs captures the American bluegrass music tradition. This is quite an undertaking. Consider their objective to cover 80 years of music. Old-timey seeds planted by Gid Tanner and Charlie Poole in the 1920s are included. Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, and Flatt & Scruggs are well-represented with about 20% of the tracks. But so are the Carter Family, Roy Acuff, Carl Story, Arthur Smith, Osborne Brothers, Jim & Jesse, Jimmy Martin, The Byrds, Herb Pedersen, Ricky Skaggs, Blue Ridge Ramblers, Coon Creek Girls, Bailes Brothers, Molly O'Day, Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper, Mac Wiseman, Carl Butler, Louvin Brothers, Joe Maphis, Don Reno, Grandpa Jones, The O'Kanes, Mark O'Connor, Dixie Chicks, and Alison Krauss. What, they're not all bluegrass! I guess it's all in how you define the genre.

Songs from nearly two dozen record labels is included. A 58-page booklet comes with the CDs, and it has some excellent liner notes by Billy Altman and Ralph Stanley. This set was chosen by Shoreline Community College instructor Tom Moran for his on-line "History of Bluegrass" distance learning class. The anthology compiled by Gregg Geller is broad and expansive, and it's a major milestone in the promotion of bluegrass music for a large label with the reputation of Columbia/Legacy to support such an endeavor. My hat's off to them. Of course, every person's 100 tracks documenting the "history of bluegrass" would be different. And the main question to ask about "Can't You Hear Me Callin'" is does it adequately cover the main bases? With more than fifty different groups and solo artists sampled, I'd say that it does pretty well, but it certainly would've been exponentially enhanced with even 2-3 more CDs in the set.

Special rare tracks include some by The Coon Creek Girls ("Pretty Polly"), Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper ("On The Banks Of The River," "Sunny Side Of The Mountain," "Stoney, Are You Mad At Your Gal"), Carl Story & the Rambling Mountaineers, Don Reno.
Three previously unreleased songs include Carl Story's "Don't You Hear Jerusalem Mourn," Roy Hall & His Blue Ridge Entertainers'1938 version of "Orange Blossom Special," and Sara & Maybelle Carter's "No More Goodbyes" from 1966.

This is a fascinating and erudite collection that every bluegrass music lover could study for months. You're bound to discover something new about the genre that you didn't know before. (Joe Ross, staff writer, Bluegrass Now)

Sony Doesn't Understand Bluegrass!.......2004-12-03

This is a stupid box set given its stated objective. The back cover of the box states, "All the major figures of bluegrass, and a number of the music's most intriguing, if lesser-known, purveyors, are here." Granted, there is some great music here, but what is the point? Any serious fan of bluegrass and old-time country music will have about 60% of these recordings; the remaining 40% or so are mostly a curiosity.

The Byrds never made a bluegrass record, so why does Sony/Columbia include 4 tracks by them but none by Don Reno & Red Smiley (there is some later work here by Reno)? Why include the O'Kanes but ignore the Country Gentlemen? Why present the Dixie Chicks but not Emmylou Harris?

Alas, this box set also features no Jim Eanes, no Earl Taylor (the first bluegrass artist to play Carnegie Hall), no Buzz Busby, no Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, no Lilly Brothers & Don Stover; no Hylo Brown, no Doc Watson, no Mac Martin & The Dixie Travelers; no Charlie Moore, no Larry Sparks, no Norman Blake, no Seldom Scene, no Hazel Dickens, no Tony Rice, no Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver; no J.D. Crowe & The New South; no Johnson Mountain Boys, no Gillian Welch, and the list goes on...

Sides by the Carter Family, Charlie Poole, Roy Acuff, and other old-time country music artists are a nice touch but why no Jimmie Rodgers (the source for Bill Monroe's "Mule Skinner Blues," Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs' "I'm Lonesome And Blue," and several other bluegrass warhorses)?

The booklet here is visually way too busy and thus, difficult to read; the graphic designers got carried away. The photos are great, but most of them have been published many times before. Billy Altman's text is fine, providing an overview of bluegrass, folk, and country music at large, but doesn't drill down into the specific tracks presented here.

The Bill Monroe cuts here are questionable, as only 1 of the 9 selections here are from his 40 plus years with Decca/MCA ("Uncle Pen"). The other 8 are from the Columbia label. So we don't hear Monroe at his most lonesome. Same problem with the Stanley Brothers; we get 5 Stanleys Columbias and 1 Starday (no essential Mercurys and Kings). So we don't hear the Stanleys with their best drive. Dumb.

I'm glad to finally have a recording by the obscure duo of Bill & Mary Reid, but why give us their cover a Monroe song rather than one of their originals ("Get Down On Your Knees And Pray")? Too bad that Monroe's incredible 1951 version of that song isn't here, as it was one of only 4 that he recording with the great Carter Stanley playing guitar and singing lead (and, of course, we get none of those 4).

I won't further quibble with the song selection with but one exception. Where is the song "Angel Band?" The Stanley Brothers' 1955 Mercury version is included on the incredibly popular the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack but arguably the finest version of "Angel Band" ever waxed was by Carl Butler & The Webster Brothers for Columbia about a year prior (a version that includes all 3 verses). The exclusion of that recording from this box set is unfortunate.

Hard-core fans of bluegrass and old-time music will still want this set for a the otherwise hard to obtain tracks by the Coon Creek Girls, Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper; Carl Story, the Reids, Jack Youngblood, Carl Butler & The Webster Brothers (instead of "Angel Band" we get "Somebody Touched Me"); and the Webster Brothers (the Webster Brothers recorded with Butler and on their own; they're on there own here covering the Louvin Brothers' "Seven Year Blues"). But these dozen or so rare sides pale in comparison, both in terms of importance and listening pleasure, to the best work of Jimmy Martin, Mac Wiseman, Don Reno & Red Smiley, the Country Gentlemen, Charlie Moore, Doc Watson, Jim Eanes, Buzz Busby, the Seldom Scene, and many, many others (Martin and Wiseman are here, but under-represented).

Those looking for a proper introduction to bluegrass music are much better served by Time-Life Music's new CD "Legends Of Bluegrass" or the fine compilations on the Rhino label (2 CDs in the "Appalachian Stomp" series).

Nice, far-ranging overview..........2004-09-29

An impressive 4-CD collection that spans eight decades and draws heavily on the Sony vaults, including material from their Columbia/CBS/Epic/Monument/Sony Classical back catalog, as well as a generous helping of tracks from other labels, such as Acoustic Disc, ARC, Bluebird, Capitol, Decca, Dot, E-Squared, OKeh, RCA, King, Mercury, MGM, Monument, Rounder, Sugar Hill, Vocalion and Warner Brothers... Obviously, this is not the "ultimate" bluegrass collection, but that elusive item is probably something best left to individual collectors to assemble in the privacy of their own homes... But for a major-label overview, this is pretty darn cool. Many of the major players and foundational artists are included: The Carter Family, Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, The Stanley Brothers, Jim & Jesse, Carl Story, The Osborne Brothers... And flanking this pantheon on either side are early pre-grass stringband artists such as Roy Acuff, Molly O'Day, Charlie Poole and Gid Tanner, or young'uns who have carried on or modernized the tradition -- The Byrds, The Dixie Chicks, Alison Krauss, Mark O'Connor, et al. The list of omissions and second-guessing about which tracks to have included is, of course, near-endless. I'll leave it to the purists and crabby at heart to rip Sony a new one for their criminal actions, but from where I sit, particularly knowing how hard it is to assemble reissue material in the first place, and how small the audience really is, I'd say: job well done. It's twangy as all hell and diehard fans or newcomers alike should find this a valuable and compelling collection.

(Too bad they couldn't get any Blue Sky Boys songs, though!)

Average customer rating: Sampler Not As Annoying As Box Set

The Best Of You Can't Hear Me Callin' Bluegrass: 80 Years Of American Music Various Artists Manufacturer: Sony ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General | Country | Styles | Music General | Traditional Country | Country | Styles | Music Bluegrass | Compilations | Country | Styles | Music General | Bluegrass | Country | Styles | Music Contemporary | Bluegrass | Country | Styles | Music Traditional | Bluegrass | Country | Styles | Music Country Gospel | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music Gospel | Christian & Gospel | Styles | Music ASIN: B0006A9GPO Release Date: 2004-11-16

Tracks:

1. Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues - Charlie Poole & The North Carolina Ramblers
2. Cannon Ball Blues - The Carter Family
3. Greaty Speckle Bird - Roy Acuff And His Crazy Tennesseans
4. Orange Blossom Special - Roy Hall And His Blue Ridge Entertainers
5. Pretty Polly - The Coon Creek Girls
6. Poor Ellen Smith - Molly O'Day And The Cumberland Mountain Folks
7. Can't You Hear Me Callin' - Bill Monroe And His Blue Grass Boys
8. I'm A Man Of Constant Sorrow - The Stanley Brothers
9. Don't Get Above Your Raising - Earl Scruggs
10. Twin Banjo Special - Joe Maphis (King Of The Strings)
11. Cotton Mill Man - Jim & Jesse
12. Pretty Boy Floyd - The Byrds
13. Mountain Dew - Grandpa Jones
14. Uncle Pen - Ricky Skaggs
15. If I Could Be There - The O'Kanes
16. Big Country - Edgar Meyer
17. Daniel Prayed - Patty Loveless
18. Tortured, Tangled Hearts - Dixie Chicks

Customer Reviews:

Sampler Not As Annoying As Box Set.......2004-12-09

This is a single CD sampler for a stupid, pointless box set that I have reviewed negatively (stupid and pointless because it does a horrible job of chronicling the history of bluegrass music). Since this sampler doesn't attempt to achieve what the box set attempts, it is a harmless, mostly fine collection of bluegrass and old-time country music. Having said that, the Byrds, the O'Kanes, and the Dixie Chicks simply do not belong here. Additionally, a few bluegrass related tracks towards the end of the CD don't fit stylistically with the rest of the CD, leading to a schizophrenic feel.

Music Album:

1. Chet Atkins Picks on the Beatles
2. Classic Cuts: 1933-1941 [Box set]
3. Come on Christmas
4. Craig Morgan
5. Deeper Still
6. Del Rio, Texas, 1959
7. Drag It Up
8. Dressed in Black - A Tribute to Johnny Cash
9. Emerson Drive
10. Eyes That See in the Dark [Import]

Music Album