Bluegrass Mandolin Extravaganza

Amazon.com's Best of 1999
Bluegrass Mandolin Extravaganza is a history lesson and picking exhibition wrapped into one handsomely packaged two-CD set. Featuring eight of the world's greatest mandolinists, the music within is explosive at times, plaintive at others, but always tasteful. There are solos, duets, trios, and even a few octets where all get to strut their stuff. --Marc Greilsamer

Amazon.com
The humblest of beginnings can beget the best prizes, as is the case with this spectacular summit meeting of bluegrass mandolinists. The story goes like this: Ronnie McCoury, son of the great Del, is driving his father's 1954 GMC coach in the (where else?) Shenandoah Valley and has a minor epiphany, dreaming up what he describes as a "Bluegrass Mandolin 101." When he shares the idea with Acoustic Disc founder (and mandolin virtuoso) David Grisman, the project is off with a sprint. Next thing you know, there's eight great mandolin pickers--veterans Jesse McReynolds, Bobby Osborne, Frank Wakefield, and Buck White, and (relatively) younger maestros Sam Bush, Ricky Skaggs, McCoury, and Grisman, with Del McCoury on guitar--grabbing 34 tunes for their collective own. They open with a unison reading of "Blue Moon of Kentucky" that recalls how important mandolin ensemble music was in bridging the worlds of concert and popular music generations ago. Then the ensemble's off on a solo-rich ride, with fiddle tunes like "Old Joe Clark" offering everyone a moment in the picking light and Bill Monroe's "Roanoke" giving the session's two planners a chance to speed through in unison. Then there are banjo-tune adaptations like "The Cakewalk" and numerous episodes of influence, where you have Wakefield, one of Grisman's 1960s-era mentors, jamming on "Mexican Stomp." The pickers also get an opportunity to introduce many of the cuts with a short monologue on the tune's genesis and intent. As if that all weren't enough, the set also comes slipcased with a generously colorful booklet that breaks down each tune and features mini-essays on each soloist and lovely photos of their preferred mandolin. Far more than a simple anthology of trad-grass mandolin music, this is a lengthy paean to the instrument and its great practitioners. --Andrew Bartlett

Tracks:

Blue Moon of Kentucky
Old Joe Clark
Cakewalk, The
Wayfaring Stranger
I'm Going Back To Old Kentucky
McCoury Blues
Cherokee Lady
Down Home Waltz
Blue Grass Special
Miss Izzie
Catnip
Panhandle Country
One-Legged Man
East Tennessee Blues
B Natural
No You Stand Back
I Wonder Where You Are Tonight?

Tracks:

Roanoke
Cattle In The Cane
Dixie Hoedown
Ashokan Farewell
Cumberland Gap
Sassyfrass
Golden Slippers
Say Old Man
Westphalia Waltz
Play It Pretty, Me
Mexican Stomp
Dusty Miller
Cajun Mandolin
Boston Boy
Who At My Door Is Standing?
Blue Moon Of Kentucky
World's Shortest Rawhide

Amazon.com's Best of 1999

Bluegrass Mandolin Extravaganza is a history lesson and picking exhibition wrapped into one handsomely packaged two-CD set. Featuring eight of the world's greatest mandolinists, the music within is explosive at times, plaintive at others, but always tasteful. There are solos, duets, trios, and even a few octets where all get to strut their stuff. --Marc Greilsamer

Amazon.com

The humblest of beginnings can beget the best prizes, as is the case with this spectacular summit meeting of bluegrass mandolinists. The story goes like this: Ronnie McCoury, son of the great Del, is driving his father's 1954 GMC coach in the (where else?) Shenandoah Valley and has a minor epiphany, dreaming up what he describes as a "Bluegrass Mandolin 101." When he shares the idea with Acoustic Disc founder (and mandolin virtuoso) David Grisman, the project is off with a sprint. Next thing you know, there's eight great mandolin pickers--veterans Jesse McReynolds, Bobby Osborne, Frank Wakefield, and Buck White, and (relatively) younger maestros Sam Bush, Ricky Skaggs, McCoury, and Grisman, with Del McCoury on guitar--grabbing 34 tunes for their collective own. They open with a unison reading of "Blue Moon of Kentucky" that recalls how important mandolin ensemble music was in bridging the worlds of concert and popular music generations ago. Then the ensemble's off on a solo-rich ride, with fiddle tunes like "Old Joe Clark" offering everyone a moment in the picking light and Bill Monroe's "Roanoke" giving the session's two planners a chance to speed through in unison. Then there are banjo-tune adaptations like "The Cakewalk" and numerous episodes of influence, where you have Wakefield, one of Grisman's 1960s-era mentors, jamming on "Mexican Stomp." The pickers also get an opportunity to introduce many of the cuts with a short monologue on the tune's genesis and intent. As if that all weren't enough, the set also comes slipcased with a generously colorful booklet that breaks down each tune and features mini-essays on each soloist and lovely photos of their preferred mandolin. Far more than a simple anthology of trad-grass mandolin music, this is a lengthy paean to the instrument and its great practitioners. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

Classically Brilliant Bluegrass!.......2007-01-10

For those who LOVE bluegrass mandolin, this CD is a Must-Have!

From David Grisman and Sam Bush to Ricky Skaggs and Ronnie McCoury, this CD features some of the greatest of the sons of Bill Monroe lovingly picking in a style to honor the Big Mon.

Kudos to David Grisman and "Dawg Productions" for ANOTHER brilliantly creative acoustic CD featuring mandolin and guitar.

Get your socks knocked off !!!!.......2005-05-23

I ran into this CD by accident-I never knew it existed. I didn't give it a moments thought, I just bought it and wasn't dissappointed. It contains some of the very best mando playing I've heard. There are also little snippets of talking between some of the tunes; the players discuss why they wrote a piece or why they like it. These little gems are priceless and make you feel like you were in the studio with them.

Be sure to check out The Cakewalk. It's a neat little tune on which Jesse McReynolds does his crosspicking. It's probably unfair to pick out one tune or player because this CD offers so much, including an excellent booklet full of photos and biographies of the musicians.

The only problem is that everytime I listen to it, I stop what I'm doing and run to get my own mando and start playing. But heck, I can't think of a better way to spend an afternoon.

It's not just for mandolin players, folks..........2000-08-05

Aside from being an excellent collection of songs played by the finest mandolin players of a generation, this CD is an excellent resource for guitarists who are interested in learning how to play rhythm guitar. Del MeCoury is perhaps the master of this neglected art (along with Tony Rice, whose rhythm work is often overshadowed by his incredibly flashy lead guitar). Del's playing here is no exception - never too much, always just enough, perfectly in time. Del provides the dance floor on which Grisman, Ronnie McCoury, Ricky Skaggs, Sam Bush, Jesse McReynolds et al scoot all over the place. Lots of fun - and if you're an aspiring rhythym guitarist, take a lesson from Del and play along.

A must have CD if you play a mandolin........1999-11-08

This CD is the best set of mandolin songs ever produce in one package. Listen to Wayfaring Stranger and you will want to buy this CD set right now.

impecable selections and outstanding virtuosity..........1999-04-24

Ronnie and the Dawg really hit one out of the park with this two CD set must have..

..it won't be leaving my CD player for quite a while. If you're a Bluegrass fan...buy it.

Music Album:

Music Album