please reccomend some solo guitar and vocal bluegrass albums

[drewblue]

besides alot of doc watson and tony rice stuff like church street blues and norman blake im familiar with all that. i would like to hear some albums that are mostly solo singing and hot picking bluegrass style new or old. also can be single songs it dont have to be full albums. i can build a playlist. thanks to all.

[Flyingtigre]

On the surface your request would seem simple and straight forward but when looking back at bluegrass from the past, it gets a tad complicated. Would you expand on it a tad? For example, are you requesting a only list of artists that you could research, a list of recommended albums, or specific recordings.

Many of the old recordings/classics are only currently available only on limited reissues or multi-artist compositions, not on the original label.

Hard to make up a play list without details but if you require only some recommended artists, here's a really short list for a starter:

Goins Brothers
Lilly Brothers
Carl Story (Mercury recordings)
Stanley Brothers (with or without fiddle)
Mac Martin
Bill Clifton
Barrier Brothers
Norman Blake & Tut Taylor
Norman Blake with Burns, etal.
Charlie Moore
Doyle Larson
J D Crowe
Jim & Jesse
Hylo Brown
Jim Eanes
Mac Wiseman
Reno & Smiley
Red White & Blue (Grass)
Harlin & Stanley

[Wrighty]

Originally Posted by drewblue

besides alot of doc watson and tony rice stuff like church street blues and norman blake im familiar with all that. i would like to hear some albums that are mostly solo singing and hot picking bluegrass style new or old. also can be single songs it dont have to be full albums. i can build a playlist. thanks to all.

Try some Jeff White - amazing player and singer..

[Tony Done]

Im not a 'grasser, but Molly Tuttle impresses me.

[posternutbag]

There isn't as much solo flatpicking as one might imagine. Even the stuff you named, Tony Rice's Church Street Blues has his brother playing rhythm on 4 tracks, Doc often played or recorded with Merle, and Norman Blake often has some minimal accompaniment.

Most of the truly solo flatpicking that I am familiar with is in the vein of David Grier, Robert Bowlin or the Clarence White solo album. In other words, tunes.

As has been pointed out, there is a long history of duos, often brothers, often mandolin and guitar.

We can debate why this is, but it boils down to bluegrass being an ensemble musical tradition.

[snoopster]

For your consideration:
Kenny Smith
Billy Strings

[Rjlipton]

Brian Suttons albums. Some songs are solo, some are with others. Consistently great guitar.

[oliverkollar]

Any record the Bluegrass Album Band did would work.

Tony Rice singing with a full band consisting of JD Crowe, Doyle Lawson, Bobby Hicks, Jerry Douglas, and Todd Phillips.....how can you go wrong.

Lots of great singing, and hot picking!

[Craviola]

Mark Cosgrove has compliation release of his instrumentals called "Take yur medicine". Some tunes have bass and mando. I enjoy it.

Jim Hurst has a solo cd called "looking glass'. He is a great player.

Tim Stafford from Blue Highway and Union Staion has got one called "Acoustic Guitar". It has a few other instruments here and there.

Then there are the "Live at Winfield" cds featuring the contest winners preformances.

[J Patrick]

....Stanley Brothers for the classics



...Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen for some smokin hot grass...



...Hot Rize for the good stuff....

[TacomaDR20]

Some that have not been mentioned include Dan Crary, Ron Block, Clay Hess, Ricky Skaggs - although best known for his mandolin and vocals, he's a heck of a flatpicker too. Blue Highway is one of my favorite BG groups - tasty picking and beautiful vocal harmony.

[JonHBone]

David Grier
Dan Crary
Clarence White

Are great players...no vocals though.

[Goat Mick]

It's hard to find real Bluegrass with just guitar and vocal because (as mentioned previously) Bluegrass is an ensemble genre. The Trey Hensley & Rob Ikes releases are fairly close although they do have Rob's tasty dobro licks on them.

[Scottj121]

Jerry Garcia and David Grisman did a few albums sort of in the bluegrass style. Guitar vocals and mandolin.

[posternutbag]

As you can no doubt tell by the responses you have received, solo bluegrass guitar and vocals (that is one person with a guitar flatpicking and singing) is really pretty rare. I am not sure that you have received a single suggestion that actually fits this criteria.

I alluded to this earlier, but I will elaborate a bit. In his autobiography Still Inside Tony Rice talks a little about recording Church Street Blues. He talks about how hard it was as a process and how it would be impossible to do it live; this from Tony Rice, someone who was very resistant to overdubs and studio shenanigans. Even he found it difficult to sit down and just pic n’ sing.