A Nod To Bluegrass History/Songs For The First Snow

10 p.m. to Midnight Host: Steve Winters

A thematically split show: We paid tribute to the release 30 years ago (yes, another 30th anniversary) of the first New Grass Revival album on Starday and programmed two sets of snow songs for the season’s first substantial (read, near blizzard) snowfall. In between a few old recorded friends found their way on to the airwaves.

Although the New Grass Revival was certainly not the first group to dabble in “Newgrass” music (there already were elements in the work of the Osborne Brothers, the Dillards, the Country Gentlemen, Jim and Jesse, et al), it was the release of the New Grass Revival’s debut album and their subsequent festival appearances that cemented the sounds of this bluegrass offshoot that incorporated the influences of rock, reggae, jazz and improvised Texas-styled fiddling.

The young group of “mavericks” featured Sam Bush, Courtney Johnson, Ebo Walker and Curtis Burch. Together with the 1973 release of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” and Eric Weissberg’s “Dueling Banjos”, they were a major impetus in a attracting a young, educated and hip audience to bluegrass. They had Bill Monroe fretting for many years, fearful that this invasion of long-haired youth on stage was going to alienate the socially conservative, family-oriented audiences that were bluegrass music’s prime patrons

  • Artist, "Title", Album, Label

  • New Grass Revival, “Friday Night In America”, Best of New Grass Revival, Liberty

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  • New Grass Revival, “Body And Soul”, “Whisper My Name”, “Lonesome Fiddle Blues”, New Grass Revival, Starday

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  • New Grass Revival, “Love Someone Like Me”, “Sweet Release”, “Revival”, “Metric Lips”, Best of New Grass Revival

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  • Peter Rowan & Jerry Douglas, “Thirsty In The Rain”, Folks Live!, Blue Planet

  • Norman & Nancy Blake, “The Battleship Maine”, Folks Live!, Blue Planet

  • Sugar Beat, “Ralph Trischka”, Folks Live!, Blue Planet

  • Jim Salestrom, “Bristlecone Pine”, Folks Live!, Blue Planet

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  • Herdman Hills & Mangsen, “Wintergrace”, “Snow In The Street”, “Raise The Dead Of Wintertime”, Voices Of Winter, Gadfly

  • Mad Agnes, “Winter Snows”, Magic Hour, Independent

  • David Mallett, “Snowbound”, Parallel Lives, Flying Fish

  • Walt Michael, “Snowblind”, Hammer Dulcimer Retrospective, Flying Fish

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  • Altan, “The Snowy Mountain”, A Winter’s Tale, Celtic Heartbeat

  • Solas, “The Snow Falls Away”, A Winter’s Tale, Celtic Heartbeat