It’s certainly true that the Grateful Dead were never a bluegrass band, starting with the fact that their lineup had not just one drummer, but two. And yet it also can’t be denied that the group’s musical DNA has a wide streak of bluegrass deep within, both in terms of licks and improvisational flair.
In large part, that’s due to the late Jerry Garcia – “Captain Trips” – who started out as a banjo player before finding his most famous calling as the Grateful Dead’s lead guitarist. Before that, Garcia played in folk circles for years, and his many extracurricular collaborators included David Grisman, Peter Rowan, Don Reno, Chubby Wise and other titans of the genre. More than a quarter-century before O Brother, Where Art Thou? took bluegrass to the top of the charts, Garcia’s 1973 side project, Old & In the Way, stood as the top-selling bluegrass album of all time.
Garcia and the Dead’s bluegrass bona fides are solid indeed, as shown by artifacts like the Pickin’ on the Grateful Dead series (not to mention Grass Is Dead, a tribute act). But maybe the strongest testament to the strength of the Dead’s bluegrass-adjacent side is what other artists have made of their catalog. Countless bluegrass musicians have covered Dead songs in ways that would appeal to even the staunchest chair-snapping purists. Here are some of the best.
“Friend of the Devil” – The Travelin’ McCourys (2019)
This rounder’s tale is the granddaddy of ’em all, a bluegrass staple from almost the moment it appeared on the Dead’s 1970 proto-Americana classic, American Beauty. Long a picking-circle staple at festivals, it’s been covered by everybody from Tony Rice to Elvis Costello. But here is a fantastic cover by one of the finest family bands in all of bluegrass, captured onstage at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival in 2019. In contrast to the manic pace of the original, this version proceeds at more of an elegant glide. But it’s still got plenty of get-up-and-go, with killer solos over walking bass and a great Ronnie McCoury lead vocal.
“Dire Wolf” – Molly Tuttle (2022)
Among the most acclaimed young artists in bluegrass, Molly Tuttle is a two-time Guitar Player of the Year winner from the International Bluegrass Music Association. She also won IBMA’s Album of the Year trophy for 2022’s Crooked Tree, which included the 1970 Workingman’s Dead standard “Dire Wolf” as a bonus track. Equal parts folk fable and murder ballad, it’s something like “Little Red Riding Hood” with an unhappy ending. And Tuttle’s vocal is even more striking than her guitar-playing.
“Wharf Rat” – Billy Strings (2020)
Possibly even more acclaimed as a guitarist is William “Billy Strings” Apostol, another IBMA Awards fixture (and multiple Entertainer of the Year winner) who is frequently likened to Doc Watson. But few guitarists have ever conjured up Garcia’s sound, spirit, and all-around vibe as effectively as Strings. A song about a lost soul in a seaside town, “Wharf Rat” first came out on the Dead’s eponymous 1971 live album. Strings’ 2020 live version from the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, is amazing, as Strings doesn’t sing it so much as inhabit it. The money shot is his guitar solo that begins just after the five-minute mark.
“Scarlet Begonias” – The Infamous Stringdusters (2020)
Gambling is one of the Dead’s recurrent tropes and “Scarlet Begonias” gives it a playful spin with a loping guitar riff. The original dates back to 1974’s From the Mars Hotel and it’s been widely covered in oddball styles by the likes of electronic duo Thievery Corporation and the ska band Sublime. But “Scarlet Begonias” has never had it so well as in this excellent bluegrass version by The Infamous Stringdusters, shot onstage at Seattle’s Showbox just ahead of the pandemic in early 2020.
“Ripple” – Dale Ann Bradley (2019)
More often than not, vocals tended to be the Dead’s weak link. But that is not a problem for Kentucky Music Hall of Famer and five-time IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year Dale Ann Bradley. The elegiac “Ripple” began life as the B-side to the “Truckin’” single and was also a show-stopper on the Dead’s 1981 acoustic live album, Reckoning. Bradley covered it on her 2019 LP, The Hard Way, with Tina Adair providing truly lovely vocal harmonies.
“Uncle John’s Band” – Fireside Collective (2022)
One of the Dead’s folksiest numbers, “Uncle John’s Band” kicked off Workingman’s Dead at an easy-going amble – a clear departure from the psychedelic excursions of the Dead’s earliest work. This live version by the young Asheville, North Carolina, band Fireside Collective reimagines “Uncle John’s Band” as sprawling jam-band fodder.
“Cassidy” – Greensky Bluegrass (2007)
“Cassidy” first appeared on-record as a Bob Weir solo tune on his 1972 side-project album, Ace, but it’s been on multiple Dead live albums over the years. It’s always been something of an enigma, inspired by a young girl as well as Neal Cassady. Michigan jamgrass ensemble Greensky Bluegrass gets to its beat-poet heart on this version from 2007’s Live at Bell’s.
“Tennessee Jed” – Front Country (2018)
A frequent theme for the Dead was being in motion, whether traveling toward something or running away from it. So it follows that homesickness would be an aspect of their music, perhaps most overtly on this wistful song from the double-live LP, Europe ’72. California’s Front Country put “Tennessee Jed” through its paces in this 2018 version from their “Kitchen Covers” series.
“Touch of Grey” – Love Canon (2014)
If the Dead wasn’t a bluegrass band, they most definitely weren’t a pop band, either. But the group had occasional brushes with the Hot 100, most famously with the 1970 statement of purpose “Truckin’” and its “what a long strange trip it’s been” tagline (even though the group had only been together about five years by then). “Truckin’” stalled out at No. 64 and was later eclipsed by its 1987 sequel “Touch of Grey” – an actual Top 10 hit with its bittersweet conclusion, “We will get by, we will survive.”
From Charlottesville, Virginia, Love Canon strips away the ’80s pop keyboards and covers the song well as straight-up bluegrass on 2014’s “Dead Covers Project.”
Photo Credit: Old & In the Way, courtesy of Acoustic Disc.
It’s seven months into the year and music and media outlets are looking back while looking forward, pondering and collating all of the incredible music that’s been released in 2024… so far. From Beyoncé to Zach Bryan to “brat summer,” there’s certainly been no shortage of seismic album drops – and in our bluegrass corner of the roots music world, the same holds true.
So far this year, there have been stellar releases by the biggest names in the genre, like Béla Fleck, Billy Strings, Tony Trischka, Laurie Lewis, and the Del McCoury Band. Country singer-songwriter Brit Taylor and roots-soul legend Swamp Dogg both released bluegrass titles this year as well, demonstrating how the age-old tradition of various styles and sounds cross-pollinating with bluegrass continues in the present day.
Supergroups like Sister Sadie, Greensky Bluegrass, and Gangstagrass have all unleashed critically-acclaimed projects in 2024, too, while newcomers like Wyatt Ellis and Jack McKeon impressed with records that sound mature and fully-realized for debut releases. And of course there’s plenty yet to come, as anticipation builds for long-awaited albums from bluegrass stalwarts and heroes like Jerry Douglas – who was just unveiled as a 2024 Bluegrass Hall of Fame inductee – and Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, who recently announced a new project, Woodland, their tenth studio album and first release in four years.
No matter how you cut it, 2024 has been a banner year for superlative bluegrass albums – and there is still so much more to come! Take a minute to amble through our favorite bluegrass releases of the year so far (in approximate chronological order), plus a few honorable mentions that pull heavily from bluegrass traditions and inspirations, and we’ll set the table for the albums we can’t wait to arrive later this year, too.
Cary Morin, Innocent Allies
A jaw-dropping acoustic guitarist who toggles between flatpicking, fingerstyle, blues, and many other styles, Cary Morin released a gorgeous visual art-inspired album earlier this year entitled Innocent Allies. The entire project oozes images of the West done up in bluegrass textures and tones, especially so in Morin’s rendition of “Whiskey Before Breakfast.” Read our feature on the album here.
Sister Sadie, No Fear
For a band that boasts alumni like Dale Ann Bradley and Tina Adair, it’s saying quite a lot to make the statement that this may be the best lineup of Sister Sadie yet. Their latest offering, No Fear, brings striking Nashville vibes together with a dash of the Chicks and features collaborations with country stars like Cam and Ashley McBryde. It’s no surprise this supergroup and their newest album are all over this year’s IBMA Awards nominations. Read our March Cover Story on No Fear here.
Wyatt Ellis, Happy Valley
A mere 15 years old, mandolin picker Wyatt Ellis certainly deserves the “bluegrass prodigy” designation he often receives, but dare not sell this young virtuoso short with such a moniker. There’s musicality, touch, and taste evident across his debut album, Happy Valley, well beyond his teenaged years. That’s just part of the reason behind why he’s able to attract such notable collaborators and guests as Marty Stuart, Sierra Hull, Mike Compton, and more. Keep an eye on this one, ‘cause there’s no telling just how far he will go in music, but it’s sure to be way up there!
Brit Taylor, Kentucky Bluegrassed
Pulling a page out of the bluegrass playbook of the ‘60s through ‘90s, country singer-songwriter Brit Taylor demonstrates the inseparable interconnectedness of country and bluegrass with Kentucky Bluegrassed, a reimagination of her 2023 country album, Kentucky Blue, played by a cracking bluegrass band. There are touches of Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, and so many more through the project. It certainly reminds of those eras, in which bluegrass artists and bands were just as likely to identify simply as “country” as they were “bluegrass.” The lines between these genres used to be much more blurry; we’re happy to see folks like Taylor – and many others – smear, complicate, and dirty up those genre demarcations once again. Kentucky Bluegrassed is a “don’t miss” album that may not be on every diehard grasser’s radar.
Missy Raines & Allegheny, Highlander
Missy Raines never left bluegrass, but Highlander feels like something of a return by this trophied and exalted bassist, singer, and songwriter after her last few more experimental and Americana-geared outings. This is her first recording with her “new” backing band, Allegheny, who have performed with her now for a handful of years. It’s a rollicking, up-tempo, dynamo of an album, but it’s never one note or stolid – or trying to pander to digital radio. There are calm moments, songs that will bring a tear to your eye, and political tones, too, all bolstering the tightness of the band and the trad-tastic, meta-mash energy herein. “Who Needs a Mine,” the stand out track in a superlative song sequence, will most likely go down in history as one of the best issues-oriented bluegrass songs ever written. Every bit as biting and timely as Hazel Dickens, Jean Ritchie, and so many other activist artists from the regions Raines grew up in. Read our recent feature interview here.
Béla Fleck, Rhapsody in Blue
The most traditional aspect of Béla Fleck’s music-making across his lifelong career is his constant and effortless innovation. As a community, we lose sight so easily of the fact that every first generation bluegrass star was an innovator, so many consummate musicians just “making it up as they go along.” Referring to Fleck’s Rhapsody in Blue as “making it up as he goes along” might raise an eyebrow at first, but one of the most fascinating threads throughout Fleck’s countless albums is his ability to ground whatever musical vocabulary he chooses within the traditions, styles, and physicality of bluegrass banjo. He doesn’t so much care what “does” or “doesn’t” fit on the banjo, he follows his whims, fancies, and inspirations and always makes it work. Perhaps only he could do so with Gerswhin! (And we are so glad that he did.)
Kyle Tuttle, Labor of Lust
Banjo player Kyle Tuttle released his second studio album, Labor of Lust, in February. You may know him from Molly Tuttle’s band, Golden Highway, or from his ubiquitous presence in jamgrass scenes over the past decade or so. The new album demonstrates his particular approach to newgrass, jamgrass, and engaging and exciting improvisational picking. His voice on the instrument is indelible. A modernist banjo player with endless panache, a strong sense of humor, and buckets of stamina and drive. We spoke to Tuttle about the project earlier this year.
Barnstar!, Furious Kindness
New Englander and Northeastern-based bluegrassers will be more than familiar with this raucous outfit, but the national bluegrass scene may need to be put onto the singular sounds of Barnstar! Made up of Mark Erelli, Zachariah Hickman, Charlie Rose, and Taylor and Jake Armerding, Barnstar! started as a side project for these in-demand musicians and songwriters and quickly blossomed into a chaotic, bombastic, and hilarious group that can just as easily go earnest, emotive, and touching. Furious Kindness is another selection here that you may not have yet encountered – and we’re here to rectify that. Need more? We hosted Erelli and Hickman on Basic Folk to chat about the project.
Cris Jacobs, One of These Days
If your first introduction to Cris Jacobs was the above song – “Poor Davey,” featuring Billy Strings – fed to you by the algorithm or a roots DJ or found via the “appears on” section of Strings’ streaming profiles, you certainly aren’t alone. A well-known musician in alt-country, rock and roll, and the often nebulous regions between these genres, Americana, and bluegrass, Jacobs may read as a newcomer in bluegrass, but his Jerry Douglas-produced album, One of These Days, is anything but a one-off or novelty project or ‘grassy interloping. This is deep and broad bluegrass that feels straight ahead and genre-expansive at the same time, drawing on guests like Lindsay Lou, the McCrary Sisters, Sam Bush, and more. The Strings track may be what first grabs you, but this album deserves a deep dive follow-up, immediately.
Greensky Bluegrass, The Iceland Sessions(featuring Holly Bowling)
An EP we loved so much it just had to be included on our Best Bluegrass Albums list. Pianist and keys player Holly Bowling joins illustrious jamgrass group Greensky Bluegrass to revive the often latent, near extinct, and severely underrated tradition of bluegrass piano. Over four tracks recorded in remote northern Iceland in 2023, the band and Bowling have curated a vibe that hinges on the present, focusing in on the exact moments in time wherein they captured these sounds and songs. It’s why we love jamgrass to begin with, right? The way the music calls all of us to be grounded in the present. That’s the exact spirit in which these recordings were made and the translation of that intention is more than just successful, it’s deeply resonant.
Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, I Built A World
Fiddler Bronwyn Keith-Hynes has found her voice – literally and figuratively. While her last studio release, Fiddler’s Pastime (2020), was more instrumental-focused, her latest project, I Built A World, finds her stepping up to the vocal mic with confidence. Her voice is strong and well-practiced while homey and down to earth, too. The song selections are bold, her collaborators are glitzy and first-rate, but each feature, guest, and musician serves the track they’re on and the album as a whole first and foremost. Keith-Hynes has certainly found her groove and her creative community, and we’re all reaping the benefits of her commitment to challenging herself and looking ahead to the future. We recently chatted with Bronwyn and her pal Brenna MacMillan about their respective solo projects – check it out here.
Swamp Dogg, Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th St
When the initial announcement of Swamp Dogg’s latest album, Blackgrass, reached the BGS team, electricity and excitement shot through our ranks. Here’s a project that speaks deeply to one of our highest-priority missions in bluegrass: to showcase the multi-ethnic, melting pot, diverse roots of our favorite genre of music. Bluegrass has never been a music for white folks only, no matter how prevalent that narrative is today, and this legendary multi-hyphenate musician, creator, and producer, Swamp Dogg, demonstrates that fact part and parcel over the course of this impeccable collection of music – with a backing band that includes many of the best pickers around today. There are countless remarkable aspects of this album, too many to include in this simple blurb, so head to Lizzie No’s feature on the project to learn more about why this project is purposefully rebellious and revolutionary.
Laurie Lewis, TREES
California bluegrass keystone Laurie Lewis was just announced as one recipient of this year’s IBMA Distinguished Achievement Awards. For decades she has been a center of gravity around which the California and West Coast bluegrass scenes orbit, like a perseverant mother tree from which so many young shoots and saplings have sprung. Her brand new album, TREES, draws upon her wellspring of through-hiking and naturalist knowledge to encounter, process, and challenge so many modern day realities – health issues, the ever-quickening climate crisis, personal and professional life hurdles, and much more. The result is touching, emotional, encouraging, and inspiring, wrapped in traditional bluegrass trappings that feel more in service to the songs than to legalistic genre criteria. Lewis is one of the best to ever make bluegrass and TREES is one of the best releases in her lauded and superlative catalog. We recently published our exclusive interview, which you won’t want to miss.
Tony Trischka, Earl Jam
One of the greatest banjo players today, our current Artist of the Month Tony Trischka has made a career trailblazing on melodic-style three-finger banjo, writing, composing, and recording music that only he could’ve made. For his latest album, Earl Jam, though, he instead leans on the timeless bluegrass task of emulating the greats – namely, Earl Scruggs. The track list is pulled from recordings of casual, at-home jam sessions between Earl, John Hartford, and others, and with his all-star band and fabulous guests, Trischka reiterates Earl’s idiosyncratic playing from these previously unheard recordings. It’s a fascinating context in which to rediscover the limitless intricacies behind Trischka’s playing and the way he synthesizes others’ influences into his own musical vocabulary. Whether stepping into the role – or, shall we say, roll – of Scruggs or making modern banjo compositions out on his own creative limbs, Tony Trischka makes it look effortless and executes everything he does at the highest level. Don’t miss our Artist of the Month feature and our discography deep dive.
Gangstagrass, The Blackest Thing on the Menu
With a band as incisive and forward-looking as Gangstagrass, there will always be countless reasons naysayers will attempt to use to disqualify their music as “bluegrass.” But when viewing this now 15-year-old group through an objective lens, you can see many more bluegrass qualities than not. Innovation (the oldest bluegrass tradition), improvisation, virtuosity, conversational lyrics, a blending of styles, genres, and textures, and the bringing together of creators and inspirations from a variety of backgrounds – that all sounds like bluegrass to us! Gangstagrass’s latest opus, The Blackest Thing on the Menu, finds the critically-acclaimed group at their strongest yet, with a Jerry Douglas track feature (“The Only Way Out is Through”) and plenty of hip-hop-meets-bluegrass excellence. In the present, folks may errantly write off this band as a novelty or an aberration, but in the future we will all view Gangstagrass as they have always been: one of the firsts in the quickly-developing tradition of roots hip-hop, rap string bands, and postmodern bluegrass re-interpreters.
Jack McKeon, Talking to Strangers
In the vein of country songwriters with bluegrass careers – or bluegrass songwriters with country careers (think Shawn Camp, Tom T. Hall, John Prine, Darrell Scott) – Jack McKeon’s debut album, Talking To Strangers, isn’t just bluegrass, but it certainly tracks as first class ‘grassy, down home, front porch music. These thoughtful, introspective lyrics are perfectly set, to a straight ahead bluegrass band like Ashby Frank, Justin Moses, Christian Sedelmeyer, and Vickie Vaughn. McKeon is inaugurating his catalog of recorded works demonstrating that his songs and his voice can be shapeshifters, at home on Music Row and on bluegrass stages and radio, both.
The Del McCoury Band, Songs of Love and Life
Del McCoury is one of the most-awarded personalities in the history of bluegrass and it’s truly no wonder why. He’s spent his entire life honing the family trade: the highest quality bluegrass around. At 85 years-old, every album, concert, performance, and festival we enjoy from Del and the boys is a gift that we’re determined to cherish and savor. His latest full length album, Songs of Love and Life, is sure to be shortlisted for the highest honors handed out by the Grammys and IBMA. This particular track, “Only the Lonely,” is a Roy Orbison cover that showcases Del’s lifelong penchant for not worrying about what is or isn’t bluegrass and instead doing his utmost to serve the song – hence the tasty, honky-tonkin’ bluegrass piano. (Bluegrass piano? Twice in one list??) The record includes a few more charming covers, plenty of brand new tracks, and a Molly Tuttle feature, too.
Brandon Godman, I Heard the Morgan Bell
A killer fiddler from Kentucky who’s performed with Laurie Lewis, Dale Ann Bradley, Jon Pardi, and many, many more, Brandon Godman recently released his first studio album as a solo artist since he was a teenager. Based in San Francisco, Godman is a touring fiddler turned luthier who remains an expert in so many musical styles from his home turf in northern Kentucky. From contest fiddling to western swing to pop country to bluegrass breakdowns and transatlantic hornpipes, Godman’s playing has grit, drive, and aggression, sure, but what stands out the most on I Heard the Morgan Bell, his album of all original compositions, is his emotional range, lyricism, and heartfelt tenderness. Throw in guests like Darol Anger, Patrick Sauber, Sam Reider, and more and you’ve got what will end up being one of the best fiddle-centric albums of this decade.
Tray Wellington, Detour to the Moon
Carrying the banjo innovation banner for millennial cuspers and Gen Z, Tray Wellington is anything but a traditional bluegrass banjo player – and that fact alone is what will always land him in the “solidly bluegrass” camp, by our reckoning. Like fellow listees Trischka, Tuttle, and Fleck, Wellington has found a voice of his very own on the five-string banjo and in recent years his musical offerings – which were already top-notch – have become exponentially more fascinating, fun, and entrancing as a result. His new EP, Detour to the Moon, includes seemingly through-composed, instrumental new acoustic music a la Punch Brothers alongside more straightforward original banjo tunes and a Kid Cudi cover that may just be the best bluegrass cover of a non-bluegrass hit in recent memory. Watching the excited recognition of “Pursuit of Happiness” ripple through the audience at a bluegrass festival while Tray Wellington Band is on stage kicking off the number will certainly never get old.
Billy Strings, Billy Strings Live Vol. 1
The People’s Bluegrass President, Billy Strings, is out with his first live album, Billy Strings Live Vol. 1. No one is doing it like Billy; selling out arenas, coliseums, and gigantic amphitheaters with what’s actually just a five-piece bluegrass band will always be remarkable and noteworthy. Plus, the way he and his team bring his audience into the creative process, feeding their insatiable appetites for content, for music, for four-hour-long tribute shows, is not simply to sell tickets, fill seats, and move product. Strings, at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day, is just a big ol’ bluegrass and guitar nerd. We love that about him. There’s almost no one else in the history of this music from whom we’d tolerate a 13 minute track. (By the way, that’s not the longest runtime on the album!) Keep doing it like only you do it, Billy, and we’ll all stick with you the whole entire way.
AJ Lee & Blue Summit, City of Glass
The last time we had a bluegrass artist take off on our website and socials like AJ Lee & Blue Summit are taking off now, it was Billy Strings playing “Meet Me at the Creek.” We’ve been following this Santa Cruz, California-based string band – featuring AJ Lee, Jan Purat, Scott Gates, and Sully Tuttle – for years, so it’s no surprise to us that the greater bluegrass audience is catching onto the special sound and style of Blue Summit and their brand new album, City of Glass. This is pointedly Californian bluegrass, meaning it is effortlessly traditional and organically inventive and generative. High lonesome harmonies and fiery pickin’ skills combine with soul, groove, emotion, and thoughtful writing. There are country moments, there are barn burners, but overall, it’s clear this young band have hit their stride and know who they are. We aren’t here to tell you the best of the best, per se, but if we were City of Glass would be at the very top.
Andrew Marlin, how dare you surprise release this divine album!? (Seriously, thank you, it was indeed a wonderful surprise.) Out last week with hardly more fanfare than a handful of social media posts, Marlin’s brand new collection, Phthalo Blue, has already charmed its way onto our “Best So Far” list. Featuring Stephanie Coleman, Allison de Groot, Clint Mullican, Josh Oliver, and Nat Smith, this is the perfect kind of bluegrass to put on while you work, tidy the house, or tend to your garden. You’ll find the healing effects herein don’t just come from rabbit tobacco.
Near-Bluegrass Honorable Mentions
Whatever you think about our list so far – and whether or not the albums on it qualify as bluegrass to you – here are just a handful of albums we would have regretted not including, but may have more tangential relationships to the genre than their fellows in this piece. Still, each of these fine records has obvious bluegrass bones, however subtle or overt they may be.
Willi Carlisle, Critterland
Many an old-time troubadour/poet such as Willi Carlisle has been a bluegrass musician, but perhaps Carlisle himself wouldn’t identify in that way. Still, there’s bluegrass throughout the critters and characters on this critically-acclaimed album, Critterland. We did a feature on the project, read that here.
Sierra Ferrell, Trail of Flowers
Her new album is markedly post-genre, but those in the know are already well aware that Sierra Ferrell came up through bluegrass circles. From her patinaed West Virginia voice – that brings Hazel Dickens to mind – to her cutting fiddle bowings, wherever she may roam musically, Ferrell will always have a home in bluegrass.
Rachel Sumner, Heartless Things
Rachel Sumner (formerly of Twisted Pine) is decidedly bluegrass, but somehow that seems too simplistic an umbrella for the nuanced music she creates and the special tones she strikes. She infuses so much of the Northeastern bluegrass, folk, Celtic, and jazz scenes and their respective vocabularies into her songs – they may not be exactly bluegrass, but they certainly don’t fall entirely outside that umbrella, either.
Zach Top, Cold Beer & Country Music
Now, this ain’t no bluegrass album – it’s Good Country, that’s for sure – but there’s a bluegrass story embedded within Zach Top’s hugely popular debut, Cold Beer & Country Music, that we’re determined to tell. Once a winner of SPBGMA’s band contest, Top grew up idolizing Tony Rice and Keith Whitley and playing in a bluegrass family band on the weekends. You can see bluegrass touches throughout this mainstream country record, just like when Ricky Skaggs, Whitley, the Osborne Brothers, and more targeted country radio with their songs and sound. Our Good Country feature interview explores all the ways bluegrass filters into his music.
Kaia Kater, Strange Medicine
Kaia Kater is another genre expander who hasn’t ever quite made bluegrass music, but has never been too far from that sonic space, either. She pulls more readily from indie and old-time and folk traditions, but her new album, Strange Medicine, feels like she’s developed an entirely new thing, where genre is a third space, something liminal, or purposefully transitional. Perhaps the most bluegrass thing about this stunning collection is groove, an ever present character through these gorgeous and intricate songs. Kater was our Artist of the Month in May.
Anticipated Albums Still to Come This Year
There’s plenty more where all that came from! Here are just a few of the as yet unreleased recordings we’re sure will be on our “Best Of” lists when we reach the end of the year. It’s not as far off as you think! Luckily, we’ll have a stellar soundtrack to get us there.
Alison Brown, Simple Pleasures (reissue) – available August 9
Rhonda Vincent, Destinations And Fun Places – available August 9
Bella White, Five For Silver– available August 16
Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, Wanderers Like Me – available August 16
Dan Tyminski, Whiskey Drinking Man – available August 16
Fruition, How to Make Mistakes – available August 23
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Woodland – available August 23
Caleb Caudle, Sweet Critters – available August 30
Various Artists, Bluegrass Sings Paxton – available August 30
Willie Watson, Willie Watson – available September 13
Jerry Douglas, The Set – available September 20
Twisted Pine, Love Your Mind– available October 18
Brenna MacMillan, Title TBA – release date TBA
BGS Staff also contributed to and assisted curating this list.
The bluegrass community is collectively grieving two major losses as both Jesse McReynolds and Bobby Osborne – two revered and iconic Bluegrass Hall of Fame-inducted mandolinists and Grand Ole Opry members who helmed first-generation bluegrass bands with their brothers – have passed on. McReynolds, who was 94, died on Friday, June 23 at his home in Nashville with his wife, Joy, at his side; Osborne’s death was announced on social media early Tuesday, June 27 – he was 91. Both pickers were two of the sole survivors of bluegrass’s first generation. They leave enormous musical legacies that will live on, surely into infinity.
In 2017, the Bluegrass Situation team had the incredible honor of inviting Bobby Osborne to join our super jam at the world-famous Bonnaroo music festival in Manchester, Tennessee. To our delight, he said yes.
BGS co-founder Ed Helms and Bobby Osborne
Over more than ten years of creating and holding space for roots music in our industry, there are so many moments of which we are so proud. But one of the most memorable and meaningful BGS achievements from the past decade was hearing 20,000+ audience members and fans, packed into That Tent, roar unfathomably loud for the iconoclastic voice that made a hit of “Rocky Top” – and so many others.
That day, Bobby seemed to bask in the limelight. He was kind, down-to-earth, approachable, and seemed genuinely tickled at the fanfare and excitement that orbited him and his sharp, technicolor suit and sparkly hat. After a storied career that landed him and his brother, Sonny, in so many widely variable musical contexts, from the obscure to the mainstream, Bobby was perfectly at home at Bonnaroo. His audience knew it, and they ate it up. We all did.
Bobby Osborne with Casey Campbell (background) and Mike Barnett (foreground)
In light of his passing, the entire BGS team is holding gratitude for his kindness, generosity, and, most of all, for his music. Rest in peace to one of the most important and impactful first generation bluegrass music makers, Bobby Osborne.
We hope you’ll enjoy these back stage and performance photos, shot by Elli Lauren Photography, from Bonnaroo 2017 and the BGS Super Jam at That Tent.
Bobby Osborne, Paul Hoffman, Ed Helms, and members of Greensky Bluegrass and Bryan Sutton’s house band.
Lillie Mae and Bobby Osborne share a laugh on stage prior to their duet.
Bobby OsborneEd Helms, Casey Campbell, Bobby Osborne, and others
Bobby Osborne and Casey Campbell (background)
Bobby Osborne closes his 2017 Bonnaroo appearance with a bow and a tip of his hat.
Since the beginning, BGS has sought to showcase roots music at every level and to preserve the moments throughout its ever-developing history that make this music so special. One of the simplest ways we’ve been able to do just that has been through our Sitch Sessions — working with new and old friends, up-and-coming artists, and legendary performers, filming musical moments in small, intimate spaces, among expansive, breathtaking landscapes, and just about everywhere in between. But always aiming to capture the communion of these shared moments.
In honor of our 10th year, we’ve gathered 10 of our best sessions — viral videos and fan favorites — from the past decade. We hope you’ll enjoy this trip down memory lane!
Greensky Bluegrass – “Burn Them”
Our most popular video of all time, this Telluride, Colorado session with Greensky Bluegrass is an undeniable favorite, and we just had to include it first.
Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris – “The Traveling Kind”
What more could you ask for than two old friends and legends of country music reminiscing on travels and songs passed and yet to come, in an intimate space like this? “We’re members of an elite group because we’re still around, we’re still traveling,” Emmylou Harris jokes. To which Rodney Crowell adds with a laugh, “We traveled so far, it became a song.” The flowers were even specifically chosen and arranged “to represent a celestial great-beyond and provide a welcoming otherworldly quality … a resting place for the traveling kind.” Another heartwarming touch for an unforgettable moment.
Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan – “Some Tyrant”
In the summer of 2014, during the Telluride Bluegrass Festival we had the distinct pleasure of capturing Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan’s perfectly bucolic version of “Some Tyrant” among the aspens. While out on this jaunt into the woods, we also caught a performance of the loveliest ode to summertime from Kristin Andreassen, joined by Aoife and Sarah.
Rhiannon Giddens – “Mal Hombre”
Rhiannon Giddens once again proves that she can sing just about anything she wants to — and really well — with this gorgeously painful and moving version of “Mal Hombre.”
Tim O’Brien – “You Were on My Mind”
Is this our favorite Sitch Session of all time? Probably. Do we dream of having the good fortune of running into Tim O’Brien playing the banjo on a dusty road outside of Telluride like the truck driver in this video? Definitely.
Enjoy one of our most popular Sitch Sessions of all time, featuring O’Brien’s pure, unfiltered magic in a solo performance of an original, modern classic.
Gregory Alan Isakov – “Saint Valentine”
Being lucky in love is great work, if you can find it. But, for the rest of us, it’s a hard row to hoe. For this 2017 Sitch Session at the York Manor in our home base of Los Angeles, Gregory Alan Isakov teamed up with the Ghost Orchestra to perform “Saint Valentine.”
The Earls of Leicester – “The Train That Carried My Girl From Town”
In this rollicking session, the Earls of Leicester gather round some Ear Trumpet Labs mics to bring their traditional flair to a modern audience, and they all seem to be having a helluva time!
Sara and Sean Watkins – “You and Me”
For this Telluride session, Sara and Sean Watkins toted their fiddle and guitar up the mountain to give us a performance of “You and Me” from a gondola flying high above the canyon.
Punch Brothers – “My Oh My / Boll Weevil”
The Punch Brothers — along with Dawes, The Lone Bellow, and Gregory Alan Isakov — headlined the 2015 LA Bluegrass Situation festival at the Greek Theatre (a party all on its own), and in anticipation, the group shared a performance of “My Oh My” into “Boll Weevil” from on top of the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood.
Caitlin Canty feat. Noam Pikelny – “I Want To Be With You Always”
We’ll send you off with this delicate moment. Released on Valentine’s Day, Caitlin Canty and Noam Pikelny offered their tender acoustic rendition of Lefty Frizzell’s 1951 country classic love song, “I Want to Be With You Always.”
Dive into 8 of our favorite underrated Sitch Sessions here.
It’s somehow already July (where is this year going?), so what’s better to pass those hot and lazy days than some sweet sweet banjo music? All month long, BGS will be featuring some of the very best players of the instrument, plus some special interviews, videos, and playlists. From Scruggs-style to clawhammer, whatever you want, we’ve probably got it covered.
To kick things off, we’ve assembled a playlist of our twenty-five very favorite banjo-centric SITCH SESSIONS, including Abigail Washburn & Bela Fleck, Valerie June, Joe Mullins, Noam Pikelny, Rhiannon Giddens, Tim O’Brien, and Greensky Bluegrass, with a video so epic, it deserves to be in the canon of one of our TOP 50 MOMENTS.
It was Telluride 2014, and the BGS team was on the road with the guys from Mason Jar Music to record some friends in picture-perfect settings nestled amongst the San Juan Mountains. The Greensky band was down for anything, so the whole crew shlepped up to Mountain Village and found an empty platform – typically used for weddings and the like – and started recording guerrilla style. The result is one of the most memorable – and most watched – moments we’ve ever captured. Relive it at the video link below.
Check out the full BGS Banjo Month video playlist here.
For a band as enmeshed in the live-show experience as Greensky Bluegrass, COVID-19 has been a heavy load to bear. Through cancelled shows, isolation and a two-decade milestone that came and went without proper celebration, a band notorious for letting their creative freak flag fly on hot-rod fusions of bluegrass, jam rock and Americana was cooped up … and stressed out. But not anymore.
Now back on the road and releasing that pent-up energy, Greensky Bluegrass have dropped their eighth studio album, Stress Dreams, which helps capture their difficult chapter in unique terms. For the first time, new members contributed songs to a project surely born of the moment, but not limited by it either. Fresh sounds, expansive arrangements and the most inspired storytelling of their career helped drive the group off the couch and back where they belong, with their ambition clearly intact.
“We’ve accomplished a lot,” dobro player Anders Beck tells The Bluegrass Situation. “We have an incredibly loyal fanbase. We play three nights at Red Rocks that are sold out [each year]. We’ve done it, whatever it is. But for me the idea of someone who’s never heard this band hearing this album, that’s what’s exciting to me, and I hope that happens. … We’re never gonna be [the biggest band in the world], but I hope the sincerity of our music comes through, and the sincerity of these five friends who support each other.”
Just before the album arrived, Beck called in to chat about Stress Dreams — and where the band finds itself, two decades in and one pandemic down.
BGS: You’ve just passed the 20th anniversary of the band, and this album makes it seems like everyone is still inspired by making music. How cool is to still feel that way after so long?
Anders Beck: Yeah, it’s crazy to me. It really is. It’s insane to think the band has been doing this for that long. I joined the band [13 years ago], but Dave [Bruzza], Paul [Hoffman] and [Michael Arlen] Bont, when they were living in Kalamazoo, they were literally like 19- or 20-year-olds. … The first time they played was a Halloween party at Dave’s house full of stoner crazy people, and someone asked what the name of the band was. They didn’t have one, so someone said, “You should call it Greensky Bluegrass.” It was the first time they played! To me it’s really funny.
At the time they were a traditional bluegrass band, and for the first seven years or so they played around a single mic. But the joke of Greensky Bluegrass, the pun at the heart of it, is that “Greensky” is the opposite of “Bluegrass,” right? That’s why it was funny, it was a joke. But then as we have evolved, we have become more like our name than anyone could have imagined! I was talking to someone about it the other day, and it was like “We play bluegrass, but we also play the opposite of bluegrass, and that’s what Greensky Bluegrass is.” The name that someone made up at a house party has really come to fruition.
Last time we talked, it was 2019 and All for Money was just coming out. A big part of that was capturing the passion of the live show, so what was the approach for Stress Dreams?
We had sort of planned on making a record around 2020 or so, and then, you know, a global pandemic hit. We didn’t see each other for months and everything was shut down, so I think we all started writing a little more topically. … It was weird for us, and the songs sort of evolved because of the situation we were in. It was incredibly unique, and not something I expected – and also not something I’d ever choose to do again. But to have our bass player, [Mike] Devol, for example, who has never written a song (or at least never showed us a song he wrote), all the sudden he sends us these songs that are unbelievable, like “Stress Dreams,” “New and Improved,” and “Get Sad.”
Even I wrote a song called “Monument,” and it’s the first one I’ve ever written for an album of ours. … After COVID, I just felt like I had something to write about, and that’s what “Monument” is. The reality is you spend so much time building something, and then suddenly it’s just kind of swept away. The rug gets pulled out from under you. … But we decided that we didn’t want it to be a sad song — like it should be optimistic — so we made the melody and chords and the whole vibe like, if this is the first song we play when we come back, and there’s 10,000 people in a field at Telluride or Bonnaroo or something, let’s make it feel like that vibe. So we did, and it worked! Playing that song at Red Rocks this year, after having one or two years cancelled, it was fucking emotional.
How did recording Stress Dreams work out? Was that one of the first times you could all get back together?
Totally. We did some pre-production in Winter Park, Colorado, where we went to a cabin and started sharing songs for like five days. … Then we all flew to Vermont, and this was like the height of COVID. Like, sketchy times. At the studio, we were nervous about getting COVID from the studio people, and they were nervous about getting COVID from us, so they literally just handed us the keys. It was awesome. … We were there for two weeks. Then we went home for a month or two, listening, then we go back to Asheville to Echo Mountain, where we’ve recorded before. That place feels really comfortable. We did two weeks there, then went home for a while and then came back to do two more weeks [in Asheville]. It was almost, I don’t want to say leisurely, but we had time to fuck around.
That’s not the normal pace, since you’re usually busy on the road. Did that have on any impact on how the sound evolved? I noticed a lot more classic rock-y guitars and pianos.
Well, the electric guitar sound is me on dobro, and that’s evolved from our live shows. I’ve created this thing with my dobro where I put an electric-guitar pickup on it, and Paul Beard, who builds my dobros, helped me do that. So, I can flip a switch and it goes to an amp, so it’s actually a real electric guitar. …
Like on “Grow Together,” I was playing my dobro through twin Marshall stacks, the exact year and setup that Jimi Hendrix used. Glen, our engineer, was like, “Well, you know what Jimi did,” and he flipped some cables around and I sent a video of it to Jerry [Douglas], and he texted me back like, “Did it feel like it was about explode?” [Laughs] … The piano player is Holly Bowling, who got famous by transposing the Phish and Grateful Dead jams note for note. She’s one of the two “sixth members” of our band, and Sam [Bush] is the other sixth member. [laughs]
After a lot of tension and anxiety in the album’s first few acts, it ends on a more hopeful note with “Grow Together” and “Reasons to Stay.” Did you purposely try to leave fans with that feeling?
The idea at the end, the feeling for me is that we made it through. “Reasons to Stay” was kind of a late addition to the album, and at first I was like “I don’t know,” but then two hours later I was like “This song is the shit! It’s cool and sexy.” Then songs like “Give a Shit,” which are fun songs. Paul showed me that and I was like, “Yeah buddy, good job.” Then you’ve got songs like “Get Sad,” which is one Devol wrote, and that’s just intense. I remember when he showed us that and I was like, “Jesus Christ dude, that is emotional stuff.”
Maybe this is too much, but when we record albums, there’s always a weird something weighing on you. All your favorite bands, at some point you’re like, “Man, I liked the last album better.” At a certain point that happens, and I personally don’t feel like that has happened to us yet. Every album we make, I feel like the growth is important and real. We keep creating Greensky music through this evolution of ourselves, and it’s such an interpersonal process.
We’re just being ourselves, and we used to be so nervous about “Are we playing bluegrass or not?” And all the traditional people hate us or whatever because we had the word bluegrass in our name – but they didn’t get the joke! Greensky is the opposite! We had to spend so much time explaining that “We’re like bluegrass, but we’re not,” that it was hard for a while to deal with that. I think now, it’s evolved enough that we’re just ourselves. And it feels good.
In Their Words: “I enlisted the help of my buddy Chris Gelbuda to help turn a bunch of ideas that I had had into my first lyrical venture for Greensky. This song is essentially about what it was like to have my life, career, and world slammed to a halt by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was really emotionally shocking to have everything we’ve worked for and built ripped out of our hands almost overnight. With all of that in mind, we decided that the musical vibe of the song should take on the air of the first song that we would want to play when we get back on stage in front of thousands of people dancing and partying in a field at a festival… I think we got pretty close!” — Anders Beck, Greensky Bluegrass
The Lil Smokies’ long-awaited album Tornillo reflects the vast openness of the Texas desert town in which it was recorded, possessing all of the energy that comes with a renewed creative spirit. In a phone interview with lead singer Andy Dunnigan, BGS discussed rule-bending, burnout, and how recording at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas revitalized the Montana-based band.
BGS: It sounds like this album is really special to you. Can you tell me about the process of making it? What’s memorable about this one?
AD: Yeah, this is a special one. We were coming off of two or three solid years of extensive touring. We were pretty road-worn and dare I say a little burnt out. When we came into this session we needed to become a little more unified than we had been while on the road. We were looking for somewhere that we could go and get outside of the box creatively.
Texas was somewhere we had never spent a lot of time. We wanted to go down to the desert and we wanted to be able to live on the compound. These were all [realities] that Sonic Ranch in Tornillo was able to provide us, so when we got down there we didn’t really leave for ten days.
We lived a stone’s throw away from the studio. We’d wake up and eat huevos rancheros and then head over to the studio. We were kind of autonomous in the fact that we could make our own hours. It really brought us back to life. We were really unified in our work and the production of this album, and I think that’s really ostensible throughout the songs.
How much does a new album like this, where you have brand-new material and are fresh off the experience of recording, help motivate you to keep going out on the road?
I think it’s just that we toured the last album for a couple years and got a little tired of some of those songs. We were playing so much that we didn’t have all that much time for writing. I found myself trying to juggle between writing, being on the road, solitude, hobbies, and having a girlfriend. I was thinking, “Man, there’s just not a lot of time.”
So now that we were able to hammer out some new songs, getting back out on the road seems so much more enjoyable. I think when we’re having fun on stage there’s a direct correlation to the audience. They’re feeding off us and the pillars of reciprocity are strong.
This album definitely sounds like you’re having fun and doing things your way. You sort of bend the rules of bluegrass, but always in a way that adds something to the music. How do you keep an open mind about trying new things without being gratuitous about it?
We wanted to think outside the box for this record, but we didn’t want to do it in a contrived way where we say, “OK, this is going to be a weird album, so we’ll just make it intentionally weird.” We wanted to cater to the songs and adhere to what each song needs.
On the title track, “Tornillo,” we had originally worked up our traditional way of doing it with the bluegrass ensemble, but when we started playing it, it sounded like something that should be on the soundtrack of Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary. We were thinking, “This just isn’t going to work.”
Then Rev, our guitar player, worked up a piano arrangement and brought it to us towards the latter part of the session and we were like, “Oh man, this is so awesome. We have to use this.” We were just serving the song, and that was the ethos. Once we had the piano foundation, we started experimenting with drums and horns and some baritone guitar.
It was really fun for us. We intentionally gave ourselves a surplus amount of time in the studio so we could tinker around a little bit. We wanted to experiment sonically, and I think the results are really fun. It opened our minds to what you can accomplish in the studio if you have enough time and patience.
This album has a clear overall sound. Big, open, and full of space. Is that something you went into the studio wanting to accomplish, or did it develop more on the fly?
It’s a little bit of both. We wanted to create something big from the get-go, but we weren’t sure how we were going to do that. We knew we wanted to record live because that adds a little more energy, we had it in mind to drench a lot of it in reverb to create sort of a Fleet Foxes vibe or something a little more alt. That’s the kind of music that a lot of us have been listening to and getting inspired by for the last few years. We’re all listening to a lot of different music and we wanted to expand outside of the bluegrass domain in the production at least.
In your bio it’s mentioned that you “draw on the energy of a rock band and the Laurel Canyon songwriting of the 1970s.” How did bluegrass become the avenue that you express those influences?
Well, I think we all started out playing bluegrass. I came to it in my latter years of high school. I went down to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. I had gotten an electric guitar from my dad. He plays music for a living, so he gifted me a Strat, and then a lap steel. I listened to a lot of David Lindley and Ben Harper. Those were kind of the gateway into bluegrass music. Then when I went down to Telluride it blew my head open.
I think we all have our pioneer stories of how we got into the music. That’s how you meet the community of players. There’s this whole vocabulary attached to it but as you get older you expand your musical library. I think we listen to a lot of songwriters and a lot of rock. We still happen to play these bluegrass instruments, and we love bluegrass, but we’re just trying to express what we want to say while wielding bluegrass instruments.
Do you find that you’re an introduction to bluegrass music for a lot of your fans?
I do, and it’s one of my favorite remarks after shows. People say, “Man, I hate bluegrass, but I love you guys.” I hear that a lot and I think it’s funny and ironic, but it’s cool because I think there has to be somebody to pull you in and make you realize that you’ve been wrong about the stigma perhaps. I know I was that person at one time. I thought, “Man, bluegrass music? My dad plays the banjo. This is really lame.”
I think we’re seeing bluegrass kind of blossom into its adolescence and beyond, because for a while I think it was restricted by the staunch purists who were slapping everyone’s wrists for playing minor chords. Now we’re seeing Punch Brothers, Greensky Bluegrass, Infamous Stringdusters, and of course now Billy Strings, who all have obviously done their homework religiously and can pay homage to the traditional godfathers, but they’re also putting their spin on it. It’s really cool and it’s getting people excited. I think to be included in that group is really awesome and I think it’s an exciting time to be riding the wave.
How much do you rely on melody, texture, and other instrumental factors to further the meaning or story within a song?
A lot of it happens in the arranging as well, but a lot of times when I’m writing a song there will be a hook line, and that’s sort of from a rock standpoint. You have your verse-chorus and then there’s a riff or something. You know, this band was almost an instrumental band for a short period in the beginning. We were listening to a lot of David Grisman, Strength In Numbers, and a lot of that music.
We loved writing instrumental music, and then when I started singing and writing songs we kind of fused the two worlds together. Those little melody parts and arrangement parts are still so fun to incorporate in songs. In a tune like “Giant” on this album, we wanted something kind of spacy to create a dream-like state, so we tried to write something that sounded kind of spacey and sleepy.
Some of these songs are intentionally ambiguous in their origins. What is the intent behind that ambiguity?
I went to school at the University of Montana for creative writing and poetry and I love the way words sound together as much as I love melody. Sometimes the words and just the assonance, what they sound like, will dictate the melody and vice versa. Once I have a word in my head and I’m kind of ad-libbing on the guitar I try to steer away from some words and how they sound.
I like to write stories and have some ostensible narratives, but I also just love words and how they sound. “World’s On Fire” has a couple meanings in there but I also like to keep it intentionally ambiguous because I think it’s fun for people to create their own story.
You’ve said your time at Sonic Ranch “encapsulates all of the good things about being in a band and making music.” How did the band grow from the experience of making this album?
To circle back on what I said in the beginning, it’s a huge a sacrifice to be in a band. There’s the greatest ups and the greatest downs, kind of married to each other. Coming off of those past three years of touring we were all a little tired and burnt out, and maybe questioning if we were on the right path. During our studio session in Tornillo I think we were all realizing that this is why we do it.
When you make an album it’s like setting a bug in amber. It’s this fossilized preservation of your life at that point. The word tornillo literally means “to fasten” and refers to a screw. We named it after that place. The place really tightened us up together as friends and as a band. I remember leaving there and feeling really proud of what we had accomplished. I think it’s the most unified we’ve ever been as a band.
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