"Bluegrass Cafe" playlist - 2/26/2012

Today's edition of the show included the things that I'm guessing listeners have come to expect from the BG Cafe:  a mixture of newer tunes, older music from classic performers, and, for good measure, birthday tributes to three country music legends.

On February 25th, the one and only Ralph Stanley celebrated his 85th birthday.  We likely could have filled the whole program with the music of the Stanleys -- Ralph with Carter, as well as on his own, and with a whole passel of other performers -- but we opted for opening the show with four songs with which Ralph is connected.  While the Stanley Brothers haven't yet been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, two other Hall of Famers would also have celebrated their 80th birthdays this weekend.  The late Faron Young (February 25, 1932-December 10, 1996) and Johnny Cash (February 26, 1932-September 12, 2003) both left behind an amazing legacy of music, and like many other country music performers who first found fame in the 1950s, a great deal of their music has been recorded by BG performers through the years.  We couldn't let the show pass without including BG covers of both Cash and Young.  

Big things on the horizon for Canada's Spinney Brothers?
Time will tell...

Newer music on the show came from two forthcoming CDs from the Spinney Brothers ("Memories" will be released by Mountain Fever Records on March 13th) and Lou Reid & Carolina (whose self-produced "Callin' Me Back Home" should be out by mid-April).  There seems to be a trend of some kind in BG where radio receives single releases through a downloadable service called AirPlayDirect, sometimes months before the actual CD comes out.  I suppose none of this is much different than in "the old days" when individual songs were released as 45s or CD singles before a full record came out.  It can be kind of a tease, I know, but I'm sure these recordings from both the Spinneys and Lou & Carolina will be top-notch when they arrive at WHUS.  Can't wait!  

In addition, there was new (and new-to-us) music from Maine's Maranacook String Band, fiddler/mandolin picker Merl Johnson, and a quite good, young band from Florida called Flatt Lonesome, as well as Dailey & Vincent, Laurie Lewis, Freeman & Williams, the Heather Berry & Tony Mabe Show, and Too Blue. 

Not the exact LP I played from today, but the players were the
same.  Brothers Fred & Earl are shown up front, and
in the back row, it's John Piela, Earleen Pike, Nita
Pike (her mom), and Dave Papuga.  

Every now and then, I have a nostalgic moment where I feel the need to bring out and play some records that my brother, Dave, played frequently around the house while I was growing up.  This week, that record was from Oneco's Pike Family & the Pine Hill Ranchers, and their Rebel record titled, "To Warm And Comfort You."  I'm not sure what year this LP came out, but it couldn't have been too much before young Earleen Pike's death at the age of 18 in August 1972.  Earleen's banjo playing uncle, Fred Pike, is kind of a legend in the world of New England BG, and I remember always being somewhat impressed that two members of the Pine Hill Ranchers were from my little hometown in eastern CT.  We also included a current song from Earleen's brother, Gordon, and his band's (Gelina & Pike's Mainly Grass) CD.  

Hope you enjoyed something you heard on the show today -- be sure to join Jim next Sunday for another edition of the BG Cafe.

Have a good week - 

Amy O.

Requests are RED.

• Katy Hill / Del McCoury Band / RockyGrass / Blue Planet
• Don't Wake Me Up / Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys / Sixteen Years / Copper Creek
• Another Night / Ralph Stanley with Joe Diffie / Clinch Mountain Country / Rebel
• Clinch Mountain Blues / Stanley Brothers / Selected Cuts, 1955-1956 / JSP Records
• Loving You Too Well / Ralph Stanley with Dolly Parton / Clinch Mountain Sweethearts / Rebel
• Down By The Rambling Waters / Maranacook String Band / Bear In The Barn / Self-Produced
• How Many Times / Vern & Ray / San Francisco, 1968 / Arhoolie
• Blue Skies And Teardrops / Missy Werner Band / Three Kinds Of Lonesome / Self-Produced
• Fox On The Run / Tony Trischka with Tom Adams / Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular / Rounder
• Don't Ease Me In / Steep Canyon Rangers / Lovin' Pretty Women / Rebel
• Helen / Eddie & Martha Adcock with Tom Gray / Many A Mile / Patuxent Music
• Ice Covered Birches / Cliff Waldron / 35th Anniversary Sampler / Rebel
• Anywhere Is Home Again / Volume Five / Children Of The Mountain / Mountain Fever Records
• Open Up Your Heart / Terry Baucom with the Gibson Brothers / In A Groove / John Boy & Billy, Inc.
• Amandalyn / Merl Johnson / Better Man / Patuxent Music
• Greenlight On The Southern / Tony Rice / Bluegrass Class Of 1990 / Rounder
• AppleJack / Pam Gadd with Dolly Parton / Benefit Of Doubt / Home Sweet Highway Productions
• Virginia Waltz / Johnson Mountain Boys / Let The Whole World Talk / Rounder
• Out In The Cold World / Audie Blaylock & Redline / I'm Going Back To Old Kentucky / Rural Rhythm
• I Wouldn't Change You If I Could / Ricky Skaggs / Country Hits Bluegrass Style / Skaggs Family 
• A Far Cry From Lester And Earl / Junior Sisk & Ramblers Choice / The Heart Of A Song / Rebel
• No Mother Or Dad / Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs / The Complete Mercury Recordings / Mercury
• Close The Door Lightly When You Go / Lonesome River Band / Chronology, Volume One / Rural Rhythm
• Close The Door Lightly When You Go / Lonesome River Band / Saturday Night-Sunday Morning / Rebel
• Memories / Spinney Brothers / Memories / Mountain Fever Records
• Sweet Blue Eyed Darlin' / Sweet Potato Pie / Brand New Day / Mountain Fever Records
• You'll Get No More Of Me / Flatt Lonesome / Demo / no label
• Carolina Moonshine Man / Lou Reid & Carolina / Callin' Me Back Home / Self-Produced
• Folsom Prison Blues / Scott Anderson / Tales From The Swamp / Mato Records
• If You Ain't Lovin', You Ain't Livin' / Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers / Shades Of The Past / Sugar Hill
• Hey Porter / Lynn Morris Band / The Bramble And The Rose / Rounder
• Go Back You Fool / Bear Bridge Band / Broken Hearts And Better Times / Open Road
• Daddy Sang Bass / Dailey & Vincent / The Gospel Side Of Dailey & Vincent / Cracker Barrel
• To Warm And Comfort You / Pike Family & the Pine Hill Ranchers / To Warm And Comfort You / Rebel
• Spanish Grass / Gelina & Pike's Mainly Grass / Rustic Little Cabin / Self-Produced
• Forever And Ever / Pike Family & the Pine Hill Ranchers / To Warm And Comfort You / Rebel
• Uphill Climb / Chris Jones / Lost Souls & Free Spirits / Rebel
• I Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow / Laurie Lewis / Skippin' & Flyin' / Spruce & Maple Music
• Always Looking Back / Freeman & Williams / Freeman & Williams / Mountain Roads Recordings
• Stepping Stone / Too Blue / Trouble With The Grey / Self-Produced
• I'll Ramble On / Shannon Slaughter / The Sideman Steps Out / Self-Produced
• Get In Line, Brother / Marty Stuart with Johnny Cash & Alan O'Bryant / Way Down Deep In My Soul / Sugar Hill
• Don't You Want To Go Home / Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers / Rambler's Call / Rebel
• Wings Of Angels / Jay Armsworthy / I Couldn't Make It Without Him / Blue Circle Records
• Count Your Blessings / Kathy Kallick (with Laurie Lewis) / Count Your Blessings / Live Oak Records
• I Have Decided To Follow Jesus / Heather Berry & Tony Mabe Show / The Heather Berry & Tony Mabe Show / Mountain Fever Records
• My Foot Is On The Rock / Randy Waller & the Country Gentlemen / One Mile East Of Hazel Green / Lendel Records
• I'll Never Go Back / Louvin Brothers / Songs That Tell A Story / Rounder
• I Saw The Light / Bill Monroe / Anthology / MCA
• I Want To Live Like Christ My Savior / Johnson Mountain Boys / Walls Of Time / Rounder
• Black Mountain Blues / Johnson Mountain Boys / Requests / Rounder