"Bluegrass Cafe" playlist - 4/21/2024

Ben Eldridge (8/13/1938 - 4/14/2024)
[Photo by Ted Lehmann]

During this day's Bluegrass Cafe, we put the main focus on the music of Ben Eldridge -- the banjo playing co-founder of The Seldom Scene -- who died one week ago at the age of 85.  Along with his Scene bandmates, Ben was inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2014.  He was the last of the original members of the Scene to retire from the band after 44 years of holding down the banjo role.  By all accounts, Ben Eldridge was an incredibly nice and funny man, and we will always be grateful for his contribution to the Bluegrass lexicon.  To celebrate his life and his career, we shared several songs from the Scene, as well as a few selections from a couple of the albums Ben recorded with Cliff Waldron & the New Shades Of Grass in 1970 and 1971.  If you would like to read more about the life of Ben Eldridge, check out this fairly extensive remembrance published in Bluegrass Today or read his biography from the Bluegrass Hall of Fame.  

This week, it was also announced that a very important album in the history of Bluegrass music is being added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.  "The New South" (featuring J.D. Crowe along with Tony Rice, Ricky Skaggs, Bobby Slone, and Jerry Douglas) was released by Rounder Records in 1975.  Better known by its catalog number (Rounder 0044) than the album title, this well-regarded work is probably on the Top 10 favorite list of albums among many, many Bluegrass fans and musicians.  How nice to know it'll be preserved forever in the Library of Congress.

There wasn't a lot of new music to share this week, but we did include new or recent selections from Liam Purcell & Cane Mill Road, Bluegrass Express, the Red Camel Collective, Dave Adkins, and the Wilson Banjo Co.

Hope you have a wonderful week.  Thanks for listening to our Bluegrass Cafe!

Amy O.

SONG / PERFORMER / ALBUM / LABEL

• Katy Hill / Del McCoury Band / RockyGrass / Blue Planet
• A Little Bit Of Bluegrass / Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road / A Little Bit Of Bluegrass / Pinecastle
• I Hear Bluegrass Calling Me / Carolina Blue / I Hear Bluegrass Calling Me / Pinecastle
• Bill Monroe For Breakfast / Acoustic Blue / This Is Now / Self-Produced
• That Bluegrass Music / Gibson Brothers / Bona Fide / Sugar Hill
• Come And Sit By The River / Country Gentlemen / The Sugar HIll Years / Sugar Hill
• I Almost Told Her / East Nash Grass / Last Chance To Win / Mountain Fever Records
• Polka On A Banjo / Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs / 16 Biggest Hits / Columbia Legacy
• Are You Missing Me? / Jim & Jesse / First Sounds:  The Capitol Years / Capitol
• The In Crowd / Country Gentlemen / The Sugar Hill Years / Sugar Hill
• Old Home Place / The New South / The New South / Rounder
• Rock, Salt & Nails / The New South / The New South / Rounder
• I'm Walkin' / The New South / The New South / Rounder
• Subscription To Loneliness / Henhouse Prowlers / Lead And Iron / Dark Shadow Recording
• San Joaquin / Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway / Golden West / Nonesuch Records
• I'll Still Write Your Name In The Sand / Mac Wiseman / The Chronological Mac Wiseman, 1956-1959 / Kipepeo Publishing
• Bottom Of The Ninth / Jason Barie / Radioactive / Billy Blue Records
• Sunny Days (Are Comin' Once Again) / Michael Cleveland with Jeff White & Dan Tyminski / Lovin' Of The Game / Compass Records
• North Wind / Bluegrass Express / single / Plum River Records
• Yellow Line / Liam Purcell & Cane Mill Road / Yellow Line / Pinecastle
• Roll On Mississippi / Red Camel Collective / single / Pinecastle
• Bad Moon Rising / Dave Adkins / What I'm For / Billy Blue Records
• Our Last Goodbye/Walk Softly On This Heart Of Mine / Wilson Banjo Co. / Memory Lane / Pinecastle
• Tennessee / Jimmy Martin & the Sunny Mountain Boys / Bean Blossom / MCA
• Blue Moon Of Kentucky / Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys / Bean Blossom / MCA
• Cross Country / Cliff Waldron & the New Shades Of Grass / Right On! / Rebel [Remembering Ben Eldridge:  8/13/1938 - 4/14/2024]
• Close The Door Lightly When You Go / Cliff Waldron & the New Shades Of Grass / Traveling Light / Rebel [Remembering Ben Eldridge:  8/13/1938 - 4/14/2024]
• Bill Cheetham / Cliff Waldron & the New Shades Of Grass / Traveling Light / Rebel [Remembering Ben Eldridge:  8/13/1938 - 4/14/2024]
• Raised By The Railroad Line / The Seldom Scene / Act I / Rebel [Remembering Ben Eldridge:  8/13/1938 - 4/14/2024]
• Smokin' Hickory / The Seldom Scene / Act Two / Rebel [Remembering Ben Eldridge:  8/13/1938 - 4/14/2024]
• Hail To The Redskins / The Seldom Scene / Act 3 / Rebel [Remembering Ben Eldridge:  8/13/1938 - 4/14/2024]
• What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round / The Seldom Scene / Long Time...Seldom Scene / Smithsonian Folkways [Remembering Ben Eldridge:  8/13/1938 - 4/14/2024]
• Hit Parade Of Love / The Seldom Scene / Live At The Cellar Door / Rebel [Remembering Ben Eldridge:  8/13/1938 - 4/14/2024]
• Biscuits And Gravy / Nick Chandler & Delivered / Silver Bird / Pinecastle
• I Wish You Knew / Auldridge, Reid & Coleman / High Time / Sugar Hill
• I Know You're Married (But I Love You Still) / Reno & Smiley / Good Old Country Ballads / King
• Leaving Crazytown / Steve Gulley & New Pinnacle / High Peaks And New Ground / Rural Rhythm
• Runaway Train / Travelin' McCourys / single / McCoury Music
• Help Me Climb That Mountain / Lynn Morris Band / The Lynn Morris Band / Rounder
• Gardens And Memories / Greg Blake & Hometown / The View From Home / Get It Played
• Take Him In / The Seldom Scene / Baptizing / Rebel [Remembering Ben Eldridge:  8/13/1938 - 4/14/2024]
• I Need The Prayers / High Fidelity / Music In My Soul / Rebel
• The Everlasting Arms / Cliff Waldron & the New Shades Of Grass / Right On! / Rebel [Remembering Ben Eldridge:  8/13/1938 - 4/14/2024]
• Daniel Prayed / Patty Loveless / Bluegrass Top 20 Gospel Songs Of The Century / New Haven Records
• Will You Be Ready To Go Home / The Seldom Scene / Scene 20 / Sugar Hill [Remembering Ben Eldridge:  8/13/1938 - 4/14/2024]
• I'm Working On A Building / Johnson Mountain Boys / Requests / Rounder 
• Lord Lift Me Up / Bluegrass Patriots / Kneel At The Cross / Red Feather
• I'll Be No Stranger There / The Seldom Scene / A Change Of Scenery / Sugar Hill [Remembering Ben Eldridge:  8/13/1938 - 4/14/2024]
• Will The Circle Be Unbroken / The Seldom Scene / Live At The Cellar Door / Rebel [Remembering Ben Eldridge:  8/13/1938 - 4/14/2024]
• Black Mountain Blues / Johnson Mountain Boys / Requests / Rounder