Last night I took out my banjo from deep under my bed, dusted it off, and started pickin’ away. Now I’ve got the blue grass fever (is that a thing?)! In the spirit of my new obsession, I want to share some of my most favorite bluegrass songs.
1) Jerry’ Reed – Jerry’s Breakdown
I think I’ve blogged about this one before, but the original is preformed by Jerry Reed and Chet Atkins. Each is a crazy awesome guitarist by themselves, but they become something better when you put them together. To avoid repetition, here is a video of 2 random dudes playing the song… on ONE guitar!
2) The Best Of Bluegrass – Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms
This is what you get when you take the absolute best of bluegrass, and put them in one room. Everyone but the one person announcing has won an award for best bluegrass group or best <insert their instrument here> player. Skip to 2:40 for the good parts!
3) Bela Fleck and Chick Corea – Children’s Song #6
Bela Fleck is a widely known banjo player who is often considered one of the most innovative and technically proficient banjo players. Just listen to this song and you’ll know what they mean by that. I don’t remember ever hearing anyone other than this guy play jazz with a banjo. (Banjo + jazz = banjazz?) Oh, and by the way… Chick Corea was in Miles Davis’ band. So basically, these guys know jazz well! Anyways, this song is probably my favorite off the album (which is called The Enchantment).
4) Arthur Smith – Dueling Banjos
(apparently WordPress hates me, and so for the rest of this blog, I’m stuck writing in bold – sorry!)
What would a blog about bluegrass be without mentioning the most well known banjo song ever. I think you’ve all heard this one before, but I’m gonna put it here anyways (because I like it). Something you may not know, this song was used in the movie Deliverance (which is where it got its fame from) without permission from the composer.
That’s all I have for you today, I hope you enjoyed it!
Keep on tranglin’,
Tim
