In the mid-1970s, bluegrass music was shaken up by several albums that offered innovative combinations of the traditional and progressive to a polarized scene. Though some have achieved deserved fame, one — the Bluegrass Cardinals’ self-titled debut on Sierra Records — slipped into obscurity within a few years, even as the band itself enjoyed a [...]

I guess if you were born before the Industrial Revolution, the train actually had somewhat of an impact on you. If you were born anywhere in the latter half of the 20th century, the train was probably something granddad spoke about over a corncob pipe and a nip of rye: good folklore, but not much [...]

Porter Wagoner is one of the most significant figures in the history of post-Hank Williams country music. Along with host Red Foley, Wagoner was a star on the legendary late-’50s radio show “Ozark Jubilee”, which had Springfield, Missouri, challenging Nashville several years before Bakersfield got on the map. Later, as the host of the “The [...]

The three years covered by this collection were among the most productive and intensely focused of Ralph Stanley’s career. In 1971 alone, his band produced four records for Rebel, and in May of that year, Stanley initiated an annual festival at his home in McClure, Virginia. With exception of fiddler Curley Ray Cline, his lineup [...]

Brought to wider attention last year with their Sub Pop debut Massachusetts, the Scud Mountain Boys had in fact already issued not one, but two, albums on Chunk Records — one of which, Pine Box, was a vinyl-only release. Both came out in 1995; thus the singular “Year” in the title of this reissue, [...]

For visceral, rhythmic punch, for the sheer joy of musical sound, has the C&W tradition ever produced a song more thrilling than Tennessee Ernie Ford’s 1950 crossover smash “Shotgun Boogie”?
Ford first made a name for himself with a series of classic country boogies recorded between 1949 and 1953, and “Shotgun Boogie” is the best of [...]

Back at the end of the ’50s, about when I was being conceived or born or something, Willie Nelson sold the rights to a song called “Family Bible” for $50. That was his first break in country music; a singer named Claude Gray made “Family Bible” a top-10 hit, and then he got cuts by [...]