February 6, 2016

Bean Blossom: Bill Monroe's 7th Annual Bluegrass Festival 1973

MCA Records MCA2-8002

Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: 1973
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Bluegrass
[Tracklist]
A1 Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel No. 8) (2:48)
A2 You Won't Be Satisfied That Way (1:58)
A3 Uncle Pen (2:19)
A4 Blue Moon Of Kentucky (3:22)
A5 Ole Slew-Foot (2:27)
A6 Sweet Little Miss Blue Eyes (2:17)
B1 Please Be My Love (2:13)
B2 I Wish You Knew (2:26)
B3 Love, Please Come Home (2:14)
B4 Train 45 (2:37)
B5 Bonny (2:05)
B6 When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again (2:15)
C1 Hit Parade Of Love (2:41)
C2 Mary Ann (3:00)
C3 Sunny Side Of The Mountain (2:55)
C4 Free Born Man (3:19)
C5 Tennessee (2:46)
C6 Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms (2:19)
C7 Feudin' Banjos (2:10)
C8 Ballad Of Jed Clampett (2:14)
D1 Roll On Buddy (2:11)
D2 I Wonder Where You Are Tonight (2:59)
D3 Orange Blossom Special (2:28)
D4 Down Yonder (3:43)
D5 Soldier's Joy (2:34)
D6 Grey Eagle (2:38)
D7 Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (4:02)
[Credits]
(A1-A4) Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys (A5-A6, B1-B2) Jim & Jesse and The Virginia Boys (B3-B6) James Monroe (C1-C5) Jimmy Martin & The Sunny Mountain Boys (C6-C8) Lester Flatt & The Nashville Grass (D1) Bill Monroe & James Monroe (D2) Bill Monroe and Jim & Jesse (D3) Carl Jackson (D4-D7) Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys
Mastered By: Darrell Johnson, Mixed By: Joe Mills, Producer: Snuffy Miller, Walter Haynes
[Notes]
There is very little in the world quite like a good, live bluegrass album, and this is as good as it gets. The album was recorded in 1973 at the seventh annual Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival in Bean Blossom, IN, and features, alongside Monroe, most of the greats of early bluegrass, still kicking in the 1970s-Jim and Jesse, Jimmy Martin, James Monroe, Lester Flatt and the Nashville Grass, and 12 of the period's greatest fiddlers. The only notably absent figures of the classic bluegrass canon are the Stanley Brothers and Earl Scruggs; Carter Stanley died in 1966, and Scruggs, who had recently broken from Flatt to pursue more "modern" sounds in bluegrass music, was still getting the silent treatment from Monroe for leaving his Bluegrass Boys in the first place. Curly Ray Cline, Clarence "Tater" Tate, Tex Logan, Kenny Baker, and the other eight fiddlers play simultaneously on three instrumental standards, "Soldier's Joy," "Grey Eagle," and "Down Yonder," backing Monroe on the album's final track, a lively and unforgettable "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." The music is played, for the most part, at a tightly reined turbo speed and, along with the steady claps and yells and sure-enough screams of an enormously rowdy audience, makes for about the most exciting 75 minutes of music imaginable. Bean Blossom captures the true, original spirit of the music created by Monroe as much or more than any other album, and provides a sturdy backbone to any bluegrass collection. --AllMusic Review by Burgin Mathews

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