This is so sad and beautiful! It’s almost as though John Hartford is under-performing to keep his emotions from spilling over.

That said, it’s on the instrumental breaks that these musicians really shine.The late Junior Huskey is on bass, Jerry Douglas on dobro, Vassar Clements on fiddle, Mark O’Connor laying aside his fiddle for the mandolin, and Tony Rice on guitar.

It’s funny: Usually, folks are dazzled by O’Connor’s fiddling and Rice’s blinding speed. Yet O’Connor on mando, and Rice taking his sweet time to be thoughtful with the melody, turn in the two best performances on “Old Time River Man”.