Quintessential bluegrass from some of the pioneers of the genre, for your Sunday listening pleasure.
When Flatt and Scruggs split up, Flatt took most of The Foggy Mountain Boys with him. Two of them, fiddler Paul Warren, and guitarist Curly Seckler – who assumed leadership of The Nashville Grass after Lester passed – were on hand for this show. They’re joined by Roland “ChiChi” White on mandolin and former Blue Grass Boy, Haskell McCormick, picking the fiercest, most exacting banjo you’ll ever hear.

Warren’s opening number alone is worth checking out this set, as is “Listen To the Mockingbird”, one of his signature show pieces. The whole band gives new life to that tired, old chestnut, “Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms”, simply by refusing to treat it as a throwaway; and Curly Seckler’s solo, “You Took My Sunshine Away” is a sweet delight. Even the gospel songs resonate more deeply with the remembrance of the war then raging – in Viet Nam and at home.

Interesting side note: Paul Warren did time, along with Butch Robins’s dad, in the same German POW camp during WWII.