Can't You Hear Me Callin' - Bluegrass: 80 Years of American Music

Disc 1
1	Soldier's Joy / Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers 2:58
2	Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues / Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers 2:52
3	White House Blues / Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers 3:27
4	Bill Mason / Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers 3:00
5	Cannon Ball Blues / Carter Family 2:54
6	D Blues / Blue Ridge Ramblers 2:50
7	Keep on the Sunny Side / Carter Family 2:51
8	What Would You Give in Exchange (For Your Soul)? / The Monroe Brothers 3:12
9	I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes / Carter Family 2:54
10	Great Speckled Bird / Roy Acuff 2:55
11	Orange Blossom Special / Roy Hall & his Blue Ridge Entertainers 2:23
12	Ida Red / Roy Acuff 2:48
13	Pretty Polly / Coon Creek Girls 2:50
14	Lonesome Old River Blues / Roy Acuff 2:48
15	Mule Skinner Blues / Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys 2:44
16	Wreck on the Highway / Roy Acuff 2:45
17	The Drunkard's Grave / The Bailes Brothers 2:41
18	Rocky Road Blues / Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys 2:36
19	Searching for a Soldier's Grave / The Bailes Brothers 3:00
20	Blue Moon of Kentucky / Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys 3:02
21	Dust on the Bible / The Bailes Brothers 2:54
22	I Heard My Mother Weeping / The Cumberland Mountain Folks 2:43
23	Will You Be Loving Another Man? / Bill Monroe 2:53
24	Blue Grass Breakdown / Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys 2:41
25	It's Mighty Dark to Travel / Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys 2:53
26	Molly and Tenbrooks (The Race Horse Song) / Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys 2:45
27	Black Mountain Rag / Roy Acuff 2:51
Disc 2
1	Can't You Hear Me Callin' / Bill Monroe 3:18
2	Foggy Mountain Breakdown / Foggy Mountain Boys 2:40
3	Poor Ellen Smith / The Cumberland Mountain Folks 2:40
4	The Drunkard's Hell / Clinch Mountain Boys 2:38
5	The Lonesome River / Clinch Mountain Boys 2:44
6	On the Banks of the River / Clinch Mountain Boys 2:46
7	The Fields Have Turned Brown / The Stanley Brothers & The Clinch Mountain Boys 2:34
8	The White Dove / The Stanley Brothers & The Clinch Mountain Boys 3:14
9	Sunny Side of the Mountain / Clinch Mountain Boys 2:58
10	I'm a Man of Constant Sorrow / The Stanley Brothers & The Clinch Mountain Boys 2:57
11	I Wonder How the Old Folks Are at Home / Mac Wiseman 2:52
12	Uncle Pen / Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys 2:45
13	Stoney, Are You Mad at Your Gal / Their Clinch Mountain Clan 2:54
14	When the Angels Rolled the Stone Away / Lynn Davis 2:51
15	Earl's Breakdown / Foggy Mountain Boys 3:00
16	Don't Get Above Your Raising / Foggy Mountain Boys 2:44
17	Are You Missing Me? / Virginia Boys 2:24
18	Why Did You Wander? / Foggy Mountain Boys 2:45
19	Flint Hill Special / Foggy Mountain Boys 2:46
20	I'll Go Stepping Too / Foggy Mountain Boys 2:54
21	Love and Wealth / Carl Story & the Rambling Mountaineers 2:45
22	20/20 Vision / Jimmy Martin & The Osborne Brothers 2:42
23	My Lord Keeps a Record / Carl Story & the Rambling Mountaineers 2:17
24	I Love the Hymns They Sang at Mother's Grave / Carl Story & the Rambling Mountaineers 2:55
25	Reunion in Heaven / Carl Story & the Rambling Mountaineers 2:49
26	Don't You Hear Jerusalem Moan / Carl Story & the Rambling Mountaineers previously unreleased 2:09
27	Hitch Hiker's Blues / Jack Youngblood 2:23
Disc 3
1	The Martha White Theme / Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs & The Foggy Mountain Boys 1:37
2	Don't Let Your Deal Go Down / Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs & The Foggy Mountain Boys 2:13
3	Seven Year Blues / Webster Brothers 2:47
4	Get Down on Your Knees and Pray / Bill & Mary Reid & The Melody Mountaineers 2:40
5	Somebody Touched Me / The Webster Brothers 2:12
6	Feudin' Banjos / Arthur Smith 1:58
7	Ruby, Are You Mad / Red Allen 2:59
8	Knoxville Girl / The Louvin Brothers 3:48
9	Once More / Red Allen 2:41
10	Twin Banjo Special / Joe Maphis 2:12
11	Gosh, I Miss You All the Time / Jim & Jesse And the Virginia Boys 2:16
12	You Don't Know My Mind / Jimmy Martin & the Sunny Mountain Boys 2:54
13	Rank Stranger / The Stanley Brothers 3:09
14	My Empty Arms / Jim & Jesse And the Virginia Boys 2:21
15	Foggy Mountain Top / Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs & The Foggy Mountain Boys 2:26
16	Beautiful Moon of Kentucky / Jim & Jesse And the Virginia Boys 2:11
17	Stoney Creek / Jim & Jesse And the Virginia Boys 1:54
18	She Left Me Standing on the Mountain / Jim & Jesse And the Virginia Boys 2:12
19	Sunny Side of the Mountain / Jimmy Martin & the Sunny Mountain Boys 2:33
20	Just Joshing / Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith 2:03
21	(It's a Long, Long Way) To the Top of the World / Jim & Jesse And the Virginia Boys 2:34
22	Cotton Mill Man / Jim & Jesse And the Virginia Boys 2:45
23	Since Wedding Bells Have Rung / Don Reno 2:32
24	Rosalee / Grandpa Jones 2:04
25	No More Goodbyes / Sara Carter 3:01
26	The Ballad of Jed Clampett / Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs & The Foggy Mountain Boys 2:03
27	Rabbit in the Log / Jim & Jesse And the Virginia Boys 2:42
28	Rocky Top / Osborne Brothers 2:35
29	Mountain Dew / Grandpa Jones 1:58
30	Dueling Banjos / Steve Mandell 2:17
Disc 4
1	Turn Your Radio On / Grandpa Jones 2:59
2	Black Mountain Rag (Soldier's Joy) / The Byrds 1:13
3	Pretty Boy Floyd / The Byrds 2:35
4	Bristol Steam Convention Blues / The Byrds 2:39
5	Farther Along / The Byrds 2:58
6	Contentment / Don Reno & Bill Harrell 2:45
7	Can't You Hear Me Callin' / Herb Pedersen 2:59
8	Cora Is Gone / Herb Pedersen 3:51
9	Choking the Strings / Don Reno & Bill Harrell 2:10
10	Uncle Pen / Ricky Skaggs 2:25
11	Till the End of the World Rolls Round / Earl Scruggs 2:59
12	A Vision of Mother / Ricky Skaggs 3:22
13	Big Country / Bela Fleck & Edgar Meyer 4:02
14	If I Could Be There / The O'Kanes 3:19
15	So Long, So Wrong / Union Station 3:23
16	BP / Bela Fleck & Edgar Meyer 3:25
17	The Boy Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn / Union Station 4:40
18	Little Maggie / Bluegrass Reunion 3:01
19	Carrie Brown / The Del McCoury Band 4:19
20	Tortured, Tangled Hearts / Dixie Chicks 3:39
21	Walls of Time / Ricky Skaggs 4:20
22	Is the Grass Any Bluer / Rhonda Vincent 2:45
23	Daniel Prayed / Patty Loveless 2:46
24	Twelve Gates to the City / Ralph Stanley 1:56
25	Soldier's Joy / Mark O'Connor 4:05

Barnes & Noble

A well-considered overview of the mainstream bluegrass field, this four-disc, 100-plus-song collection charts the evolution of the music from 1925 through 2002. The earliest track is Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers' stirring 1925 workout on "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues," and from there the set goes on to illustrate how the style has hewed to its fundamentals even as visionaries such as (the amply represented) Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs infused it with new ideas. In the end, bluegrass remains true to its roots, there not being so great a leap from 1925 to Rhonda Vincent's keening 2001 tribute to Monroe, "Is the Grass Any Bluer." Purists may question the inclusion of four Byrds tracks and the Dixie Chicks' affecting "Tortured Tangled Hearts" to the exclusion of the entire progressive bluegrass wing (New Grass Revival, Seldom Scene, Nickel Creek, et al. are not featured). However, a younger guard is represented by way of Vincent, Ricky Skaggs, Patty Loveless, Steve Earle with the Del McCoury Band, and exciting latter-day fusions of Edgar Meyer (with Bela Fleck and Mike Marshall on "Big Country") and violin virtuoso Joshua Bell, teaming with Meyer, Marshall, and Sam Bush on 1996's "BP," which in and of itself advances a forward-looking mind-set in a traditional setting. In between there's plenty of Jim & Jesse, the Stanley Brothers, and the Osborne Brothers, as well as nods to Mark O'Connor, Alison Krauss (including the haunting "So Long, So Wrong"), and the latter-day Ralph Stanley in bringing the concept full circle. There's a lot more to bluegrass history than even this generous collection suggests, but it does a splendid job of telling the story in broad strokes. And a stirring tale it is. David McGee

All Music Guide

The title pretty much says it on this deluxe four-disc package from Sony's Legacy imprint. Here on four discs are 109 performances that cover the spectrum of American bluegrass, beginning with its pre-birth roots in Appalachian country string band music via the recordings of Gid Tanner, Charlie Poole & the Blue Ridge Ramblers, and the Carters in the mid-'30s. The story really takes off with the Monroe Brothers and their classic "What Would You Give in Exchange (For Your Soul)?" in 1936, the same year that Roy Acuff issued his first hit, "The Great Speckled Bird." Ralph and Carter Stanley, the Bailes Brothers, and Molly O'Day enter the root stream within a few years, and the tree blossoms at the dawn of World War II, flowering with Flatt & Scruggs' "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" in 1949. These are all here, of course, as are cuts by Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, the Osborne Brothers, Roy Hall, Grandpa Jones, Jim & Jesse, Bill & Mary Reid, the Webster Brothers, and many others from these early decades. Where the set really takes its chances is in including the contributions made to rock and modern country and bluegrass music through offerings from the Byrds, Ricky Skaggs, Eric Weissberg, the Dixie Chicks, the O'Kanes, Rhonda Vincent, Herb Pedersen, and many others. What it makes for is a provocative look at the music as it evolved not only musically, but culturally and socially, as it crossed from the Deep South into the East and West Coasts and moved north. Not everyone will agree with the track choices, of course, and the tiresome purists will no doubt find the last CD difficult to handle given their attitudes of preservation at any cost -- including premature death -- but the rest of us can be delighted, beguiled, amused, and confronted by this primitive, raw original American underground music as it entered the mainstream of our society. The set includes a fantastic historical essay by former Creem editor Billy Altman, and a fine introduction by Dr. Ralph Stanley. Thom Jurek