Grass Roots: The Best of New Grass Revival

Disc 1
1	Great Balls of Fire 2:07
2	Prince of Peace 5:27
3	Casey Jones previously unreleased 4:21
4	The Dancer previously unreleased 3:42
5	Doin' My Time previously unreleased 6:40
6	All Night Train 3:12
7	Vamp in the Middle 3:44
8	Spring Peepers 3:27
9	Lee Highway Blues 5:49
10	Souvenir Bottles 5:49
11	Sapporo 8:11
12	Steam Powered Aero Plane 4:30
13	When the Storm Is Over Live / previously unreleased 2:37
14	You Don't Knock Live / previously unreleased 2:42
15	White Freight Liner Blues Live 3:05
16	Good Woman's Love Live 4:27
17	Reach Live 4:54
Disc 2
1	One More Love Song 3:22
2	On the Boulevard 4:13
3	One Love/People Get Ready 3:54
4	Seven by Seven 3:17
5	In the Middle of the Night 4:29
6	Sweet Release 4:23
7	Metric Lips 4:36
8	Unconditional Love 3:22
9	Looking Past You 2:57
10	Revival Live 4:03
11	Ain't That Peculiar Live 3:02
12	Callin' Baton Rouge 2:41
13	I'm Down 2:12
14	Angel Eyes 4:29
15	Don't You Hear Jerusalem Moan / The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band 3:57
16	Do What You Gotta Do Live / previously unreleased 3:33
17	Singing the Blues Live / previously unreleased 11:12
18	Can't Stop Now Live / previously unreleased 4:28

Barnes & Noble

Without the New Grass Revival, there would be no Alison Krauss + Union Station or Nickel Creek. From their founding in 1971 to their disbanding in 1989, New Grass Revival were always ahead of the game, building on the progressive sensibilities of veteran bluegrass popularizers such as Earl Scruggs and Jim & Jessie and taking the genre into relatively uncharted territory. Melding the ancient tones to rock, jazz, country, reggae, and gospel, they forged a link between the past and present as they hurtled toward the future. The journey began with founder and mandolinist/fiddler extraordinaire Sam Bush abetted by Courtney Johnson (banjo), Curtis Burch (guitar), and Harry Shelor (a.k.a. Ebo Walker, on bass); when Walker bowed out, he was eventually replaced by the formidable bassist/vocalist John Cowan; in its latter years, when Johnson and Burch hung it up, the lineup was bolstered by guitarist Pat Flynn and banjo visionary Béla Fleck. In all configurations, the New Grassers were fearless and eminently entertaining; this double-disc, 35-song career retrospective shows how and features seven previously unavailable live cuts (including three from the band's final show, on New Year's Eve, 1989) and three newly unearthed studio cuts. For an idea of this band's advanced sensibility, check out the shifting textures and instrumental dialogue of the dazzling toe-tapper "Spring Peepers." Or the banjo-fired, red-hot workout of the Beatles' "I'm Down." For a change of pace, consider the cool harmonies and the relaxed, stripped-down arrangement fueling Bob Marley's "One Love." And John Cowan's blue-eyed soul wailing on a propulsive treatment of "Ain't That Peculiar" would surely get Marvin Gaye's nod of approval. Truth be told, the time is still right for New Grass Revival. Come on back, fellas. David McGee

All Music Guide

Unlike the single-disc sets New Grass Anthology (1990) and The Best of New Grass Revival (1994), the double-CD Grass Roots: The Best of New Grass Revival does not restrict itself to the group's major-label catalog of EMI/Capitol recordings, circa 1986-1989, but instead also licenses tracks dating back to the band's first recordings in 1972. There are selections from the debut album, The Arrival of the New Grass Revival, originally released on Starday Records; from the Flying Fish LPs Fly Through the Country, Barren County, and Commonwealth; and from the Sugar Hill collections Live and On the Boulevard; in addition to material drawn from the EMI/Capitol albums New Grass Revival, Hold to a Dream, and Friday Night in America. There are also eight previously unreleased tracks, five of them live performances (ten of the set's 35 tracks are live). That all adds up to nearly two and a half hours of New Grass Revival spread across 17 years, drawn from the group's entire recorded output. Although they were praised and criticized for their unorthodox approach to bluegrass, much of this music is in a traditional style, that is, when the band isn't covering the Beatles, Marvin Gaye, the Impressions, Jerry Lee Lewis, or Bob Marley & the Wailers (or adding a reggae rhythm to some other tune). But even at their most eclectic, the bandmembers remain an amazing bunch of pickers, whether in the early lineup of Sam Bush, John Cowan, Courtney Johnson, and Curtis Burch, or the later one, in which Pat Flynn and Béla Fleck replaced Johnson and Burch. Grass Roots: The Best of New Grass Revival makes an excellent summation of their career. William Ruhlmann