Retrograss

1	My Walking Shoes / John Hartford 2:49
2	Hound Dawg / John Hartford 2:39
3	Maggie's Farm / John Hartford 2:48
4	Memphis / John Hartford 2:44
5	Flint Hill Special / John Hartford 2:32
6	The Old Home Place / John Hartford 3:02
7	Uncle Pen / John Hartford 3:02
8	Air Mail Special on the Fly / John Hartford 2:14
9	Rocky Top / John Hartford 3:30
10	Room at the Stop of the Stairs / John Hartford 2:14
11	(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay / John Hartford 2:38
12	Jerusalem Ridge / John Hartford 3:39
13	Windy Mountian / John Hartford 3:07
14	Maybellene / John Hartford 2:40
15	Blue Ridge Cabin Home / John Hartford 3:16
16	Rocky Road Blues / John Hartford 3:42
17	When I'm Sixty-Four / John Hartford 7:51

Barnes & Noble

John Hartford is a fiddler who can generate a hundred ideas in a minute. Mike Seeger is a scholar of autoharp, fiddle and banjo with an encyclopedic knowledge of musical forms. David Grisman, mandolinist and guitarist extraordinaire, is known for creating acoustic music with a twist -- so when these three got together to give what they've termed "an old-time underhaul" to tunes from the Elvis hit "Hound Dawg" to Chuck Berry's "Memphis," you can be sure the result is unique. Turning tunes made famous by Bill Monroe ("Uncle Pen") and Ralph Stanley into old-time string band numbers doesn't seem like such a stretch, but Otis' Redding's "Dock of the Bay"? Or Lennon and McCartney's "When I'm Sixty-Four"? Always entertaining, sometimes thought-provoking, and occasionally outright funny, these three music masters prove themselves adept at prizing the roots from classic material, no matter how old -- or young. Kerry Dexter

All Music Guide

On the album cover, Retrograss is defined as "music shifted back in time," a direction that -- while not impossible to conceive -- is mildly shocking considering David Grisman's relentlessly progressive approach toward traditional styles. Alas, democracy still rules at Dawg Studios, and with John Hartford and Mike Seeger signing on, it comes as no surprise that this collection is a step back in time -- old time, that is. The album features nearly one hour of 20th century classics "retrograssed" to achieve a rustic, jug band feel. From the opening banjo rolls of "My Walking Shoes," it's pretty obvious what you're getting into, and there are no quantum leaps thematically, tonally, or otherwise from that point on. However, Retrograss does explore a very fecund and diverse American musical fabric, which has threads of country, blues, bluegrass, folk, rock & roll, etc. Songs like Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" or the Osborne Brothers' "Rocky Top" adapt quite naturally in this landscape, but Chuck Berry's "Maybelline" sounds like a '57 Chevy running on four cylinders. Simply stated, the bluegrass cuts that were born out of old time music -- songs like "Airmail Special," "Jerusalem Ridge," and "Rocky Road Blues" -- are the most appealing to the auditory senses. Oddly enough, Lennon and McCartney's vaudevillian "When I'm Sixty Four" is also a delightful moment. All in all, these live, in-studio recordings are mirthful, rocking chair adaptations of American music history. Seeger and Grisman's honeyed tenors conflict well with Hartford's quirky baritone. There are no breakneck solos, and the whole effort achieves more than the sum of its parts -- which was enough to draw a 2000 Grammy nomination in the Traditional Folk Album category. Brian Kelly