Bluegrass

Bluegrass Vinyl Records: Banjo, Mandolin and the High Lonesome Sound

Bluegrass on vinyl: acoustic music with room to breathe

This page collects bluegrass vinyl records, the acoustic music that took shape in the 1940s around Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys, who gave the genre its name. The lineup is unmistakable: three-finger banjo, mandolin, guitar, fiddle and upright bass, with tight vocal harmonies on top. With no drums or amplification, everything rides on tone and speed, and a good pressing captures the attack of the banjo and the grain of the voices. The style draws on Appalachian ballads, gospel and rural blues.

Labels, reissues and used copies: buying bluegrass LPs

Bluegrass has long been sustained by specialist labels whose catalogs are still the backbone of the genre: Rounder Records, Sugar Hill Records, Rebel Records, and Smithsonian Folkways for field recordings and traditional players such as Roscoe Holcomb. The earliest Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs sides come from the 78 rpm era, so on LP you will mostly find them as compilations.

Used American pressings from the 1960s and 1970s still turn up, often at fair prices. Check the playing surfaces carefully, since crackle is easy to hear in such sparse music. New releases are usually pressed in modest runs, sometimes on colored vinyl, and they tend to go out of print quickly.

Bluegrass artists and albums worth knowing

The genre spans several generations, from the postwar founders to bands that blend it with rock or jazz today. Several of these names are in the catalog, which makes it easy to move from traditional bluegrass to newgrass and jamgrass. Here are a few simple landmarks to get your bearings:

• The founders: Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, The Stanley Brothers
• Flatt & Scruggs' "Foggy Mountain Breakdown", made famous by the film "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967)
• The next wave: Doc Watson, Sam Bush and newgrass, Tony Trischka on banjo
• The "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack, which revived wide interest in the music
• Today's scene: Punch Brothers, Steep Canyon Rangers, Billy Strings, Leftover Salmon

Comparing prices on bluegrass vinyl

Prices for the same bluegrass record can vary quite a bit from one store to the next. Vinyles.com lets you compare offers from partner stores for a given album, then buy from the seller you choose. Bluegrass also sits close to country and American folk: artists such as Willie Nelson and Kacey Musgraves appear here for their acoustic-leaning records, and the Country/Folk section lets you widen your search.