Doc Watson, and other past visitors

The BIB reported on 5 Nov. last year about the release that month of the Craft Recordings release of Doc Watson - LIfe's work: a retrospective, a 4-CD box set priced at $74.99 with 101 tracks (including collaborations with many other major musicians) and an 88-page booklet.

Now Professor Ted Olson of East Tennessee State University (ETSU), who co-produced the recordings and wrote the liner notes, has selected for the Bluegrass Situation online magazine ten songs from the collection to demonstrate Doc's 'traditional plus' approach to music. Audio recordings of the ten songs are provided. Find out which songs were chosen, and why, here.

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Thanks to Morris Public Relations in Nashville, TN, for the news that Darin and Brooke Aldridge have released a single and video celebrating the Grand Ole Opry. The single, 'Grand Ole Circle', comes from their album This life we're livin'; the video can be seen on YouTube. Admirers of the great figures of country music and bluegrass history should find it a moving experience. More details are on the Morris PR press release.

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Molly Tuttle has released a new single on Nonesuch Records - the title track from the forthcoming album Crooked tree (due for release on 1 Apr.) with her bluegrass band Golden Highway, plus a dozen other distinguished musicians. More information is in John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today; the video can be seen there, on Molly's Facebook, and on YouTube. The central idea - that a crooked tree escapes being cut down by loggers - resembles the story of the great tree that 'is useless; this is why it has lived so long', told by the Daoist sage Zhuang Zhou (Chuang Tzu) in ancient China.

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Also from Nonesuch Records, the Punch Brothers' sixth and latest album Hell on Church Street is reviewed on the Bluegrass Situation by Emma John (see the BIB for 4 Jan. 2021). The review includes five YouTube videos of tracks from the album, including the Brothers' unique version of 'Gold rush', composed by the late Byron Berline.

© Richard Hawkins