The Appalachian Tradition is an ideal starter disc for those just beginning to explore bluegrass. Mostly this is because its 18 selections are so immediately accessible. The “classics” here, in other words, are usually those infrequent bluegrass cuts to have gained radio recognition beyond a core bluegrass audience. Bluegrass music has seen an upsurge in popularity in recent years. Dolly Parton, Alison Krauss, Steve Earle, the O brother soundtrack and the various O sister compilations have all contributed. However, while some of that music is traditional, much of it is a modernised form of the music. Nothing wrong with that, of course—bluegrass, like every other form of music, must modernise or die, and some of it is pure magic —but this compilation draws on the roots of bluegrass, containing many old classics from the thirties through the fifties.
Click to hear Emry Arthur’s original I AM THE MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW
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