Appalachian Stomp: Bluegrass Classics

Never before have so many of bluegrass' original, greatest hits appeared in one place! Includes Uncle Pen Bill Monroe; Foggy Mountain Breakdown Flatt & Scruggs; Rocky Top Osborne Bros.; Are You Missing Me? Jim & Jesse; Orange Blossom Special Stanley Bros.; Dueling Banjos Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell; You Don't Know My Mind Jimmy Martin; Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms Del McCoury; Dooley Dillards, and more, 18 high, lonesome cuts on the CD, 12 on the cassette!

Appalachian Stomp 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. That explains why along with timeless standards such as Flatt & Scruggs' "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" and the Osborne Brothers' "Rocky Top" we also get "Dueling Banjos" from the film Deliverance, a cut that is to classic bluegrass what Walter Murphy is to Beethoven. There are less immediately obvious choices too, though. If your previous exposure to bluegrass doesn't go beyond the Holy Trinity of Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, and the Stanley Brothers--for example, if you've never heard J.D. Crowe & the New South's stellar example of progressive bluegrass, "Old Home Place," or experienced Jimmy Martin lay down the law on his rousing "You Don't Know My Mind"--then you're in for a high-lonesome surprise. --David Cantwell