In the latest edition of the County Sales Newsletter, #290, David Freeman, the founder of the longstanding and illustrious retail outlet “for bluegrass, old-time and authentic rural music”, is in a nostalgic mood, telling his readers how it used to be when County Sales, then based in New York City, was started in 1965. Those were the days of vinyl folks! Warm, analogue music! And there wasn’t very much of it about!

Here’s what David Freeman has to say in his Newsletter ‚Ķ‚Ķ‚Ķ‚Ķ.

“As we enter our 43rd year of selling Bluegrass and Old-Time music, we thought it was a good time to reflect back on some of the changes that have occurred since we put out our first few Newsletters back in 1965 and 1966. At that time‚Äîwhen it only took a 6 cent stamp to mail our Newsletter, and just 15 cents postage to mail 2 LPs anywhere in the USA!‚Äîthere were hardly enough new releases (vinyl LPs) to fill up even two or three pages of space every couple of months. We can’t recall the existence of any significant books about the music at the time, and there were no such things as DVDs or VHS tapes. We scrambled to find news about Fiddlers’ Conventions and even word of future LP releases‚Äîthere were probably not more than 25 or 30 Bluegrass LPs on the market then, and the revival of interest in “Old-Time” music was in its infancy.

In contrast, there is a wealth of great items available today: more good records than we can keep up with, a bunch of amazing DVDs, and in the last two issues alone, 3 or 4 excellent books (in short, more items in one month than we had to offer in the first 2 or 3 years of COUNTY SALES’ existence combined!). What has accounted for the rise in popularity of this wonderful rural American art form that we love? A music that was once mostly associated with sleazy bars and honky tonks, and dismissed by many as inferior, low-life “hillbilly” trash has finally gained a significant measure of respect, and is now a healthy, family type pursuit. The early Bluegrass Festivals, “Dueling Banjos”, “Bonnie & Clyde” and “O Brother Where Art Thou” all have helped greatly in gaining exposure for Bluegrass, but we owe special thanks to the early pioneers who brought respect to the music through their writing & promoting: people like the late Ralph Rinzler, Bill Vernon, and Charles Wolfe, and those still involved today like Bill Malone, Neil Rosenberg, Lance Leroy and Mike Seeger. And a special thanks to all those festival promoters who have insisted on keeping their events clean and family oriented, after a flurry of ill-conceived, rock-based “peace, love, & Bluegrass” fiascos in the early 1970s almost brought an early end to what is now a very healthy phenomenon.”

I thought that this was a subject that warranted further discussion ……….

You mentioned vinyl (LPs) …. what about 45rpm discs? Were you selling many of those in the early days?

In the early days we did sell a few 45s, and some EPs that some Bluegrass artists had out before they could afford to do a full LP or find some label willing to do that for them. I do recall selling quite a few of some EPs that were put out on the Jalyn, Jewel and Rem labels (Esco Hankins & Jackie had some really nice sides on Jewel), and there was Jimmy Murphy and Molly O’Day (as well as others) on Rem. We also sold quite a few Blue Jay (J.E. Mainer, Joe & Janette Carter) and MKB label items, as I had got to know the owners of these labels pretty well (Mr. Butner of MKB in North Carolina, and EP. Williams of Blue Jay in Salisbury, NC. And there were also some nice fiddle EPs out of Missouri & Texas by artist like Lonnie Robertson, Pete McMahan etc.

What were popular items (LPs) ? (Singles/45s) ? in the early days?

Some of the first really big sellers we had were the “budget” LPs that started coming out on the Camden and Harmony labels (Carter Family, Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, Molly O’Day, etc). As I recall, we bought these for $ 1.,25 and sold them for $ 1.75 each‚Äîthey were great value & great music. Some of the early full price records that we sold really well in our first couple of years were the Decca “Knee Deep In Bluegrass” and Instrumentals LPs, along with the Decca Uncle Dave Macon and Carter Family LPs. (Full price LPs we sold for $ 3.75 each)

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Rebel Records has recently announced news of the forthcoming release on March 25 of a various Artists collection entitled Best Loved Bluegrass: 20 All-Time Favorites (REB-8004).

The 20 song anthology embraces some of the classic songs in bluegrass music from some of the great acts in the business (track listing below).

So many of the songs here are inextricably linked with the Rebel catalogue; Bringing Mary Home, Fox On The Run and Atlanta Is Burning being three notable examples. These are signature songs as is Love Of The Mountains. There are the tour de force pieces like Rice’s Nine Pound Hammer and JD Crowe’s Train 45 also.

Most of the material is direct from the Rebel vaults, whereas some came to them indirectly, such as – and I speculate here – the Lilly Brothers track, which was originally recorded for Event Records in 1956 or 1957 and later appeared on a County LP. It was subsequently reissued on a Rebel CD (1688). Others in this category are Little Rosewood Casket – Don Reno & Red Smiley (from a Wango LP), Footprints In The Snow – Mac Wiseman (Vetco material, perhaps), Poor Ellen Smith – Ted Lundy & the Southern Mountain Boys (County), Pig In A Pen – Stanley Brothers (Wango) and Lonesome Road Blues – Larry Richardson & Happy Smith (County).

There’s lots of fine traditional material here, which is typical of this series, and which, apparently, has been doing very well for Rebel. Judging by the titles and the artists listed, the potential for this set to match its predecessors is great.

For those who have a long-time interest in bluegrass music the songs and the respective bands speak for themselves; for newcomers this album is a good place to start investigating the Rebel catalogue.

Thanks must be made to Gary Reid for sharing his thoughts on some aspects of this collection.

Complete track list… (more…)

Rebel Records has announced that their first new release for 2008 will be a duo project from Jimmy Gaudreau and Moondi Klein.

Bluegrass fans remember Gaudreau from his years with The Country Gentlemen, The Tony Rice Unit and his current gig with John Starling & Carolina Star. Klein will be familiar as a former member of both Seldom Scene and Chesapeake.

According to Mark Freeman of Rebel:

“It’s a very simple, straightforward traditional album, a polar opposite to their Chesapeake days. There are no additional musicians or instruments, just Moondi and Jimmy on guitar and mandolin respectively performing a number of bluegrass and folk standards with some very nice instrumentals as well.”

The two have played a number of shows in the DC-area, and will be booking shows for 2008 as their busy schedules with other commitments allow.

Look for their new CD on Rebel in February 2008.

Rebel Records has reissued two more classic out-of-print recordings as download-only releases.

First up is a Lonesome River Band album from 1988, one which many recent fans of the band may learn about for the first time. Saturday Night, Sunday Morning came out on LP several years before the band took the bluegrass world by storm with Carrying The Tradition, but featured the drive and agreesive style that later (and current) editions of the band perfected.

This release featured founding members Tim Austin on guitar and Jerry McMillan on bass, along with Brian Fessler on banjo and Adam Steffey on mandolin. As you might guess from the title, this project features a mix of secular and spiritual material, with Adam’s instrumental take on Daybreak In Dixie.

You can sample the tracks or purchase the music in iTunes.

Makin’ Tracks by The McPreake Brothers was first released in 1983 on County Records – the last of the three McPeake projects for Rebel/County. By this time, the three brothers (Dewey, Larry and Mike) had established themselves as one of the premiere bluegrass vocal groups of their day.

Living in Southwest Virginia as I do, there were many opportunities to see them perform live, but they never toured far from their homes near Wytheville, VA, and their fine harmony was kept a secret from many bluegrass fans around the world – other than from these fine recordings.

Check out this valuable reissue on iTunes.