In addition to the new Charlie Sizemore CD we highlighted yesterday, there are several other notable bluegrass projects released on August 14 that are worthy of your attention.

New from Rebel is Lovin’ Pretty Women from The Steep Canyon Rangers. We have mentioned this project a number of times recently, and now that it is available widely, we expect it will get a lot of attention. Clever songwriting and crisp execution mark this CD as a keeper.

You can hear audio samples on the band’s MySpace page, or check out their video bio with both live clips and CD audio.

Sugar Hill has SCENEchronized, the first new set from Seldom Scene in quite some time. Both long time fans and followers of a newer vintage should enjoy this CD. Even with Ben Eldridge as the lone original member, the song selections, arrangements and performances all bear the hallmarks that have set this band apart for more than 30 years.

More details on SCENEchronized can be found in our earlier post, and audio samples can be found in iTunes.

Also from Sugar Hill comes Sam Bush’s first live concert DVD, On The Road. It was recorded last August in Colorado, and features The Sam Bush Band in their element – live on stage. Featured are Scott Vestal on banjo (and banjo synth), Byron House on bass, Stephen Mougin on guitar, Chris Brown on drums, and Bush on mandolin, fiddle and lead vocals.

I could not find any video clips online, but there is a full track listing on Sam’s web site.

Great news for Seldom Scene fans…

SCENEchronized, their first CD of new recordings since 2000, is expected from Sugar Hill Records on August 14.

This new Scene project will contain 13 tracks, with songs from Paul Craft, Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, Merle Haggard and Donna Hughes. It also features a number of tributes to founding member, the late John Duffey, with refashioned versions of two songs he recorded with The Country Gentlemen and one he wrote and cut with the original Scene 34 years ago.

On this list is Katy Dear, one of my favorite Country Gentlemen songs ever. Current guitarist Dudley Connell explains how they came to choose this song, and record it with 3 part harmony start to finish.

“We all knew this one from the Gentlemen, and we would pull it out from time to time just for the sheer pleasure of harmonizing together.”

Lou Reid adds his homage to Duffey with a redo of This Morning At Nine, and Fred Travers sings Don’t Bother With White Satin, a John Duffey/Ann Hill composition that had appeared on their Act III album in 1973.

“I brought this song up with Duffey right after I joined the group [in 1995],” says Connell. “And he said that whenever he sang it, he only got a smattering of applause, so we never did it with Duffey. But now when we sing it live, it goes over really well.

Fred really nails it. I swear, it’s like he’s channeling Duffey.”

In true Seldom Scene fashion, they include a couple of rock/pop songs turned bluegrass: John Fogerty’s A Hundred And Ten In The Shade; Please Be With Me, recorded by both Eric Clapton and The Allman Brothers; Bob Dylan’s Tomorrow Is A Long Time.

Members of Seldom Scene are Dudley Connell (guitar), Lou Reid (mandolin), Fred Travers (dobro), Ronnie Simpkins (bass), and lone remaining original member, Ben Eldridge (banjo).

We couldn’t find any audio samples online yet, but we’ll be sure to post back when we do.

The three CD reissues from Rebel that we previewed last month are officially released today.

These include a first-time-on-CD reissue of JD Crowe’s classic Bluegrass Holiday, and compilations of new-to-CD Gospel cuts from Ralph Stanley, Mountain Preacher’s Child, and a budget-priced Seldom Scene compilation project, Different Roads.

More details about all three can be found in our earlier post.

You can listen to audio samples from Bluegrass Holiday, Mountain Preacher’s Child and Different Roads in the iTunes Music Store.

Rebel Records is continuing their laudable efforts to get classic LPs released on CD, and/or for digital download. Many serious bluegrass fans had feared that much of the recorded legacy of bluegrass music might become unavailable when digital media took the lead some years ago, but thankfully, the opposite has been the case.

Due on April 3 from Rebel is one great re-issue, and two compilations that will be welcome additions to many bluegrass CD libraries.

Bluegrass Holiday from JD Crowe was first released on LP by Lemco in 1969, was re-released on King Bluegrass in 1973, and yet again on rebel in 1981. The band featured Red Allen on guitar and lead vocals, Doyle lawson on mandolin and tenor vocal, Bobby Slone on bass and fiddl and Crowe on banjo and baritone vocals.

Recorded in just two days in December 1968, this record introduced Crowe and his Kentucky Mountain Boys to a bluegrass audience outside of Lexington, KY where they had a successful regular club show at a Holiday Inn – hence the album’s name.

Material on this debut release was taken from their Holiday Inn set list, and included a number of bluegrass standards (My Little Girl In Tennessee, Before I Met You, Orange Blossom Special, Train 45) plus some of their arrangements of songs like Philadelphia Lawyer and Will You Be satisfied That Way.

The Rebel CD re-issue also contains four bonus tracks, previously released as 45 RPM singles from King, and not found on the original LPs, including the original Crowe recording of Black Jack.

Fans of Ralph Stanley’s Gospel music have much to rejoice with the release of Mountain Preacher’s Child. This anthology includes 14 tracks from his 1980s Rebel LPs, all available for the first time on CD. They are taken from previous Stanley records I’ll Wear A White Robe, Snow Covered Mound and I Can tell You The Time.

This is the plaintive, almost primitive vocal sound that has drawn so many fans to Dr. Ralph in recent years, here featuring one of his stronger singing groups. (more…)