The Fathers of Newgrass

There was a time when Bluegrass music was solely played by old white men in matching suits and cowboy hats. Then along came a scraggly, rag-tag bunch of longhairs covering rock and reggae tunes with Bluegrass instrumentation. New Grass Revival (NGR) was founded in 1971, the brainchild of mandolin/fiddle ace Sam Bush, NGR featured a host of legendary players over the years: Courtney Johnson, Bela Fleck, John Cowan, Curtis Burch, Butch Robbins, Pat Flynn and others. The band had a 17 year run before dismantling in 1989, however the players who first made this band matter continue to play festivals and release records in various formations, birthing the Newgrass movement which has exploded beyond what any of the idiom's fathers could have hoped for or dreamed. Bands like String Cheese Incident, Yonder Mountain String Band, Railroad Earth, Trampled By Turtles, Old Crow Medicine Show and Leftover Salmon all borrowed liberally from NGR's picking-and-plucking bag-o-tricks. NGR's early records shattered genre expectations, the playing is as fierce and passionate as the music is daring and fresh. The band had commercial success towards the end of it's career, the music much poppier and easier to digest for mainstream country.

I haven't been able to find NGR's self-titled debut on a streaming/downloading service, a true shame as the record really captures the f-you-to-the-status-quo energy these guys were playing with out the gate, piss in your roses and run your racehorses ragged, this was Bluegrass for the kids made by the kids. 1979's “Barren County” is a great record nonetheless, full of the same raw energy of the debut and a bit spacier, a bit more playful and inventive. These aren't songs Bill Monroe would be comfortable performing, more like something Leftover Salmon could encore with in the Telluride town park. There's a snarl to most of the songs, a noticeable and intentional bucking of preconceived notions, The picking stays true to the roots, but just enough to make it recognizable. The ideas and spirit of the playing was born of the times, fresh and vital. Young Sam Bush's vocals are everything you want from your high-lonesome: almost praise-like gospel-inflected, sweeping and dramatic, strong and vibrant.

In 1981 NGR recorded a live record with Leon Russell on the keyboards; it's nothing short of spectacular. Prior to this seminal recording nobody had added piano to bluegrass with any remote degree of success. Leon Russell's fiery pin-point playing proved the perfect addition to the already genre-blending sound NGR created. I can't find the original release anywhere on a reliable streaming source however there are a handful of re-released recordings of the collaboration. The best I've found is “Live and Picking Fast,” It's a different set of songs than the original but the recording quality is vastly superior. They get real nice and spaced out on tunes like “I've Just Seen A Face” and sweetly funky on Russell's “One More Love Song.” The collaboration proved to be a watershed moment for both NGR and Russell, both able to show longtime fans they can play with anybody and also inviting new fans to the party. The work with Russell would be the last for the original NGR lineup, later that year both Johnson and Burch would decide touring was too much, Bush and Cowan would keep the band going, adding banjo ace Bela Fleck and guitarist/vocalist Pat Flynn.

The Bela Years (1981-1989) would see NGR grow poppier and more polished in an effort to reach out to the Country music mainstream. Much of the work from this period sold fairly well, trading ferocious picking for a more steadied, ballad-centric flow. The band's record from 1983's Toulouse Bluegrass Festival in the South of France remains a high-water mark for NGR. The vocal harmonizing is impeccable, Fleck showing the world you can do things with a banjo beyond what anybody deemed possible and Bush's flavorful mandolin and solid singing serving as the backbone. The version of Russell's “One More Love Song” is a goosebump ride, Bush able to do things vocally with the number that Russell couldn't. “Reach” and “Watermelon Man” are reinvented with flair and given a new voice while “Sapporo” is a jam for the ages, some of the best stretched out acoustic picking you'll ever come across.

Bela's playing was starting to make the Bluegrass standard-bearers take notice, his lightning-fast picking owing as much to Coltrane and Byrd as to Stanley and Scruggs. In 1984 he recorded what is technically a solo record but included the classic NGR lineup along with special guests like Dobro master Jerry Douglas and violinist Mark O'Connor (Hot Rize). “Deviations” was revelatory; I-Tunes calls it a “Country” album, a distinction both lazy and ridiculous. The playing isn't what you might expect from a seasoned Bluegrass outfit. The record is jazzy and bold, unafraid to look back and pushing hard into that mythical place where legendary things happen. The record serves as an excellent precursor to the work Bela Fleck would later do with his Grammy-winning Flecktones. “Nuns for Nixon” is a fun little, jumpy number that both Fleck and NGR would come to use as a live staple, The album is a great example of the daunting range NGR played with and the musicianship is some of the most developed and intricately realized the project ever released. “Ambrose” is six minutes of sweet, sweet sunshine, a loping time signature Fleck often would come back to in his later more experimental work. “Deviations” is a great record for that summer road-trip you've got on the calendar.

Records to Stream/Download:

New Grass Revival: “Barren County”

Leon Russell & The New Grass Revival: “Live and Picking Fast”

New Grass Revival: “Live”

Bela Fleck & New Grass Revival: “Deviations”