The Bluegrass Breakdown 7/10/26
By Dai Bando
Tonight on The Bluegrass Breakdown, we’re playing the classics from Bill Monroe, the Osborne Brothers, and Jimmy Martin, as well as contemporary favorites Billy Strings, Sturgill Simpson and The Punch Brothers.
Other highlights include selections from John Herald and the Greenbriar Boys, “Ol Timey” ballads from the Coon Creek Girls the Holy Modal Rounders, and some tasty Bluegrass covers of pop songs associated with Neil Young, Amy Whinehouse and The Who.
For fans of the late John Hartford, there’s a dive into his hard-to-find 1978 recording, Headin’ Down Into the Mystery Below . Hartford’s record combines elements of bluegrass and folk music in a deeply personal tribute to steamboats and life along the Mississippi.
All that and a revisit with a great ’90s Russian bluegrass band, Kurkuzawa. Give a listen!
Audio is available for 2 weeks after the original airdate. Special thank you to WRIU’s Glenn Lawrence.
Chittlins, Whiskey, Shackles & Chains
– The Holy Modal Rounders “Chittlin Cookin’ Time in Cheatham County”, Alleged In Their Own Time 1975
– Sturgill Simpson “Turtles All the Way Down” Cuttin’ Grass, Vol.1 2020
– The Punch Brothers “Rye Whiskey” Antifogmatic 2010
– Billy Strings “Dust in a Baggie” Billy Strings – EP 2012
– Stanley Brothers “Shackles and Chains” (Jimmie Davis) Riding That Midnight Train 1959
– Tony Rice Unit “Manzanita”, 1979
– David West “Baba O’ Riley” (P Townsend) Pickin’ On The Who, 2002
Reading Credits
– Doc Watson “Summertime” (Gershwin) Elementary Doctor, Watson, 1972
– Doc Watson”Worried Blues” (trad) Elementary Doctor, Watson, 1972
Fair and Tender Ladies Running Wild are to be Pitied
– Jean Ritchie “Fair and Tender Ladies” Kentucky Mountain Songs, 1954
– Willie Nelson “Good Hearted Woman” (W Nelson/W Jennings) Bluegrass 2023
– The Holy Modal Rounders “More to Be Pitied” (William B. Gray, 1898) Alleged in Their Own Time 1975
– The Greenbriar Boys “Honky Tonk Girl” (Carol Johnson) Better Late Than Never 1966
– Sally Timms “The Finer Things” (Richard Byrne, Deano) Congressman Davy: A Musical, 2026
– Jimmy Martin & Nitty Gritty Dirt Band “Losin You Might Be the Best Thing Yet” Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Reading Credits
– Jerry Garcia & David Grisman “Jackaroo” Shady Grove 1996
I might run in silence. Tears of joy might stain my face
– John Hartford “Gentle On My Mind” Earthwords & Music, 1967
– Gillian Welsh “Tall Buildings” (Hartford) A Tribute to John Hartford: Live From Mountain Stage, 2002
The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming
– The Osborne Brothers “Kentucky Waltz” Bluegrass Collection 1978
– Kurkuzawa “The Wanderer” (Grigoriy Gladkov) Crossing Borders
– Roy Acuff “Tennessee Waltz” The Essential Roy Acuff
– “Emergency! Emergency! Everyone to get from street!” (dialogue from classic 1966 Cold War comedy The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming!
– Kurkuzawa “Porushka” Crossing Borders 1993
Wild, Blue and Comatose
– The Brothers Comatose “Valerie” (Amy Winehouse) City Painted Gold, 2016
– The Avett Brothers “How I Got to Memphis” (Tom T. Hall) Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of Inside Llewyn Davis 2013
– The Be Good Tanyas “Reuben” (trad) Chinatown, 2003
– Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys “In the Pines” (trad) 1941
– John Herald “Bluegrass Boy” More Music From Mud Acres 1977
– The Blue Sky Boys “Midnight Special” (trad) Presenting The Blue Sky Boys, 1966
– The Greenbriar Boys “Stay All Night” (Bob Wills/Tommy Duncan) The Greenbriar Boys, 1962
– The Mekons “Wild and Blue” (J Sherrill) The Curse of the Mekons 1991
Reading Credits
from Old Time Southern Dance Music / Ballads and Songs 1965 (Old Time LP-103):
– Grayson & Whitter “Rose Conley” (traditional)
– Coon Creek Girls “Pretty Polly” (traditional)
– Grayson & Whitter “Little Maggie” (traditional)
Grayson & Whittier recorded eight songs for the Gennett label and six for Victor, among them the classic “Handsome Molly,” which sold over 50,000 copies. In total, the two recorded 40 songs in three years. Fiddler J.B. Grayson, who was blind, was killed in an auto accident in August, 1930 while hitchhiking; Henry Whitter was devastated, but continued performing and occasionally recording until his 1941 death from diabetes.
from John Hartford’s Headin’ Down Into the Mystery Below, 1978
– “The Mississippi Queen”
– “Mama Plays the Caliope”
– “See the Julie Belle Swain”
Take Me to Church
– Lucky Four “So Glad I Got Good Religion” from the film Happy, Happy
– Merle Haggard featuring the Carter Family “Just As I Am” The Land of Many Churches
– Louvin Brothers “Born Again” The Family Who Prays 1953
– Linda Ronstadt “Keep Me From Blowing Away” (Paul Craft) Heart Like a Wheel
– Seldom Scene “Muddy Waters” (P Rosenthal) Live at the Cellar Door
– Alison Krauss and the Cox Family “Never Will Give Up” I Know Who Holds Tomorrow, 1994
– Dolly Parton “Wings of a Dove” (Bob Ferguson) Golden Streets of Glory, 1971
– Doc Watson “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” Third Generation Blues, 1999
– Vitamin String Quartet “Take Me to Church” (Hozier) 2015
GOODNIGHT
– Barry & Holly Tashian “Running Wild” (Louvin)
– The Greenbriar Boys “Up to My Neck in High Muddy Water” (J Herald) Better Late Than Never 1966
– The Brothers Comatose and A.J. Lee “Harvest Moon” (N Young)
– Old and In the Way “Uncle Pen” (B Monroe) Old and In the Way
– The Seldom Scene “Working On a Building” Seldom Scene Four
PROGRAM NOTES
-Recovering from a severe vocal cord hemorrhage that halted his music career in 2021, Sturgill Simpson has made a full return under his musical moniker, Johnny Blue Skies. He will perform in concert on October 13 at Boston’s TD Garden.
– Alleged in Their Own Time was the sixth studio album recorded by the psychedelic folk band The Holy Modal Rounders (members Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber). Formed in 1963 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, The Holy Modal Rounders recorded “twisted weathered folk standards with wobbly vocals, exuberantly strange arrangements, and interpretations that were liberal, to say the least.” (Anthology of American Folk Music)
– David West comments on the “Pickin'” series of records that produced the cover The Who’s “Baba O’ Reilly”: “We try to find music that people love and render it with bluegrass instruments. People get a kick out of hearing songs they know done with banjos, mandolins and fiddles in adventurous arrangements.”
-The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band invited Jimmy Martin as a surrogate for Bill Monroe, who had declined to join the band’s historic 1971 Will The Circle Be Unbroken recording project. Martin, who possessed a “wild man” rockabilly-style attitude and was known to be dangerously unpredictable, frequently clashed with other bluegrass traditionalists and pushed boundaries.
– Alison Krauss produced and collaborated with the Cox Family on their acclaimed 1994 joint project, I Know Who Holds Tomorrow, which earned a Grammy Award for Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album.
– The Blue Sky Boys were an American country music duo consisting of the brothers Earl and Bill Bolick. Their first record in 1936 “Sunny Side of Life” became an instant success. Some years later, when RCA asked them to play with an electric guitar, the boys refused and stopped recording until 1949. The Blue Sky Boys then formally retired in 1951, only to reunite and record again in 1962.
– Jean Ritchie first recorded “Fair and Tender Ladies” on March 27, 1948, during a field recording session with folklorist Alan Lomax. Released on the album Kentucky Mountain Songs (Elektra Records) under the title “The Little Sparrow”.
– The song “Midnight Special” is a traditional African American prison folk ballad that emerged in the early 20th century. LeadBelly, popularized it when he recorded the song in 1934. The influential folk group The Weavers (Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays, and Fred Hellerman) had a popular hit recording of the song, though the group was blacklisted during the Red Scare and McCarthy era of the early 1950s.
– Sally Timms famously covered the song “Wild and Blue” with the British country-punk band The Mekons (appearing on their 1991 album Curse of the Mekons). The song was originally a #1 country hit recorded by American country artist John Anderson in 1982.
–The compilation album Old-Time Southern Dance Music: Ballads and Songs (Old Timey Records, LP-102) was released in 1965. This seminal reissue collected rare commercial 78 RPM recordings from the 1920s and 1930s by pre-country and early folk artists like the Coon Creek Girls, Grayson & Whitter, and the Blue Sky Boys
– G.B. Grayson and Henry Whittier sang together for only three years during the late ’20s and early ’30s, but they had a tremendous effect on country music; even contemporary performers continue to cover their songs, which include “Handsome Molly” (recorded by Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger), “Cluck Old Hen,” (Alison Krauss) and “Tom Dooley,” (Kingston Trio) .”Rose Conley” (aka “Willow Garden”) probably originated in Ireland. Grayson and Whittier’s recording was most likely the first recording of the song.
– The Coon Creek Girls were one of the first all-female string band, created in the mid-1930s by John Lair for his Renfro Valley Barn Dance show. At the peak of their popularity, the group performed at the East Wing of White House for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Sadly, the historic East Wing was recently destroyed to make way for a $300 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom, a change that has sparked significant backlash from preservationists.
–Doc Watson recorded “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” on the 1999 album Third Generation Blues, a collaboration with his grandson, Richard Watson