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Groupe
Bluegrass US composé de Alan O'Bryant, Pat Enright, Mike Compton, Mark Hembree
puis Roland White, Gene Libbea et Stuart Duncan.
The
conventional bluegrass categories of traditional and progressive are of little
help in describing the music of the Nashville Bluegrass Band. Made up of top
Nashville musicians who have devoted themselves to cultivating a unique group
sound rather than displaying their individual talents, the band performs classic
bluegrass numbers and contemporary songs from the likes of Gillian Welch and
Kate Campbell with equal ease. They have been especially noted for their close
harmony singing and, almost alone among bluegrass bands, for their investigation
of the African-American roots of many modern harmony styles.
The four original members of the Nashville Bluegrass Band -- banjoist Alan
O'Bryant, guitarist and vocalist Pat Enright, mandolinist Mike Compton, and
bassist Mark Hembree -- came together as a backing band for a 1984 tour
featuring country veterans Vernon
Oxford and Minnie Pearl. All
were veterans of the Nashville scene and had been involved with top bluegrass
bands in the 1970s; Enright was a member of the progressive supergroup the
Dreadful Snakes. The Nashville Bluegrass Band was signed to the Rounder label,
and their debut, My Native Home, was released in 1985. Produced by
Béla Fleck, the album announced its
innovative leanings with its very first track, an a cappella version of Sister
Rosetta Tharpe's "Up Above My Head." My Native Home became one of several
releases on which the band turned to black gospel, specifically to the virtuoso
harmony sounds of the decades on either side of World War II. The all-gospel
1987 album To Be His Child included several pieces of African-American origin,
and in 1991 the Nashville Bluegrass Band released an entire album, Home of the
Blues, that featured the Fairfield Four as guest vocalists. Such a project was
unheard-of in the virtually all-white world of bluegrass, but it made the
Nashville Bluegrass Band into a major touring attraction well beyond the usual
festival circuit. Sometimes sharing the stage with the Fairfield Four, they
appeared in major U.S. folk venues and became the first bluegrass band to
perform in the People's Republic of China. They performed in nearly 20 countries
on five continents.
The band experienced several changes in membership: Hembree was replaced by Gene
Libbea and Compton by Roland White, and fiddle stalwart Stuart Duncan appeared
on every album beginning with 1986's Idletime. Still, they maintained a
consistent sound and experienced strong success over a series of albums in the
late '80s and much of the 1990s. They moved to the Sugar Hill label with 1988's
New Moon Rising (which featured Peter
Rowan and Maura O'Connell), and worked mostly with
Jerry Douglas as producer in the
'90s. After the Grammy-nominated 1998 album American Beauty, the group seemed
ready to wind up a stellar career as Libbea and White departed for other
projects. But the Nashville Bluegrass Band got a second wind after Enright
became one of the voices of the Soggy Bottom Boys, the fictional old-time
singing trio led onscreen by George Clooney in the unlikely hit film O Brother,
Where Art Thou? (the others were Dan
Tyminski and Harley Allen). Compton and Duncan also appeared on the film's
soundtrack, and Compton began performing as part of the Down from the Mountain
band that backed the variety of bluegrass headliners that appeared as part of a
successful concert tour and documentary of that name. From these events emerged
a reconstituted Nashville Bluegrass Band, now with bassist Dennis Crouch (a
student of the group's original bassist, Mark Hembree) and Compton on mandolin
once again. The group undertook major tours in 2002 and 2003.
http://www.nashvillebluegrassband.net/
Talents : Alan O'Bryant : Banjo - Pat Enright :
Guitar, Vocals - Mike Compton then Roland White : Mandolin -
Mark Hembree then Gene Libbea : Bass - Stuart Duncan : Fiddle
Style musical : Progressive Bluegrass, Traditional Bluegrass, Contemporary
Bluegrass
Years in activity :
| 1910 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | 2000 | 10 | 20 |
DISCOGRAPHY
Albums
| 09/1985 | LP 12" ROUNDER 0212 (US) |
 |
MY NATIVE HOME - Up Above My Head / Monroebilia / My Native Home / Baby Blue Eyes / Blind Bartimus / Doghouse Blues / Prodigal Son / Endless Sleep / On My Mind / Carroll County Blues / Brand New Tennessee Waltz / Blue And Lonesome |
| 1987 | LP 12" ROUNDER 0232 (US) |
 |
IDLE TIME - Idle Time / Little Maggie / Old Devil's Dream / Two Wings / I Closed My Heart's Door / All I Want Is You / Angeline The Baker / Last Night I Dreamed Of Loving You / No One But My Darlin' / My Lord Heard Jerusalem When She Moaned / Old Timey Risin' Damp / Train Carryin' Jimmie Rodgers Home |
| 1987 | CD ROUNDER CD 0232 (US) |
 |
THE NASHVILLE BLUEGRASS BAND - Up Above My Head / Monroebilia / My Native Home / Doghouse Blues / Two Wings / Brand New Tennessee Waltz / Little Maggie / Old Timey Risin' Damp / Old Devil's Dream / The Train Carrying Jimmie Rodgers Home / Angeline The Baker / Prodigal Son / No One But My Darlin' / All I Want Is You / Idle Time |
| 1987 | CD ROUNDER CD 0242 (US) |
 |
TO BE IS CHILD - Goodnight, The Lord's Coming / Every Humble Knee Must Bow / No Hiding Place / You're drifting away / Hold Fast To The Right / A Child Enters Life / To Be His Child / Gospel Plow / Are You Afraid To Die? / I'll Be Rested / Old Satan / New Born Soul |
| 1988 | CD SUGAR HILL SH-CD 3762 (US) |
 |
NEW MOON RISING - Peter ROWAN & The NASHVILLE BLUEGRASS BAND - That High Lonesome Sound / Trail Of Tears / Memories Of You / A Moth To The Flame / I'm Gonna Love You (Like There's No Tomorrow) / One Way / New Moon Rising / Jesus Made The Wine / Cabin Of Love / Meadow Green |
| 04/1990 | CD SUGAR HILL SH-CD 3778 (US) |
 |
THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN - Get A Transfer / Long Time Gone / Big River / Hard Times (Come Again No More) / Connie & Buster / Don't Let Our Love Die / I'm Rollin' Through This Unfriendly World / Rock Bottom Blues / Diamonds & Pearls / The Ghost Of Eli Renfro / Weary Blues From Waitin' / Big Cow In Carlisle / Dark As The Night, Blue As The Day / The Boys Are Back In Town |
| 10/1991 | CD SUGAR HILL SH-CD 3793 (US) |
 |
HOME OF THE BLUES - Biggest Liars In Town / Blue Train / The First Step To Heaven / The Fool / Happy On The Mississippi Shores / Home / Home Of The Blues / I'll Be On That Good Road Someday / I'll Just Keep On Lovin' You / Mississippi River Blues / The New Democracy / Old Dangerfield / Roll Jordan Roll |
| 05/1993 | CD SUGAR HILL SH-CD 3809 (US) |
 |
WAITING FOR THE HARD TIMES TO GO - Backtrackin' / Father, I Stretch My Hand To Thee / I Ain't Goin' Down / Kansas City Railroad Blues / On Again Off Again / Open Pit Mine / Soppin' The Gravy / Train Of Yesterday / Waitin' For The Hard Times To Go / Waltzin's For Dreamers / We Decided To Make Jesus Our Choice / When I Get Where I'm Goin' |
| 10/1995 | CD SUGAR HILL SH-CD 3843 (US) |
 |
UNLEASHED - Tear My Stillhouse Down / Dark Shadows Of Night / Boll Weevil / Last Time On The Road / I Got A Date / Blackbirds And Crows / One More Dollar / Doorstep Of Trouble / You Wouldn't Know Love / Dog Remembers Bacon / Little White Washed Chimney / Almost / Last Month Of The Year |
| 07/1998 | CD SUGAR HILL SH-CD 3882 (US) |
 |
AMERICAN BEAUTY - Red Clay Hale / All Alone / Fiddlin' Bill / Signs Following / The Johnson Boys / Slow Learner / Blue Cadillac / Livin' The Blues / Holiday Pickin' / Homeless Waltz / Down A Winding Road / Just Like A Fiddle |
| 08/2004 | CD SUGAR HILL SUG-CD 3959 (US) |
 |
TWENTY YEAR BLUES - Garfield's Blackberry Blossom / Travelin' Railroad Man Blues / That's All Right / Old Riverman / Pretty Red Lips / Sitting On Top Of The World / Luckiest Man Alive / Hush (somebody's Callin' My Name) / Gambling Barroom Blues / There's A Better Way / Rockin' Chair Money / Crossing The Cumberlands / Tell Me Your Love Is Still True |
| 07/2007 | CD SUGAR HILL SUG-CD 4036 (US) |
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BEST OF SUGAR HILL YEARS - Rocky Bottom Blues / The Boys Are Back In Town / Don't Let Our Love Die / Biggest Liars In Town / The fool / Blue Train / Waitin' For The Hard Times To Go / When I Get Where I'm Goin' / Backtrackin' / Tear My Stillhouse Down / Red Clay Halo / Blue Cadillac / Fiddlin' Bill / Travelin' Railroad Train Blues / There's A Better Way / Rockin' Chair Money |
© Rocky Productions 19/07/2011
