• > Home
  • > Can't You Hear Me Callin' - Bluegrass: 80 Years of American Music

    • Can't You Hear Me Callin' - Bluegrass: 80 Years of American Music

    09/28/2004 | Sony 

    Submit Your Review

    • CD

      $41.99

      CAN'T YOU HEAR ME CALLIN: BLUEGRASS 80 YEARS / VAR

      Add to Cart

    All Music Guide Review

    The title pretty much says it on this deluxe four-disc package from Sony's Legacy imprint. Here on four discs are 109 performances that cover the spectrum of American bluegrass, beginning with its pre-birth roots in Appalachian country string band music via the recordings of Gid Tanner, Charlie Poole & the Blue Ridge Ramblers, and the Carters in the mid-'30s. The story really takes off with the Monroe Brothers and their classic "What Would You Give in Exchange (For Your Soul)?" in 1936, the same year that Roy Acuff issued his first hit, "The Great Speckled Bird." Ralph and Carter Stanley, the Bailes Brothers, and Molly O'Day enter the root stream within a few years, and the tree blossoms at the dawn of World War II, flowering with Flatt & Scruggs' "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" in 1949. These are all here, of course, as are cuts by Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, the Osborne Brothers, Roy Hall, Grandpa Jones, Jim & Jesse, Bill & Mary Reid, the Webster Brothers, and many others from these early decades. Where the set really takes its chances is in including the contributions made to rock and modern country and bluegrass music through offerings from the Byrds, Ricky Skaggs, Eric Weissberg, the Dixie Chicks, the O'Kanes, Rhonda Vincent, Herb Pedersen, and many others. What it makes for is a provocative look at the music as it evolved not only musically, but culturally and socially, as it crossed from the Deep South into the East and West Coasts and moved north. Not everyone will agree with the track choices, of course, and the tiresome purists will no doubt find the last CD difficult to handle given their attitudes of preservation at any cost -- including premature death -- but the rest of us can be delighted, beguiled, amused, and confronted by this primitive, raw original American underground music as it entered the mainstream of our society. The set includes a fantastic historical essay by former Creem editor Billy Altman, and a fine introduction by Dr. Ralph Stanley. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

    Track Listing

  • Track#
  • Title
  • Artist
  • time
  • 1
  • Soldier's Joy
  • Tanner, Gid And His Skillet Lickers
  • 2:58

  • 2
  • Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues
  • 2:52

  • 3
  • White House Blues
  • 3:27

  • 4
  • Bill Mason
  • 3:00

  • 5
  • Cannon Ball Blues
  • Carter Family
  • 2:54

  • 6
  • D Blues
  • Blue Ridge Ramblers
  • 2:50

  • 7
  • Keep on the Sunny Side
  • Carter Family
  • 2:51

  • 8
  • What Would You Give in Exchange (For Your Soul)?
  • Monroe Brothers
  • 3:12

  • 9
  • I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes
  • Carter Family
  • 2:54

  • 10
  • Great Speckled Bird
  • Acuff, Roy And His Crazy Tennesseans
  • 2:55

  • 11
  • Orange Blossom Special
  • Hall, Roy & His Blue Ridge Entertainers
  • 2:23

  • 12
  • Ida Red
  • Acuff, Roy And His Smoky Mountain Boys
  • 2:48

  • 13
  • Pretty Polly
  • Coon Creek Girls
  • 2:50

  • 14
  • Lonesome Old River Blues
  • Acuff, Roy And His Smoky Mountain Boys
  • 2:48

  • 15
  • Mule Skinner Blues
  • Monroe, Bill And His Blue Grass Boys
  • 2:44

  • 16
  • Wreck on the Highway
  • Acuff, Roy And His Smoky Mountain Boys
  • 2:45

  • 17
  • The Drunkard's Grave
  • Bailes Brothers
  • 2:41

  • 18
  • Rocky Road Blues
  • Monroe, Bill And His Blue Grass Boys
  • 2:36

  • 19
  • Searching for a Soldier's Grave
  • Bailes Brothers
  • 3:00

  • 20
  • Blue Moon of Kentucky
  • Monroe, Bill And His Blue Grass Boys
  • 3:02

  • 21
  • Dust on the Bible
  • Bailes Brothers
  • 2:54

  • 22
  • I Heard My Mother Weeping
  • 2:43

  • 23
  • Will You Be Loving Another Man?
  • Monroe, Bill And His Blue Grass Boys
  • 2:53

  • 24
  • Blue Grass Breakdown
  • Monroe, Bill [1] & His Bluegrass Boys
  • 2:41

  • 25
  • It's Mighty Dark to Travel
  • Monroe, Bill And His Blue Grass Boys
  • 2:53

  • 26
  • Molly and Tenbrooks (The Race Horse Song)
  • Monroe, Bill [1] & His Bluegrass Boys
  • 2:45

  • 27
  • Black Mountain Rag
  • Acuff, Roy And His Smoky Mountain Boys
  • 2:51

  • 28 (2)
  • Can't You Hear Me Callin'
  • Monroe, Bill And His Blue Grass Boys
  • 3:18

  • 29 (2)
  • Foggy Mountain Breakdown
  • 2:40

  • 30 (2)
  • Poor Ellen Smith
  • 2:40

  • 31 (2)
  • The Drunkard's Hell
  • 2:38

  • 32 (2)
  • The Lonesome River
  • 2:44

  • 33 (2)
  • On the Banks of the River
  • 2:46

  • 34 (2)
  • The Fields Have Turned Brown
  • 2:34

  • 35 (2)
  • The White Dove
  • 3:14

  • 36 (2)
  • Sunny Side of the Mountain
  • 2:58

  • 37 (2)
  • I'm a Man of Constant Sorrow
  • 2:57

  • 38 (2)
  • I Wonder How the Old Folks Are at Home
  • Wiseman, Mac
  • 2:52

  • 39 (2)
  • Uncle Pen
  • Monroe, Bill And His Blue Grass Boys
  • 2:45

  • 40 (2)
  • Stoney, Are You Mad at Your Gal
  • 2:54

  • 41 (2)
  • When the Angels Rolled the Stone Away
  • 2:51

  • 42 (2)
  • Earl's Breakdown
  • 3:00

  • 43 (2)
  • Don't Get Above Your Raising
  • 2:44

  • 44 (2)
  • Are You Missing Me?
  • 2:24

  • 45 (2)
  • Why Did You Wander?
  • 2:45

  • 46 (2)
  • Flint Hill Special
  • 2:46

  • 47 (2)
  • I'll Go Stepping Too
  • 2:54

  • 48 (2)
  • Love and Wealth
  • Story, Carl & the Rambling Mountaineers
  • 2:45

  • 49 (2)
  • 20/20 Vision
  • 2:42

  • 50 (2)
  • My Lord Keeps a Record
  • Story, Carl & the Rambling Mountaineers
  • 2:17

  • 51 (2)
  • I Love the Hymns They Sang at Mother's Grave
  • Story, Carl & the Rambling Mountaineers
  • 2:55

  • 52 (2)
  • Reunion in Heaven
  • Story, Carl & the Rambling Mountaineers
  • 2:49

  • 53 (2)
  • Don't You Hear Jerusalem Moan (#)
  • Story, Carl & the Rambling Mountaineers
  • 2:09

  • 54 (2)
  • Hitch Hiker's Blues
  • Youngblood, Jack
  • 2:23

  • 55 (3)
  • The Martha White Theme
  • 1:37

  • 56 (3)
  • Don't Let Your Deal Go Down
  • 2:13

  • 57 (3)
  • Seven Year Blues
  • Webster Brothers
  • 2:47

  • 58 (3)
  • Get Down on Your Knees and Pray
  • 2:40

  • 59 (3)
  • Somebody Touched Me
  • 2:12

  • 60 (3)
  • Feudin' Banjos
  • 1:58

  • 61 (3)
  • Ruby, Are You Mad
  • 2:59

  • 62 (3)
  • Knoxville Girl
  • Louvin Brothers
  • 3:48

  • 63 (3)
  • Once More
  • 2:41

  • 64 (3)
  • Twin Banjo Special
  • Maphis, Joe "King Of The Strings"
  • 2:12

  • 65 (3)
  • Gosh, I Miss You All the Time
  • 2:16

  • 66 (3)
  • You Don't Know My Mind
  • Martin, Jimmy & the Sunny Mountain Boys
  • 2:54

  • 67 (3)
  • Rank Stranger
  • Stanley Brothers
  • 3:09

  • 68 (3)
  • My Empty Arms
  • 2:21

  • 69 (3)
  • Foggy Mountain Top
  • 2:26

  • 70 (3)
  • Beautiful Moon of Kentucky
  • 2:11

  • 71 (3)
  • Stoney Creek
  • 1:54

  • 72 (3)
  • She Left Me Standing on the Mountain
  • 2:12

  • 73 (3)
  • Sunny Side of the Mountain
  • Martin, Jimmy & the Sunny Mountain Boys
  • 2:33

  • 74 (3)
  • Just Joshing
  • Smith, Arthur [Banjo/Guitar] "Guitar Boogie"
  • 2:03

  • 75 (3)
  • (It's a Long, Long Way) To the Top of the World
  • 2:34

  • 76 (3)
  • Cotton Mill Man
  • 2:45

  • 77 (3)
  • Since Wedding Bells Have Rung
  • Reno, Don
  • 2:32

  • 78 (3)
  • Rosalee
  • Jones, Grandpa
  • 2:04

  • 79 (3)
  • No More Goodbyes
  • 3:01

  • 80 (3)
  • The Ballad of Jed Clampett
  • 2:03

  • 81 (3)
  • Rabbit in the Log
  • 2:42

  • 82 (3)
  • Rocky Top
  • Osborne Brothers
  • 2:35

  • 83 (3)
  • Mountain Dew
  • Jones, Grandpa
  • 1:58

  • 84 (3)
  • Dueling Banjos
  • 2:17

  • 85 (4)
  • Turn Your Radio On
  • Jones, Grandpa
  • 2:59

  • 86 (4)
  • Black Mountain Rag (Soldier's Joy)
  • Byrds
  • 1:13

  • 87 (4)
  • Pretty Boy Floyd
  • Byrds
  • 2:35

  • 88 (4)
  • Bristol Steam Convention Blues
  • Byrds
  • 2:39

  • 89 (4)
  • Farther Along
  • Byrds
  • 2:58

  • 90 (4)
  • Contentment
  • 2:45

  • 91 (4)
  • Can't You Hear Me Callin'
  • Pedersen, Herb
  • 2:59

  • 92 (4)
  • Cora Is Gone
  • Pedersen, Herb
  • 3:51

  • 93 (4)
  • Choking the Strings
  • 2:10

  • 94 (4)
  • Uncle Pen
  • Skaggs, Ricky
  • 2:25

  • 95 (4)
  • Till the End of the World Rolls Round
  • Scruggs, Earl
  • 2:59

  • 96 (4)
  • A Vision of Mother
  • Skaggs, Ricky
  • 3:22

  • 97 (4)
  • Big Country
  • 4:02

  • 98 (4)
  • If I Could Be There
  • OKanes
  • 3:19

  • 99 (4)
  • So Long, So Wrong
  • 3:23

  • 100 (4)
  • BP
  • 3:25

  • 101 (4)
  • The Boy Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn
  • 4:40

  • 102 (4)
  • Little Maggie
  • Bluegrass Reunion
  • 3:01

  • 103 (4)
  • Carrie Brown
  • 4:19

  • 104 (4)
  • Tortured, Tangled Hearts
  • Dixie Chicks
  • 3:39

  • 105 (4)
  • Walls of Time
  • Skaggs, Ricky
  • 4:20

  • 106 (4)
  • Is the Grass Any Bluer
  • Vincent, Rhonda
  • 2:45

  • 107 (4)
  • Daniel Prayed
  • Loveless, Patty
  • 2:46

  • 108 (4)
  • Twelve Gates to the City
  • Stanley, Ralph
  • 1:56

  • 109 (4)
  • Soldier's Joy
  • O'Connor, Mark
  • 4:05

    • Credits

    • Bobby Osborne
    • Banjo, Vocals, Mandolin, Baritone (Vocal), Tenor (Vocal)
    • Sonny Osborne
    • Banjo, Vocals, Harmony Vocals, 5-string Banjo, Tenor (Vocal)
    • Don McHan
    • Banjo, Guitar, Baritone (Vocal), Bass
    • Don Reno
    • Banjo, Vocals, 5-string Banjo
    • Alison Krauss
    • Fiddle, Arranger, Baritone (Vocal), Producer, Vocals
    • Ricky Skaggs
    • Fiddle, Guitar, Mandolin, Harmony Vocals, Producer, Vocals (Background), Vocals, Guitar (Rhythm)
    • Ralph Stanley
    • Banjo, Liner Notes, Tenor (Vocal), Arranger, Vocals


    ARTISTdirect plus

    What's Hot from ARTISTdirect