I like this record. I like it a lot, I can't stop listening to it no matter what it does to my image as a former skinhead with tattoos and stuff.
Still, I think I like bluegrass for the same reason I like ska music, it makes you happy listening to it.
As someone raised in the oi! scene, lyrics mean a lot to me, but strangely, I don't care if the lyrics to this album are a bit naive. Take, as for an example, the lyrics to Jimmy Brown the newsboy, not something Kris Kristofferson or even Zac Brown would have penned, but who cares? This music is made for dancing, not for changing the world.
This album is, as the title gives away, a live album, collecting appearances by Earl Scruggs from three folk festivals in Newport, 1959, 1960 and 1966. Scruggs had then become a legend, not just among the traditional bluegrass punters, a scene he had changed with his groundbreaking way of picking his banjo, but also among the trendy middle class students who had discovered American folk music, a scene spearheaded by Bob Dylan.
There's a lot of stuff coming out from the 60's and most of it hasn't aged well. This album, however, has aged surprisingly well. Scruggs music is timeless.
Another thing which strikes you is how well it sounds live. Today, you get a lot of artists recording as their first priority and using computers to enhance their music and though it might sound the business on disc, they come out sounding poor live. You don't get that with Earl Scruggs, listening to him, you listen to someone who simply loves playing live.
I am going to look for more records by him, definitely!
A near perfect record get a near perfect level of satisfaction, 96,1%
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