Best Loved Bluegrass is a 20-song collection of bluegrass songs and instrumentals from well-known and nearly forgotten pickers of the '60s and '70s. And while
Keith Whitely may be better remembered today as a country singer, and
the Boys from Indiana as a long-disbanded group, all of these musicians were "players" in their time. The selections include traditional material like
Ted Lundy & the Southern Mountain Boys' "Poor Ellen Smith," more progressive cuts like
the Seldom Scene's "Darling Corey," old-time-flavored cuts by
Ralph Stanley and
the Stanley Brothers, and early rustic cuts by
Del McCoury ("The White House Blues," about President McKinley's assassination, is excellent). There's a lot of good music on
Best Loved Bluegrass, though the liner notes offer little information on the origins of the recordings. In this sense, this collection of odds and ends seems to offer no more than a casual collection for a casual fan. The difference, however, is that the Rebel label was on the forefront of the bluegrass scene during the '60s and '70s. For anyone who fondly remembers the early work of
Larry Sparks,
the Country Gentlemen, and the Seldom Scene,
Best Loved Bluegrass is a high-quality collection for hardcore bluegrass fans.
