JOESEDDIT’S CRATES FULL OF VINYL – OLD AND IN THE WAY, NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND

I’ve got a couple of crates full of old vinyl albums that I haven’t listened to in years due to lack of equipment to play them. Over a period of about a year and a half I revisited each album on the internet or bought the CD and ranked the songs. I also recorded some brief thoughts, rated the album, and posted the results on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Artists comment section. I’m recycling and categorizing/grouping the posts on this website.

Old and in the Way

I’m not a big fan of the slower paced stuff, but I love up-tempo bluegrass and the sound of a cracklin’ banjo. I’m not a collector however, so I don’t really know who the players in the genre are. Jerry led me to this album which I like a lot. Jerry, Vassar Clements, David Grisman, Peter Rowan and John Kahn. I’m not always in the mood for bluegrass but when I am, this album scratches my itch.

Scale of 1 to 10:  A

1- Midnight Moonlight

2- Wild Horses

3- Land of the Navajo

4- Old and in the Way

5- The Hobo Song

6- Panama Red

7- Pig in a Pen

8- Kissimmee Kid

9- Knocking on Your Door

Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy

I love The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s version of “Mr. Bojangles” so I bought the album. This is another one from the reject pile as “Bojangles” turned out to be the only notable song on the album. The “Uncle Charlie Interview” is an added bonus as it sets the table nicely for the song. This album isn’t bad, but aside from when they flat out jam (they’re a bluegrass band), the fact that it’s made up of covers – many that would play well on “Hee Haw”- makes it hard to take this album seriously. Relatively speaking, anyway.

Scale of 1 to 10:  D +

1- Jesse James/Uncle Charlie Interview/Mr. Bojangles

2- Clinch Mountain Backstep

3- Randy Lynn Rag

4- Some of Shelly’s Blues

5- Billy in the Low Ground

6- Prodigal’s Return

7- Cure

8- Travelin’ Mood

9- Uncle Charlie

10- Yukon Railroad

11- Uncle Charlie Interview #2 / Spanish Fandango

12- Rave On

13- Propinquity

14- Santa Rosa

15- Chicken Reel

16- Swanee River

17- Opus 36

18- House at Pooh Corner

19- Livin’ Without You