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In a sense, this album did for bluegrass what bebop did for jazz: it intellectualized the music. Banjo picker J.D. Crowe, guitarist Tony Rice, Dobro player Jerry Douglas, fiddler-mandolinist Ricky Skaggs, and bassist Bobby Slone injected a jazz sensibility into the proceedings. The rigid rhythmic patterns of bluegrass picking were softened and complex scales were introduced, allowing the soloists more flexibility in how they improvised. Earlier bands such as the Seldom Scene and the Country Gentlemen had laid the seeds of progressive bluegrass by adding material from other styles. Crowe followed suit, including a pair of Gordon Lightfoot songs and a Fats Domino number, but took bluegrass a step further by expanding the musical horizons. --Marc Greilsamer
Eric
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2025
Great product, good delivery, on time!
Malboo
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 8, 2024
This album was originally released 1975 on the Rounder label. Great musicians plays here, J.D. Crowe, Tony Rice, Bobby Slone, Jerry ”Flux” Douglas and Ricky Skaggs. Great guitar playing and singing from Tony Rice here. This album leans a bit against ”newgrass” with tunes that are not traditional bluegrass tunes. A great album!
Nobu
Reviewed in Japan on January 26, 2022
若いころお手本にしたアルバムです。トニー、JD、あちらでも素敵な演奏をしてるのでしょうね！
Rob Witter
Reviewed in Canada on June 2, 2017
Groundbreaking record in my view.
guillou luc
Reviewed in France on December 27, 2016
tout est dans le titre, ils ont fait leur carrière solo après, super boulot de jerry russel pour les transatlantic sessions une serie avec des musiciens irlandais et ecossais
H. R.
Reviewed in Germany on April 19, 2013
I've been chasing down some of the classics for a while now. The musicians on this album are some of the best the second half of the twentieth century had to offer. Rice's vocals and guitar playing are spot on, Crowe's five-string playing has inspired me to learn how to play the banjo, Skaggs has always been one of the greats... Jerry Douglas -- need one say more? A great album.
Gary Popovich
Reviewed in Canada on April 28, 2004
. . . this CD belongs in ANY serious bluegrass collection - the selection of material, the timeless vocals, the phenomemal musicianship, or the convergence of talent - take your pick.A great mix of the traditional (Flatt & Scrugg's "Some Old Day" & "Nashville Blues"), progressive (Gordon Lightfoot's "Ten Degrees and Getting Colder" and "You Are What I Am"), and semi-novelty (Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'), J.D. Crowe and crew (more on them in a minute) arranged the songs in a way that appealed to both hardcore and younger bluegrass audiences of the time. The vocal core of the group consisted of Tony Rice and Ricky Scaggs swapping leads, with Skaggs supplying high harmony and Crowe filling out the baritone. From the opening number, "The Old Homeplace" (a great tune that almost became bluegrass music's version of "Freebird," it was played so often), this vocal triumverate delivers arguably the best trio singing of the era.And the picking! Rice gives a nice sampling of his guitar wizardtry throughout. Skaggs, of course, can hang with the best of them on a number of instruments, while Crowe, at least at that time, was far and away the best of the post-Scruggs style banjoists. Add to these guys a youngster by the name of Jerry Douglas, who merely re-invented resonator guitar (or "Dobro") stylings as we know them today - talk about a bluegrass dream team!This is the only CD that this version of The New South ever recorded - it would have been impossible to keep this wealth of talent together - and certainly deserves the "Essential Recording" status it enjoys at Amazon.com and from virtually any other "Greatest" bluegrass list out there.
Mostly Mozart
Reviewed in Canada on February 18, 2003
All too often, bands made up of big-name musicians don't work out that well (remember Blind Faith in the late 1960s?). The 1975 edition of the New South is a happy example of such a band that worked wonderfully. With J.D. Crowe as the leader and banjo picker, Tony Rice as the lead singer and guitarist, Ricky Skaggs on tenor vocal, mandolin, fiddle, and viola, and Jerry Douglas on dobro, this edition of the New South had four legendary performers (Bobby Slone is no slouch, either; he just isn't a legend). The result is one of the greatest bluegrass LPs (at the time) or CDs (now) ever, covering lots of ground, much of it previously unexplored.Old Home Place starts out with J.D. playing the melody in a style thoroughly grounded in Earl Scruggs's playing, yet with a drive and invention that is J.D.'s own. Summer Wages, by Ian Tyson, is a moderately slow ballad from a songwriter in the folk, rather than bluegrass tradition, and it's a knockout, from Tony's singing to his tasteful guitar playing (even at age twenty-four, he understood that virtuosity doesn't consist of playing as many notes as you can) to Ricky's wonderful viola solo. Utah Phillips's mournful, waltz-tempo Rock Salt and Nails and a great version of Fats Domino's I'm Walkin' are two other examples of tunes that very few bluegrass bands would have tackled in 1975.J.D.'s insistence on the highest levels of musicianship from everybody in the New South is legendary; he couldn't have asked for more than everybody displays here.I could go on and on, but you'll understand a lot better if you buy the CD and listen.
John McMillen (bluegrass@mcc-uky.campus.mci.net)
Reviewed in Canada on July 27, 1998
J.D. Crowe's New South has been a launching pad for many up and coming bluegrass artists. Through the years the makeup of the New South has changed but, it is this lineup that was the very best. Arguably, this could have been the best bluegrass band ever assembled. Crowe, Tony Rice, Ricky Skaggs, Bobby Slone and Jerry Douglas have captured the heart of bluegrass music on this album, the first for Crowe and his New South. This album tackles the traditional tunes with a subtle leg lock of contemporary style. Opening with the "Old Home Place", Rice shows his simple vocal style can shine even above an amazing banjo run by Crowe himself. Ricky Skaggs set the table for his future with his strong mandolin work and his tenor vocals, along with Crowe's baritone, walk hand in hand with Rice all the way. Skaggs also shows his diversity with his fiddle work on "Sally Goodin". Jerry Douglas was a mere pup as he recorded his dobro tracks. Even then, he kn! ew just how to place a dobro in a bluegrass song so that he was neither overpowering nor left behind. "Some Old Day" proves that Douglas has a feel for music that is unmatched by any other Dobro player in the world. With the bass, in my view, the absolute most important part of any music with which it is a part of, Bobby Slone shows he knows how to drive a rhythym. He is a solid foundation for all the stars to shine. "Rock Salt & Nails" is a haunting, yet amazingly beautiful tune that makes us long for the good old days when Tony Rice still had his voice. With Rice being the only guitarist on the album, we get a taste of what is to come in the future from him. He certainly takes a backseat to no one with his guitar, and with the cover of two Gordon Lightfoot tunes ("Ten Degrees", "You Are What I am"), Rice may have been trying to send us a message. This album grabs you with the very first note of "Old Home Place" an! d after toying with your emotions for eleven songs, it fina! lly lays you to rest with the traditional gospel tune "Cryin' Holy." What a band, what an album!!!
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