Search - Greenbriar Boys :: Big Apple Bluegrass

Pretty Darned Good Music,

Tony Thomas | SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL USA | 03/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I can understand how people want every last second recorded by the Greenbriar boys released. I am one who would even welcome Dian and the Greenbriars which I was think was recorded on Electra, not Vanguard. The music is so good on the two volume best of the Greenbriars and on this CD, you simply have to have every cut you can find. I would add there are several live Greenbriar tracks out on various Vanguard compilations of Bluegrass from the Newport Folk Festival. Well, actually I had all the old records. I saw the Greenbriars play live a few times. I met a couple of them along the way. I play the music myself. However, there is nothing that prepared me for how good all these recordings are, how good this band played, what a refreshing sense of humor, joy, and wonder that they had that will never be equalled. If you are interested in a very high level of bluegrass banjo, guitar, and mandolin playing, as well as some good guest fiddling, this record with astound you. If you go through all the struggle it takes to put together and keep together a tight band, this record will set the standard. No one who knows about the music would say the Greenbriars were ever revivalists, at least on their records. Rather than going back to the 20s and 30s as their friends the New Lost City Ramblers did, rather than exactly reproducing the old timey records like the Ramblers, the Greenbriars performed in the current genre of Bluegrass. Even forty years later, their style seems very progressive and up to date by Bluegrass standards, even if their material tends to dip deeper into traditional music than some Bluegrass units. Still, their performance always mixed bluegrass standards, traditional songs, country western songs by people like Marty Robbins, and some wierd and obscure songs no one else would have found and made bluegrass except the Greenbriars. On their instruments, particularly John Herald's flat picking and Mr. Yellin's banjo, they were at the top of the art at the time. Not that Ralph Rinzler wasn't an inspiration on the mandolin. Johnny Herald almost single handedly introduced Doc Watson style flat picking into bluegrass music as well as into the folk revival. He was a favored side man on manyy bluegrass, country, and folk recordings in the 1960s and early 1970s. Yellin's banjo picking especially on instrumentals like Russin' Around is still amazing to me after 35-40 years of hearing banjo players pick since these records were made. The Greenbriar Boys regularly won contests at Galax and elsewhere for the best instrumental bluegrass band going up against rough current southern competition.

I guess one thing I loved about the Greenbriars is that they had an infectious sense of humor. Unlike a lot of people in the traditional side of folk music, they never took themselves too seriously. Even though Ralph Rinzler was one of the most important people in the preservation of folk and traditional musics from all over North America and left the band to establish and develop the Smithsonian Institution's folk life program, the Greenbriar Boys always keep the idea of infectious fun and devilish laughter first and foremost."

How to disappoint a fan

Robert H. Sayers | Arlington, VA USA | 03/21/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

"For some years now I've been waiting to trade my beloved Greenbriar Boys LPs for shiny new CDs. I thought my chance had come with Vanguard's first reissue, "The Best of the Greenbriar Boys." That one, however, turned out to be a "best of" sampler, emphasizing John Herald's admittedly beautiful lead vocals. Last year the company released the two-CD "The Greenbriar Boys: Best of the Vanguard Years." That compilation looked to be nearly perfect, combining all three of the group's albums, plus additional material from the "New Folks" and "Joan Baez Vol. 2" albums. (There's actually a fourth album, "Dian and the Greenbriar Boys," but that's a different matter.) Maddeningly though, six tracks from the first album, four tracks from the second album, and two tracks from the third album were omitted! I thought for sure that the new "Big Apple Bluegrass" reissue would rectify this matter, however clumsily. What we get, though, is only seven of the missing twelve tracks, plus another ten unissued cuts of regrettably uneven quality. It's not likely to satisfy those wishing to hear the Greenbriar Boys at their best; nor will completists be very happy about the omissions. Oh well..."

A Good Supplement To Best Of

James E. Bagley | Sanatoga, PA USA | 07/28/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Greenbriar Boys bridged the gap between rural southern bluegrass and the 1960s folk scene. Coming from Greenwich Village's Washington Square Park picking scene, they drew songs from minstrel shows, Tin Pan Alley and Library Of Congress field recordings. Like The New Lost City Ramblers, they were essentially revivalists. With seven previously unissued gems, Big Apple Bluegrass supplements their two-CD retrospective Best Of The Vanguard Years. Among them, "Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down" is done as a fast-clipped, three-part harmony, while "The Great Assembly" provides amazingly apocalyptic gospel. This 42-minute, 17-cut disc and Best Of both omit a handful of tracks from the group's three Vanguard LPs, so completists should hold onto their vinyl as well."