New Seniors

Crazy harmonies, jangling banjos, and songs about trains give bluegrass a bad-boy attitude on the fringe of country music. Turn up the volume, break out the moonshine, and let’s have an old-fashioned bluegrass and country roots party.

Bill Monroe: Blue Moon of Kentucky

“Blue Moon of Kentucky” was written in 1946 and released in 1947 by “the father of bluegrass,” Bill Monroe, and recorded by his band, The Blue Grass Boys. At the time, the Bluegrass Boys included guitarist Lester Flatt and banjoist Earl Scruggs. “Blue Moon of Kentucky” is now the official bluegrass song of Kentucky.

“Blue Moon of Kentucky” has been recorded by many artists including Elvis Presley, who recorded it as the b-side of his first commercial record.

Roy Acuff: Wabash Cannonball

“The Wabash Cannonball” is an American folk song about a fictional train, thought to have originated in the late nineteenth century. Roy Acuff recorded his popular version in 1936.

It is a signature song of three college marching bands: the Stephen F. Austin State University Lumberjack Marching Band, the Kansas State University Marching Band, the University of Texas Longhorn Band, and the Indiana State University Marching Sycamores,

“The Wabash Cannonball” is part of the The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list.

Chubby Wise: Orange Blossom Special

It has been referred to as “the fiddle player’s national anthem.” “Orange Blossom Special” is about a deluxe passenger train that ran between New York City and Miami Florida beginning in 1925. It was written by Ervin T. Rouse (1917-1981) in 1938. The original recording was created by Ervin and Gordon Rouse in 1939. It is considered the best-known fiddle tune of the twentieth century.

Other musicians, including Robert Russell “Chubby” Wise, have claimed authorship of the song. One thing is for sure, and that is Chubby played it well.

Flatt & Scruggs: Foggy Mountain Breakdown

“Foggy Mountain Breakdown” was written by Earl Scruggs and recorded in 1949 by Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys. It was used as background music in the 1967 motion picture Bonnie and Clyde. Scruggs won a Grammy award in 2002 for a version of the song. It is considered one of the banjo’s fastest and most rhythmically challenging songs.

Soggy Bottom Boys: Man of Constant Sorrow

“Man of Constant Sorrow” is a traditional American folk song first recorded by Dick Burnett, a partially blind fiddler from Kentucky around 1913. There is uncertainty whether Dick Burnett himself wrote the song, and some claim the song may be up to 200 years old. Dr. Ralph Stanley of the Stanley Brothers is credited with reviving the song. In 2000 the song was featured in the movie “O Brother Where Art Thou?” that this performance is from. The voices behind the Soggy Bottom Boys are well-known bluegrass musicians: Union Station’s Dan Tyminski (lead on “Man of Constant Sorrow”), Nashville songwriter Harley Allen, and the Nashville Bluegrass Band’s Pat Enright. Nope, that ain’t really George Clooney singin’ it.

Osborne Brothers: Rocky Top

“Rocky Top” was written in 1967 by songwiters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, and recorded by the Osborne Brothers that same year. The song is one of Tennessee’s seven official state songs. The University of Tennessee’s Pride of the Southland Band has played a marching band version of the song at the school’s sporting events since the early 1970s.

Louvin Brothers: I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby

The Louvin Brothers, Charlie and Ira popularized the unique sound of close harmony in their songs. Longtime members of the Grand Ole Opry, the brothers sold lots of records. many of their songs were heavily influenced by their Baptist faith and warned against sin. Ira Louvin was notorious for his drinking and short temper. Ira would sometimes become angry enough on stage to smash his mandolin; otherwise his style was heavily influenced by Bill Monroe. Ira died on June 20, 1965 when a drunken driver struck his car in Williamsburg, Missouri. Charlie, born in 1927 lives on in Manchester, TN.

Jimmy Martin: Freeborn Man

The “King of Bluegrass,” Jimmy Martin was famous as a dangerously unpredictable but highly entertaining stage presence. He freely acknowledged his problems with drinking and volatile mood swings. He was a “freeborn man.”

Jimmy Martin: You Don’t Know My Mind

After stints with Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, and The Osborne Brothers, Jimmy Martin formed his own band called the Sunny Mountain Boys in 1955. While working with Bill Monroe, he had helped develop the “high lonesome” sound of that characterizes many great bluegrass songs.

Johnny Cash: Tennessee Stud

“Tennessee Stud” as sung by Eddy Arnold was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1959. It was written by songwiter Jimmy Driftwood, whose first hit was “The Battle of New Orleans” which had been written in 1936 to help get a high school class he was teaching interested in the event. “Tennessee Stud” has been recorded by many great singers, but none have topped this 1994 performance by “the man in black.”

Jimmie Rodgers: The Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)

Jimmie Rodgers was the original country music superstar, and is credited for heavily influencing popular music since his untimely death in 1933 of tuberculosis. He was best known for his rhythmic yodeling and lyrics, which were said to have had a risqué quality with “a macho, slightly dangerous undertone.” Jimmie Rodgers’s first Blue Yodel, which became known as “Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)”, was recorded in late 1927 in the Trinity Baptist Church at Camden, New Jersey. When the song was released in February 1928 it became “a national phenomenon and generated an excitement and record-buying frenzy that no-one could have predicted”.

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