Weekly music reviews...

David Grisman is one of the true masters of modern bluegress and acoustic music, and his record label Acoustic Disc has become a great resource as both preservationists and revivalists. This - their fifth Acoustic Disc Sampler - is a treasure of acoustic swing jazz - some of Grisman's finest tunes and more traditional folk music - including the standout tracks "On the Wind and Rain" and "Talking Hard Luck". It's not a wholly complete album because it is a sampler, but many of the tracks chosen here are outstanding. It's a beautiful look into what is much deeper and should be explored much more thoroughly.

Ah, those were the days. I was running the board at WNAS - my high school radio station - and we'd just gotten the first major label album by the Kentucky Headhunters. "Dumas Walker" was a great single, all over country radio and very different from anything else out there. If only they'd had another single as great to follow it up. Instead, they tried recapturing the glory and fun of "Dumas Walker" and covering some of their favorite songs - "Oh Lonesome Me" and "Ballad of Davy Crockett". The Headhunters didn't have a very long career at all - not in the public eye, anyway - and their Greatest Hits. They are - or perhaps were, I'm not really sure - the equivalent of the greatest bar band around - never going to have more than a song or two of their originals but always able to do a kick-butt cover of just about anything they wanted. The album's great fun, but they weren't a great band.