Similar Albums:
- Artist: Bill Monroe
- Rating:
- Release Date: 1973
- Type: Live
- Genre: Country
Review
There is very little in the world quite like a good, live bluegrass album, and this is as good as it gets. The album was recorded in 1973 at the seventh annual Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival in Bean Blossom, IN, and features, alongside Monroe, most of the greats of early bluegrass, still kicking in the 1970s-Jim and Jesse, Jimmy Martin, James Monroe, Lester Flatt and the Nashville Grass, and 12 of the period's greatest fiddlers. The only notably absent figures of the classic bluegrass canon are the Stanley Brothers and Earl Scruggs; Carter Stanley died in 1966, and Scruggs, who had recently broken from Flatt to pursue more "modern" sounds in bluegrass music, was still getting the silent treatment from Monroe for leaving his Bluegrass Boys in the first place. Curly Ray Cline, Clarence "Tater" Tate, Tex Logan, Kenny Baker, and the other eight fiddlers play simultaneously on three instrumental standards, "Soldier's Joy," "Grey Eagle," and "Down Yonder," backing Monroe on the album's final track, a lively and unforgettable "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." The music is played, for the most part, at a tightly reined turbo speed and, along with the steady claps and yells and sure-enough screams of an enormously rowdy audience, makes for about the most exciting 75 minutes of music imaginable. Bean Blossom captures the true, original spirit of the music created by Monroe as much or more than any other album, and provides a sturdy backbone to any bluegrass collection. ~ Burgin Mathews, All Music GuideTracks
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Mule Skinner Blues [Live] | Jimmie Rodgers, |
Bill Monroe | (3:05) |
| You Won't Be Satisfied That Way [Live] | Jimmie Davis, |
Bill Monroe | (2:36) |
| Uncle Pen [Live] | Bill Monroe | Bill Monroe | (2:21) |
| Blue Moon of Kentucky [Live] | Bill Monroe | Bill Monroe | (3:18) |
| Ole Slew Foot [Live] | Bill Monroe | (2:43) | |
| Sweet Little Miss Blue Eyes [Live] | Don Helms, |
Bill Monroe | (2:16) |
| Please Be My Love [Live] | Bill Monroe | (3:02) | |
| I Wish You Knew [Live] | Ira Louvin, Charlie Louvin | Bill Monroe | (2:40) |
| Love Please Come Home [Live] | Leon Jackson | Bill Monroe | (2:21) |
| Train 45 (Heading South) [Live] | Bill Monroe | Bill Monroe | (2:36) |
| Bonny [Live] | Bill Monroe | (2:05) | |
| When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again [Live] | Bill Monroe | (2:20) | |
| Hit Parade of Love [Live] | Bill Monroe | (2:56) | |
| Mary Ann [Live] | Bill Monroe | (3:00) | |
| Sunny Side of the Mountain [Live] | Byron Gregory, |
Bill Monroe | (2:53) |
| Free Form Man [Live] | Bill Monroe | (3:17) | |
| Tennessee [Live] | Bill Monroe | Bill Monroe | (2:43) |
| Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms [Live] | Charlie Monroe | Bill Monroe | (2:51) |
| Feudin' Banjos [Live] | Bill Monroe | (2:09) | |
| The Ballad of Jed Clampett [Live] | Bill Monroe | (2:05) | |
| Roll on Buddy, Roll On [Live] | Bill Monroe | (3:04) | |
| I Wonder Where You Are Tonight [Live] | Johnny Bond | Bill Monroe | (2:59) |
| Orange Blossom Special [Live] | Bill Monroe | (2:27) | |
| Fiddler Roll Call/Down Yonder [Live] | Bill Monroe | (4:07) | |
| Soldier's Joy [Live] | Traditional | Bill Monroe | (2:32) |
| Grey Eagle [Live] | Traditional | Bill Monroe | (2:33) |
| Swing Low, Sweet Chariot [Live] | Traditional | Bill Monroe | (4:04) |
