Conceived in 1993, Pickin’ On is a series of rock and country tribute albums performed in a bluegrass style. Incredibly they have released over 100 full length bluegrass tribute albums covering the biggest names in music. There are hundreds of their videos you can find on Youtube but here are a few that I like.
The Dead South, a gold rush vibing four-piece acoustic set from Saskatchewan, infuse the genre’s traditional trappings with an air of frontier recklessness, whiskey breakfasts and grizzled tin-pan showmanship. Their sound, build on a taut configuration of cello, mandolin, banjo and guitar, speeds like a train past polite definitions of acoustic music into the grittier, rowdier spaces of the bluegrass world. – from: thedeadsouth.com
Here a playlist Ive been working on of contemporary artists and their modern takes on old time music, mainly Appalachian, bluegrass and folk. Click Youtube icon on bottom right corner to see the whole playlist.
Alynda Lee Segarra, the creative force behind Hurray for the Riff Raff, spent her formative years crisscrossing the country on greyhounds and freight trains. She climbed from the streets of New Orleans to the airwaves of NPR with a washboard and a banjo, a Horatio Alger narrative for the Americana set. Her last LP, Small Town Heroes, felt like a thesis presentation from a student of American folk music. She’d spent years studying the form and its practitioners, a product of a community that helped lift her from street corners and coffee shops to international tours and a record contract. While searching for herself, she also imitated others, living inside classic folk, roots, and country songs while shaping her own powerful voice. Pitchfork. Heres a little playlist I made of her music. If you want to expand the list click the top left corner.