Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys
Flatt and Scruggs
Bill Monroe
The Stanley Brothers
Sonny and Bobby Osborne
JD Crowe and The New South
Jimmy Martin
The Kentucky Colonels
Jim and Jesse
Country Cooking
well, okay The Seldom Scene
Dave Evans
The Lewis Family
Cherryholmes
Reno and Smiley
Raymond Fairchild (you know, the Fastest Five Strings Alive)
Tony, Bela, Alan… and all those other bluegrass banjo pickers
Who did I miss?
A few hundred.
Wait! Are you only looking for banjo players?
No, not just banjo players.
I have just been getting back into bluegrass and was wondering what like individuals would suggest some groups that I have missed.
I.e. John Hartford RIP, and the Dillards come to mind.
Suggest!!!
Del McCoury
Sam Bush
Gonna see Fiddlers Four tomorrow - should be good.
And if you like the Dillards, you should enjoy the Darlings!
It’s strange that you mention Del McCoury. I was just listening to his and Steve Earle’s bluegrass/blues/roots music, “The Mountain”. Good stuff.
You know what I’m gonna do? I am going to put on the rare Banjoland album. Rounder record…
I am a fan of Ricky Skaggs.
No need to link. I am well aware of the amazing man that is RS. Do you have the Skaggs and Rice album?
Red Allen. Old time stuff, but sufficiently great.
Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver. I get tired of that if it becomes repetitive.
You said Seldon Scene, but have you tried the original John Duffy with The Country Gentlemen?
Some Doc Watson stuff.
Sorry, I don’t know any of the artists who have been mentioned so far, but I happened to see a group in concert called Hot Rize, and I thought they were great.
I forgot about Red Allen. I have the Folkway Years 1964-83, with the amazing Bill Keith, Camptown Races.
I like Doyle ok, never got into him though. As for Doc, I love him, but he’s not really bluegrass.
samclem, who knew?
As for the Seldom Scene, Ben Eldrige is cool, but I hate that smarmy singing style that the Scene always does.
With Peter Wernick on the five (we banjo players call our instrument the five, btw)
Well, he wasn’t on your original list, so I didn’t know.
Don’t have Skaggs and Rice, but it’s now on the ol’ Amazon wishlist.
See, the thing about RS and me is that I know him from being in JD Crowe and the New South. And of course with Skaggs and Rice. Skaggs alone for the longest time was a country artist, and I forgot about him and Kentucky Thunder.
Ah, well.
Who knew? Growing up in Arlington, Va., I heard my first bluegrass in/about 1960. I tuned in stations from Warrenton, Va., just West of DC. I probably still have reel-to-reel tapes of stuff you wouldn’t believe. Old-time Country and some Bluegrass.
As to the “smarmy” singing style of SS. I like to think that they brought Bluegrass music into the modern age. To do that, you had to polish the act. You couldn’t give the hip audience in the Washington DC area Bill Monroe or the Stanleys. Flat and Scruggs had made it to Canegie Hall, but the mainstream listeners need something that was a bit smoother than the haunting sound of Carter Stanley(I get goosebumps listening to many of his vocals). And the Seldom Scene was it. They polished it, did it as professionally as anyone could, and made bluegrass popular in the 1980s. It certainly died a death in the 1990s 'til now, at least amongst the general population.
In any Bluegrass list I made, I’d be sure to put Mr Bill Monroe in First Place!
Going back to His Disciples, how about the Charles River Valley Boys? Cambridge Folkies from the Old Days, their Beatle Country is one of my fave LP’s–now available on CD.
Through Rhapsody.com, I’ve become fond of the Dry Branch Fire Squad–a touch of Old Timey along with straight Bluegrass. And a funny frontman.
The Dillards were fine Bluegrassers but their Wheatstraw Suite was pioneering country rock. Then there was Dillard & Clark–with strong Bluegrass roots, no matter how far out the lyrics got; soulful singing, too.
I love *The Mountain *(already mentioned), Steve Earle backed by the Del McCoury Band. Partly because I like the way Earle’s rough voice goes against the grain of the smooth Bluegrass. Damn–I find some modern Bluegrass just too smooth. That is, musicians trying to play as fast as possible but lacking the soulfulness of the pioneers. (The Stanley Brothers were very soulful & Ralph’s modern projects are worthwhile.)
Check out David Grisman for examples of where you can go beyond Bluegrass. Straight Bluegrass, Newgrass, World Music, etc. Lots of songs available. Find some of his work with Stéphane Grappelli–Gypsy Jazz is very close to my heart.
Or go back to the Old Time String Band music that came before Bluegrass. The New Lost City Ramblers. The Red Clay Ramblers. Even the Holy Modal Rounders…
Ah yes, the Dry Branch Fire Squad. And of course, Olin Gardner. Now, nobody knows who Olin Gardner is, right? I didn’t know what I wanted for Christmas, but my granddad had a banjo he built, and he used to play it clawhammer style. And he had this book, with musical notation, which I had never seen before. It was so mystical and strange. And I said, yes, get me a banjo! To make a long story short, I ended up taking lessons from Olin, and I had never seen someone play an instrument up close, and I was mesmerized.
Okay, this is going to be a banjo post. I used to lie on my bed and strum it, and hit that fifth string, and it would ring out so clear and pure.
But I ramble. Anyone who has ever taken a banjo in hand knows what I am talking about. As for me, I’m gonna go and get my granddad’s five out, and strum it a while.
And maybe start a banjo appreciation thread.
Sorry to hijack my own thread.
Well, you need to get more current. 
Some very fine bluegrass bands of recent vintage:
Chatham County Line
King Wilkie (though I understand this configuration is no longer together, and part of the group is now touring as the Wilkie Family Singers, with much less of a bluegrass orientation)
Hot Rize
Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers
the Skyline Drifters
Unclviny
Shit! Don Stover and the Lily Brothers!