Back Porch Bluegrass Show

A broad range of bluegrass offerings in this episode, from Bill Monroe singing gospel, to the fiddle & banjo tunes of Byron Berline & John Hickman. In between, we’ve got the Chapmans, Sideline, the Price Sisters, Doyle Lawson and the NZ band You Me Everybody. The Hamilton County Bluegrass Band get some humour into their live performance from 1970, and Ickes & Hensley do a fine version of a bluegrass classic.

A very diverse collection of bluegrass in this episode, from the 80+ year-old Stoneman Sisters, to the stalwarts of classic bluegrass, the Bluegrass Album Band. Dan Tyminski, Barry & Holly Tashian, Emerson & Waldron, the Osborne Brothers get us started, then the Country Gentlemen and Northern Lights take us out. In between we have the Stoneman Sisters, Lorraine Jordan playing some country music -bluegrass style, and it all sounds great, believe me.

If you’re in the South Island, NZ, then ‘Kindred Spirit’ will be playing near you this week or next (when they’re not fishing!). And if you’re in the North Island, NZ, then get your tickets for ‘You, Me, Everybody’ as they play a number of concerts to promote their new album in March.

This week’s show features the above bands, as well as Russell Moore & Third Tyme Out, David Grisman, Dr Peter Wernick, and Northern Lights. We’ve also got the Rice Brothers (all four of them), and some ‘live’ Vern & Ray from the 1968 San Francisco Folk Festival. Scott Vestal & friends do some fancy picking to close the show. Great bluegrass!

I’m delighted to be advertising TWO imminent bluegrass tour in NZ, one with NZ band ‘You, Me, Everybody’ to promote their new album, and one with the North Carolina-based duo ‘Kindred Spirit’. I’ve featured tracks from both groups in this show. We’ve also got tracks from JD Crowe & the New South, the Gibson Brothers, the Steeldrivers, and Blue Highway. High Fidelity play a fiddle tune, as does Glen Duncan, and we’ve a song from Pam Findlay with the Hamilton County Bluegrass Band.

An eclectic collection of bluegrass styles in this episode, from Bill Monroe to the Lost Pines. American Drive play some hard-driving bluegrass, the Waller Brothers have a couple of duets, the Stanley gospel Tradition do a great SB song in their inimitable style. Alison Brown picks banjo like no-one else, and Rhonda Vincent sings her own brand of bluegrass. We’ve got an old-timey tune from Phil Rosenthal & Family, and the Trenwiths feature on a tune we usually use to start our live shows. Lots to like.

Bluegrass music continues to provide us with a wide variety of musical influences and styles, from slow country ballads, story songs, bouncy instrumentals to hard-driving pieces about a wide variety of topics. This week, we have offerings from Wildfire, Seth Mulder & Midnight Run, Danny Paisley, Walden Dahl and the Osborne Brothers. There’s some instrumentals from Bill Monroe, Red Wilson and even the Trenwiths, and some Aussie bluegrass from Acoustic Shock. Doc Watson demonstrates his fine picking and singing and there’s some very country-ish bluegrass from the Can’t Hardly Play Boys.

I’ve got music from three of my favourite LP’s on this show – the Johnson Mountain Boys, John Hartford, and Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver – all top music. There’s some fine picking from John Hickman, Richie Simpkins, and some songs from NZ tourists – Sassafras. Michelle Nixon and Drive, Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers get some songs into the programme, and there’s some early bluegrass from the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, pioneers of this genre. What a collection!

Being as this is the first show for 2026, I’ve started with a delightful song about the ‘First Day of the Year‘ from Joe Newberry, after some rather contemporary picking from 1972 from the HCBB. That’s followed by some of the earliest bluegrass from Flatt & Scruggs, a great song from Kathy Barwick & Mary Gibbons, and music from the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys and Rhonda Vincent. JD Crowe and the Kentucky Mountain Boys play a couple of tunes, and Laurie Lewis gives us a rather different version of the race between Molly & Tenbrooks. The Hamilton County Bluegrass Band take us ‘Down To The Hall On Saturday Night’, and John Reischman rounds out the show with an original song and an original instrumental. Bluegrass at its most diverse.

This week’s show has a rather diverse collection of early ‘classic’ bluegrass, jazzy numbers, Christmas carols, brand new NZ bluegrass, archival NZ bluegrass and stories about NZ baches.

Always something to like. You can listen to Claire Lynch, Jerry Douglas, Larry Sparks, Tony Trischka, Jimmy Martin, the Petersens, Ricky Skaggs and NZ’s ‘You, Me, Everybody’ and the Hamilton County Bluegrass Band.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas packed with classic Bluegrass - enjoy this festive repeat episode from 24-12-2019.