Greenbriar Boys - Best of Vanguard Years

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Music reviews of Best of Vanguard Years

Music Review: Long Overdue
Rating: 5 Stars

I continue to listen to those old Vanguard recordings from time to time, but, yes, perhaps with less and less frequency. Nonetheless, forty years on, it is unmistakably clear to me that the impact of the three full recordings by the Greenbriar Boys on the Vanguard label is a lasting one. The group, whether in its Ralph Rinzler or Frank Wakefield configuration, still awes with its musicianship, vocal delivery, and sheer verve.

The Greenbriar Boys were thought of as "Bluegrass" musicians; and it is true, they did play exceedingly well the music developed by Monroe, the Stanleys, Flatt and Scruggs, Reno and Smiley, et al. They won top prizes at hypercritical Union Grove Fiddlers Convention in North Carolina in the early 1960's as well as becoming the first non-Southern band to fire real interest in this music among young urban audiences residing outside the music's own heartland. However, what the Greenbriar Boys played and how they presented it very clearly reflected their great love and knowledge of the much broader spectrum of popular music of the South: music that predated Bluegrass or was evolving collaterally with it, as well as other more contemporary elements. As I recall the impact of a typical performance of the Greenbriar Boys (and I saw them in college, coffee house and the Newport Folk Festival settings), their own enthusiasm and sense of fun never failed to win over an audience -- attending a Greenbriar Boys' concert or performance was really, first and foremost, intensely fun. But, at the same time, you could sure tell how seriously they took the music, its roots, traditions, and idioms-- and how these might be used, moving forward. Listen particularly to the selections here from their final recording, "Better Late Than Never." For years I used to think it their "messiest" work. But now I see it as probably the best thing they ever did. With new members Frank Wakefield and Jimmy Buchanan, it just exploded with creativity and new directions, but -- Bob Yellin's stunning "Russian Around" notwithstanding (and be prepared for a truly amazing guitar break by John Herald here) -- never moving all that far from the country spirit.

The Greenbriar Boys were superb showmen and convincing musical advocates who, like the older musicians they so obviously venerated, brought their immense talents into the studio, and not the other way around. Even today, listening to any of their records, I think, "This is the way moms and pops everywhere must have listened 'back then,' as they gathered around nightly live radio presentations of The Grand Old Opry or WWVA Jamboree." I know that I still pore over every word and every note, just as I did forty years ago, to my continuing unalloyed delight.

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Description of Best of Vanguard Years

Country CDs

• Music > Styles
• Folk
• Pop