Rounder Bluegrass Initiative Features Béla Fleck, Doc Watson, John Hartford, Louvin Brothers, More

March 7, 2016 By Joe Marchese — No Comments

Rounder Records, the pioneering American roots music label, is in the midst of its 45th anniversary celebration. Over the past months, the Cambridge-founded, Nashville-based Rounder has been making titles from its deep catalogue available as digital downloads. Last month, the label threw a Mardi Gras party with digital reissues of R&B, blues, jazz and Cajun music of the Crescent City. This month, the 51-time Grammy-winning Rounder – since 2010 under the umbrella of the Concord Music Group – will turn its attention to the varied world of bluegrass and the label’s rich legacy with the genre.

Original albums and compilations alike comprise the titles available digitally from Rounder this month. Among the remarkable titles featured are releases from luminaries past and present like Bela Fleck, Del McCoury, Doc Watson, John Hartford, The Louvin Brothers, Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys, and The Stanley Brothers.

Another set of bluegrass-themed releases will arrive on digital platforms in August from Rounder. In the meantime, you can peruse the list of currently-available titles below, and corresponding Amazon U.S. links. Watch this space for information on more releases from the Rounder 45th initiative! A free 15-track Rounder digital sampler is still available at NoiseTrade, and you can read more about Rounder’s history here!

Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard, Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard
Nashville Bluegrass Band (compilation)
Tony Trischka & Bela Fleck, Solo Banjo Works
The Lynn Morris Band, The Bramble & The Rose
The Del McCoury Band, Blue Side of Town
The Johnson Mountain Boys, Blue Diamond
The Cox Family, Everybody’s Reaching Out for Someone
Connie & Babe and the Backwoods Boys, Down the Road to Home
Ronnie & Rob McCoury, Ronnie & Rob McCoury
The Doc Watson Family, Tradition
Bobby Osborne and The Rocky Top X-Press, Bluegrass Melodies
The Clinch Mountain Boys & Ralph Stanley, Can’t You Hear the Mountains Calling
John Hartford, Good’le Days: Essential Recordings
The Louvin Brothers, Songs That Tell a Story
The Stanley Brothers, Earliest Recordings: The Complete Rich-R-Tone 78s (1947-1952)
James King, Bed by the Window
Rob Ickes, Slide City
Dry Branch Fire Squad, Memories That Bless and Burn
The Bluegrass Album Band, Lonesome Moonlight: Songs of Bill Monroe

Categories:

News

Formats:

Digital Download

Genres:

Blues, Country, Folk

Tags:

Béla Fleck, Doc Watson, John Hartford, Ralph Stanley, The Louvin Brothers

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.

Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.