J.D. Crowe & The Newsouth The New South (LP, colored Vinyl, Ltd.)

Virtually no other album in history is known to its audience by its label number. Not “Kind of Blue”, not “Pet Sounds”, Glenn Gould's “Goldberg Variations”, nothing. Except for this one. Rounder 44, probably the most groundbreaking bluegrass album of all time. Note that we weren't talking about modern bluegrass, even though it originally came out in 1975. That's because, unlike, say, Aereo Plain by John Hartford (who contributed notes to the original packaging, reproduced here), The New South didn't reinvent bluegrass. It perfected it.
Bandleader and banjo player J. D. Crowe began his career as a teenager with Jimmy Martin's Sunny Mountain Boys before returning to Kentucky and forming the Kentucky Mountain Boys. That band morphed over the years into The New South, which probably boasts the most impressive lineup any American band of any genre has ever had. Bassist Bob Sloane (of the Kentucky Colonels) was the first to join them, followed by one legend after another: fiddle and mandolin player Ricky Skaggs, dobro player Jerry Douglas and guitarist and singer Tony Rice. Together they were pure magic: technically brilliant but soulful, inventive but disciplined, each a virtuoso but still part of the unit. And, oh, those harmonies! The New South is the cornerstone of any bluegrass collection. Of course, such a talented group was not destined to last long. Within a year, each member went their own way, pioneering progressive bluegrass with each successive project. But the one album they recorded together, Rounder 44, is THE ONE.
Our Real Gone reissue of “The New South” includes two sets of additional liner notes, one by guitarist Skip Heller and one by mandolinist Jarrod Walker, as well as the bonus tracks “Why Don't You Tell Me So” and “Cryin' Holy” featuring Emmylou Harris.