The Grascals & Friends- Country Classics With A Bluegrass Spin

My review of the latest from The Grascals has been posted at the Lonesome Road Review site: http://www.countrystandardtime.com/d/cdreview.asp?xid=4591

Following a pattern established by other bluegrass artists, most notably Vincent & Dailey with Sing the Statler Brothers, the sextet join forces with Cracker Barrel to showcase countrified bluegrass. With V & D moving somewhere plus of 40K copies of their bluegrass-infused versions of country classics, Rounder labelmates The Grascals attempt to capture similar retail magic.

Interesting note: three of the songs on Country Classics With A Bluegrass Spin were previously featured on Heights of Grass’s 1978 album Louisiana Saturday Night.

One confusing element is The Grascals’ ongoing efforts toward rehabilitating Hank Jr.’s cred with the “Born to Boogie/All My Rowdy Friends” medley; Hank Jr. circa 1985 was bad enough- covers of his windbaggy, urban cowboy-era hits is entirely baffling, to me. 

Thanks for visiting Fervor Coulee. Donald