Norman Blake

On the album Morning Bugle that, uh, John did in the, uh, early 1970s.

He d- did this recording with just himself on banjo mostly, and Norman Blake on guitar mostly, and Dave Holland on double bass.

And Dave Holland was an Englishman and a jazz bass player.

He played jazz and in a whole bunch of different circumstances, and he had not long moved to the USA.

It was a good, fun song to do.

And, uh, John, of course, does an amazing version of the song, and I'm gonna play that for you now.

Just imagine John Hartford sitting over there, Norman Blake sitting over there, Dave Holland probably standing and playing his double bass.

And here's Late Last Night When Willie Come Home.

You know, so I'm thinking of guys like my dad and Doc Watson and kind of everybody in between.

Tony Rice, Norman Blake, Jack Lawrence, David Greer, Dan Crary, George Shuffler.

But I've always thought in the 20 years since that was released, it would be fun to revisit that concept with more of... what I would call sort of my peers, pals, folks that I'd gotten to know over the last 20, 25 years on the bluegrass scene that weren't just these icons and heroes of mine, but still just within that duet format.

I also, over the last... 20 years in a process of transferring some of the music that I'd recorded with some of these people to a hard drive, I discovered that there were songs that I'd forgotten that we had recorded.

[on-hold jazz music]That was "Nemesis", from Dave Holland's quartet album "Extensions".

One of Dave Holland's most remarkable qualities is his ability to adapt to the most diverse musical situations while remaining immediately recognizable in every context: from playing folk and bluegrass with Norman Blake or Chris Smither to blues rock with Bonnie Raitt, from free improvisation with Derek Bailey to bebop and mainstream jazz, as we'll hear in this set featuring a couple of albums with exquisite piano players.

We will start with his collaboration with Hank Jones, with Billy Higgins on drums, focusing on a Hank Jones composition that has become a staple in Dave Holland's repertoire: "The Oracle", from a 1990 Hank Jones album of the same title.

After that, another album released that same year: Don Graulnick's "Weaver of Dreams", from which we will hear one of Graulnick's classics: "Nothing Personal".

Have no fear, cause I'm yours.

And that is the incredible Norman Blake featured out front on Mandolin and the big rock Andy Mountain.

And of course, that was a feature song in the classic Coen Brothers film, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? You are listening to Island Waves.

This is Mackenzie Patricks on today's edition of Country Roads.

There's, of course, Doc Watson and his son, Merle.

There's Norman Blake and Tony Rice, and Tony Rice and his brother, Wyatt.

It seems like kind of like a no-brainer, just two people playing guitar together, but it's actually, like, a little tricky.

Um, your instruments are right in the same range, obviously.

And he has been in a really important part of what I'm calling my recovery because he kept my foot in it a little bit.

He would invite me to come and play these benefits that he would do with Norman Blake.

and they did fundraisers and it kept me like just enough in.

And he would always ask me, I'm almost going to cry actually.

And he was the first guy to really do a lot of Gordon Lightfoot songs and bluegrass and And he he picks stuff like Bob Frankie's Hard Love, you know, and songs that nobody would have thought to do other than him and just great tunes.

Norman Blake tunes, you know.

So

it's kind of interesting that Now in bluegrass, it seems like a lot of artists reach backwards into bluegrass to find songs to play, but Tony was kind of reaching outside the genre.

So many good players, man.

It's like bluegrass guitar.

was a rarity back when i'm lead guitar when i started playing there were a handful of players there was norman blake and doc got you heard a lot of his stuff even though he really wasn't playing any bluegrass but tony clarence had died in 1973 before i started playing and there were a few other players like dan crary who who played in the bluegrass alliance uh this group in kentucky before tony joined the And Tony actually took some of his tunes and some of his stuff that he did.

Dan did a version of Freeborn Man, but he did it in E position, but he did it like Jerry Reid, where you did that, you know, well, I was born in the Southland.

It's sort of a non-conventional or non-traditional at this point, but so I put out a record, excuse me, put out a record 20 years ago called Not Too Far From the Tree.

It was a collection of duets with guitar heroes like Doc Watson, Tony Rice, Norman Blake, George Shuffler.

My dad was on it.

Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas.