Things that I've heard on bluegrass records and at bluegrass jams include some great tunes with great words: "Aragon Mill," "I'm Going to the West," John Prine's "Paradise," "Hard Times Come Again No More." The jams also feature a lot of good instrumentals, primarily fiddle tunes: "Soldier's Joy," "Old Joe Clark" (Jimmy Driftwood performed (wrote?) interesting verses to this in which Joe Clark is a bullying scalawag sheriff), "Red Haired Boy," aka "The Little Beggar Boy," "Blackberry Blossom," "The Maiden's Prayer," "Moonlight on the Water," and so on.

I find a lot of Bluegrass standards interesting to sing and play--"Sittin' on Top of the World," "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor," "Shady Grove," "Little Annie," etc., and spirituals such as "An Unclouded Day," "God's Railway to Heaven," "I'll Fly Away." One thing that does irritate me about many Bluegrass groups is their tendency to play everything as fast as they can, including songs with vocals, and most of the lead singers try to sound like Bill Monroe. Maybe it's this stylistic constipation that turns off a lot of traditional folk music fans.

Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum are a great exception to this, and so are The Dry Branch Fire Squad.

--seed