There’s no doubt that Red Allen was among the very best Bluegrass vocalists ever. Sadly, he was in his prime at a time when the music was at its lowest ebb, with the opportunities to play Bluegrass mostly relegated to gigs in sleazy bars and dives in the Northeast and Midwest, a few firemen’s carnivals, and as warm up acts in the dying country music park scene. But Allen joined with fellow Kentuckians Bob & Sonny Osborne to produce some of the finest Bluegrass ever cut, with their classic MGM recordings of the mid 1950s. These two marvelous Rebel re-issues pick up sometime after that, when Red was an important player in the Washington, DC hot bed, first with buddy Frank Wakefield, then with his own band The Kentuckians. Then, a strange series of events joined him with a very young David Grisman, who proceeded to supervise (and take part in) two great albums for the new County label in 1965-1966.
There’s no doubt that Red Allen was among the very best Bluegrass vocalists ever. Sadly, he was in his prime at a time when the music was at its lowest ebb, with the opportunities to play Bluegrass mostly relegated to gigs in sleazy bars and dives in the Northeast and Midwest, a few firemen’s carnivals, and as warm up acts in the dying country music park scene. But Allen joined with fellow Kentuckians Bob & Sonny Osborne to produce some of the finest Bluegrass ever cut, with their classic MGM recordings of the mid 1950s. These two marvelous Rebel re-issues pick up sometime after that, when Red was an important player in the Washington, DC hot bed, first with buddy Frank Wakefield, then with his own band The Kentuckians. Then, a strange series of events joined him with a very young David Grisman, who proceeded to supervise (and take part in) two great albums for the new County label in 1965-1966.