High Lonesome and Blue

Del McCoury

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High Lonesome and Blue Review

by Thom Jurek

High Lonesome and Blue is part of Rounder's 30th-anniversary 30-volume Heritage series of best-ofs compiled by label boss Ken Irwin. As such, it covers the living bluegrass legend Del McCoury's tenure with the label from 1987's The McCoury Brothers debut through to 1996's Cold Hard Facts. There are 16 cuts here, originals by McCoury's sons and bandmates as well as country classics (an amazing read of George Jones' "Don't Stop the Music" closes the album), bluegrass staples (Bill Monroe's "The Bluest Man in Town"), and tunes by contemporary writers such as Steve Earle ("If You Need a Fool") and David Olney ("Queen Anne's Lace"). This is a solid overview of a band that changed the face of bluegrass by using traditional means to approach the entire country music canon, fueled by the truly gifted musicianship of McCoury's sons, Ronnie and Rob, and Del's own singular voice. Musically, this is solid from top to bottom, and Del's own comments on the songs are a great bonus. Jon Weisberger's liner notes offer a decent thumbnail sketch of McCoury's biography, but his fawning comments about Rounder's vision and promotional strategies are irksome; they read like they were written by its marketing department. After all, isn't the label already paying tribute to itself with this series? Still, it's a fine compilation and a great introduction to the early genius of McCoury.

Track Listing

	Title/Composer	Performer	Time	Stream
1	Road of Love Del McCoury	Del McCoury	02:50	Amazon
2	Lonesome Wind Buzz Busby / Cindy Davis	Del McCoury	02:41	Amazon
3	I Feel the Blues Moving In Del McCoury	Del McCoury	03:39	Amazon
4	You'll Find Her Name Written There Harold Hensley	Del McCoury	03:39	Amazon
5	High on a Mountain Ola Belle Reed	Del McCoury	02:52	Amazon
6	I'll Pretend It's Raining Jim Eanes	Del McCoury	02:22	Amazon
7	Don't Our Love Look Natural? Don Cook / Harlan Howard	Del McCoury	02:58	Amazon
8	Cheek to Cheek With the Blues Johnny Bienstock / Roy Drusky / Vic McAlpin	Del McCoury	02:20	Amazon
9	Old Memories Mean Nothing to Me Steve Young	Del McCoury	03:34	Amazon
10	If You've Got the Money Honey Jim Beck / Lefty Frizzell	Del McCoury	02:03	Amazon
11	Queen Anne's Lace David Olney	Del McCoury	02:59
12	If You Need a Fool Steve Earle	Del McCoury	02:43	Amazon
13	The Bluest Man in Town Bill Monroe	Del McCoury	03:16	Amazon
14	The Cold Hard Facts Ronnie McCoury / Jeff White	Del McCoury	02:46	Amazon
15	Blackjack County Chains Red Lane	Del McCoury	03:25	Amazon
16	Don't Stop the Music George Jones	Del McCoury	03:42	Amazon