"Next Stop: Bluegrass City"
Bluegrass City Records 001

The Washington D.C. area has long been a hub for country music. In 1926, Al Hopkins and the Hill Billies began broadcasting their Saturday night show on WRC radio. Jimmie Rodgers got his nickname "the Singing Brakeman" on his WTTF radio show. Jimmy Dean became a star in 1954 with his country music TV show on WMAL-TV. Patsy Cline, Roy Clark, and, later, Emmy Lou Harris, and Mary Chapin Carpenter have been associated with the D.C. area music scene.

World War II jobs in Washington lured Appalachian migrants to the Capital City. They brought their taste in music (and their musicians) with them, sparking interest in the hot acoustic music called "Bluegrass." De-mobilized Southern military vets settled in D.C. in the 1950s and helped feed the flame, and the "Folk Music" boom of the 1960s added fuel to the fire. The Stoneman Family, Buzz Busby, Bill Harrell, Bill Clifton, Reno & Smiley, the Country Gentlemen, Bobby & Donnie Bryant, Porter Church, Bill Emerson, the Yates Brothers and others formed a flourishing music scene that later expanded to include such bands as the Seldom Scene, the IInd Generation, the New Shades of Grass, and the Johnson Mountain Boys. DJs Ray Davis, Don Owens, Eddie Matherly, Tom Reeder, and Red Shipley spun Bluegrass records on the local airwaves and told listeners where the artists were playing each night. Washington was truly Bluegrass City, and that side of town is the destination of the Orange Line Special.

THE GROUP

He had to give his new group a name for a 1998 festival performance, so Charlie Bean (vocals/guitar) came up with "Potomac Valley Express." "But we all live near Orange Line Metrorail stations," protested bass player Mike Licht, so they chose "Orange Line Special." They didn't know it until months later, but singer/guitarist/arranger Lynn Healey had been working as a technician for Metrorail's Automatic Train Control section for over 20 years, and was the second woman to work for Metrorail in a non-traditional tech job. Richard Dress (vocals/banjo) is the band's repertoire guru, and Paul Gregory provides plectrum punctuation on mandolin.

THE ARTISTS

Born in Southeast D.C.'s Congress Heights neighborhood, LYNN HEALEY got a Harmony guitar for Christmas when she was 14. Her Mom and stepfather worked in Georgetown's Shamrock tavern, home of Washington's Country Gentlemen, and Lynn learned to play guitar by watching the band's guitarist. "Charlie Waller taught me to play, but he didn't know it at the time." He laughed when she told him about it years later.

Lynn and her sister Christie often sang at "Partners II" in Centreville, VA, and used the club's name (with permission) for their duo when they entered Warrenton's "National Country Music Championship." Their rendition of "The Sweetest Gift" got them into the finals. Mandolinist and singer Eldred Hill enlisted the sisters in his group Patent Pending, with Christie on bass and Lynn on guitar. They played at La Boheme (pronounced "La Bo Heem" by owners and patrons at Seven Corners) and at O'Brien's Pit BBQ. After three years, Lynn left music until a member of her "ham" radio club saw her Martin Guitars T-shirt and asked her to play for club events. She started going to jam sessions run by the Capital Area Bluegrass and Old-time Music Association (CABOMA), played duets with singer-songwriter Ric Sweeney, and spent two years as a member of the Capital Bluegrass Band.

Lynn's friend Mary Simpson played fiddle with the all-female "New Girls Nite Out," and Mary's Uncle Ted urged Lynn to join the group. She loved the band's energy and harmonies, but not the long drives to rehearsals and appearances near leader Jean Bazzanella's home in Mineral, VA. Lynn continued playing with "NGNO" until the summer of 2001, when her friend Cyndi Mahler took her place.

Lynn gravitated back to traditional Bluegrass after meeting banjo player Richard Dress. She met Charlie Bean at a "picking party" and they enjoyed singing harmonies together. Charlie, Lynn, and Richard appeared at the 1998 Washington Folk Festival at Glen Echo, MD as "Charlie Bean and friends," with David Felber on mandolin and Mike Licht on bass. They returned the next year with mandolinist Paul Gregory as "Orange Line Special."

RICHARD DRESS grew up "in the woods" in Darmstadt, near Evansville, Indiana. "Throw a rock and it lands in Kentucky," he recalls. The family listened to "the Grand Ole Opry" radio broadcasts on Saturday nights and recordings of Carl Sandberg and Burl Ives. Richard bought a guitar while in high school and learned to play from instructions in the back of Alan Lomax's book Folksongs of North America. As an Antioch freshman, he heard records by Flatt and Scruggs and the Stanley Brothers. He transferred to Evansville College and took guitar lessons from bandleader Les Smithhart, owner of a fiddle shop in Henderson, Kentucky. Richard saw a beautiful "Whyte Lady" banjo in the shop, bought it, and taught himself Scruggs-style banjo by slowing down Bluegrass records and picking out the parts. He and two Evansville neighbors formed the "Ohio River Valley Boys." Richard transferred to Oregon State, where the "Sawtooth Mountain Boys" quickly recruited him as a guitarist.

Richard's admiration for the Country Gentlemen and their banjo player Eddie Adcock was a chief reason for his move to Washington, D.C. when he graduated. He plunged right in to "Bluegrass City," spending nights at the Shamrock, Birchmere, and Red Fox to see the Gentlemen, Cliff Waldron and the New Shades of Grass, IInd Generation and others. Richard studied banjo with Bill Emerson and Eddie Adcock, and D.C.'s Bluegrass bands were frequent guests at the small glass house he rented on the Potomac. The Seldom Scene previewed their first album at one of Richard's parties. When the Seldom Scene played their first public appearance at a club called the Rabbit's Foot, someone wheeled a big color TV near the bandstand and put on the Redskins game. Richard complained to the bartender and suddenly found himself out on the sidewalk watching a huge bouncer walk back into the club. At the Shamrock later that night, Richard was surprised when the Scene's bass player Tom Gray sat at his table. The band had given up and left their own premiere.

Richard set aside music for a decade but, after banjo-playing relative Steve Moore moved to town, he began to rush home from work and play along with the afternoon Bluegrass show on WAMU-FM. After two years of this, he began picking at the CABOMA jams, where bass player Bill Taylor recruited him for the Sprouts of Grass, and he played with them for a year. Richard met Lynn Healey at CABOMA in 1997, and they joined Charlie Bean two years later in Orange Line Special. Richard has been teaching banjo and guitar at Clarendon's Music Loft since 1999.

Minister's son CHARLIE BEAN grew up singing in church choirs in Boston, Cape Cod, and New Bedford. His father was originally from Moorefield, West Virginia and had toured the U.S. with Boston University's Seminary Singers. The family spent evenings singing folksongs and camp songs with friends. Charlie got his first guitar at age 16 and soon was performing folk music at New Bedford's Try Works coffeehouse, harmonizing with his brother Jim, also a singer and guitarist. Jim and Charlie went to Western Maryland College, started a folk club, and sometimes jammed with older student Walt Michael. Charlie also played rock guitar at Friday "beer brawls" near campus.

Charlie didn't play Bluegrass until he went to college in England. A British banjo player "adopted" him, and he adopted the music while absorbing British folksongs, drinking songs, and many pints of bitter. He returned to the U.S. with a grant from a British university to tape record folksongs in West Virginia, his ancestral home. This resulted in a BBC Radio program, Charlie's fascination with research at the Library of Congress, and his love for the city of Washington.

Charlie settled in D.C., got a job at the Library, and began performing with old college buddy Michael Hunt in Burtonsville's Gonzo Cowboys. He also played old-time country music with fiddler Joel Bailes in the Capitol Hillbillies, and sang and played bass in Cajun band Jolie Rouge. He visits New England several times a year to play and sing with his brother Jim and sister-in-law Cindy, who have performed sea shanties and folksongs for 25 years as The Beans. Charlie formed the core of the band that later became the Orange Line Special in 1998.

"From Blighty to Bean Blossom," PAUL GREGORY jokes about a musical career that brought him from Britain to the famous Indiana Bluegrass festival. Born in Virginia Water, Surrey, across the Great Park from Windsor Castle, Paul started playing classical guitar at 16 but in true teen tradition, played a Fender Strat through a 100-watt Marshall amp in his bedroom. His interests broadened to acoustic British folk and Celtic music. Seeking variety, he picked up a cheap plywood mandolin. The music store also sold him a Bluegrass instruction book.

Paul took a job in Kingsport, Tennessee, in 1993. One of his co-workers was a good country fiddler. They jammed a bit and went to a few concerts. At the "Downhome" club in Johnson City, Paul was astounded by the high lonesome vocals of the Del McCoury Band and the virtuosity of mandolin player Ronnie McCoury, and was inspired to learn Bluegrass mandolin. He spent the next two years practicing and hearing as much Bluegrass music as he could.

Back in England, Paul sought out the small but enthusiastic British Bluegrass community, jammed a bit and "woodshedded." He moved to Northern Virginia in 1996 and started playing at the CABOMA jam sessions at Arlington's Lyon Park and the jam at Boe's Music Store in Frederick, Maryland. At the same time he studied classical mandolin with Washington's Neil Gladd. His Bluegrass influences include Bill Monroe and Washington's Buzz Busby ("Absolutely the most intense singer and player I've ever heard"). He met Lynn Healey and Richard Dress at CABOMA, and they invited him to join the band that would become Orange Line Special. Paul is married to playwright D. W. Gregory.

A junior-high music teacher sent young MIKE LICHT to the Dean for "plucking the double bass in the storeroom" instead of practicing his flute then drafted him to play bass in the school orchestra. Mike grew up in New York City in the 60s, and dabbled with woodwinds, guitar, and bass. He heard folksingers in Washington Square and got his little fingerprints on vintage guitars in Izzy Young's shop while gaping at customers like Dylan and Odetta. He saw the Blues Project and the Fugs in Bryant Park and went to the Fillmore East a few times. Mike played in a few undistinguished rock bands before moving to Austin, Texas for graduate school in 1973.

Study and work kept Mike from music, but he had a big volunteer job on TV's "Austin City Limits": serving beer to the audience. After research and teaching jobs, Mike was a technician for radio station KUT-FM and ate lunch across the street at the "Hole in the Wall," where he met the musicians who later formed the Austin Lounge Lizards. Classmate Nick Spitzer brought Sun recording artist "Harmonica Frank" Floyd to town, and Mike became fascinated with novelty harmonica playing. He interviewed early radio performer Lonnie Glosson, who had recorded with Wayne Raney and the Delmore Brothers. A paper on the harmonica won him the Charles Seeger Prize, and he received a Smithsonian Fellowship to study folk harmonica. Mike moved to Washington, played old-time music a few times with his advisor, Ralph Rinzler, and worked on a few Smithsonian folk festivals.

The Austin Lounge Lizards used Mike's songs "Hot Tubs of Tears," "The Car Hank Died in," and "Kool Whip" on their first album, and their second featured Mike's tune "Industrial Strength Tranquilizer." Mike toured Europe with blues musician Charlie Sayles, and commuted to Boston to play with the Cambridge Harmonica Orchestra. Editor of a Library of Congress annual
review of folk recordings, he also played bass at D.C. Blues Society jam sessions and for Terence McArdle & Big Trouble, Dr. S.O. Feelgood, and Memphis Gold. Neighbors Joel Bailes and Charlie Bean drafted Mike to play harmonica, bass, and slide guitar in the Capitol Hillbillies. He also played in Joel's "hot jazz" and Blues group the Barrelhouse Brawlers, with Charlie in Burtonsville's Gonzo Cowboys, and with Dr. Hot Pepper's Fabulous Orchestra.

Mike worked for the American Folklife Center and Archive of Folk Culture at the Library of Congress and was the first folklorist of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. For ten years he raised money from the NEA and helped D.C.'s traditional artists compete for it. He produced eighty concerts of traditional music, including Gospel quartet performances in public housing, and wrote program notes for them.

Charlie, Lynn, and Richard asked Mike to play bass for them at the 1998 Washington Folk Festival at Glen Echo, MD. Mike loved it, and suggested recording. Reunited for the 1999 festival, with Paul Gregory on mandolin, the group began performing as "the Orange Line Special."

THE RECORDING

Next Stop: Bluegrass City (Bluegrass City Records 001) was recorded "almost live," with all the band members in the studio at the same time, playing and singing together. "We think you can feel the difference in the energy and inspiration," says banjo player Richard Dress. It was recorded and mixed at Hyattsville, Maryland's' Private Ear studio by Grammy™-winning engineer Pete Reiniger, and mastered at Wolf Productions in Alexandria, Virginia by Billy Wolf. The CD features original artwork by Michael Swartzbeck, best known in the music community for his work for webcaster Hober.com, and a photograph taken by D.C. Blues phenomenon Dr. S.O. Feelgood. Song notes and discography are by the band's banjo player Richard Dress. The CD is available at band performances and through County Sales (www.countysales.com and (540) 745-2001).

THE SONGS
Song notes by Richard Dress

BRINGING IN THE GEORGIA MAIL
Fred Rose
Milene Music ASCAP

Charlie Monroe and his Kentucky Pardners popularized this song on a 78-rpm single for RCA Victor in 1950 (reissued by RCA Camden on the 1963 Monroe Brothers album Early Bluegrass Music). Don Reno, Red Smiley and the Tennessee Cutups released it on a 45-rpm single for King Records in December 1960, then on their 1961 King Records album Wanted (reissued by Gusto Records on the 1978 album 20 Bluegrass Originals). It has also been recorded by the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers (Bluegrass Spectacular, Starday Records sampler album, 1963), Flatt & Scruggs (Hear the Whistle Blow, Columbia Records, 1967), Mac Wiseman (as "Georgia Mail" on Singing Country Favorites, Rounder Records, 1973), Jim & Jesse (In the Tradition, Rounder Records, 1987). Don Reno released it again, this time with Bill Harrell, on their 1976 CMH Records album The Don Reno Story.

Lynn Healey used the Fred Rose lyrics in an original trio arrangement with Mike Licht (an admirer of Lonnie Glosson and Wayne Raney) on the harmonica. Yes, we have a harmonica in our band-and happy to have it. We think it adds a lot, even though in the past some of us have been known to jam in the key of C# to chase away those pesky harmonica players. Richard Dress' banjo break harks back to Don Reno, Charlie Bean added his vocal skills, and Paul Gregory's mandolin keeps us clicking down the track aboard that fast mail train.

THE LOVER'S RETURN
A. P. Carter
APRS BMI

A 19th century parlor song, also known as "Too Late you have Come Back to me," this was recorded as a trio by the Carter Family for Victor in1934, although without the second verse. Rounder Records reissued the song on the 1998 Carter Family album Gold Watch and Chain: Their Complete Victor Recordings (1933 - 1934) as did Bear Family Records for the 2000 Carter Family album In the Shadow of Clinch Mountain. Others had recorded it before the Carters: the Stoneman Family (as "Too Late" for Victor in 1928) and the Weaver Brothers, for example. Roy Acuff released the song in 1940 as "The Broken Heart." You can find versions of the song by Mother Maybelle Carter (Queen of the Autoharp, Kapp Records, 1964), Hazel Dickens & Alice Foster (Gerrard) (Who's that Knockin' Verve/Folkways, 1965 and also Pioneering Women of Bluegrass, Smithsonian Folkways, 1996), Ed Trickett (People Like You, Folk-Legacy Records, 1982), Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin (A Song that will Linger; Rounder Records, 1989), Jack Hinshelwood (Dark Run, Heritage Records, 1993), Kate Wolf (Looking Back at You, Rhino Records, 1994), Laurie Lewis & Dudley Connell on the Arhoolie Records compilation Masters of the Banjo (1994), Linda Ronstadt (Feels Like Home, Elektra Entertainment, 1995), Kay Justice & Ginny Hawker (Signs and Wonders, June Appal Recordings, 1996 ), and Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris & Linda Ronstadt (Trio II, Elektra Entertainment, 1999).

Lynn Healey learned her version from the Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin recording (Jody is one of her favorite musicians and singers) but added her own idea of a sparse arrangement that would focus attention on our trio vocal harmonies.

LITTLE GLASS OF WINE
Ralph Stanley & Carter Stanley
Fort Knox Music/Trio Music/ZAP Publishing BMI

A major hit for the Stanley Brothers in their early years, this song won them their first recording contract with Rich-R-Tone Records. It is their version of the old English folksong "Oxford City". Otto Taylor, a neighbor who worked for the Ritter Lumber Company in McClure VA, knew one verse but no melody. The Stanley Brothers wrote the rest of the verses and the melody in 1946. The first Stanley Brothers Rich-R-Tone 78-rpm single was released in March 1948. They released it on Columbia Records (78-rpm single) in 1949 and again as another 78-rpm single for Rich-R-Tone Records in 1952. Columbia Records reissued it on the 1966 Harmony Records album The Angels are Singing, as did Rounder Records in 1980. Starday Records released it for the1963 Stanley Brothers album The Mountain Music Sound (crediting the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers). Copper Creek Records released live versions in 1986 and 1987 for the Stanley Series albums. Rebel Records also released a live version in 1988 from the Stanley Brothers 1947 WCYB "Bristol Farm & Fun Time" radio show. Ralph Stanley released it again in 1971, 1982, 1990 and 1995 for Rebel Records. The song has also been recorded by the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers (a Starday Records 45 rpm single, 1962), the Bluegrass Gentlemen (Liberty Records, 1962), Keith Whitley & Ricky Skaggs (Tribute to the Stanley Brothers, Jalyn Recording Company, 1971), and the Country Gentlemen (On the Road, Folkways, 1963) as "Glass of Wine." Smithsonian Folkways reissued the Country Gentlemen album in 2001 under the same title.

Our version starts with a duet by Richard Dress and Charlie Bean that grows into a trio, with Lynn Healey's high baritone joining in halfway through the song.

PRETTY POLLY
Traditional

Based on the 1600s English ballad The Gosport Tragedy, this song has a long history in folk music. and has been found in many different versions and modalities. Dock Boggs and the Red Fox Chasers released an influential version of it in 1928. Raymond Stanley recorded this traditional Appalachian folksong in the late 1930s for the Tennessee Folklore Society. The Stanley Brothers learned from their father, Lee Stanley, and popularized this song in Bluegrass, playing it in a modal scale. They first released it on a 78-rpm single for Columbia Records in December 1950 (crediting B. F. Shelton) and later on their 1961 Harmony album The Stanley Brothers. A live version, recorded live in 1958 at New River Ranch in Rising Sun MD, was released by Copper Creek Records on the 1992 album The Stanley Series (Volume III, Number 4). They recorded the song again for Ray Davis' Wango Records in the early 1960s, reissued by County Records in 1973 and again by Rebel Records on the 1990 Stanley Brothers album Long Journey Home. Columbia Records reissued the original 1950 version of the song on a sampler album in 1989, as did Rounder Records in 1982. After his brother Carter died, Ralph Stanley carried on their music, releasing "Pretty Polly" again for the Rebel Recording Company in 1971, 1972, and 1991. Buzz Busby (1961), the Coon Creek Girls (1953), Country Pardners (1956), Curly Dan, Wilma Ann & the Danville Mountain Boys (date unknown), Rusty York and the Kentucky Mountain Boys (1961), and the Sauceman Brothers (1950) released early bluegrass singles of other versions. Recent versions include those by Larry Sparks and the Lonesome Ramblers (Old and New, Old Homestead Records, 1972) and the Crooked Jades (Seven Sisters, 2001 Copper Creek Records). In 1997 Rounder Records released two compilation albums with versions sung by Estil C. Ball recorded by Alan Lomax in 1959 and 1960.

Charlie Bean has been singing this solo version of this traditional folksong since he was a child. He can't remember where he got it or from whom he learned it.

WHISKEY AND JAIL
Earl Jennings Carson (aka Kit Carson)
Fort Knox Music/Trio Music BMI

Based on a song more than 200 years old, this musical recitation was recorded live by the Stanley Brothers at the University of Cincinnati on January, 28, 1963 and released in 1964 on the King Records album Folk Concert (reissued by Gusto Records in 1976). King Records also released the song on the 1963 sampler album Hootenanny. The Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys also released the song on a 45-rpm single for King Records in 1967 as "Whiskey." It has also been recorded by Dave Evans & River Bend (Call Me Long Gone, Vetco Records, 1980, reissued by Crosscut Records, 1999) as "Whiskey" and credited to Ralph Stanley, and Ralph Mayo, who played fiddle for the Stanley Brothers, released it in 1985 (Berkshire Mountains Bluegrass Festival, Pigeon Roost).

Our interpretation of this fairly obscure song, performed by Richard Dress, is based on the Stanley Brothers' live 1963 version. Recitations are fun to do-especially with the accompanying "ooo-ooo's."

WHEN THE ROSES BLOOM IN DIXIELAND
A. P. Carter (Alvin Pleasant Carter)
APRS BMI

George 'Honeyboy' Ebbans, a performer from the minstrel tradition, better known for his all-time favorite "In the Good Old Summertime", originally penned this song in 1913. The Carter Family was probably the first to record this song (for Victor in 1929), crediting A. P. Carter. The Carter Family version was reissued in 1974 (album The Happiest Days of All, Camden), 1995 (When the Roses Bloom in Dixieland: the Carter Family, Their Complete Victor Recordings (1929 - 1930), Rounder Records), and 2000 (In the Shadow of Clinch Mountain, Bear Family Records). The Blue Sky Boys released a 78-rpm single version for RCA Victor's Bluebird label in the 1940s (Bluebird reissued it for the 1976 album The Blue Sky Boys). Many other artists have recorded this song, including Ray Hutchinson (I Like Mountain Music, Rich-R-Tone Records, 1972), Laura Boosinger (My Carolina Home, label unknown, 1988), Tim & Mollie O'Brien (Take me Back, Sugar Hill Records, 1988) John & Jamie Hartford (Hartford & Hartford, Flying Fish Records, 1991), the Old Time Music Group (We Sing the Old Songs, Central Recording Studio, 1994), the All Night Gang (Bluegrass from Nashville, Rebel Records, 1992), the Osborne Brothers (When the Roses Bloom in Dixieland, Pinecastle Records, 1994), and Wendy Lewis & Friends (Mountain Memories 2000 (label unknown, 2001).

This is just a good song. We all like to pick it, and Charlie Bean and Lynn Healey love to sing it. No matter where we go, the Carter Family is always in style.

HOT TUBS OF TEARS
Mike Licht ©Mike Licht, 1980

Mike Licht wrote this song about a lovelorn Texas boy and a hard-hearted California girl while he was living in Austin in 1980. His pals The Austin Lounge Lizards recorded it (and two more of his songs) on their 1984 Sugar Hill Records album Creatures from the Black Saloon. It's Mike's most-recorded composition, with versions by Pumpkin Ridge (1990), Mack Bailey (1990), the Hard Travelers (1999), California's Sagebrush (1999), Wyoming's FireAnts, and others. We like Mike's songs and wanted to record this one for our album. Again, Charlie Bean and Lynn Healey perform the vocal duties for this one.

I DON'T BELIEVE YOU'VE MET MY BABY
Autry Inman
Tree Publishing BMI

This song was the Louvin Brothers' second Billboard hit. Recorded in October 1955 for Capitol Records, it entered the charts in January 1956 and peaked at #1. Significant reissues are on Hillbilly Heaven (Capitol Records, 1979), Country USA - 1956 (Time Life Music, 1990) sampler and Heroes of Country Music, Volume III (Rhino Records, 1996). Copper Creek Records released a live version (recorded in 1956 in Rising Sun, MD) for the 1989 album The Louvin Brothers Live at New River Ranch. Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys (Jim and Jesse Saluting the Louvin Brothers, Epic Records, 1969 Live in Japan, and Old Dominion Records, 1975) are among those who have recorded this tale of dreams and misunderstanding. Other versions were recorded by Charlie Louvin (I'll Remember Always, Capitol Records, 1967), Joe Val (One Morning in May, Rounder Records, 1971, reissued on Diamond Joe, Rounder Records, 1995), Country Gazette (Don't Give up your Day Job, United Artists Records 1973) the Bluegrass Cardinals (Home is Where the Heart is, Sugar Hill Records album 1984), the Whitstein Brothers (Trouble ain't Nothin' but the Blues, Rounder Records, 1987), Allison Krauss (Now that I've Found you, Rounder Records, 1995), and Jerry Douglas (Slide Rule, Sugar Hill Records, 1992 )

Charlie Bean got on a Louvin Brothers and Jim & Jesse kick last year, and the band was happy to accommodate him. Lynn Healey contributed some necessary vocal harmonies for this duet, giving the performance a Louvin Brothers flavor.

ANOTHER NIGHT OF WAITING
Leroy Preston
Whiskey Drinkin Music/Bug Music BMI

Eric Gibson asked Leroy Preston (of the band Asleep at the Wheel) if he'd ever written any "Everly Brothers type songs," and Leroy played him this one, written in 1970. The Gibson Brothers version of the song (Another Night of Waiting, Hay Holler Records, 1998) impressed Charlie Bean and Lynn Healey, and they added it to the band's repertoire as a duet. Jon Emery recently recorded the song on V.I.P.: The Leroy Preston Songbook (Rib House Records, 2001).

SWEET LITTLE MISS BLUE EYES
Don Helms & C. H. Taube
Universal Cedarwood Publishing BMI

Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys released their first version of the song in July 1962 on a 45 rpm single for Epic Records, and a 1963 album (Bluegrass Special, Epic Records), in 1970 (Wildwood Flower, Harmony Records album; song reissued by Rhino Records on the 1999 compilation Appalachian Stomp), and in 1973 (Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom, MCA Records; reissued by MCA in 1987 and on the Bear Family Records Bluegrass, 1970-79, in 1994). Another live version by the Stanleys may be found on the compilation Newport Folk Festival: Best of Bluegrass 1959 - 1966 (Vanguard Records, 2001). Country singer Carl Smith recorded the song in for Columbia 1958 (reissued on Satisfaction Guaranteed, Bear Family Records, 1996) as did his colleague Ray Price in 1966 (Harmony Records; reissued on The Honky Tonk Years, 1950 - 1966, Bear Family Records, 1995 and Collector's Choice, Sony Music Special Products, 1995). Mel Tillis reprised it in 1980 (Your Body is an Outlaw, Elektra Records). Bluegrass versions have been recorded by Here Today (Here Today, Rounder Records, 1982; reissued on Rounder Bluegrass, Volume II, 1988, and on My Sweet Love Ain't Around, 2001), Zeke Saunders and the Blades of Grass (Starlight on the Rails, Heritage Records, 1988), and David Grisman & friends (Here Today, Rounder Records, 1988).

Charlie Bean likes Jim & Jesse as much as he does the Louvin Brothers. Lynn Healey helps him with vocal harmonies on this duet.

GOD GAVE YOU TO ME
Ralph Stanley
Fort Knox Music/Trio Music BMI

The Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys first released this song on a 45-rpm single for Starday Records in April 1960, then for their 1963 Starday Records album The Mountain Music Sound (Starday Records reissued the song on Don't Cheat in Our Hometown in 1998). Producer and radio personality Ray Davis released a live 1963 version, recorded at Johnny's Used Cars in Baltimore, on Wango Records (The Stanley Brothers on the Air, 1972). Another live version, recorded in 1960 at New River Ranch in Rising Sun, MD, was released in 1982 (The Stanley Series, Volume I, Number 2, Copper Creek Records). Gusto Records reissued the song on the 1983 album The Stanley Brothers, Volume V). County Records reissued it on the 1984 Stanley Brothers album The Starday Sessions. Ralph Stanley released it with the Clinch Mountain Boys in 1972 (Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys Play Requests, Rebel Recording Company Rebel Records; reissued on Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys, 1971 - 1973, Rebel, 1995). Ralph Stanley recorded it with Jimmy Martin for their 1980 Gusto Records album First Time Together (reissued in 1996 on Gusto's Hollywood label). Dr. Stanley recorded the song again on Bound to Ride (Rebel Records, 1991). Among the many other artists who have recorded this song are G. F. Collins and the Blue Ridge Entertainers (Bluegrass Pickin', Heritage Records, 1975), Delia Bell (Bluer than Midnight, County Records, 1978), the Seldom Scene with Jonathan Edwards (Blue Ridge, Sugar Hill Records, 1985) the Lost & Found (New Day, Rebel Records, 1989), Ralph Stanley II (Listen to my Hammer Ring, Rebel Records, 1999), the Shaw Brothers & Pete Milano (Margie, Rhinestone Rooster Records, 2000) and Roy Lee Centers (Early Years [Volume I], 2001.

You can never go far wrong with a Stanley Brothers song, and this duet by Charlie Bean and Lynn Healey is the kind of song that singers like to sing.

GROUND SPEED
Earl Scruggs

APRS BMI

This banjo instrumental was first recorded by Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs & the Foggy Mountain Boys for their 1961 Columbia Records album Foggy Mountain Banjo (reissued by County Records in 1995; Bear Family Records reissued the tune on the 1991 Flatt & Scruggs box set 1948 - 1959). Banjo-flavored groups can't resist it. The tune has been recorded by Carl Jackson (Songs of the South, Sugar Hill Records, 1970; reissued in 2001, and also on Banjo Man: A Tribute to Earl Scruggs, Sugar Hill Records, 1980),Cliff Waldron & the New Shades of Grass, with Bill Emerson on banjo (Bluegrass Time Rebel Recording Company, 1973), Bill Knopf (Pacific Swing, First Inversion Records, 1983), David & Billie Ray Johnson (Bluegrass, Folkways Records, 1983), Tony Trischka (Solo Banjo Works, Rounder Records, 1992), John McEuen (String Wizards II, Vanguard Records, 1993) the Bluegrass Album Band with J. D. Crowe on the banjo (Bluegrass Instrumentals [Volume VI]; Rounder Records, 1996), Gelfon, Winch & Harris (Hand Picked Tunes, live recording, label unknown, 1999) and Del McCoury & the Dixie Pals (Stricktly Bluegrass Live, Vivid, 2000).

A tip of the hat to Flatt & Scruggs and a fitting ending to our first venture in recording. Mike Licht signs off with the anticipated bass lick that sends the Orange Line Special around that final curve into Bluegrass City. See you down the track!