Notes & Queries – November 2023

Q: I’ve heard it said that the 1959 Folkways album Mountain Music Bluegrass Style was the first bluegrass album ever recorded.  I guess that means a set of songs and tunes recorded specifically to be released in album format.  Does that sound right to you?  I recall purchasing albums by the Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe, Flatt &Scruggs, the Osborne Brothers, etc. right around that time, but maybe they were collections of singles put together in album format. That was the easy question.  Here’s the challenge.  On Mountain Music Bluegrass Style there’s a cut of “New River Train” credited to Chubby Anthony and Mike Seeger. This is unlike any other bluegrass number I’ve ever heard.  There’s a banjo, presumably played by Seeger (who is credited with banjo on Bob Baker’s cuts and a duet with Bob Yellin), which does only backup work.  ALL the solos are rendered on what I believe is a guitar capoed high (8th fret) and played with finger