Glen Neaves and the Virginia Mountain Boys: Country Bluegrass from Southwest Virginia

Country Bluegrass from Southwest Virginia is the first in a series of albums recorded by the Virginia Mountain Boys. Even as many commercial bluegrass bands in the 1970s were being influenced by Nashville or folk rock sounds, the Virginia Mountain Boys stuck to the traditional bluegrass sounds that were pioneered decades earlier. Eschewing the Dobro favored by other bands of the time, for example, the band’s sound relies heavily on the simple banjo picking and hard-driving rhythm of traditional Appalachian mountain music. Glen Neaves leads with lonesome, bittersweet singing and fiddle playing inspired by G. B. Grayson, a traditional mountain fiddler from North Carolina.