Music: Norman Blake

The journey down the Bluegrass rabbit hole commences.

I really wanted to post something bluegrass-y and started my trek to find suitable fodder for the post with Bela Fleck. You may know Mr. Fleck from his old bluegrass days, or from his fusion work with his boutique band, The Flecktones, or some of his arrangements of classical music for banjo. But when I started, I then found Tony Rice, a truly phenomenal bluegrass guitar player, one so cool and collected that he looks like he is reading the newspaper while the coffee percolates on the stovetop (no fancy pour over, or drip coffee for him, oh no sir!).

Then, while wallowing around that ample lode of great tunes, I found this by Norman Blake. The title is “Norman Blake flatpicks Randall Collins and Done Gone”

Holy fucking shit, this is some insane playing. Crisp, clear, and just jaw dropping. He makes it look so damn easy, but it is truly a maestro working that acoustic box.

Taken from a DVD that was made from videos recorded in 1980, so clearly from the analog era of media, the audio could be a bit better, but you take what you can get.

And what Norman is giving? Hook that shit to my veins. This is just gold.

Six minutes, thirty-six seconds of pure gold.