The Stones Went Country Sometimes, But Never That Country...

 ...but that doesn't matter, 'cause others will do it for them. The Rolling Stones, notably during Keith's friendship/association with Gram Parsons, always had a toe to dip into the country music genre, which they regularly did afterwards, notably on parts of Exile On Main Street. The tone could sometimes be sardonic or  satirical ("Faraway Eyes"), but the band did have some love for American country music, notably Mick. One of my favorite solo songs from the Mickster, "Evening Gown", is a country song in all but name, made even better when Alejandro Escovedo sung and played it. 

That's not why we're here, though. You might have guessed it, this is another of my bluegrass tribute compilations. Here I combined music from three of the (in)famous Pickin' On series' albums. The main body of work, a.k.a. the songs with vocals, are done by Honeywagon, one of the best bands CMH used for that series, even if they didn't use them for long. They recorded a ten-track tribute (with the cover art above coming from that album) in 2005, including really good takes on "Angie" (a song that gets on my nerves in the Stones version) , "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "Tumbling Dice". As said in my write-up for the Green Day-themed compilation, Honeywagon - like Cornbread Red and Iron Horse - stand out as real bands rather than studio pros assembled together, which often means that their tribute covers are genuinely done out of love for the band or artist in question, or at least feel that way.

Honeywagon, somewhat atypical for a bluegrass act, come from L.A. where friends Bryan "BC" Clark (guitar, dobro) and lead vocals) and bassist Benjamin "Benwell" Levine started the group which was completed by Loren "L-Train" Ellis on mandolin, banjo and occasionally guitar. Their emphasis on slightly more rough-hewn bluegrass matches well with the Rolling Stones, as they were normally called upon to take care of harder edged acts like Blink-182 or Green Day. 

As with my Neil Young bluegrass tribute comp, I augmented the original album with some instrumental tracks taken from the classic instrumental tribute albums the Pickin' On... series was originally known for. Most of these were done by multi-instrumentalist/one man band Dennis Caplinger, thus earning him co-star status and cover page presence. Caplinger literally was a one man band, capable of playing guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, bass, piano and percussion instruments, with some of the tracks here being unique creations by himself, like his fabulous takes on "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "Honky Tonk Women".  Lovely stuff. 

So, if you were on board with cool bluegrass takes on Green Day and Uncle Neil, there's no reason that you will not like this. And even if you weren't, it's never too late to jump on the bluegrass wagon! Choo, choo, full steam ahead into Stones Country...