It's A Weekend Hoedown With The Bluegrass Chartbusters !

And the hits just keep on coming. Literally. And I am also proud to report that with this new volume of our Bluegrass Chartbusters series there is an even bigger variety of artists and picking styles than ever before. We are having the hole beloved roster of Pickin' On artists - from Cornbread Red to Iron Horse and Bread Davis - and also bring back Honeywagon into the fold with their cover of Michael Jackson "Thriller". Plus Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard ! Plus The Wooks ! Plus The Grass Cats ! 

We also welcome a couple of new comers into the fold: Dale Ann Bradley is, hitherto unbeknownst to me, a five-time Bluegrass vocalist of the year and will from now on grace this series with her presence, starting with a fabulous version of the Greatfull Dead's "Ripple". Also say hello to the Saginaw Bluegrass Band, checking in with a tremendously fun version of "Jet Airliner". Getting back to the Pickin' On guys for a second, they got an attention-catching casting coup when assembling Strummin' With The Devil, their tribute to Van Halen. They got David Lee Roth to front the John Jorginson Bluegrass Band for two numbers, including a memorable take on "Jump".

This volume of Bluegrass Chartbusters also includes a couple of numbers that improve on the originals. To be fair, I have no idea what Imagine Dragons' "Demons" sounds like, though, but The Sidekicks' version of it is a total killer. I also never had much use for the Eagles original of "Already Gone", one of Glenn Frey's typically boorish 'Evil Woman'-type songs with its ridiculously overwrought whoo-hoo-hoo's. The who-hoo-hoo's are still present in Dave Dick & Band's take on the song, but they are severely understated, and the song is all the better for it.

Eagle-eyed viewers will realize, that "Southern Cross" was already on the first volume of the series, but this is a different version by the Sidekicks that is almost as good as the Cornbread Red one. If I have two great version of a song, there will probably both show up on different volumes of this series. The word Chartbusters doesn't necessarily apply to every single track on here, as I believe Modest Mouse's "Ocean Breathes Salty" didn't bother any charts anywhere. But it is a great song and a great performance by Iron Horse, who sometimes seem more engaged - and engaging - on lesser known band's material than on some of the big hitters that they cover.

All in all, as ever you get about 80 minutes of fantastic Bluegrass music. So let the Hoedown begin ...