The Cutting Edge

traditionalist veterans J.D. Crowe (who spent six years in
Jimmy Martin’s band) and the aforementioned Duffey assembled
bands built to last, i.e., New South and the Seldom Scene,
respectively.
In 1975, J.D. Crowe & the New South (band and eponymous
first album) made its Rounder debut, and Crowe subsequently
became a Monroe-like magnet for a new generation of top-drawer
bluegrass and country artists. His original New South lineup—by
far his most versatile—included Rice on guitar, Skaggs
on mandolin, Douglas on dobro, and Bobby Sloan on fiddle and
bass. All were virtual unknowns at the time they joined New
South; all have gone on to distinguished careers (especially
Skaggs, who had massive mainstream country success in the 80s,
before returning to bluegrass full-time and winning Grammy
Awards as a matter of course).
Formed by Duffey in 1971, the Seldom Scene achieved
commercial success far beyond that of its friendly newgrass
competitors. Never big on touring (the group name is
telling), the band’s influence rests almost solely on its
recordings. An esteemed mandolin player and tenor vocalist,
Duffey surrounded himself with a Murderer’s Row of
artists in guitarist John Starling, bassist Tom Gray, banjoist
Ben Eldridge, and, most crucial of all, dobro virtuoso
Auldridge. When they get going, the Seldom Scene players
attack their music with verve and intellect, finding new
ways to energize traditional bluegrass fare and taking unexpected
approaches to pop, rock, and blues. A box set is sorely
and conspicuously missing from the Seldom Scene catalog,
but the group’s first three albums, titled Act I, Act II,
and Act III are essential. Act I, released in 1972, features
interpretations of Steve Goodman’s “City of New Orleans”
and James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James,” as well as a jawdropping
take on Monroe’s “With Body and Soul.” Act II,
from 1973, is notable for a cool rendition of Ricky Nelson’s
“Hello Mary Lou” and a moving reading of John Prine’s
poignant lament, “Paradise.” Act III, also from ’73, contains
a haunting treatment of Merle Haggard’s “Sing Me Back
Home” and a lovely cover of Bob Wills’ “Faded Love.” As
an alternative to buying three albums, the 1994 single-disc
Best of the Seldom Scene, Vol. 1 contains several of the abovementioned
songs as well as numbers from the band’s fourth
album, Old Train.
48 THE ABSOLUTE SOUND ■ SEPTEMBER 2006