Prairie Bluegrass by Bray Brothers (CD, Mar-2000, Rounder Select)

I write this in the Upper Midwest, w/ snow a foot deep outside, and a wood-stove working hard to take the edge off the temperature in the teens. But -- the stove has some help in heating-up the place, and that's a classic LP by Blue Grass Gentlemen. In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that I'm a bit of a singer myself, and I rememember the Blue Grass Gentlemen from the first time around (the 1960s) & from subsequent work by the two surving brothers, after Red Cravens became a Vedantist swami -- no kidding! -- and Nate Bray (God rest him) died terribly early, after remarking "Bill Monroe can stop lookin' over his shoulder now."
The Blue Grass Gentlemen came to this music as effortlessly as most of us breathe. But all listeners, whether newcomers to the music, or ribey old veterans, can sense that this apparent ease belies much hard work, & equally intense understanding what this style of music can -- & cannot -- project to the world. No rap on city people -- I certainly hope, since I've spent decades there myself -- nor to people who think of Bluegrass music first-off in terms of instrumental technique & texture, it is essential to understand what the Blue Grass Gentlemen (whom I always instinctively think-of as the Bray Brothers) knew & made central to their act, namely, BLUEGRASS IS FIRST, LAST, & ALWAYS A SUNG MUSIC (even when there are only instrumental voices).
In this sung genre then, the good artists are the ones who know that they have to choose material that's worth singing, deliver the words w/ clarity, build the harmonies strong (but not too dense, lest the rest of the song suffer), & wrap the singing w/ picking that's appropriate. I might add that it doesn't hurt for the performers to convey at-least as much enthusiasm for the music as they hope the audience will feel. If that seems painfully obvious, it's not nearly as painful as the hundreds of veteran Bluegrassers who kept at it long past the point when they were obviously tired of the while thing (I name no names). Ditto for the dubious pleasure of listening to latter-day singers or pickers who expect the world to grovel at their feet simply because they've managed to copy -- mostly by dint of listening to recordings again & again -- some earlier classics by Carl Story, the Stanley Brothers, Red Rector, the Osborne Brothers or -- well, you get it. Again, I name no names, but you know who you are.
So what made the old Bray Brothers special? Great repertory (even when it wandered into Richard Rodgers), clear vocal solos, harmonies as smooth as the sea just before daybreak in mid-Summer, flawless but never flashy picking (if you think it's easy, just try it). So the great mystery remains: why did the world pretty-well pass them by? Well, nobody ever said the good guys always win. Then too, there is the cold hard fact that even today, Bluegrass has never been a way to fame, fortune, & a worry-free old age, and the Blue Grass Gentlemen were hard-core working class (my wife & I used to run into Francis at a local tree nursery). It just wasn't in the cards that they could give up what little they had when they saw that even the stars had it tough (even old Bill Monroe, who probably died w/ the first dollar he ever earned). Then too, Nate's body gave out on him -- and that's all I can say.
Except of course, if you have a chance at this extremely rare LP, go for it: price no object. Keep pickin, keep it country!

Keeping with the tradition of Bluegrass music,my personal friends,the Bray Brothers have excelled again with this album. Although some of the tracks are previously released in other albums,I find this to be one of their finest projects.If you like Great Bluegrass music with a touch of down-home variety,then by all means,this is the album,as well as the artists needed for your collections.