John McCutcheon is helming yet another bluegrass revival project to celebrate the anniversary of a monumental moment in the genre’s history. For those who aren’t versed in McCutcheon’s practice of genre resurrection, this will mark his fourth album highlighting the centennial anniversary of legendary figures within the scene. First, he honored Woody Guthrie, then Joe Hill, after that Pete Seeger, and this year McCutcheon to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Tennessee’s Mountain City Fiddler’s Convention.
This was an obscure piece of music history with wide-reaching ramifications. Often called a precursor to Woodstock the gathering saw the meeting of minds of some of the greatest musicians of the era including G. B. Grayson, Charlie Bowman, and Al Hopkins. The event was one of, if not the, first major musical festivals in the country. John McCutcheon has now chosen to honor this titanic event with an album featuring some of the most acclaimed bluegrass musicians working today.
This star studded lineup will include figures such as Molly Tuttle, Jake Blount, Old Crow Medicine Show, Tim O’Brien and a host of other artists from all corners of today’s vibrant roots, folk and americana scenes. The album will feature a revived tracklist of some of the most well-known songs to be played and debuted at the festival as well as a host of other standards from the era.
The first of these, a cover of Watcha Gonna do With The Baby by Old Crow Medicine Show is out to listen to now. Check it out here:
The rest of the album will see a wide release on September 5th.
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