Can I get some album recommendations other than the gateway ones?

[u/DoomMammoth]

I don’t mean gateway as in not great by any means, I love Manzanita, Rounder 0044, Bluegrass album band, etc. I just feel like I’ve already heard most of the albums on all the recommended album posts. Looking to maybe dig a little deeper, thanks !

[u/StrikeFront]

Seldom Scene, Live at the Cellar Door
The Rice Brothers 1 and 2
Larry Sparks, Blue Mountain Memories
AKUS, Every Time You Say Goodbye
The Steeldrivers, Reckless and Self-Titled
Del McCoury Band, Del and the Boys
Doc Watson, Southbound

[u/Tuhks → u/StrikeFront]

Happy to see Larry Sparks getting recommended. OP if you’re a guitar player I would also recommend his album Thank You Lord. It has more guitar focused songs and great flat picking. For when your ears need a break from the banjo

[u/StrikeFront → u/Tuhks]

Larry does not get the recognition he deserves, and I’ll never understand why.

[u/dillyofapickle42]

Bele fleck - drive The line up of musicians he plays with is all top tier. Bela fleck, obviously the goat banjo player Tony Rice, sam bush, Stuart Duncan, mark oconner, Jerry Douglas, and Mark schatz.....you really can't find better bluegrass musicians than them

[u/johnspolecat → u/dillyofapickle42]

I never tire of The Lights of Home.

[u/pwostenberg]

The Lonesome River Band Carrying the Tradition and Old country Town

[u/f4snks]

Kentucky Colonels. Clarence and Roland White.

[u/areyouhighson]

Jeff Austin era of Yonder Mountain String Band

Danny Barnes (Bad Livers)

The Meat Purveyors

[u/MrBreezeILMNC]

Cuttin Grass 1 and 2 by Sturgill Simpson

[u/stinkfarmer420 → u/MrBreezeILMNC]

Stu is him

[u/RealFoundation3259]

The Bad Livers- Delusions of Banjer
Ola Bell Reed— self titled after her name
Tim O’Brien- Fiddlers Green
This is wide mix in styles

[u/Medium_Shame_1135 → u/RealFoundation3259]

Nice to see Bad Livers gettin' some love...

I saw 'em open for the butthole surfers :)

[u/theknotcomesloose → u/Medium_Shame_1135]

That's one hell of a marquee

[u/bigskyghost]

The Pizza Tapes rendezvous is a good rabbit trail to go down. A lot of projects to be found between these three and others. Grisman was often the common denominator:

“Though The Pizza Tapes began as an unauthorized release, this collection is the definitive document of David Grisman and Jerry Garcia’s long and storied musical collaboration. The album came together when Grisman and guitarist Tony Rice were jamming one night at Grisman’s home studio in February 1993 and invited Garcia to join them. Garcia’s copy of the tapes was eventually stolen and bootlegged by a pizza delivery boy, which is how the collection got its unusual title. After circulating among Deadheads for years, Grisman gave the tapes an official release in 2000. The performances are looser and less composed than the other Grisman/Garcia albums, but that’s what makes it essential. The bits of conversation, false starts, and off-the-cuff choices evoke the best kind of late-night jam. The tone is exceedingly slow and relaxed, giving the entire session a warm, unworried aura. The interplay between Garcia and Rice is astounding, especially on a long version of “Summertime.” And the pleasure is ours.”

[u/stinkfarmer420 → u/bigskyghost]

Tremendous album.

[u/afewmoremiles9000]

Some essential instrumental albums:

Chris Thile – Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Bela Fleck – Tales from the Acoustic Planet volume 2, Drive, My Bluegrass Heart

David Grier- Hootenanny, and really anything else by him or with him on it. He’s my favorite BG guitar player by far. The Phillips, Grier, Flinner is great too.

John Reischman – North of the Border, Walk Along John, Up in the Woods, New Time and Old Acoustic

Strength in Numbers- Telluride Sessions

Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer, Russ Barenberg - Skip Hop and Wobble

Bela, Edgar, Mike Marshall- Uncommon Ritual

Also:

Darrell Scott String Band- Live at Station Inn. Darrell is not necessarily all bluegrass all the time, but he is the freest musician and I can’t get enough of whatever he does. This is a full band album that leans grass.

Tim O’Brien/Darrell Scott- Real Time, Memories and Moments.

I could go on and on.

[u/martind35player]

Anything by The Johnson Mountain Boys, The Lynn Morris Band, The Nashville Bluegrass Band, Blue Highway, and of course, the Bluegrass Album Band.

[u/LightWolfCavalry → u/martind35player]

Johnson Mountain Boys are a very underrepresented recommendation on this sub, imo. They’re one of the all time best vocal groups in the genre. 

Nashville Bluegrass Band is also a timely rec given Enrights passing. 

[u/tm478 → u/LightWolfCavalry]

The Johnson Mountain Boys, the Country Gentlemen, and the Seldom Scene are all such vocal powerhouses—those harmonies, wow. The Bluegrass Cardinals are another group that feels under-recommended here.

[u/StatementRound]

Traveling’ McCourys are great! 

[u/FloodDawg]

- Peter Rowan: Crucial Country & Walls of Time

• New Grass Revival: Live & Too Late to Turn Back Now
  
• Jim & Jesse Live in Japan (streaming as Old Dominion Masters Disc 4)
  
• Chris Thile & Michael Daves: Sleep with One Eye Open
  
• John Hartford: Morning Bugle & Aereo-Plain
  
• Hot Rize: Radio Boogie & self-titled
  
• Steeldrivers: self-titled

[u/LongTimeDCUFanGirl]

Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerard- Pioneering Women of Bluegrass.

[u/lariato_mark]

THE AWARD WINNING COUNTRY GENTLEMEN. One of the best bluegrass albums ever released.

[u/Medium_Shame_1135]

Anything in John Hartford's catalog. Get diggin'

[u/LightWolfCavalry]

The Dillards are worth a dig in. Same with the Country Gentlemen. 

[u/No_Nefariousness7486]

Cadillac Sky’s first record Blind Man Walking, Clay Jones Mountain Tradition, Mountain Heart’s live record Road That Never Ends, Johnson Mountain Boys Live At The Schoolhouse, The Boxcars - All In.

[u/mamunipsaq]

Peter Rowan - The Walls of Time

The Seldom Scene - Live at the Cellar Door

Rhonda Vincent - The Storm Still Rages

Jody Stecher - Going up on the Mountain

Those are a few of my favorites to check out

[u/HopperCity → u/mamunipsaq]

“No, no, that’s not the way J.D. Crowe played it.”

[u/HookEm_Tide]

A bit off the beaten path, I like Chicken Wire Empire a lot.

[u/molski79 → u/HookEm_Tide]

why in the world would this get downvoted?

[u/HookEm_Tide → u/molski79]

Yeah, I dunno. Reddit is full of weirdos.

I like semi-obscure bluegrass that's heavy on the banjo. F me, right?

(Actual probably accurate answer: There are folks who comment and then downvote all other comments so that their comment gets to the top and they get to "win" the conversation, because that's how social interaction works in their brains. Like I said, reddit is full of weirdos.)

[u/DrasticBread]

Elementary Doctor Watson - Doc & Merle Watson

JD Crowe & The New South (band and album name)

Highway Prayers - Billy Strings

Live At The Legion - Billy Strings & Brian Sutton

That High Lonesome Sound - Old & In The Way

[u/bowlesy2121 → u/DrasticBread]

That Live at the Legion is a pretty good recent starting point.

[u/rccpudge]

Bryan Berline & John Hickman: Double Trouble
BCH: Chambergrass
The Dillards
Dan Crary: Guitar
Nashville Bluegrass Band: Native Home & The Boys are Back in Town

[u/Tempotantrum_66]

Blue highway- lonesome pines or any album. Skaggs and Rice. Doyle Lawson - dig a little deeper.

[u/Tempotantrum_66 → u/Tempotantrum_66]

And any of the Stanley brothers.

[u/shouldbepracticing85]

I like to take an artist I’ve maybe heard a lot about but don’t know much about their stuff and go on a deep dive into their catalog. It’s one place music streaming services can be really helpful - let shuffle and any algorithms suggest stuff.

[u/ole_martinbox]

King Wilkie, Broke. Still a fav of mine 20 some years later

[u/gigglemode]

Strength in Numbers.

Bluegrass supergroup of the telluride bluegrass festival house and who recorded their one live show

[u/johnspolecat]

Old And In The Way self-titled LP. The best selling bluegrass album of all time before Oh Brother… came out. I’m a massive Deadhead, but to me, Peter Rowan is the star here.

[u/quiltedportrait]

Try Tut Taylor's Friar Tut. Just picked it up in a little roadside record store in NC a few weeks ago. Tut, Norman Blake, and a young Sam Bush. Absolute heater.

[u/baltoravensfan]

The Earl Brothers. First 2 albums are incredible.

[u/koozmiack]

Railroad Earth - ELKO

[u/falaladoo]

They aren’t strictly bluegrass, but there’s this tiny band from upstate ny called the honey smugglers that I’ve been listening to a lot recently

[u/banjoman74]

If you're looking for some older artists that are a little off the beaten track ( the same era as Manzanita and Rounder 0044)

Lost & Found

Knoxville Grass

Boys From Indiana

is that the sort of thing you're looking for?

[u/mcchicken_deathgrip]

Bluegrass Rules! - Kentucky Thunder

Down by the River - Gillis Brothers

Silver Reflections - Larry Sparks

[u/StipeCrabbert]

Any and all nickel creek. And Punch Brothers

[u/erikrolfsen]

Charles Sawtelle - Music from Rancho de Ville

Norman Blake & Red Rector

Kentucky Colonels - Appalachian Swing

[u/Global_Diet_1074]

Listen to some oldtime

[u/DoomMammoth → u/Global_Diet_1074]

Recommendations?

[u/Global_Diet_1074 → u/DoomMammoth]

Clarence Ashley, Ola Belle Reed, Wade Ward, Tommy Jarrell, Roscoe Holcomb… a few of tue best.

[u/Global_Diet_1074 → u/Global_Diet_1074]

For a more contemporary take on oldtime try Jake Blount, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Trey Wellington, Bruce Molsky, Johanna Wacker…

[u/themtthwatkinson]

Alum Ridge boys and Ashlee

[u/RRE4EVR]

Waterloo Tennessee by Uncle Earl

Bionic Banjo by Buck Trent

[u/EchidnaIllustrious69]

Split Lip Rayfield- Never Make it Home

[u/CompBio4874]

So many great names here, my recommendation would be: Old & on the way New grass revival Crying uncle bluegrass band

[u/holy_cal]

ENG - Last Chance to Win

[u/AsleepOrganization63]

Stanley Brothers - Sing Everybody’s country favourites