Zero to 180 – Three Minute Magic

Discoveries of a Pop Music Archaeologist

Category: Bluegrass

"Prayer of a Truck Driver's Son"
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King Truck Driver Bluegrass 45

Fans of both bluegrass and truck-driving country music take note:  “Prayer of a Truck Driver’s Son” was recorded by The Stanley Brothers In Cincinnati’s King Studios on September 20, 1965.  King issued the song as a B-side for “Never Again” in July, 1966. Gary B. Reid writes in The Music of The Stanley

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"Baby You Done Flubbed Your Dub With Me"
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Rare & Unissued King/Federal/DeLuxe

R  A  R  E    &    O  B  S  C  U  R  E     K  I  N  G Click on song titles below for streaming audio (where available) Merle Travis — along with Grandpa Jones — would inaugurate King Records in 1943 as the first two musical artists to

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"Tell It to My Heart Sometime"
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The Stonemans (or is it Stonemen?)

The grammarian in me finds it unbelievably difficult to refer to the legendary bluegrass family dynasty as “The Stonemans” – I keep wanting to say “The Stonemen.”  Surely, I’m not the only person who wrestles with this conundrum? (Image courtesy of Discogs) Ernest “Pop” Stoneman‘s musical career goes all the

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"I Can't Tell The Boys From The Girls"
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Lester Flatt Can’t Tell the Boys from the Girls

WFMU Rock & Soul Ichiban‘s Greg G hilariously pairs this Dear Abby snippet against this streaming audio clip of Lester Flatt’s wry jab at hippie hairstyles: “I “Can’t Tell the Boys from the Girls“ Lester Flatt (1971) “I Can’t Tell the Boys From the Girls” — the A-side of Lester

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"Kentucky Ridgerunner"
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“Kentucky Ridgerunner”: The High Lonesome Remix

I was half distracted driving through southwestern Ohio when I first heard the title track of Lester Flatt‘s Kentucky Ridgerunner album on a community radio station.  The song definitely caught my ear, however, so I made a point of acquiring this album from 1972 – the first of three that

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"Hard Times"
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“Hard Times”: Working Man’s Blue(gras)s

The Osborne Brothers point the way forward on 1967’s Modern Sounds of Bluegrass Music. “Hard Times” — a working man’s blues dressed in modern bluegrass threads — speaks directly to the classic struggle between labor and management: “Hard Times,” the A-side of a 45 (b/w “World of Unwanted“) released in

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