New Grass Revival - Best Of New Grass Revival (1994)

Virtuoso instrumental insurgents, the NGR brought the counterculture into bluegrass festivals during the '70s, and altered the music forever with daring, extended, jazz-influenced jams. Over two decades the band went through various line-up changes, and this generous single-disc retrospective concentrates on the classic '80s unit, featuring founder Sam Bush on fiddle and mandolin, John Cowan on bass and vocals, Bela Fleck on banjo, and Pat Flynn on guitar and vocals. The song selection itself tells much about the band: Standards give way to originals from Flynn and producer Wendy Waldman, as well as John Hiatt and the Beatles ("I'm Down"). --Roy Francis Kasten