Bluegrass Breakdown: Elvis Grass, 1956-1960

After the release of his first single, in 1954 — That’s All Right, backed by Blue Moon of Kentucky — the music world experienced a siesmic shift. The young man from Tupelo, Mississippi had planned to become a truck driver. Instead he would become a singer, actor, genre pioneer, sex symbol and cultural icon, who mixed music from both sides of the color line and became the absolute definition of cool.

PROGRAM PLAYLIST

• Elvis Presley: “Blue Moon of Kentucky” from The Sun Sessions(RCA)
• The Million Dollar Quartet: “I Just Can’t Make It By Myself / Little Cabin Home On the Hills / Summertime Has Passed and Gone / I Hear a Sweet Voice Calling / Sweetheart You’ve Done Me Wrong” from Million Dollar Quartet(Sun)
• The Bluegrass Elvises: “All Shook Up” from The Bluegrass Elvises Vol. 1(American Routes)
• Mac Wiseman: “Old Shep” from ‘Tis Sweet to Be Remembered(Bear Family)
• The Kruger Brothers: “Peace In the Valley” from Choices(Double Time)
• Craig Duncan: “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear” from Blue Suede Bluegrass(Green Hill)
• The Grassmasters: “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear” from Elvis Grass(Synergy Entertainment)
• Larry Stephenson: “Take My Hand Precious Lord” from I See God(Webco)
• The Pickin’ On Pickers: “Mean Woman Blues” from Only the Lonely: An Instrumental Salute to Roy Orbison(CMH)
• The Bluegrass Elvises: “Jailhouse Rock” from The Bluegrass Elvises Vol. 1(American Routes)
• Roland White: “Trying to Get to You” from Trying to Get to You(Sugar Hill)
• Larry Sparks: “Blue Christmas” from Christmas In the Hills(King Bluegrass)
• The Grassmasters: “Jailhouse Rock” from Elvis Grass(Synergy Entertainment)
• Doc Watson: “Shake, Rattle and Roll” from Docabilly(Sugar Hill)
• Tasty Licks: “A Fool Such As I” from Anchored to the Shore(Rounder)
• The Bluegrass Elvises: “A Big Hunk o’ Love” from The Bluegrass Elvises Vol. 1(American Routes)
• Foxfire: “Swing Down Chariot” from Where the Heart Is(Pinecastle)
• Craig Duncan: “It’s Now or Never” from Blue Suede Bluegrass(Green Hill)