Bluegrass from the Gold Country

Mandolin wizard and tenor singer Vern Williams might be the most underrecorded and therefore underrated musician in all of bluegrass. Though born and raised in Arkansas, Williams landed in California in 1954 and over the years became a Golden State bluegrass legend (no exaggeration). In the 1960s and 1970s, he hooked up with Ray Park, a talented fiddler who'd also moved west from Arkansas, but Williams formed his own band in 1974. This outstanding album, recorded in 1980 and 1981, represents the band's only record (other than a superb effort in support of Rose Maddox), and it will leave you craving more. Williams's raw, biting tenor rivals those of Ralph Stanley and Bill Monroe, no small compliment, and the harmonies, courtesy of son Delbert and banjo man Keith Little (who graduated to the Country Gentlemen in 1986), are as crisp as you're bound to find. Most noteworthy, however, is the band's repertoire, which, in addition to Monroe and Stanley chestnuts, includes many older songs from the Carter Family and Stephen Foster, who Williams called the "first bluegrass songwriter." --Marc Greilsamer