Record Details
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Record ID
71
Artist
Norman Blake
Title
Whiskey Before Breakfast
Field / Genre
Acoustic
Year Recorded
1976
Label
Rounder
Pressing
Am
Rating
****
Discs
1
Media
R
Date Bought
1 Jan 1900
Cost
¤10.00
Cover Name
—
Review
<p>Blake's best album, and one of the finest bluegrass albums of the '70s. "Church St. Blues" and "Slow Train Through Georgia" are great originals that demonstrate Blake's natural ease with a sung ballad, while the fabulous medleys "Sleepy Eyed Joe/Indian Creek" and "Fiddler's Dram/Whiskey Before Breakfast" show off the graceful flat-picking that made him famous. All told, there have been many albums in the folk idiom featuring many a guitar virtuoso, but very few achieve such a mix of relaxed subtlety and eye-popping virtuosity, and Whiskey Before Breakfast will perhaps stand as the greatest achievement by this master picker.</p><p>—<strong>Jim Smith</strong></p>