STUCK IN THE VINYL AGAIN - ORANGE BLOSSUM BLUEGRASS- ORANGE BLOSSUM COUNTRY

[maggot]

Good morning Wednesday warriors and welcome back to Stuck In The Vinyl Again. Today our record of choice is a bit of local fare. The name of the group is Orange Blossom Bluegrass and they are a Tampa based band who recorded 5 albums between 1974 and 1985. Today's feature, Orange Blossom Country, was released in 1974 on Eagle Records and produced by  Leonard Needham. The address for Eagle Records was Hwy 17 South - Crystal Beach Rd. Winter Haven, FL. The LP was recorded at Central Sound in Auburndale , FL. 

On it, the 5 piece made up of Gene Dalrymple on Banjo, Oscar Singleton on Bass, Kenny Dixon on Fiddle, Stan Bailey on Guitar , and Bob Prue on Mandolin produce some of the best bluegrass heard this far south, covering the likes of Tommy Jackson, Kris Kristofferson, A.P. Carter, Tom Paxton, and Tom T. Hall, as well as a couple of originals, including the title track, written by banjoist, Gene Dalrymple. 

Here is a bit of an oddity. On the front cover photo, which was provided by Florida Citrus Commission, if you zoom in on the dirt road in the orange groves, there is a strange circular object floating above the groves . I'll include a zoomed in picture. 

I thought it might be educational to reprint the liner notes here :

"You're Holding living proof in your hands right this moment that all good ... make that excellent ... bluegrass music doesn't hide out in the hills of Virginia or North Carolina. Proof that you don't have to be standing in front of a rough-hewn stage at a bluegrass festival to hear some fine bluegrass. It's not that Orange Blossom Bluegrass doesn't play festivals either. If you have been to any of the major fests in the Florida-Georgia area during the past four years, then you'd know that Orange Blossom Bluegrass has gotten more audiences to their feet than our national anthem at the last ten world series games combined. The five of them have been a welcome sight, standing up there stomping through some of their favorite tunes. And they've been more of a favorite around an untold number of campfires everywhere from the prestigious Florida Folk Festival up at White Springs to the wild and wooly Salt Springs outings. They've built such a following that whenever there's a festival anywhere in Florida, the streets of North Tampa are almost empty ... at least most of the university taverns are.

Luckily those of us from Tampa get to see Stan Bailey (some of his friends call him 'Standard') on guitar, Fiddlin' Kenny Dixon, Gene Dalrymple on banjo, Oscar Singleton on bass and Bob Prue on mandolin, fairly often. They kept busy bringing their music to the people.

Though they have been recorded before on the White Springs Bluegrass album set a couple of years back and Kenny Dixon has a solo LP out he cut up in Nashville (also on the Eagle label). This is the group's debut album. Their approach to bluegrass is a refreshing and welcome one. They're not hardcore traditionalists, though they can and do play the old good tunes with a flair that makes them come alive. The one thing that sets them apart from many other bluegrassers is that they genuinely have fun with their music. It goes without saying that if the musicians are having fun and showing it, then the audiences are having fun hearing it. Kenny's got a laugh that could liven up a mother-in=law's testimonial dinner. They play music that they enjoy, tunes that are always fresh. When's the last time you heard a bluegrass version of the unofficial Greek Anthem "Never On Sunday?" 

This album has 12 tunes that run the gamut from the traditional to the almost Nashville-sounding country. It's a collection representative of one of their live performances. Gene Dalrymple wrote two of the tunes, including the title song, "Orange Blossom Country." Kenny Dixon turns in another incredible performance in his several-decade project we call ' Trying to saw a fiddle in half with his bow.' Bob Prue slips in and out of the arrangements wearing his derby hat, playing some sweet mandolin licks. You can almost see him sliding between Kenny and Gene and leaning into the microphone  taking his break as you listen to this album ... all the while risking a fiddle bow in the ear. Oscar Singleton, one of those wirey, good-old boy types, coaxes runs out of a standup bass that you don't often hear on a bluegrass stage. And then there's Standard Bailey, wearing that leather hat of his, trying to outrun himself on the guitar while he's singing out from under that mustache. 

If you're playing the album while reading the liner, then there's no need to carry on explaining how tight years of work have honed their harmonies. Or how their selection of tunes can appeal to the country club types they sometimes play for just as forcefully as the rowdy university long-hairs that give them standing ovations at some of their shadier engagements .. the shade of oak trees at the outdoor festivals, that is. There's no good need to go on about how they're the only bluegrass group whose banjo player got arrested by the Tampa Police for disturbing the peace while he was playing, You can hear all that for yourself.

I keep wondering how they're going to follow this album up. " - Rick Norcross

A1 Crazy Creek
Written-By – Tommy Jackson 
2:45

A2 Gold Watch And Chain
Written-By – A. P. Carter
2:27

A3 Shady Grove 2:20

A4 Bobby McGee
Written-By – Kris Kristofferson
3:27

A5 Old Mexico
Written-By – Gene Dalrymple
2:47

A6 Last Thing On My Mind
Written-By – T. Paxton
2:45

B1 Johnson Boys 2:25

B2 Durhams Bull
Written-By – C.Durham
1:45

B3 First Strange Town
Written-By – T. Hall
2:50

B4 Never On Sunday 2:29

B5 It's Me Again Lord 2:47

B6 Orange Blossom Country
Written-By – Gene Dalrymple
2:17

Banjo – Gene Dalrymple
Bass – Oscar Singleton
Fiddle – Kenny Dixon
Guitar – Stan Bailey 
Mandolin – Bob Prue
Producer – Leonard Needham