Dueling Banjos by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell (Vinyl record album review)

Record basics

• Album name: Dueling Banjos
• Group name: Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell
• Year: 1972
• Number of discs: one
• Label: Warner Brothers Records
• Collection: Brenner / Gessner
• Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written inside album sleeve, indicating that my father owned it
• Buy it on Amazon: $4.51

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

This is the soundtrack to the movie Deliverance, which I’ve never seen. I have several versions of the song Dueling Banjos in my library, but I’m not sure if any of them is this version, because back when I acquired them, the provenance wasn’t clear. I also expect to recognize other songs on this record, such as Mountain Dew, one of my old favorites^[1] as I’m also fond of the beverage, which I often call “the nectar of the gods.”

What I expected

Bluegrass.

What it was actually like

As a bluegrass fan, this record was fantastic. The banjo was universally wonderful, and I loved the various fiddle solos, for example on Shuckin’ the Corn and Fire On the Mountain.

The entire LP was completely instrumental, with no vocals, so here’s Mountain Dew being performed by Flatt and Scruggs and also by Grandpa Jones… and here’s the other song of the same name being performed by The Dubliners and The Pogues.

Buffalo Gals was another interesting one that started out pretty slow and not good, but then got extremely fast, which I loved, and I was immediately transported in my memory to the deeply bizarre Malcolm McLaren version that I heard a few months ago (but here’s Pete Seeger’s as a palette cleanser).

At any rate, with 19 songs on the record, many of them between just one and two minutes – proving my contention that bluegrass is the punk of country – there’s not a whole lot to say about each one individually, except that anyone who loves bluegrass will love listening to it, as I did.

Grade

5/5: love it