Hamilton County Bluegrass Band – Fifth Season

The Hamilton County Bluegrass Band were actually pretty popular in New Zealand in the late 60s/early 70s. It kind of blows my mind that these guys (and gal) achieved pretty strong mainstream success with such a traditionally bluegrass sound. Confusingly, I think Fifth Season is actually their sixth LP and was notable for a slicker sound than its predecessors. The band started in 1967 coming out of the folk music scene of the time and set about recreating Flatt & Scruggs styled bluegrass. They moved to Australia in ’71 and managed atrip to the US in ’72 before disbanding in 1975. They are memorable for pretty much being the only band in New Zealand at the time to find anything resembing success with this style of music. Their cover of Proud Mary is awesome.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.