GRASS ANYONE?

Early Bela Fleck would be more bluegrass oriented than his more recent stuff.
Try Mark O'Conner "New Nashville Cats" for bluegrass fiddle played by a trained violinist.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was the catalyst for two albums that brought together the traditionalists and the newgrass musicians "Will the Circle Be Unbroken, I and II". I can't recommend these two more highly. Recorded in a studio direct to 2 track I believe.
For Country/bluegrass/pop vocals with great studio musicians try Ronstadt, Parton and E.L. Harris in Trio and Trio II.
For bluegrass/gospel try Alison Kraus and the Cox Family "I Know Who Holds Tomorrow.
For rockers turned bluegrass- Old and in the Way.
Jerry Douglas, Russ Barenburg and Edgar Meyer "Skip Hop and Wobble.
Rounder has a new compilation called "O Sister" celebrating the women in bluegrass.
"Down From the Mountain" is a live show featuring many of the artists from "O Brother Where Art Thou" recorded at the Ryman Auditorium, original home of the Grand Ole Opry.

Lots of good stuff in this genre and lots of new crossover which is very interesting. I have become a great fan of bluegrass gospel. A local college station (WWUH 91.3 for anyone in CT) has a BG show every Sat am and does about 30 min of gospel that I try to catch each week.

For Christmas I got "Bluegrass at Newport 1959-1965". Its got 2 sets by Bill Monroe,Flatt and Scruggs,Jim and Jesse and single sets with The Stanley Brothers,Don Stover and the Lily Brothers.
Also Mezmo was right about Rebel Records,home of the best Ralph Stanley recordings.Checkout "Ralph plays requests". Ralph really knows how to get a banjo to ring.

david, lotsa good stuff here. "will the circle be unbroken" & "old & in the way" are definitely vinyl classics. and ya ya *gotta* get that skip-hop-wobble one - it's a killer. jerry douglas is on it, btw - not bela fleck. also, another great album is "bourbon & rosewater", a kind of east-meets-west thing, where jerry douglas plays a mean acoustic guitar in accompanying vishna bhatt on indian stringed instruments. blue-grass, indian-style. great sonics on both these cd's also. the douglas/bhatt one is on the well-respected water-lily acoustics label...these have been seeing lotsa playing-time on the rig, lately, w/my new art di/o dac! :>)

doug s.

oh, also great fun is jerry garcia & dave grisman's "not for kids only" - it's *not*! ;~)

Yep! Gillian Welch. I love "Little Black Bird".

Some great recommendations,... here is one more that you all try ..." Positive Friction" by Donna the Buffalo, a blend of bluegrass, zydeco reggae rock and country. Trust me, it really works! Great band.