The Bluegrass Dropouts - March 9, 1968
Atwood Hall Coffeehouse, Clark University,
Worcester, MA

Jeff Hoelter’s stereo master reel (mics on stage) > Bill Keith’s 3.75ips reel > 2 x 16/44.1 wav files (possibly remastered by Bill) > Logic (minor level adjustments, cuts, overlaps and extraneous content eliminated and track indexing by Alan Bershaw) > wav 16/44.1 > Audition (Pitch Bender, various amounts by Professor Goody) > iZotope RX10 Advanced (Wow & Flutter repaired by Professor Goody) > TLH (FLAC16, Level 8; SBEs Aligned) > foobar2000 (tags) > FLAC16

TRT 95:09

Bill Keith - banjo, vocals
Peter Rowan - guitar, vocals
David Grisman - mandolin, vocals
Richard Greene - fiddle, vocals
Fred Weisz - double bass, fiddle, vocals

CD1 [44:10]
Set 1
1 Big Mon 02:43
2 “band introductions” 01:42
3 On & On 4:05
4 Two Little Boys 03:28
5 “more about us” 01:56
6 Can't You Hear Me Calling 04:34
7 Salt Creek 04:18
8 I Hear A Sweet Voice Calling 03:00
9 Uncle Pen 02:30
10 Will The Circle Be Unbroken 03:38
11 Pike County Breakdown 02:23

Set 2 (part 1)
12 Little Rabbit 03:43
13 Dark Hollow 03:06
14 Roanoke 02:38
15 Cheyenne (fragment) 00:20

—reel change—

CD2 [50:56]
Set 2 (part 2)
16 Muleskinner Blues 03:35
17 Blackberry Blossom 02:26
18 Willow Garden 04:55
19 Knocking On Your Door > 01:43
20 Sunnyside of the Mountain 03:40
21 Orange Blossom Special 04:47
22 Wicked Path of Sin (aborted) 01:48
23 I’m Blue, I’m Lonesome 04:05
24 Dusty Miller 02:45

Set 3
25 Midnight On The Stormy Deep 04:37
26 Blue Ridge Mountain Blues 03:26
27 Sailor's Hornpipe 02:55
28 Dreamless * > 03:05
29 Mad Lydia's Waltz * 04:03
30 Rawhide 02:58

* Earth Opera songs!

Notes:
This is an outstanding stereo recording, that has often been notated
as being a soundboard, but was recorded using two microphones
strategically placed on stage. I received this previously
uncirculated version of it back in 2009 from Bill Keith himself,
who I corresponded with directly during my time logging the
Newport Folk Festival archive. This came up in one of our
conversations about 1968 recordings and he kindly sent me two
wav files of his reel copy, which is presumed to be a first
generation tape.

It does have some analog hiss, but is a remarkably clean and clear
recording for 1968 standards, that literally captures the birth of
progressive bluegrass five years before Peter Rowan, David Grisman
and Richard Greene formed the seminal progressive bluegrass band
Old & In The Way or reunited with Bill Keith for the
groundbreaking Muleskinner project.

To put this in better context, this is just days before the release of
Earth Opera’s debut album, with these musicians getting together
for the sheer fun of it and exploring their roots in a less
traditionally restrictive manner. Rowan and Greene had recently
departed Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys. Rowan and Grisman had
just teamed up for the first Earth Opera LP and Greene was
involved in The Blues Project’s transition into Seatrain. Bill Keith
was a member of Jim Kweskin’s Jug Band at the time.

Clark University student Mark Shultz sheds light on the booking:
“I was a freshman at Clark in 1968. During that time I took banjo
lessons from Bill Keith at his apartment in Cambridge. I also did
some of the booking for the Clark University coffeehouse. I asked
Bill Keith if he could put a band together to perform at the
coffeehouse. He called me back and gave me a date and we
arranged it. He showed up with Richard Green, Peter Rowan,
David Grisman, and Fred Weisz. It was one of the most amazing
things I have experienced, but I did not know it was recorded until
it showed up on Takehiko Saiki’s Bluegrass page. The name The
Bluegrass Dropouts was not used until that evening to my
knowledge. It was never used again.”

Although this material circulates widely on both the internet and
on unauthorized releases (all sourced from Takehiko Saiki’s
transfers of Jeff Hoelter’s reels), Bill Keith’s reel copies sound
even better to my ears, possibly because he may have remastered
them. His copies are also free of the dozens of dropouts and level
fluctuations heard on all previously circulating copies. With thanks
to Professor Goody, wow & flutter has been greatly reduced and all of
it is now running at accurate speed and pitch for the first time. I
also believe this is the first time that all three sets have been
documented with correct sequencing as it actually happened.

Also of note, is that at the end of the performance Peter Rowan
and David Grisman steer the group into two Earth Opera songs -
‘Dreamless’ from the forthcoming debut LP, which segues directly
into the haunting ‘Mad Lydia’s Waltz’, which Earth Opera would
record the following year for their “The Great American Eagle
Tragedy” LP.

Most of the other material will be familiar to Bill Monroe fans and
bluegrass enthusiasts, and fans of Old & In The Way or Muleskinner
will be delighted to hear some of the repertoire of those groups
five years before those groups existed.

My sincere thanks to Jeff Hoelter for making this historically
important recording and to Bill Keith for being so friendly and
helpful to me, not to mention putting this group together and being
the banjo player supreme! Additional thanks for Professor Goody
for graciously helping to make these historic recordings a
substantially better listening experience!

For anyone who came aboard the bluegrass train because of Old &
In The Way, this is seminal and essential listening. For the few
remaining Earth Opera fanatics out there, of which I am definitely
one, those two songs alone are a mind-bending discovery!

Enjoy!

Alan Bershaw (July 2026)


01 Big Mon.flac:ac99a4811defb00bce444b23370c7681
02 band introductions.flac:3e383d055dbb39e0f666a7e4227d9d80
03 On & On.flac:37a1ead759ed97c5503ff49dd5c91646
04 Two Little Boys.flac:3cf5d09d54bbf0965e7952e282443846
05 more about us.flac:6693a3b578553ebcf3fefa5e555164cc
06 Can't You Hear Me Calling.flac:99c2e6f3cbf1fe1e06dac81242c49627
07 Salt Creek.flac:690aa64d8b34a1e2c675379f1a4fdff5
08 I Hear A Sweet Voice Calling.flac:a9e8a5f0b6cd130b930ce59737c6a7c3
09 Uncle Pen.flac:71d67bc9f2884956d9c35f19fa27f6dd
10 Will The Circle Be Unbroken.flac:97cdd32e8c350a03896b8527e813b715
11 Pike County Breakdown.flac:30ea9d8f0ce910d58d5322634ec54e45
12 Little Rabbit.flac:c3a44a3e32d8257b4e6722ef56228083
13 Dark Hollow.flac:79bbdfce7ec13cc209f24076ef5222e3
14 Roanoke.flac:e0d3faa979b49c2d57b00342fb148c56
15 Cheyenne (fragment).flac:48cd4cb41037e9bb25fe5d7ec61ad940
16 Muleskinner Blues.flac:29e5c8a8abe2fe2d7b4722d280616f91
17 Blackberry Blossom.flac:a5ab501db307fa694538f8e6eab75d56
18 Willow Garden.flac:174b1eedd4a15b6978fe82f1a33e28aa
19 Knocking On Your Door _.flac:1cb337e8c1a52ab540e12df611543caa
20 Sunnyside Of The Mountain.flac:39140ed03786c1eb6a96b8cb21afc583
21 Orange Blossom Special.flac:d1a86ac2d29250a9bd03339eb24427ec
22 Wicked Path Of Sin.flac:f5513f6ba36927f99c58729795fb1362
23 I'm Blue, I'm Lonesome.flac:1b4af4411327ebe285e1c611eb340bfd
24 Dusty Miller.flac:dd90d86e6c94a2ae2bf1005b296206a5
25 Midnight On The Stormy Deep.flac:1ba48b9d617ada695933827ec7eb631e
26 Blue Ridge Mountain Blues.flac:f45e9ef6286eaaa0b40a1824a1170e3c
27 Sailor's Hornpipe.flac:44be4f889b884420f2ec4c8b7ea00305
28 Dreamless _.flac:06ab0c5c005cfe5d33872bff7ef469e9
29 Mad Lydia's Waltz.flac:4c3e0502a44573a7981216afbfb782a9
30 Rawhide.flac:fa090a6838674217dfb2dfb6c6ade359