Los Angeles-based CMH RECORDS has announced the release of “Pickin’ On Nirvana: The Bluegrass Tribute Featuring Iron Horse”, the latest installment of their series featuring bluegrass interpretations of influential artists.
Released on April 22nd with a special vinyl Record Store Day followed by a digital release on April 28th, the Nirvana tribute collection continues the tradition CMH began in the 90’s with “Pickin’ On The Beatles”. Other artists that have been given the ‘Pickin’ On’ treatment include Grateful Dead, Metallica, Bob Dylan, the Allman Brothers Band, Coldplay, The Black Keys, Jack White, Modest Mouse, The Killers and many more…
“Pickin’ On Nirvana: The Bluegrass Tribute” sees songs by the seminal alternative rockers stripped down to bare bones roots music. Alabama-based quartet Iron Horse bring their traditional instrumentation and harmonious vocals to bear while tackling Kurt Cobain’s wildly influential fusion of melody and discordance. It all adds up to a collection of renditions that are unlike anything ever heard by fans of bluegrass and Nirvana.
Iron Horse’s Ricky Rogers told No Depression, “Most bluegrass groups cover Flatt & Scruggs, The Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe, etc., because the performance of those songs by other artists are very close to the original compositions. I prefer the term ‘tribute,’ because we put a different interpretation on works that are widely recognized in their original form, and our intent is to pay tribute to the original artists’ efforts and creations,” Iron Horse’s Ricky Rogers told ‘No Depression’.
Iron Horse’s rendition of “Night on the Sun” from Pickin’ On’s tribute to Modest Mouse was featured prominently in HBO’s True Blood. This past December 2016, their tribute to Metallica, “Fade to Bluegrass: A Bluegrass Tribute to Metallica” reached #13 on the Billboard Top Bluegrass Albums chart.
- All Apologies
- About A Girl
- In Bloom
- Polly
- Drain You
- Pennyroyal Tea
- Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle
- Come As You Are
- Sappy
- On A Plain
- Dumb
Born out of a love of rock music and for the virtuosity of bluegrass musicians, the Pickin’ On Series features the best in bluegrass, paying tribute to the biggest and brightest artists in rock and pop.
Though it started modestly in 1993 with the release of “Pickin’ On the Movies”, tributes to The Beatles and Eagles soon followed and by 1997 the Pickin’ On Series was on fire. The Pickin’ On Series continues to thrive with one hand in traditional bluegrass and the other in popular music, ready for the next chance to create innovative bluegrass music.
For more information on CMH Records, visit their website and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
Check out Iron Horse performing “Enter Sandman” here:
