Norman Blake

Early '70s hippie country obviously influenced Blake's singer-songwriter/bluegrass virtuoso fusion. But it's the Grateful Dead's earthiness more than the Flying Burrito Brothers' space-wrangler vibrations that really spoke to the guitarist when recording this 1974 album. Blake wraps heady musicianship inside a sound that's pure and extremely listenable. And even though the mind can lose itself in the compositional sojourn that is "The Old Brown Case," Fields of November always feels simple and free of clutter.