New Years Bluegrass in the Tunnels; mp3s

Here are a couple of my favorite Bluegrass tunes, played by Ricky Skaggs. I love these.

Ricky Skaggs- The Old Home Place (mp3)
Ricky Skaggs- How Mountain Girls Can Love (mp3)

Get more from this performance at eMusic.

While waiting to catch an L to Manhattan at 11:00 New Year's Eve, a few musicians came down the steps following a gig they just finished. "Let's play right here" one of them quipped, and a minute or two later the whole platform was treated to some good ole Old Timin' music. It was fantastic. It had a unique feel from just the usual fare we get in the subway ("fare" - get it?). They even hopped on the next train and played all the way into town. For a moment, we were all a bunch of hobos, making our way westward in a boxcar full of hay.

My friend Jeremy, an alumn of Oberlin, spotted that the guitarist was none other than the alumn of Oberlin, Ed Helms -now a correspondent on the Daily Show. Jer took the above pictures. From USNews: "I played and sang in a really good bluegrass band called Weedkiller (three of us still play together)."