Comin' Home by Carl Story with Jim & Jessie McReynolds and The Stanley Brothers

As you will hear, Carl Story with Jim & Jesse's Bluegrass is in a league all to itself. They are true virtuosos. And Jesse is responsible for setting a trend among Bluegrass bands. He introduced playing the mandolin on the duo's numbers instead of always relying on the banjo. It's all captured here for your listening pleasure and enjoyment through the years.

They came from the coal fields of Virginia and became the royalty of country Bluegrass performers. Not only were they innovators in the area of instrumental Bluegrass, but they have also become two of the most beloved names among music fans everywhere, in this country and abroad. Jim and Jesse McReynolds, better known as just plain JIM & JESSE, entered the music arena as poor musicians struggling to make a living by playing for church suppers, hoedowns, and various dances back in their hometown of Coeburn, Virginia. But in 1946, their luck changed when they auditioned for a country music radio show at a station in Norton, Virginia. Not only did they get to go on the air, but they remained on the program as regulars.

That radio show eventually led to the Grand Ole Opry, where Jim & Jesse became popular members of the famed broadcasts from the Union Gospel Tabernacle in Nashville (later this hall became known as Ryman Auditorium). As their popularity grew and grew, they were as welcome on college campuses and even at the Newport (R.I.) Folk Festival of 1964, not to mention just about every town with any country following. Jim & Jesse were classic homespun. They addressed their audiences as "friends." They helped define the traits of Bluegrass in America right up there with contemporaries Bill Monroe and his brothers Charlie and Birch, Jimmy Martin, Flatt and Scruggs, Ralph Stanley and his Clinch Mountain Boys.

The songs assembled here from the Jim & Jesse archives are some of the great Bluegrass and gospel classics in the annals of country music. Carl Story with Jim & Jesse are country in the best sense of the word! We can be thankful for that.

— Cannon Kincaid

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HERE IS FINGER SNAPPIN', TOE TAP- PIN', SINGIN' AND PICKIN' BLUEGRASS MUSIC.

Only from down here in Nashville could this great collection be recorded for you. In no other place will the banjos sing and fiddles twang as they do in this area known as the Musical Heart of America. It is in this region, by the Appalachian Mountains of the Eastern and Southern parts of the United States, that the music of America has been perpetuated. Today, it is the favorite of mountain and city dwellers alike. Bluegrass is the music performed only on the 5 5-string banjo, an original American instrument.

From the heart of the Appalachian mountains comes a collection of Bluegrass that captures the soul of American music. Jim & Jesse, alongside Carl Story and The Stanley Brothers, bring you virtuoso performances that blend tradition with innovation, delivering timeless classics that will have you tapping your toes and humming along for years to come.

Carl Story (May 29, 1916 - March 31, 1995) was an influential bluegrass musician and leader of his band the "Rambling Mountaineers". He was dubbed "The Father of Bluegrass Gospel Music" by the governor of Oklahoma.