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The Goins Brothers - Still Goin' Strong

(Hay Holler HHH-CD-501) 1993

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This CD was recorded in April 1993 at River Track Studios in Louisa Ky, and was the first Goins' release to include future CMB James Price on fiddle. Another excellent album, this one contains several noteworthy cuts and highlights the contributions brought to the Goins' act by John Keith, John McMeely and James Price.

Melvin's semi-autobiographical I Guess I'll Do Without, which kicks off the album, is a great song that sounds like it would have been perfect Jimmy Martin material:-

John Keith & John McNeely take the spotlight on four tracks (Overcome By The Blues, Southbound Lane, She Will Never Know and Going Up The Mountain), swapping vocal parts between them on the verse/choruses. (I'm fairly sure it's also John Keith singing lead on their version of Flatt & Scruggs If I Should Wander Back Tonight, although the CD notes credit Melvin/Ray on this track.)

Overcome By The Blues, written by John Keith, is a mid-tempo contemporary grass number about struggling with financial problems. Southbound Lane by John McNeely is a driving bluegrass number about travelling the late night roads home. A third original, She Will Never Know by John Keith, is a slow 3/4 blues with soulful vocals in which he laments about missing his girl and not being able to tell her so...

James Price provides wonderful fiddle support throughout the album, with tasteful fills / breaks. He also gets to shine on the trad Lost John and the fiddle-led instrumental Hay Holler Breakdown. The latter is as far as I can tell identical to Bill Monroe's Louisville Breakdown, which James Price recorded on his The Old Mountaineer CD in Dec 1993/Feb 1994.

The laid-back instrumental How Great Thou Art is another highlight, with John McNeely's spot-on lead guitar book-casing James' sweet sounding multi-tracked fiddles and John Keith's mandolin breaks. His guitar playing is somewhere between Earl Scruggs' and Larry Sparks. No superfluous notes, just perfect!

Melvin takes centre stage on the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers' Honky Tonk Blues (also cut by the Goins' Brothers on their Tribute To The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers LP); Bob Will's (Stay All Night) Stay A Little Longer (also cut by on their Bluegrass My Home In The Mountains cassette); the Gospel classic Precious Memories; and Mike Paxton's Lonesome Pine (previously recorded on Bluegrass Country).

Ray sings Cora Is Gone which was first recorded by Flatt & Scruggs, and which he'd also sang on the Goins' Sweet Sunny South LP.

Copies of this one seem to be fairly scarce, but there is a version of it on youtube if you want to hear it before searching for a copy.

• Melvin Goins: guitar
• Ray Goins: banjo
• Conley Goins: bass
• John Keith: mandolin
• John McNeely: guitar
• James Price: fiddle