I thought it was too bluegrassy, too gospel.

Robertson accused Holliday of playing too much banjo and making the band sound too "bluegrassy".

Gentle, Appalachian/bluegrassy twin...

In a review, Folk Alley's Jim Blum described the album as "much more rootsy than his previous releases, and sometimes quite bluegrassy.

Sharing the bill is John Herald, a clear, plaintive singer who has sustained a career in one of the least bluegrassy places on earth: New York City.

We Can Only Listen is a simple, beautiful bluegrassy tune from the debut album of lovely Ruth Moody (of The Wa...

Deborah Evans Price, of Billboard magazine reviewed the song favorably, saying that the "vibrant and bluegrassy sound of the instruments combined with Gill's stellar vocals create a winning combination."

God Street Wine's lineup almost mimics the Dead's, with two guitars, keyboards, bass and drums, and its arrangements use the Dead as a touchstone for brisk, bluegrassy rhythms and shimmering major chords.

Now gave it four stars out of five and said, "There's still some banjo-pickin' and fiddle-playing, but The Long Way's clean, soft-rockin' vibe is striking in contrast to the traditional bluegrassy leanings of 2002's Home."

This latest effort is an acoustic, bluegrassy thing filled with guest stars like Kris Kristofferson, Alison Krauss, Jamey Johnson and Miranda Lambert and songs by such unexpected artists as Bob Dylan and U2!

They find it in a conspiratorial, jazz-chorded version of St. Louis Jimmy's "Going Down Slow," and in "Fall Like Rain," which has the bluegrassy bounce of a Paul Simon song and a vocal that almost yodels, forlorn but inscrutable.

They used familiar Dead strategies: bluegrassy phrasing on lines far outside the bluegrass idiom, group pauses with glimmering sustained notes, fleet overlapping scales that unfurled like maypole ribbons and transitions that layered the next rhythm atop the previous one, lingering in a sonic moire pattern.

The Meat Puppets, who opened the show, covered a span of psychedelia from the bluegrassy saunter of the Grateful Dead to hard, fuzz-toned riffs approaching Jimi Hendrix, all carrying wry lyrics about drift and paradox: "Since I hurt myself/I feel so much better."

That came from Los Lobos, who have come up with eerie, earthy songs that meld pan-American music into casual enigmas, and from Mr. Hornsby's band, which cruised through sunny songs and jams that mix the Dead's bluegrassy lilt with stronger tinges of gospel and jazz.

It can reach back to the 1960's and 70's to jam like the Grateful Dead or play ringing folk-rock like the Byrds; with Rich Brotherton on guitar and Marty Muse on pedal steel guitar trading leads, it can also glide into the Texas swing or pick through bluegrassy rock.

The album was well-received, drawing immediate comparison to the work of fellow folk revival musicians Pentangle, but demonstrating more of an emphasis on original folk compositions as well as showcasing a more progressive use of bluegrassy multi-instrumentation (especially due to Martin Jenkins's diverse talents) and Balkan (particularly Bulgarian) rhythmic structures.