David Grier, Mike Compton, Noam Pikelny, Gabe Witcher and Greg Garrison - Wheel Hoss

[@Tibosan2]

God knows I like clean shred but Compton has a such nasty attack ! He's f*cking badass !

[@GiladFoss]

I could listen to Grier's solo all day. Very bluesy, he digs right into the melody, and tells a story with a beginning, middle and end.

[@greekflatpicker]

Gilad Foss +1

[@TheGuitardan100]

These guys are some of the best bluegrass musicians around. Compton plays it how it should be played. I'm a guitar player and I had the pleasure to play with him around 10 years ago. It was an amazing experience.

[@patrickgroll2046]

LIKE the mando playing!!! Subtle, tasty and old school

[@greekflatpicker]

What a great band.David Grier is a monster player!

[@RandyStrubleBackingTracks]

OMG Davids picking is amazing!! All of them are mind blowing musicians!!

[@andrewlineberger7544]

David is Awesome...I saw years ago at the fireman's Kitchen in Hickory North Carolina a very intimate basement setting.... he played for two hours by himself and it was incredible

[@countryguitaronline]

No problem with the speed here. Love it! Especially the banjo break. So awesome.

[@jeffreysiegel9125]

That band smoked that Wheel Hoss!!! TYFP!!!😃

[@michaelalessi5761]

Gabe Witcher and Noam Pikelny holdin' it down.

[@benperea8483]

Holy smokes!!!👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@SkitRichards]

mike compton is to monroe what neil armstrong is to the wright brothers. i hope those who can't see his forest for the trees will look up more of his stuff and try to see him play live. i understand being wowed by machine gun picking (i like it done well in small doses, as it is here)- but most people want the sizzle not the steak. mike is the steak. he is a living masterpiece in the vein of something that is dying in all music everywhere- truth and honest to goodness core of the heart soul.

[@DiggyZazz]

Holy smokes!

[@ringmaster5252]

Great version.

[@georgemcelroy3058]

WOW!!!!

[@marcorleans4721]

Compton is the foremost Monroe style mandolin player alive period. All you complainers apparently don't understand what bluegrass music is or where it came from. It certainly didn't originate in music school!

[@andrewlineberger7544]

Yes he is

[@thorolse]

I think Compton works well in this setting. I usually prefer to listen to i.e. Thile and other "cleaner" players, but here I think Compton keeps the sound of the band well anchored in the tradition. IMO it makes it well balanced between the old and the new. Also, funny how almost all of Griers g-runs are rhythmically displaced, except the last one. Creative guy!

[@bobthabuilda1525]

I just noticed thar about the G runs. Good ear!

[@iragitlin7549]

I think about half of them are "displaced", as you say. But the amazing thing is, each of the ones that ARE displaced is displaced DIFFERENTLY!

[@71fatback]

It's kind of funny how rare Bill Monroe's style of playing is these days and how common it is to hear people diss him. It seems that bluegrass has gone the way of traditional jazz where the music school mentality says that technique is more important than music it's self. Mike Compton kills it! He plays like the BOSS who wrote the tune played it. Not to like it or to call it sloppy misses the point. Don't get me wrong I admire everyone's approach on this clip. It's great all around.

[@kerrykrishna]

A monster indeed! Yiannis, you should learn that solo note for note! I'll give ya a dollar!

[@fluthebirdwatcher]

Well said, good sir!

[@71fatback]

Compton plays it like the BOSS who wrote the tune did it. Faulting him for lack of technique misses the point entirely. But sadly so many people now diss Bill Monroe who claim to like bluegrass. Kudos to everyone on this clip killer playing all around

[@iragitlin7549]

"Faulting him for lack of technique misses the point entirely. " Amen! Technique is what you need to bring out the music that's inside you. Mike brings out the music that's inside of him just fine. So where's the "lack", eh?

[@MrBoris7910]

I agree with you Sachmo...I think he carries on a Bill Monroes style of playing which is very rare and unique these days...everyone of these guys is striving to be original

[@editorjuno]

Lots of folks love, respect, and have learned from Bill Monroe -- but Mike Compton *sounds* more like Monroe than any of the other mando greats can manage. As for David Grier -- words fail. There's nobody -- including great young hotshots like Billy Strings and Carl Miner -- who couldn't learn a thing or two from him, and I say that as somebody who's been around this music long enough to remember his dad as a skinny young banjo picking Blue Grass Boy alongside Pete Rowan and Richard Greene way back in the day.

[@mbsnyderc]

And i thought only car videos bought out silly arguments.for those of you complaining about Mike Compton's playing.did it ever dawn on you that the other musicians playing in this must like it, or he wouldn't be playing with them.

[@peterjosephpalmer9971]

What is this from? Great stuff, epic line up!

[@lynnwittenberg8927]

I enjoy the playing on this recording. All the musicians are great! Can anyone tell me who the fiddler is?

[@ringmaster5252]

Gabe Witcher. He plays with the Punch Brothers.

[@greekflatpicker]

+1.

[@greekflatpicker]

D-E-A-L!

[@SkitRichards]

compton's playing is simplistic? that's like saying the e=mc2 is simplistic because it doesn't have a lot of numbers, letters and strange symbols. he might be the square peg for a round hole but just like any innovator he is forging new ground. those other guys (who would gladly bow to mike's approach) play a million notes and it is impressive to most people. mike's playing is a masters styling and not for simple ears. van Goh's paintings look 'weird' to lots of people. get it?

[@rockgardenlove]

Fierce bros

[@herbm55]

I'm not a Compton hater. He's great at what he does, which is basically playing an older style of mandolin popularized by Bill Monroe. He is a super nice guy and he is a wonderful link back to those that came before, and I think of him as more of a preservationist as opposed to an innovator. If his music moves you, it's a wonderful thing for all involved. By the way, Vincent van Gogh was considered different not because he painted just like somebody else did 70 years before. :^)

[@USNAVDC]

I bet you Yiannis could handle that!

[@Sluggo01]

Grier....wow easy tiger...damm

[@herbm55]

I think you can like Bluegrass and not Bill Monroe. For me, it was Earl's banjo that made "bluegrass" actually Bluegrass. Gabe, IMO, is obviously the boss of this particular take on the tune. Mike is the square peg among the round holes. :^)

[@Sluggo01]

WOW...nuff said.........nobody in the POP cuntry..plays like this...nobody

[@sachmomurphy9529]

That is a really shitty comment, Compton can stand toe to toe with anybody, Period! Just because his style is different don't judge his playing to be less proficient. It would take years to master what he's doing and most people would still never understand whats going on. There's a lot to be said about how to paint the picture or write a letter but don't judge styles of capability.

[@RonBrownLightworkxStudio]

Great music, lousy videography. David Grier’s break, loved to have seen that. Etc, etc

[@Targetteer1]

With most of these new players as well as some of the so called ''new grass'' players I almost always ask what tune is it.The mindless improv in this type of music is the equivilent of incoherent babble during a conversation.I wish they would stop,they set a poor example for youngsters to follow,emphasizing fretboard gymnastics over musicianship.Picking super fast on most every tune even if done cleanly is meaningless if you have "cacked up" the melody with mindless extra notes.

[@mbsnyderc]

How old are you.these guys aren't all that young.and in a tune without vocals the playing is what your listening for,and it wasn't all that extravagant.

[@prairiesedge1455]

If you can't follow this, identify it(or find coherency in it), don't listen to it. These guys are the masters of their style and I'm impressed at how much time and effort they would have put into it to be this good. Go back to sleep.

[@USAbzdur]

My only problem with this performance is that a) it's too damn fast and thus most of character or flavor or even soul of Monroe's original composition is essentially lost and b) I enjoy most of Compton's picking as long as I don't have to look at him in those damn goofy Farmer Alfafa overalls. Come on, gimme a break -- he's no hayseed so why insult the music and trivialize it with that kind of costume? duh.... At least the band aren't wearing damn baseball hats and baggy shorts. Do any musicians these day actually know what the heck a "wheel hoss" actually is and how the tune and its structure and rhythm relate to the title? sorry, but "Wheel Hoss" was never Monroe's attempt to compete with "Orange Blossom Special" or "Fire on the Mountain" which are work fine when done fast.

[@juliandavis3130]

anything else to comment on?

[@cody0653]

This isn't the 1960's anymore, newer generations have to create their own standards better and faster. I am 19 and enjoy listening / playing this more than the older versions because they are simple and boring to me. Don't get me wrong here the roots are still there just newer and better. Scruggs revolutionized generations into playing different from claw hammer, why can't we?

[@harveygravits8441]

USAbzdur Well said...ditto

[@richardsmithmusic]

Well, there's no pleasing you is there.

[@richardsmithmusic]

Well, there's no pleasing you is there.

[@moonturkey]

What he plays isn't as clean and he cuts notes off because of the speed. Perhaps that is considered his style, I haven't listened to him much. What he plays is a lot more simplistic but simplicity doesn't denote quality, his tone and technique (not from an aesthetic point of view, but a functional one) is rather messy and it results in him sounding, I think, kind of amateurish compared to Gabe, Noam and David. Their clean sound and technicality really separates them from Mike.

[@Mandoflash]

Mike is the funky bits. Elements of his timing eclipse the "clean technique".

[@moonturkey]

Mike Compton is not on the same level as these guys.

[@rwilliamclark]

Why do people like the sound of Mike Compton, it's obnoxious amongst clean music. Even if he is the tradition of Bill, it doesn't make his sound have a place with these players or even good for that matter. They should at least be playing with somebody like Steffey or Flinner.

[@bluegrassmando1017]

Nope. They should be playing with Compton. Most of us wish we could do what he does. Listen again. And then again.