Grass Roots: The Best Of New Grass Revival jaunts from favorites to obscurities, including three selections from the live recording of the band's last concert on New Year's Eve, 1989. That final, emotional show is captured in "Do What You Gotta Do," "Can't Stop Now," and "Singing The Blues," a song that does not appear on any other New Grass album. The new set hosts seven more previously unreleased tracks: "Casey Jones," "The Dancer," and "Doin' My Time," from an unreleased 1974 studio album; "Where The Storm Is Over" and "You Don't Knock" from 1983's "Austin City Limits;" and "Revival" and "Ain't That Peculiar" from 1987's "Austin City Limits." Three previously unreleased tracks, recorded for Leon Russell's label, Shelter Records, illustrate where the band was headed and it was not down the middle. In addition to "train track" percussion by Michael Clemm on "Doin' My Time," the country oldie is goosed into overdrive by breakneck banjo, mandolin and guitar fingering that becomes increasingly dense and layered. The performance clocks in at 6 minutes, 38 seconds, just one example of the New Grass Revival jams that would set the stage for so many to follow.

Group founder Sam Bush was a Kentucky mandolin and fiddle prodigy. After high school, he joined Bluegrass Alliance. During a 1971 visit to Nashville, the band quarreled and separated. Out of its ashes rose the first edition of New Grass Revival – Bush, banjoist Courtney Johnson, guitarist Curtis Burch and bassist "Ebo Walker" (Harry Shelor). When "Walker"/Shelor exited the group in 1973, he was briefly replaced by Butch Robins, until John Cowan was recommended. The fact that Cowan sang in a soul/rock style rather than in a "high lonesome" bluegrass voice didn't faze Bush a bit. Bush also felt that Cowan's strength as a bass player rendered a drummer unnecessary. In 1979, Leon Russell again took New Grass Revival on the road, this time for two years. A 1981 live album documents the collaboration, but the relentless work soon took its toll. Commonwealth (1981) is frequently cited as the finest collection by the first edition of New Grass Revival. It was also its swansong. Courtney Johnson and Curtis Burch were road-weary, and both decided to leave. Bush and Cowan had met guitarist Pat Flynn at a festival in Colorado and jammed with him, and Bush had known banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck for years. They were selected as the band's two new members.

International touring, singles on the country charts, television appearances, a Grammy® nomination, music videos, being cast in Robert Altman's film TANNER '88 and awards for instrumental accomplishments came in a flurry for New Grass Revival in the 1980s. But in December 1989 the band announced that it was bidding its fans farewell.

The band later reunited to back Garth Brooks on his versions of "Callin' Baton Rouge" (1994) and "Do What You Gotta Do" (1999), but each member has gone on to achieve individual success, as well. As a session musician, Pat Flynn has played guitar on more than 350 albums and on dozens of country hits. He continues to be a widely respected songwriter and is also a budding record producer. His first solo CD was released in 2004. John Cowan has recorded four solo CDs, tours with fiddle virtuoso Vassar Clements and is in demand as a Nashville session singer.

As the leader of The Flecktones, Bela Fleck has recorded eight jazz albums and holds the distinction of having been nominated in more different musical categories than anyone in Grammy history. In all, Fleck has garnered eight Grammys and 20 nominations. Sam Bush spent five years in Emmylou Harris's Grammy®-winning Nash Ramblers band, and has made six CDs as a frontman. He also stays busy as a session musician, having appeared on more than 300 albums, several of which he produced.

"He would never say it himself, so I'll say it for him: Sam Bush founded a whole new form of music," says Flynn. "He's the one that brought together all these different styles." Artists as disparate as Alison Krauss, Leftover Salmon and Nickel Creek are beneficiaries of this band's groundbreaking, genre-defying creativity.

"I look back at New Grass Revival fondly," Bush asserts. "I think we accomplished an awful lot. We were a success, because we always made the music we wanted to make."

"I couldn't be prouder of that legacy," says Cowan.

Fleck adds, "I am very proud of our time together, and I have an 'unconditional love' for my pals, Sam, John and Pat."

"New Grass Revival was a gift," concludes Flynn. "It was a gift to all of us."

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