Hi,
I'm a Canadian (in Toronto) who runs an MP3 library with MC9 which includes approximately 4,000 BLUEGRASS files. I'm an avid student of 5-string banjo, and have been very privileged to be taken under the wings of some professional players who have taught me a great deal about the music over the last three years. I've been absorbing the best recordings and attending live events (including in the heartlands of Bluegrass in the USA) for about three years, and have a pretty good fix on what the most important and influential recordings are.
The artists who have been recommended to you here are excellent and the recordings too, but the true "reference" recordings which carry the "core" of the repertoire and sound of Bluegrass are not well represented, generally.
Here are some suggestions for albums to get not based on personal taste but on their sheer status and influence - stuff that students of Bluegrass music (of playing the instruments and singing the songs) learn automatically, in no particular order of importance:
First, modern recordings:
1) Title: "The Bluegrass Compact Disc" with J.D. Crowe, Jerry Douglas, Bobby Hicks, Doyle Lawson, Todd Phillips, Tony Rice, Rounder Records CD11502.
Note that the above is Volume 1 in a series.
2) Title: "J.D. Crowe & The New South" Rounder Records 0044. Absolutely quintessential.
3) Title: "Snakes Alive!" by "The Dreadful Snakes" (featuring Bela Fleck, the premier Banjo player in the world ... in all styles) Rounder Records 0177.
4) Title: "Time Stands Still" by Ron Stewart, Rounder Records CD 82161-0479-2.
5) Title: "Live at the M.A.C." by "IIIrd Tyme Out" Rounder Records, 0413.
6) Title: "Del & The Boys" by the Del McCoury Band, Hollywood Records (sorry no # but very famous).
Note that this last one was a hard choice because Del McCoury is sort of the new elder of neo-traditional Bluegrass and has many albums out which are mostly all. The one I chose has a track which won best new song just a couple years ago at the IBMA so I thought it should receive the extra status.)
7) Title: "The Stanley Tradition: Tribute To A Bluegrass Legacy" a special multi-artist project by many top super players/singers pay tribute to Ralph Stanley, on Doobie Shea records, DS-CD-1001.
8 - Titles: "My Dixie Home" or "Bound To Ride" by Jim Mills both on Sugar Hill Records. (Sorry no #s, but again very famous.)
9) Title: "Live At The Charleston Music Hall" by Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder" on Skaggs Family Records. Probably the most recent super-concert live recording in Bluegrass.
10) Title: "Live At The Old Schoolhouse" by "The Johnson Moutain Boys". Very influential, firey, live recording. (Sorry no number but again very famous.)
11) "Tony Rice" by Tony Rice ... super-influential, little bit older album which is considered to have almost single-handedly initiated a post-folk-revival renaissance in Bluegrass style and composition on Rounder Records (sorry no #).
Other super player/singer bands in the Modern side are: 1) "Sammy Shelor & Lonesome River Band", "Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver" this list goes on. "Bob Paisley & The Southern Grass" is considered many in by the hard-core traditionalist Bluegrass crowd to be the modern "torch carrier" of "high lonesome, traditional" Bluegrass, with a somewhat rougher sound.
Alison Krauss & Union Station is also a five star super-band who comes out of Bluegrass but now performs sets which include some ultra-hot Bluegrass with other, more contemporary compositions. The best Krauss I can think of to recommend is the recent, 2-CD high budget "Live At the Charleston Music Hall". Simply awesome.
Now for the prerequisite first-generation stuff...
Note that I've only selected stuff which both gives you the essential songs by the essential artists but also far enough along in their careers that the sound quality is great too ... no crackly telephone audio here ... beware of the historical "box sets" ... you may be disappointed that 2/3 of each set are really ancient bad sound simpky beacuse they include so much early, early stuff.
The father of Bluegrass is Bill Monroe. The equally important Flatt & Scruggs who parted from the Bluegrass Boys must receive the same attention.
For "Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys" (his band's name):
1) Instrumental collection title: "American Traveler" on County Records CCS-119-CD.
2) Vocal title: "Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys - Live Recordings 1956-1969 - Off The Record Volume 1" on Smithsonian Folkways CD 40063. Note that this one also has extremely astute and informative liner notes.
For Flatt & Scruggs:
Title: "Flatt & Scruggs At Carnegie Hall! The Complete Concert"; KOC-7929-CD. Sorry don't know the label but a very famous record and should be easy to get. This is an all-in-one songbook of super-standards at the height of their act, with superb sound too. Pretty well any of the historic studio recording albums which are just as enjoyable will have a lot of song-overlap with this one.
2) Title: "Foggy Mountain Banjo" on Sony A23392. This is indisputable the most important Bluegrass banjo (instrumental) album in history. I was at the Earl Scruggs tribute in Dayton Ohio a year or so ago and it seemed like every banjo player who played the shows (many big names) said THAT ALBUM was their main recording-based inspiration and vehicle to learning their instrument.
Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys, and Jim & Jesse are the two other, standard first-generation bands to know about...
For Ralph Stanley:
1) Title: "Cry From The Cross" on Rebel Records #1499 (absolutely classic spiritual).
2) Title: "Short Life Of Trouble (Songs Of Grayson & Whitter)" on Rebel Records REB-1735-CD (absolutely classic secular).
Note that Ralph Stanley was with his brother Carter as "The Stanley Brothers" before Carter died in the sixties and their stuff is super-classic as well. There are many excellent compilations of this band.
For Jim & Jesse:
Compilation Title: "Y'all Come, The Essential Jim & Jesse" on County Records EK 65076.
The "Osborne Brothers" and "Jimmy Martin" are arguable just as important, but I have less of these guys and am not sure which specific albums are to be recommended. Note that a famous Bluegrass anthem, "Rock Top" was most famously recorded by the Osborn Brothers.
Well that's all I can muster right now. There are is a host of other, lesser recorded bands and artists but I can't name everyone. The ones I've listed will also serve as launchpads to other artists. Many if these discs have excellent liner-notes and the band members are all influential in thier own rights and have thier own superb albums to learn about.
Check out:
www.countysales.com for the world's largest Bluegrass and Oldtime (pre-Bluegrass) record collection available online.
P.S. - If you just want to get one comilation which can serve as a all 'round intro to modern bluegrass, there's a simple answer. Get "Hand Picked - 25 Years of Bluegrass on Rounder Records". It's cheap, the liner notes are amazingly good, and it's a 2-CD set which will introduce you to many of the modern bands I've mentioned here and more. Rounder 0 11661 8522 2 8. This is the first bluegrass CD(s) I ever owned.
Good luck!