Church Street Blues

Church Street Blues was recorded at 1750 Arch Studios in Berkeley, produced by Rice with Bill Wolf and Bob Shumaker as engineers, and was released on Rounder and then Sugar Hill; Wikipedia gives Sugar Hill. It is essentially a guitar-and-voice record, with Wyatt Rice on rhythm guitar on four tracks, his first recording appearance. Wikipedia lists twelve tracks, though Positive Feedback says "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" was a bonus on a later CD and not on the original LP.

Craft Recordings reissued it on 180-gram vinyl from the original master tapes on February 23, 2024, with Shumaker remixing with Rice's help, Kevin Gray cutting the lacquers and RTI pressing it. AllMusic gave it four and a half stars; Daniel Mullins in Bluegrass Today (2011) called it a hidden masterpiece, all too often overlooked, and Tom Gibbs of Positive Feedback wrote in 2024 that it may very well be his masterpiece. Punch Brothers' Hell on Church Street (Nonesuch, January 14, 2022) reimagines the whole album; they had played it live in 2019 and meant it as a gift, but Rice died before it was finished.