Clyde Moody - Moody`s Blues

Hey folks----here is one of my new favorite LP`s!! This stuff is great.
Clyde Moody was from western North Carolina, where LOTS of great music came from in the 20`s when Clyde would have been a boy. No telling who all he had heard or been influenced by when he was young. There were several early country recording artists who came from the area Clyde was from.
Clyde first gained fame as one of Bill Monroe`s early Bluegrass Boys as a lead singer. One of Bill`s early hits was Six White Horses, which Clyde had written. Before being with Bill, he had played and sang in a band for Wade Mainer, but it wasn`t till he was with Bill that he became really well known because Bill`s act was SO popular at the time.
After about 5 years with Bill Monroe, he decided to quit and go solo and managed to get his own spot on the Grand Ole Opry for a while.
Clyde performed and recorded as a solo act and was very popular, but never gained super-star type success. He did have some pretty good hits through the late 40`s, especially Shenandoah Waltz. He became well known for waltz hits and was even called The Hillbilly Waltz King sometimes.
Now about the songs on the LP. This is some FINE stuff!! Clyde blends blues into bluegrass like nobody`s buisness!! He had a great voice for this type stuff. He also really shines on the instrumentals, playing some great finger-picking guitar. He plays guitar in a style that makes me think of the great Sam McGee, particularly on the tune Moody`s Blues, which sounds like a Sam McGee song sure enough. It sounds like phrases from a few Sam McGee songs titled Buck Dancer`s Choice and Ching Chong.
Another couple of my favorite songs on this LP are If I Had My Life To Live Over, which Sam & Kirk McGee also recorded, and Conversation With Death, which has became quite famous from the Ralph Stanley performance in the movie O Brother Where Art Thou.
Well---I guess I should quit talking up this LP, just listen and hear this great stuff for yourself!!!

Track list---
Six White Horses
Moody`s Blues
Don`t This Road Look Rough And Rocky
Sitting On Top Of The World
Shenandoah Waltz
Piney Flat Picking
One Step More
Columbus Stockade Blues
If I Had My Life To Live Over
Climbing The Stairs
Where The Old Red River Flows
I Can Tell When I`m Not Wanted
Conversation With Death

Click here to download Moody`s Blues

Archie Campbell comedy LP

Anyone that was born during or before the 70`s that know anything at all likely knows who Archie Campbell is----the barber, the judge, the doctor (among other things) from Hee Haw!!
Archie was from Bulls Gap, Tennessee and started his show buissness career waaaaay back in the mid 30`s in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was a performer on WNOX, which in the the 30`s was sort of a tryout place for the Grand Ole Opry. He would have been a WNOX at the same time that Roy Acuff was there before moving on to Nashville and the Opry.
I don`t know what sort of stuff Archie did in Knoxville, likely music stuff as he had a pretty good singing voice.
I don`t know anything about Archie till he shows up at the Opry in the 50`s as a sort of sophisticated type comedian instead of the old hillbilly, backwoods type comics usually seen on the opry like Minnie Pearl, Rod Brasfield or the Duke Of Paducah. In the late 50`s into the 70`s he recorded several records for RCA & Starday, some music and some were comedy LP`s, which were pretty popular in the 60`s.
THEN----he really got famous when Hee Haw came along. He was a comedian on Hee Haw playing several different characters in the same skits for his whole run on the show till he passed away. The Doctor, the Judge, the Barber, the moonshier, and probably what he was best known as doing on the show, the song Pfttt You Were Gone, which was actually a song released as a single in the 60`s.
This particular LP was likely the last record Archie had out. I believe it would have been recorded in the mid 80`s. It is of a live show recorded at the Archie Campbell Hee Haw Village at Pigeon Forge, Tennessee with his son Phil playing a few second parts in some of the protracted stories Archie tells. There are some of his classic routines here.
I hope you all like comedy records, I`ll post more country comedy records as time goes along, some of these country comedy records are sort of hard to come by----enjoy!!

Click here to download An Evening With Archie & Phil Campbell

Cliff Carlisle - Kountry Kind LP

Hi everyone---this is, as far as I know, the last recordings made by the great Cliff Carlisle. The label of the LP is REM Records.
Cliff was from Taylorsville, Kentucky (May 6, 1903-April 5, 1983). He played steel guitar (in a heavily Hawaiian influenced style, Hawaiian music was hugely popular when Cliff would have been a teenager) sang and yodeled in the fashion of Jimmie Rodgers.
Jimmie Rodgers was also an influence on Cliff`s music. Cliff recorded may "white" blues type songs in the style of Jimmie Rodgers, and many featured a somewhat more complex yodeling style than Jimmie Rodgers had. Ciff knew Jimmie and even played steel for him on a few of Jimmie`s records.
In the late 20`s and through the 30`s Cliff recorded somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 sides, a fairly large number of records for the depression years. He started recording with a man he had performed with for some time named Wilbur Ball. Then sometime in the 30`s Cliff started playing with his brother Bill, who went on to be quite a well known artist in the 50`s as Jumpin` Bill Carlisle & The Carlisles and made himself a famous artist with mostly novelty songs. Many songs Cliff recorded during this time were "suggestive" type songs, songs that were almost dirty in a most fun fashion.
Around the time of World War 2 Cliff decided to retire from music, but about 1950 when his brother Bill was really becoming famous Cliff toured and recorded under Bill as mostly an instumentalist.
Cliff was a pretty dang good steel player, but apparently never made the switch to electric steel. He did play about every other type steel though. He would have started with the old Martin style Hawaiian guitars, then others like the National "biscuit bridge" single cone, a National Tri-Cone and even Dobro style resonator guitars. The Dobro made famous by Uncle Josh of Flatt & Scruggs had been bought by Josh from Cliff. I don`t know what type resonator guitar Cliff plays on this particular LP, but it`s likely a National Tri-Cone as I had read an interview of Cliff once late in his life where he said he was using a Tri-Cone at that time.
Now a little information on the LP---I have no idea when this was made, late 60`s I`d say, there`s no date on the LP cover. All the songs on this LP were written by Cliff. Hope you enjoy!!!

Track list---
Ramblin` Yodeler
Gamblin` Dan
Your Diary Told Me So
Red Velvet Slippers
Carolina Sweetheart
Ride `Em `Till I Die
Mine, All Mine
Shaggy Dog
Rocky Mountain Home
Shine, Shine On Me
Holy Lord
Home Of The Soul

Click here to download Kountry Kind

Classic style banjo by William J. Ball

Here`s a little different installment on my blog than you all might expect---a classic style banjo LP. I said I would be posting some type stuff that influences country styles. I could be argued that this type of finger-picking the banjo could be the granddaddy of many old-time 2 or 3 finger picking styles and even bluegrass banjo.
William J. Ball was from the Bristol area of England. That`s really about all the information I know from the album cover, except to say he was a well known classic style picker in England.
One neat thing about the music is that Mr. Ball is accompanied by piano, played by Eileen Smith. Piano is not unusual to be played behind classic style banjo, but most people not familiar with this type banjo style likely never heard how a piano and banjo can play with and against each other.
From about 1890 through 1920 this banjo style was HUGELY popular in the United States with such players as Vess Ossman, Fred Van Eps, Fred J. Bacon (of Bacon Banjo Company fame) and A.A. Farland (of Farland banjos). There are many, many early cylinders and 78`s of classic style banjo. One reason classic banjo was recorded so much by the early recording industry, besides the popularity of the style at the time, was that the staccato sound of the banjo recorded very well on the primitive acoustic recording equipment used then.
Most of the songs on this LP are of English origin, the only title I recognize as recorded by American classic banjo players is Danse Arlequin, although I believe even this song was written in England.
All you banjo lovers should give this a listen just to hear something a little different than usual.

Track listing---

Syncopatin` Shuffle
Pompadour
Egyptian Princess
Danse Arlequin
Freckles
Mr. Punch
Zarana
Humouresque
Carry On
A Spanish Romance
Ad Astra
Dream Dance
Thumbs Up

I have removed the download link as I found a place to buy this LP in cd form. Just check the comments on this particular blog entry for a link to see where it can be bought if you want to hear this.

Mountain Music Played On The Autoharp

Well folks, here`s a neat LP. It features the autoharp playing old-time or traditional type country music.
We have some great artists here, such as Ernest "Pop" Stoneman and autoharp "wizard" Kilby Snow, which could not be beat at playing fiddle tunes. Neriah & Kenneth Benfield are somewhat similar in style to Kilby Snow.
I can`t say much about the autoharp, I don`t know all that much about them, but this is a great record. It`s not just a boring instrumental disc, most of the songs also have singing and all cuts are great examples of the styles of music played and sang to the autoharp. Hope you-all like it!!

I have divided side 1 & 2 into 2 downloads instead of one due to the length of the LP to make it easier to download.

Tracks for side 1---
Stoney`s Waltz - Ernest Stoneman
Sweet Marie - Neriah & Kenneth Benfield
May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister? - Kilby Snow
She`ll Be Coming `Round The Mountain - Kilby Snow & Wade Ward
Flop-Eared Mule - Kilby Snow
Bile `Em Cabbage Down - Ernest Stoneman & Mike Seeger
All I Got`s Gone - Ernest Stoneman
Ella`s Grave - Neriah & Kenneth Benfield
Shortnin` Bread - Kenneth Benfield
Old Joe Clark - Kenneth Benfield
Waltz - Neriah Benfield
Precious Jewel - Kilby Snow
Ain`t Going To Work Tomorrow - Kilby Snow

Click here to download side 1

Tracks for side 2---

Mule Skinner Blues - Kilby Snow
John Henry - Kilby Snow
Weeping Willow Tree - Neriah & Kenneth Benfield
Wreck Of Number Nine - Ernest Stoneman
Red River Valley - Kilby & Jim Snow
The Great Reaping Day - Ernest Stoneman
I`m Alone, All Alone - Ernest Stoneman & Mike Seeger
Jacob`s Ladder - Kenneth Benfield
`Way Down In The Country - Kenneth Benfield
Benfield Hoedown - Neriah Benfield
Wildwood Flower - Kilby Snow & Mike Seeger
Tragic Romance - Kilby Snow, Hazel Dickens & Mike Seeger
Click here to download side 2

Roy Acuff Columbia sides "un-re-issued" on cd

Howdy folks----I`m back!! Here we have a bunch of Roy Acuff songs that were issued on 78`s that have never made it onto a cd as far as I know.
These 78`s are all from my own collection. One title, I Didn`t Want You to Know, is a test pressing I have, it was never issued at all. One of these days I`ll go through the archives and find some more un-issued sides for your listening pleasure. There are other un-issued sides that have came out on cd & LP`s that I have in the archives.
I hope there are some Roy Acuff fans out there, he`s one of my favorites.
I have transferred the 78`s myself and tried to clean up some of the hiss & other noise that are just naturally part of a 78, but not to the point of hurting the sound of the record that is supposed to be there. I used promo copies where I have them, as they aren`t as noisy as a regular issue 78.
Some of these songs are great and fine Roy Acuff classics. We have 2 "Americana" type songs in Doug MacArthur (sort of a biography song about MacArthur) and Advice To Joe, a great cold war song sending a message to Joesef Stalin, leader of communist Russia at the time. I love songs about this type stuff, they are usually "in your face" messages for freedom.
We also have some other great tunes like the comical love song Baldknob Arkansas, which shows off the sound of Roy singing with Bashful Brother Oswald`s "screaming tenor" singing style. All these songs are just great, hardcore country songs---so HAPPY LISTENING!!


Track list---
All The World Is Lonely Now
Tell Me Now Or Tell Me Never
I Had A Dream
Thank God
Jesus Died For Me
Baldknob Arkansas
A Plastic Heart
Advice To Joe
When My Money Run Out
Your Address Unknown
Cheating
Don`t Hang Your Dirty Linen On My Line
Doug MacArthur
Just A Friend
I Didn`t Want You To Know

Click here to download