Track list for Volume 11---
1. Wasn`t That A Mighty Storm (this is a unique tune to me, never heard it before)
2. Fishing Bait (likely from the Dixon Brothers 78)
3. Coney Isle (likely from Cowboy Copas` tune Alabam, which is a version of the old Frank Hutchison 78 titled Coney Isle)
4. Play Mates (an old pop tune that had been recorded by Riley Puckett, which could be the source of this version)
5. Dig A Hole (maybe from Bill Monroe`s Darling Cora)
6. The Swapping Song (possibly from Buell Kazee)
7. Take Your Blues And Go (I`ve never heard this anywhere els)
8. Put Your Arms Around Me (I know I`ve heard this before, but don`t know where from)
9. Where The Red Roses Grow (I`ve also heard this, but don`t remember where)
10. Fix Your Wagon (never heard this one before)
11. J.E.`s Hoedown (just an old fiddle tune J.E. may or may not have made up himself)
12. Down By The Railroad Track (could be from the Bradley Kincaid 78)
13. The Golden Willow Tree (possibly an old English ballad)
14. Punching Dough (never heard this one anywhere else)
15. Weary Miner Blues (don`t know this one, sounds a little Jimmie Rodgers-ish in style)
16. Pride Of The Prarie (another unknown to me)
17. He`s Coming To Us Dead (the old Grayson & Whitter tune)
18. Fox Chase (common old harmonica show-off tune)
19. Back To The Mountains (yet another one I`ve heard but can`t place where, uses the same music as Roy Acuff`s Gathering Flowers From The Hillside)
20. Wrong Key Hole (never heard this one anywhere else)
Click here to download J.E. Mainer - Vol. 11
Track list for Volume 12---
1. Two Little Girls In Blue (an old Bradley Kincaid tune)
2. Sally Ann (the common old fiddle number, related to Sail Away Ladies)
3. Go Right Back (don`t know this one)
4. Job`s Coffin (a very unique tune I`ve never heard anywhere else)
5. Bring It On Down To My House (the old Bob Wills number)
6. All Quiet Along The Potomac (never heard this one before)
7. Little Old Sod Shanty (tune from the depression years related, or inspired by, The Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane)
8. Old Fashioned Picture (an unknown tune to me)
9. Sister Kate (neat tune, unknown to me)
10. The Blue Juanita (a unique number unknown to me)
11. The Fatal Wedding (an old English ballad made popular by Bradley Kincaid, Grandpa Jones also used to sing it)
12. County Fair (Another one unknown to me, sort of has a show tune sound to it)
13. Traveling Man (a version of the old Dock Walsh number, also know as a Doc Watson tune)
14. Where You Gonna Hide (a gospel number unknown to me)
15. Just That Kind (another one I`ve heard but can`t place)
16. Six King`s Daughters (I believe this is an old English ballad)
17. A Baby For Sale (I think this is an old Bradley Kincaid number)
18. Bitter Creek Breakdown (just a bluegrass banjo number)
19. Keep Knocking (never heard this one anywhere before)
20. Old Napoleon (recorded by Riley Puckett as Wal I Swan, also recorded by the Skillet Lickers at a faster tempo as Giddap Napoleon)
Click here to download J.E. Mainer - Vol. 12
I know that "Punching Dough" and "The Blue Juniata" were co-written by Dallas Turner and Rural Rhythm Honcho "Uncle" Jim O' Neal. Turner cut 7 albums for Rural Rhythm in 1965, Six of which were Western albums issued under his pseudonym Nevada Slim, and one a Gospel LP issued under his real name. I own several of these LPs and according to research that I have done, it seems many of the Bluegrass/Country vocal selections done by Morris Herbert on these albums, and in particular the last 10 or so volumes, were songs that Uncle Jim O'Neal co-wrote with various writers that he had under contract to him at the time.
ReplyDelete"Put Your Arms Around Me" was recorded by Clayton McMichen and his Wildcats in the 1930s, possibly Mainer learned from this 78.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia.com says,""The Blue Juniata" is a popular song written by Marion Dix Sullivan in 1841. It was one of the most popular parlor songs of the Nineteenth Century, and the first commercially successful song written by an American woman." It seems that Turner and O'Neal were following an old and disreputable practice of claiming to have written a song that was old in their grandparents' day.
ReplyDeleteThe Juniata ia a river in western Pennsylvania.
Yes Mellow, that is basically how O'Neal ran his business. This is how he was able to get 20 songs on each LP and sell them for $3 apiece in the 1960s when most other LPs only had 10 or 12 songs and sold for at least $3.98.
ReplyDeleteHe and his recording artists would come up with recording arrangments for these songs, most of which were Public Domain, and would copyright their new arrangements of the Public Domain folk and Parlor songs of the 1800s and before. Doing so was and is a perfectly legal (and shrewd if you ask me) business practice).
Hey mrmeadowlark, O`Neal re-working old songs sounds very A.P. Carter-ish to me. lol
ReplyDeleteVol.11 link is dead :(
ReplyDelete<~!~>
Vol.11 link is fixed.
ReplyDelete