Tennessee Folk Arts LP

Here`s a pretty neat LP. Some of the artists on this I know nothing about, some will be quite well known by fans of old-time and traditional country music.
The record starts with an interview of Bill Harrison by the great Charles Wolfe. Charles Wolfe has written many articles and books about country and blues music. In my opinion he is the best author ever about this type stuff. His writing was very informative while being extremely entertaining, a rare combination. Unfortunately Charles passed away a few years ago with all the information gathered for a biography he was going to write about Uncle Dave Macon stored in his head. I had the pleasure of meeting him in his home about a year before he passed away. He was a great man to get to meet, I sure wish I could have got to know him better. The interview is unique due to the fact Charles was interviewing Bill Harrison about an anvil shoot, which is demonstrated on the LP.
David Holt is no stranger to any old-time music fan, especially old-time banjo pickers. He is a great old-time banjo picker and has even got into country blues in the last few years. An artist well worth looking up if you like this track.
Next we have the great Sam McGee playing two tracks I`d never heard before. I`m pretty sure this is the last known recording of Sam before his death in an accident on his farm with his tractor.
The Hotmud Family was an old-time string band in the 1970`s. They seemed to have leaned into the library of Uncle Dave Macon as the few tracks of theirs I`ve heard, most were Uncle Dave Macon tunes. They were pretty good, but I know nothing about them.
The Perry County Music Makers were a neat group featuring Nonnie Presson on zither. A zither is the father of the autoharp without the "auto" part. If you can imagine plucking an autoharp without the chord bars you can visualize someone playing a zither. It AMAZES me that someone could play such an instrument with strings so close together (I believe some has as many as 52 strings) with any speed or accuracy!! I know of no other artists that recorded with a zither except gospel blues artist Washington Phillips in the 20`s. So you can see what a rare treat it is to hear this. The Spring Fed Records label in Woodbury, Tennessee sells 2 cd`s of the Perry County Music Makers. If you like this they are sure worth buying.
W.L. Gregory & Clyde Davenport should be no strangers to fans of old-time music. Both seem to have learned from or been influenced by Burnett & Rutherford of the Monticello area of Kentucky. This is about the smoothest old-time string band type music in existence!! Clyde has the nickname "Clyde the Glide" for being well known for his smoothness on fiddle, although Clyde plays banjo on this cut (and is great on old-time banjo too!!).
Frazier Moss was a well known fiddler from middle Tennessee, around the Murfreesboro, Rutherford County area, known for producing early old-time music stars such as Uncle Dave Macon and Sid Harkreader.
I don`t really know anything about the other artists on this LP, so I`ll let their performances speak for them------ENJOY!!

Track listing---
Anvil Shoot - Bill Harrison & Charles Wolfe
Bill Cheatham - David Holt
Farewell Blues/Alabama Jubilee/Just Because medley - Sam McGee
Yellow Gals - Missouri Corn Dodgers
From Jerusalem To Jericho - Hotmud Family
Evalina Waltz - The Perry County Music Makers
Rain & Snow - Suzanne Edmundson & Rick Good
Greensleeves - Jim Curry
My Gal`s A High Born Lady - Sam McGee & The Hotmud Family
Lost John - W.L. Gregory & Clyde Davenport
New Broom - Rupert Francis
The Lone Pilgrim - Julia Hager & Bob Abrams
When You And I Were Young, Maggie/It`s A Mighty Dark Road To Travel - Johnny Hutt & The Bluff Ridge Boys
Festival Waltz - Frazier Moss

Click here to download Tennessee Folk Arts LP

Howdy Forrester - Fiddlin` Country Style LP

If you are a fiddlin` fan, you gotta hear this one!!
The great Howdy Forrester was one of the greatest bluegrass & Country fiddlers ever. Howdy was from Hickman County, Tennessee, and his real first name was Howard. He started to learn to play when he was likely about 10 years old. Sometime in his mid-teens he wound up playing professionally wit an outfit in Oklahoma (I don`t know all the particulars of his early years).
While in Oklahoma, or possibly just before going to Oklahoma, he partnered up with Georgia Slim Rutland, a few years older than Howdy, and was a pretty accomplished fiddler. Howdy learned much of his technique he is famous for while with Rutland. I imagine before playing with Rutland, Howdy was likely a pretty straight-forward old-time type fiddler. I think mabey Howdy & Rutland were together performing for a few years around Oklahoma & Texas, just before the World War 2 years.
I believe just during or just after the war Howdy got a pretty good break in music when he was hired by Bill Monroe. Monroe also hired Howdy`s wife to play accordian. Those earlier Bill Monroe sides with accordian was with Howdy & his wife.
I don`t know just how long Howdy was with Monroe, but along about 1950 or just after Howdy went to work with Roy Acuff & His Smoky Mountain Boys. Howdy is most well known for his career with Acuff, which lasted until Howdy died in the 1980`s.
Howdy toured with Acuff on the road till about the early 1970`s when he told Roy he was just burned out on touring. Roy replaced Howdy on road dates, but Howdy played the Opry with Roy till he passed away. After Howdy quit touring with Roy, he worked for Roy`s record label, Hickory.
Through the late 50`s up through the 70`s, Howdy recorded about a half dozen fiddle records. I think this LP is the about the first one Howdy made, if not it`s almost the first. I read somewhere that it`s thought that Howdy`s first fiddle LP was the first LP dedicated to country fiddle instrumentals. I don`t know if that`s right or not. Tommy Jackson may have beat Howdy to this. Also, in about 1949, Roy Acuff`s fiddler at the time, Tommy Magness, recorded with the Smoky Mountain Boys a 4 disc 78 album of fiddle tunes which was also issued on a 10 inch LP. I`m not sure when this 10 inch LP was issued, I believe mabey a little while after the 4 disc 78 album came out though. Mabey Howdy`s first LP may have been the first 12 inch LP issued, as I think the Tommy Magness 10 inch LP was likely the first country fiddle LP issued if you don`t count the size of the LP.
One more little fact about Howdy was that he really disliked his nickname. When his son was born some of his friends started calling him "Little" Howdy after his dad "Big" Howdy as Howdy had named his son Howard. Howdy soon put a stop to people calling him "Little" Howdy.
MANY of today`s country fiddlers are influenced by Howdy, either by directly learning from his recordings, or by listening to other fiddlers that were influenced by Howdy. I`d say anyone learning country fiddle from the early 50`s to the 70`s were certainly influenced at least somewhat by Howdy`s playing.
Some of the songs on this LP were written by Howdy, such as Doc Harris Hornpipe and Howdy In Hickman County. Doc Harris was a fan and close friend of Howdy. Howdy was also adept at playing polkas at hoedown speed. Howdy and Acuff`s harmonica player, Jimmie Riddle, often played polkas duet style on the Opry and on live shows.
In the 70`s, Howdy recorded some LP`s for the Stoneway label out of Texas. Stoneway was a well known label in the 70`s for country and bluegrass instrumental LP`s. I`ll be posting more Howdy Forrester stuff in the future---HAPPY LISTENING!!

Track listing---
Grandmammy Look At Uncle Sam
Town And Country Fiddler
Memory Waltz
Howdy In Hickman County
Apple Blossom Polka
Pretty Polly Ann
Doc Harris Hornpipe
The Weeping Heart
Wild Fiddlers Rag
Cathy With The Raven Black Eyes
The Last Waltz
Cluckin` Hen

Click here to download Fiddlin` Country Style

George Pegram Riverside LP

This is surely a pretty un-common LP. The Riverside label (what few records I have saw on this label) usually has pretty interesting stuff on them. From what I can tell, Riverside must have concentrated on old-time and folk type music. I`d like to see a discography of this label just to see what other rarely heard material there is to be found out there.
Now----a little about George Pegram (banjo) and Walter "Red" Parham (harmonica). I know very little about George Pegram other than to say I believe he was a discovery of the great folk & old-time music collector & performer, the great Bascom Lamar Lunsford (of which I`ll be posting some material of in the future). I know next to nothing about Walter "Red"Parham. I believe this LP was likely recorded in the early to mid 60`s, these men may still be living, I don`t know of it if they are though.
So---since I don`t really know anything about these fellows, I`ll just copy a little information off of the LP cover-----"George Pegram of Union Grove, North Carolina, and Walter Parham of Leicester, North Carolina, have been playing and singing together for many years. They appear together, and with other instrumentalists, performing for square dances all over western North Carolina, and are the annual stars of Bascom Lamar Lunsford`s Mountain Folk Music And Dance Festival held each year in Asheville, North Carolina, during the first week of August. When not performing, Pegram and Parham work as farm laborers and odd job men.
These recordings were made at Bascom Lamar Lunsford`s home in South Turkey Creek, Leicester, North Carolina. Pegram and Parham may also be heard on Riverside in Banjo Songs Of The Southern Mountains (RLP 12-610) and Southern Mountain Folk Songs And Ballads (RLP 12-617)."
The cover also says---"George Pegram uses a technique much like the well known "double-thumbing" style. It is a three-finger movement employing single notes; the melody is picked with the thumb and the drone is alternated between the first and second strings, using the index and middle fingers.
As companion to the banjo in this album, Walter "Red" Parham plays the harmonica, a traditional instrument whose music represents a blending of melodic elements from both Negro and white folk songs. In combination with the banjo, it brings to life many of the sounds familiarly heard in the farmyards and on the back porches of the peoples in the Southern Mountains."
So---there you know about all I know about these great old-time musicians. Listen & ENJOY!!

Track listing---
Old Rattler
The Wreck Of The Old 97
Lost John
Georgia Buck
Cackling Hen
Sourwood Mountain
Wildwood Flower
Down In The Valley
Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
Roll On Buddy
Old Joe Clark
Downfall Of Paris
Will The Circle Be Unbroken
Listen To The Mocking Bird
Johnson`s Old Grey Mule
Chicken Reel
Turkey In The Straw
Foggy Mountain Top

Click here to download Pickin` And Blowin`

Wayne Raney on Starday

Hello everyone!! Now if you was peepin` through a knothole to see this album cover and all you could see was the dominecker rooster, you`d know right quick this is gonna be a pretty hardcore country record!!
I don`t really know a whole lot about Wayne, but I`ll tell what I can. Wayne Raney was originally (according to the LP cover) from Wolf Bayou in north central Arkansas. He learned to play harmonica as a boy.
Apparently in his mid teens he got on the radio. Somewhere along the way he had heard another harmonica wizard on the radio named Lonnie Glosson. Wayne met Lonnie somehow and they became musical partners on and off for the rest of their careers.
Likely in the late 40`s, Wayne also became aquainted with the Delmore Brothers and recorded with them many times on hits such as Blues Stay Away from me. They practically invented country boogie woogie music. Wayne & Lonnie Glosson even played twin harmonica on some of the Delmore sides in sort of a call & response style, that style being one of them would play a certain phrase on their harp and the other would sort of answer with part of the phrase the first player played. This Delmore music was recorded on the King label. Wayne also made several solo records himself, his biggest hit likely being Why Don`t You Haul Off And Love Me.
Another angle to Wayne`s music career was live radio. He had several shows through the years (sometimes with Lonnie Glosson). He also made program transcriptions that he sold to other radio stations around the country. My dad remembers listening to Wayne in the 50`s at night from some station somewhere in Arkansas.
Mabey one of the most fascinating facts of Wayne`s career is that on all his radio shows he sold his "talking" harmonicas (the term talking harmonica coming from some novelty songs where the harp "talked" like a child, saying stuff like "I want my mama" & "I want a drink of water") by mail order. I`d say Wayne likely made more money from the harmonica sales buissness than any other angle of his music career. I heard several stories where he had sold OVER 1,000,000 HARMONICAS over the radio!! I have even saw a story that said he had sold as many as 5,000,000 harps!!!!
Wayne had some pretty good hits around 1950, but never became a star of the size of Acuff, Tubb or Snow, but was certainly well known on the radio. He was sort of what I call a 2nd tier country star of the likes of Carl Butler, Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper, Cowboy Copas or Hawkshaw Hawkins. Certainly a well known star, but not a super-star.
This LP was recorded in December of 1963. Starday had many great album covers, this one is among my favorite. I`d like to know where they got their ideas for their covers!!
Enjoy Wayne Raney!!

Track Listing---
Mail Order Heart
The Roosters Are Crowing
Strictly Nothing
Walking With The Blues Tonight
The Fox Chase
Love Thief
Pathway Of Parting
Don`t Try To Be What You Ain`t
Cold Cold Snow
I Stumble, I Fumble, I Fall
Gone With The Wind
I`ve Got The Habit
Why Don`t You Haul Off And Love Me
Young Widow Brown

Click here to download Don`t Try To Be What You Ain`t

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