Album Description

Old-time fiddler Jake Krack and Folkways archivist Jeff Place compiled and annotated this collection of vintage Southern Appalachian string band music from the Smithsonian archives. Clark Kessinger, Wade Ward, Tommy Jarrell, Marion Sumner, Gaither Carlton, Eck Robertson, Melvin Wine, and many more old-time fiddle masters play their signature sounds from the heart of Appalachia. 32-page booklet, 76 minutes.

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Discs and Tracks

Disc 1
  1 - Pretty Little Girl with the Blue Dress On - Doug Wallin
  2 - Sugar Hill - Tommy Jarrell w/ Frank Bode
  3 - Sally in the Garden - J.D. Cornett
  4 - Sally in the Garden - Marion Sumner
  5 - Muddy Roads - Gaither Carlton w/ the Watson Family
  6 - Won't Come Until Morning - Greg Hooven
  7 - Wednesday Night Waltz - Clark Kessinger
  8 - Dance All Night - Arthur Smith w/ the McGee Brothers
  9 - Give the Fiddler a Dram - Bill Hicks
  10 - Little Brown Jug - Joe Thompson
  11 - Black Eyed Susie - Tracy Schwarz & Mike Seeger
  12 - Snowbird - Ross Brown
  13 - Ain't Gonna Rain No More - Hoyt Ming & the Pep Steppers
  14 - Cacklin' Hen - Roy Pope & the Carolina Homeboys
  15 - Old Joe - Johnny Warren w/ the Nashville Grass
  16 - Old Man Below - Gaither Carlton
  17 - Unnamed Tune - John W. Summers
  18 - Beaumont Rag - David & Billie Ray Johnson
  19 - Richmond Blues - Fred Price w/ Clint Howard
  20 - Mississippi Sawyer - Wade Ward
  21 - Bill Cheatham - Buddy Pendleton w/ the Stony Mountain Boys
  22 - Red Bird - Clark Kessinger
  23 - Johnson Boys - Caleb Finch w/ the Iron Mountain String Band
  24 - Sally Goodin' - Eck Robertson
  25 - Unnamed Tune - Tony Alderman
  26 - Fine Times at Our House - John W. Summers
  27 - Yew Piney Mountain - Melvin Wine
  28 - Darling Cora - Greg Hooven
  29 - Blackberry Blossom - Charlie Higgins w/ the Buck Mountain Band
  30 - Kentucky Waltz - David & Billie Ray Johnson
  31 - Lee Highway Blues - Fred Price w/ Clint Howard & Doc Watson
  32 - Piney Woods Gal - Tommy Jarrell w/ Frank Bode
  33 - Jenny on the Railroad - Tracy Schwarz & Mike Seeger
  34 - Billy in the Lowground - Buddy Griffin w/ Red Allen & the Kentuckians
  35 - Fisher's Hornpipe - David & Billie Ray Johnson
  36 - Trombone Rag - Clark Kessinger
  37 - Bonaparte's Retreat - Mike Seeger
  38 - Carroll County Blues - Gordon Tanner & the Skillet Lickers

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timeless "old-time" fiddle        Rating:

Well over 60 minutes of good listening with nice sound quality. Nothing to "weed through" here, just delightful, charming fun. I expected all of these selections to have been recorded prior to 1960, but the timeline for this collection is all over the map. Maybe "old-STYLE" would have described it better. I value this addition to my collection. My grampy was the (Vermont) fiddler of reels/slipper shuffler in my family, but this CD makes me want to just get in there and play spoons and watch the babies dance!!

Each track has its own quaintness        Rating:

Playing Time - 78:30 -- For those who have studied old-time fiddling, you will recognize the names of Clark Kessinger, Wade Ward, Tommy Jarrell, Marion Sumner, Gaither Carlton, Eck Robertson, Melvin Wine and Fred Price. The 38 tracks on this generous album of archival material also feature many other Appalachian style fiddlers whose music has been preserved as part of the Folkways catalog. All of the fiddlers sampled are from LPs released between 1951-1997. Even though put out in 1951, "Jenny on the Railroad" played by Tracy Schwartz and Mike Seeger with the New Lost City Ramblers is a tune that appeared in an 1839 collection of Virginia reels. Ten years before his death is 1971, fiddle Wade Ward recorded his solo Galax-style version of "Mississippi Sawyer." It's nice that some of the solos like Gaither Carlton's rendition of "Old Man Below" also include singing to tell the story of the old man coming with a double-barrel gun. Buddy Pendleton provides a rousing "Bill Cheatum" accompanied by Ted Lundy on banjo. With the availability of these Folkways recordings, bands like San Francisco's Crooked Jades have subsequently been able to learn and record their own version of this same tune (see their album, "The Unfortunate Rake Vol. 2"). One revivalist band featured on this disc is the Iron Mountain String Band that was founded in New York City and has been playing old-time music for four decades. Their 1973 recording of a classic "Johnson Boys" is a tribute to a current band that recently released new albums in the 2000s.

A West Virginian, Clark Kessinger was rediscovered in the mid-1960s during the folk revival of that period. "Red Bird," "Trombone Rag," and "Wednesday Night Waltz" display good tone and technique, and we can see why the latter became a hit for Kessinger. While much of the fiddling on this disc is played solo or just accompanied by guitar and/or banjo, we also hear some fuller ensemble sounds. More recent recordings are 1997 pieces "Darling Corey" and "Won't Come Until Morning" by The Gary Hooven String Band. Fiddler Hooven, a practitioner of the Galax string band tradition, was only 36 years old when he died in 2005. I also enjoyed the cuts (Beaumont Rag, Kentucky Waltz) by multi-instrumentalist David Johnson with his father, Billy Ray, from one of the three albums they produced for Folkways in the 1980s. Each track has its own quaintness, whether saw'ed off in a more rustic fashion with the rosin a-flyin' before a live audience, or whether recorded by a more euphonious fiddler in a controlled studio environment. A few other rollicking favorites to get the toes tapping are Lee Highway Blues, Piney Woods Gal, Sugar Hill, Bonaparte's Retreat, Richmond Blues, Black Eyed Susie, Pretty Little Girl with the Blue Dress On, Carroll County Blues, Dance All Night, and Give the Fiddler a Dram. You won't need a dram to get dancing all night long to the music on this disc compiled and annotated by old-time fiddler Jake Krack and Folkways archivist Jeff Place. (Joe Ross, Roseburg, OR.)

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