Album Description

North Carolina, the 'Tar Heel State,' has a proud heritage of traditional music, and this CD anthology from Old Hat Records, In The Pines, offers compelling proof. Here are 24 rare tracks first recorded between 1926-1936, a decade of inspired musical achievement. You'll hear old-time fiddle and banjo tunes, folk songs and murder ballads, gospel hymns, mountain blues and railroad songs, sentimental favorites and showpiece instrumentals, all performed by the state's top musical talent. Most tracks are reissued here for the first time on compact disc.

In The Pines has been carefully crafted by Old Hat's team of experts, including Grammy-nominated producer Marshall Wyatt and Wayne Martin, Folklife Director of the North Carolina Arts Council. Each track is digitally remastered for brightness and clarity, and the entire CD package is handsomely designed in a style to match the music. Included is a 24-page, full-color booklet with rare vintage photographs, many unpublished until now, and extensive historical notes on the era, the songs, and the musicians.

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Discs and Tracks

Disc 1
  1 - In The Pines - Dock Walsh
  2 - Mountain Sweetheart - Red Fox Chasers
  3 - Mistreated Blues - Carolina Buddies
  4 - Johnson City Hop - Carolina Ramblers String Band
  5 - Are You Sure? - Dixon Brothers & Mutt Evans
  6 - The Rose with a Broken Stem - North Carolina Cooper Boys
  7 - Jack of Diamonds - Ben Jarrell
  8 - Otto Wood - Cranford & Thompson
  9 - Richmond Square - The Highlanders
  10 - Will The Weaver - Charlie Parker & Mack Woolbright
  11 - Lindy - Proximity String Quartet
  12 - Working On The Railroad - Blankenship Family
  13 - Carolina's Best - The Grady Family
  14 - Banjo Sam - Wilmer Watts & The Lonely Eagles
  15 - New River Train - Cauley Family
  16 - Little Bunch of Roses - Clarence Greene
  17 - That Lonesome Valley - Carolina Ramblers String Band
  18 - Honeysuckle Rag - Blue Ridge Mountain Entertainers
  19 - A Pretty Gal's Love - Whitter-Hendley-Small
  20 - Tom Dooley - Grayson & Whitter
  21 - The Longest Train - Mainer's Mountaineers
  22 - Sweet Freedom - E.R. Nance Family with Clarence Dooley
  23 - Sunny Home In Dixie - Frank Jenkins' Pilot Mountaineers
  24 - My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains - Carolina Tar Heels

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Absolutely required listening for old-time music nuts!!        Rating:

Great disc. The sound quality restoration is A++! No muffled sounding, over "cleaned" tracks here. Neat packaging with a neat book with some short stories about a couple of the murder ballads on the disc. Don`t be afraid of getting this. HIGHLY RECOMENDED!!!

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