Art Of Field Recording (50 Years Of Traditional Music Documented By Art Rosenbaum) (Sampler CD) by Various Artists

Label: Dust-To-Digital.

Release Date: November 21, 2006.

Recording Time: 60 minutes.

Release Info: Studio Recording, DTD-07.

Recording Date: August 26, 1956 - June 16, 2007.

Styles: Field Recordings, Traditional Folk, Bluegrass, Bluegrass-Gospel, Gospel.

Prior to the planned release of a five-CD box set in 2007, this 24-track sampler CD was issued in late 2006, featuring field recordings made during the previous 50 years by Art Rosenbaum. Traveling in the Eastern part of the country (though most often in Georgia), Rosenbaum recorded folk musicians in numerous styles, from blues and old-timey music to fiddlers, blues, sacred harp singing, bluegrass, and performers who sang in languages other than English. The accompaniment is similarly varied, ranging from banjo, guitar, piano, autoharp, and mouth bow to none at all on a cappella pieces. It's hard to judge a sampler in isolation from the much larger box set it's previewing, though presumably this will serve the purpose of either arousing some folk enthusiasts' interest in buying the box set, or fulfilling the needs of less rabid collectors who will be content with just this one disc. Whether you stop with this or go on to the five-CD collection, it's a well-recorded collection of performers in informal circumstances -- sometimes there's chat and ambient noise, as well as music -- though the songs are usually not as striking, or polished, as the ones by musicians recording performances for the commercial market in the same genres (even back in the '20s or '30s). And none of these performers would be familiar as recording artists even to most folk fans, with the exception of Buell Kazee, here represented by a 1975 recording made the year before his death. Some of the tracks are primarily of documentary value, but there are some affecting recordings here with more of an individual personality, highlights including Cecil Barfield's strangely buzzing vocal style on "Georgia Blues"; a 1960 recording of Shirley Griffith's "Big Road Blues," a match for the better country-blues recordings of the folk revival with arresting ascending guitar lines; and the spooky spiritual of "Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down" (by Sister Fleeta Mitchell and Rev. Willie Mae Eberhard), the most recent recording (from 2006) on the disc. ~ Richie Unterberger

Credits: Susan Archie - art direction, design; Cecil Barfield - guitar, primary artist, vocals; Doc & Lucy Barnes - primary artist; Eddie Bowles - guitar, primary artist, vocals; Buzz Fountain - 5-string banjo, primary artist; Mabel Cawthorn - primary artist; Rev. Willie Eberhand - primary artist; Rev. Willie Mae Eberhard - primary artist; Lawrence Eller - primary artist, vocals; Vaughn Eller - mouth bow, primary artist; Rev. Howard Finster - primary artist; Frosty Lamb - primary artist; Georgia Sacred Harp Convention - primary artist; Ollie Gilbert - primary artist; Golden River Grass - primary artist; Shirley Griffith - guitar, primary artist, vocals; Bert Hare - guitar, primary artist, vocals; Buell Kazee - banjo, primary artist; Bill Key - fiddle; Dwight Lamb - primary artist; Steven Lance Ledbetter - audio production, producer; Fidel Martin - fiddle, primary artist; McIntosh County Shouters - primary artist; Lawrencs McKiver - vocals; Smokey Joe Miller - guitar, primary artist; Sister Fleeta Mitchell - primary artist; Paul Nunn - transfers; Ray Rhodes - primary artist; Art Rosenbaum - drawing, essay, field recording, liner notes; Margo Newmark Rosenbaum - photography; Epifanio Sanchez and Group - guitar, primary artist, vocals; Ralph Sheckel - primary artist, vocals; Dr. C.B. Skelton - primary artist; John W. Summers - fiddle, primary artist; Gordon Tanner - fiddle, primary artist; Henry Grady Terrell - primary artist, vocals; James Gerard Watson - banjo; Judge Dan White - introduction.

Tracks: 1. Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down - Rev. Willie Eberhand / Rev. Willie Mae Eberhard / Sister Fleeta Mitchell; 2. Fred Adams - Ray Rhodes; 3. La Grondeuse (The Scolding Woman) - Fidel Martin; 4. Big Foot Feller - Buell Kazee; 5. Blues - Eddie Bowles; 6. Tony Gave a Picnic - Ralph Sheckel; 7. 12th Street Rag - Buzz Fountain / Frosty Lamb; 8. Eve and Adam (Pickin' Up Leaves) - McIntosh County Shouters; 9. Five to My Five - Rev. Howard Finster; 10. Carabina Treinta-Treinta (30-30 Rifle) - Epifanio Sanchez and Group; 11. I'm Dying, Mother - Bert Hare; 12. Eternal Day - Georgia Sacred Harp Convention; 13. Tom Watson Tune - Mabel Cawthorn; 14. Danish Galop - Dwight Lamb; 15. Billy in the Low Ground - Smokey Joe Miller / Gordon Tanner; 16. Who Killed Poor Robin? - Ollie Gilbert; 17. Georgia Blues - Cecil Barfield; 18. Free Go Lily - Doc & Lucy Barnes; 19. The Miller's Will - Dr. C.B. Skelton; 20. Brickyard Joe - John W. Summers; 21. Old John Henry Died on the Mountain - Henry Grady Terrell; 22. Big Road Blues - Shirley Griffith; 23. Fly Around My Blue-Eyed Gal - Lawrence Eller / Vaughn Eller; 24. Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad - Golden River Grass Group.