Release Date: December 23, 1999.
Recording Time: 286 minutes.
Recording Date: 1924 - 1948.
Release Info: Compilation (CB 248572) Studio Recording.
An odd assortment of public domain recordings assembled by K-Tel Records, American Roots mixes folk, early country, and nascent bluegrass tunes together in a gumbo, and almost by accident, one suspects, actually lives up to its title, with sides by Woody Guthrie, the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Bill Monroe, the Delmore Brothers, and others providing a sort of blueprint that would eventually lead to modern rock, country, and bluegrass. Taken from vinyl sources, the sound is really pretty decent. ~ Steve Leggett
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This 4 cd set brings you American folk music from 1924 to 1948 in a no frills set which transports you back in time into another world.
Disc 1 is populated by artists with names like Fiddlin' John and Moonshine Kate, the Pioneers, Earl Johnson's Clodhoppers and the Carolina Tar Heels. And the songs they sing, apart from the lonesomest ballads by the Carter Family, cover subjects that you just don't hear nowadays – things like children being drowned in their bed, trains going out of control, 'Goin' To The Barn Dance Tonight' (which, judging by Carl Robison & The Pioneers performance, was something to get pretty excited about), men being away at sea, lost love leading to suicide, itinerant workers following the fruit picking seasons who have much more interesting fruit on their minds, mules, more trains, people getting shot for things, box car bums, the trials of homesteading on the great plains ('Little Old Sod Shanty On My Claim was written in 1880!), and 'When The Saints Go Marchin' In' has a lot more to do with the Book of Revelations than later, more familiar versions would have you think. Some songs, due to the circumstances of the recordings and the method of reproduction, it's hard to understand exactly what they're singing about.
Disc 2 covers pretty much the same time period (mostly late 1920's to mid-1930's with a couple of slightly later exceptions) and much of the same subject matter. Located in Kentucky, Georgia, Texas and other places we don't normally hear about in popular song nowadays, there's a few songs about mistaken lives of crime from the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers; and a few instrumentals: the Hackberry Ramblers get mighty excited about a four bar riff – in fact so excited they repeat it with the barest of variation for a full 2:39. The Alley Boys of Abbeville get so fired up that they manage to come up with a few more variations of their squeezebox-led Cajun tune. Gene Autry yodels away gleefully while describing how he's going to shoot his 'High Steppin' Mama' if she starts steppin' around. Not to be outdone, Jimmie Rodgers gives us his signature yodel in between singing how he's going to shoot 'poor Thelma' with a pistol, but buy a shotgun in order to do away with 'that rounder that stole away [his] gal'!
With Disc 3 the music starts to sound a lot more closer to home, with the likes of Bill Monroe, Roy Acuff and The Delmore Brothers writing and performing songs that not only became classics in themselves but also provided the templates for the country music that we know today. And these acts inspired the Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, and Johnny Cash to name but a few. Apart from a couple of songs sung from the perspective of children wanting to commit suicide, a couple of would-be escapee chain gain workers from the railroads, and a couple of slices of religion, the main theme the lyrics explore is that of lost love – and it seems folks liked it pretty maudlin in those days, even when the songs were performed up tempo (ever stopped to listen to the lyrics of You Are My Sunshine before?). A number of the songs are blues-based. Trains seem to have become things to praise – literally in the Hallelulah's of Night Train To Memphis – rather than the cause for loss of life and disaster by the 1940's. Further technical advancement is evidenced by the sudden appearance of electric steel guitars and electric lead guitars, though fiddles and mandolins are still giving them a run for their money. And special mention must be made of fingerpicker Merle Travis and his absolute mastery of the acoustic guitar.
Disc 4 focuses almost exclusively on the work of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and their twin concerns of preserving older songs as well as singing about contemporary matters, e.g. unionisation, the struggles of the Great Depression, and fighting Hitler and fascists in general. It's obvious what the next stage of folk music is all about by listening to these songs: the early work of Bob Dylan, and this whole set is invaluable for providing a context and education of where Dylan's work was coming from. ~ cosmosunconnection (Feb. 04, 2019)
Tracklist:
1-01. Peach Pickin' Time In Georgia - Jimmie Rodgers
1-02. Sail Away Ladies - Uncle Dave Macon
1-03. Wildwood Flower - The Carter Family
1-04. Trail To Mexico - Blue Sky Boys
1-05. The Runaway Train - Vernon Dalhart
1-06. When The Saints Go Marching In - Fiddlin' John Carson And Moonshine Kate
1-07. All Night Long - Earl Johnson's Clodhoppers*
1-08. Red Wing - Riley Puckett
1-09. I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes - The Carter Family
1-10. Goin' To The Barn Dance Tonight - Carson Robison And His Pioneers
1-11. Go Long Mule - Uncle Dave Macon
1-12. Frankie And Johnny - Jimmie Rodgers
1-13. Three Men Went A Huntin' - Byrd Moore & His Hot Shots
1-14. My Man's A Jolly Railroad Man - Moonshine Kate
1-15. Waiting For A Train - Jimmie Rodgers
1-16. Georgia's Three-Dollar Tag - Fiddlin' John Carson And Moonshine Kate
1-17. Jamestown Exhibition - Bayless Rose
1-18. Lay Down Baby, Take Your Rest - The Carolina Tar Heels
1-19. Backwater Blues - Uncle Dave Macon
1-20. The Wreck Of The Old '97 - Vernon Dalhart
1-21. The Little Old Sod Shanty On My Claim - Marc Williams
1-22. Burn Me Under The Weeping Willow - The Carter Family
1-23. In The Hills Of Tennessee - Jimmie Rodgers
1-24. Ida Red - Blue Sky Boys With Curly Parker
1-25. Alto Waltz - Darby & Tarlton
2-01. John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man - The Carter Family
2-02. Gambling Bar Room Blues - Jimmie Rodgers
2-03. Little Bessie - The Alabama Barnstormers
2-04. I'll Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms - Buster Carter And Preston Young
2-05. I'm Goin' Away In The Morn - Uncle Dave Macon
2-06. Pappa's Billy Goat - Fiddlin' John Carson
2-07. Hackberry Trot - Hackberry Ramblers
2-08. Abbeville Breakdown - The Alley Boys Of Abbeville
2-09. Tiger Rag Blues - Breaux Frères
2-10. Louisiana Mazurka - Breaux Frères
2-11. Step It Fast - Amadie Breaux
2-12. High-Steppin' Mama - Gene Autry
2-13. Blue Yodel (T For Texas) - Jimmie Rodgers
2-14. Anchored In Love - The Carter Family
2-15. Jimmie Rodgers Visits - The Carter Family
2-16. Hard For To Love - Hayes Shepherd
2-17. The Yellow Rose Of Texas - Gene Autry & Jimmy Long
2-18. The Brave Engineer - Carver Boys
2-19. Taxes On the Farmer Feeds Them All - Fiddlin' John Carson And Moonshine Kate
2-20. Hold The Woodpile Down - Uncle Dave Macon
2-21. I'm A Man Of Constant Sorrow - Emry Arthur
2-22. Rambling Boy - The Carter Family
2-23. My Little Lady - Jimmie Rodgers
2-24. Two Italians.. Red Bird - Monroe Gevedon And Family
3-01. Orange Blossom Special - Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys
3-02. Brown's Ferry Blues - The Delmore Brothers
3-03. Row Us Over The Tide - Blue Sky Boys
3-04. The Big Rock Candy Mountain - Burl Ives
3-05. Oklahoma Hills - Jack Guthrie
3-06. Nine Pound Hammer - Merle Travis
3-07. Cannonball Rag - Merle Travis
3-08. Red River Valley - Gene Autry
3-09. Mule Skinner Blues - Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys
3-10. Great Speckled Bird - Roy Acuff & His Crazy Tennesseans
3-11. Take It To The Captain - The Delmore Brothers
3-12. Garden In The Sky - Blue Sky Boys
3-13. Ain't That A Cryin' Shame - Merle Travis
3-14. Milk Cow Blues - Johnnie Lee Wills & His Boys
3-15. When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again - Wiley Walker & Gene Sullivan
3-16. Footprints In The Snow - Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys
3-17. You Can't Do Wrong And Get By - The Delmore Brothers
3-18. Why Should It End This Way - Blue Sky Boys
3-19. Cotton-Eyed Joe - Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys With Vocal Tommy Duncan
3-20. Night Train To Memphis - Roy Acuff And His Smoky Mountain Boys
3-21. You Are My Sunshine - The Rice Brothers Gang
3-22. Rounder's Blues - The Delmore Brothers
3-23. Rocky Road Blues - Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys
3-24. Wabash Cannonball - Roy Acuff & His Crazy Tennesseans
3-25. It Makes No Difference Now - Gene Autry
3-26. Pigmeat Strut - Merle Travis
3-27. No Letter In The Mail - Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys
4-01. This Land Is Your Land - Woody Guthrie
4-02. House Of The Rising Sun - Woody Guthrie
4-03. Grand Coulee Dam - Woody Guthrie
4-04. John Henry - Cisco Houston And Woody Guthrie
4-05. All I Want - Pete Seeger With The Almanac Singers
4-06. Talking Union - Pete Seeger
4-07. Teeroo Teeroo - Pete Seeger
4-08. I Know An Old Lady - Burl Ives
4-09. Columbus Stockade - Cisco Houston And Woody Guthrie
4-10. The Sinking Of The Reuben James - Pete Seeger With The Almanac Singers
4-11. Boll Weevil Blues - Cisco Houston And Woody Guthrie With Sonny Terry
4-12. Away Rio - Peter Hawes With The Almanac Singers
4-13. The Coast Of High Barbary - Pete Seeger With The Almanac Singers
4-14. Jack-Hammer Blues - Cisco Houston And Woody Guthrie With Sonny Terry
4-15. Liza Jane - Pete Seeger And Woody Guthrie With Josh White And The Almanac Singers
4-16. Pastures Of Plenty - Woody Guthrie
4-17. Cumberland Gap - Cisco Houston And Woody Guthrie With Sonny Terry
4-18. Casey Jones - Pete Seeger
4-19. Cumberland Bear Chase - Pete Seeger
4-20. So Long It's Been Good To Know You - Woody Guthrie
4-21. Union Made - Pete Seeger With The Almanac Singers
4-22. Hard Traveling' Guthrie - Cisco Houston And Woody Guthrie
4-23. Erie Canal - Pete Seeger
4-24. Pretty Boy Floyd - Woody Guthrie
4-25. State Of Arkansas - Lee Hays
4-26. Worried Man Blues - Cisco Houston And Woody Guthrie
4-27. Deliver The Goods - Pete Seeger With The Almanac Singers
4-28. Do-Ri-Mi - Woody Guthrie