Release Date: June 17, 1997.
Recording Time: 69 minutes.
Recording Date: 1920's - 1930's.
Release Info: Compilation, Studio Recording, Remastered.
Styles: Country Blues, Pre-War Blues, Acoustic Blues, Folk Blues, Appalachian, North American Traditions, Old-Timey, Pre-War Country Blues, Traditional Folk.
Despite its subtitle -- Early American Rural Love Songs -- Yazoo's The Rose Grew Round the Briar features at least as many falsehearted lovers and broken relationships as requited love affairs and happy romance. Indeed, the emotional power of so many of these recordings stems from entwined themes of love and death, illustrated by the ballad metaphor of the rose and the briar. The selections by Clarence Ashley and Dock Boggs are as stark depictions of forsaken, shaken, and demented lovers as the best pieces in those men's repertoires. Especially haunting are the eerie harmonies of the lesser-known Shortbuckle Roark & Family on "I Truly Understand That You Love Another Man"; subsequent covers of this song by the New Lost City Ramblers or Jerry Garcia & David Grisman have never been able to recapture the tone of the original. Another often-imitated recording included here is Grayson & Whitter's "Little Maggie With a Dram Glass in Her Hand," later translated into a bluegrass standard by the Stanley Brothers. While this collection delves deeply and unflinchingly into the darkest and lonesomest hollers of human relationships, love here is not exclusively somber or violent; it figures also, with equal emotion, into a smaller handful of breakdown pieces, and emerges with a warm beauty in Bascom Lamar Lunsford's "Lula Walls." Though white "country" performers dominate the compilation, there are a handful of blues performances by Blind Willie McTell, Cannon's Jug Stompers, Leroy Carr, and others, which nicely widen the scope and power of the project. In addition to showcasing some of the great talents of the 1920s and '30s, this collection masterfully presents love in the tradition that 19th century Southern ballads and early-20th century blues characteristically cast it: as harsh, terrifying, deadly, beautiful, and profoundly real. The Rose Grew Round the Briar is consequently one of Yazoo's most effective collections and belongs in almost any collection. ~ Burgin Mathews
Credits: Art Direction - Joan Pelosi, Liner Notes - Charles Wolfe, Don Kent, Producer, Remastered By - Richard Nevins.
Tracklist:
01. I Went To See My Sweetheart - Lewis McDaniel & Walter Smith
02. Dark Holler Blues - Clarence Ashley
03. I Do Blues - Robert Wilkins
04. What Will I Do For My Money's All Gone - Eck Dunford & Hattie Stoneman
05. The Old Fashioned Cottage - Alfred & Orville Reed
06. Lonesome Man Blues - George Torey
07. Little Maggie With A Dram Glass In Her Hand - Grayson & Whitter
08. False Hearted Lover Blues - Dock Boggs
09. Brooklyn Blues - Clifford Gibson
10. Stolen Love - Red Fox Chasers
11. Shady Grove - Kentucky Thorobreds
12. Down On My Bended Knee - King Solomon Hill
13. I Truly Understand That You Love Another Man - Shortbuckle Roark & Family
14. A Pretty Gal's Love - Hendley, Whitter, Small
15. Drive Away Blues - Blind Willie McTell
16. A Short Life Of Trouble - Buell Kazee
17. Going To Germany - Cannon's Jug Stompers
18. Dark Eyes - Morris Family
19. Lulu Wall - Bascom Lamar Lunsford
20. Lost Lover Blues - Lottie Kimbrough
21. Don't Say Goodbye - Leroy Carr
22. The Hobo From The T&P Line, Part 2 - Almoth Hodges
23. Barbara Allen - Bradley Kincaid
Recordings from original 78s in the collections of Richard Nevins, Frank Mare, Joe Bussard, Dave Freeman, and Don Kent.
Front cover: unknown photo from 1890.
1997 Yazoo, a Division of Shanachie Entertainment Corp.