Series: Smithsonian Folkways Classic Series
Release Date: October 22, 2002.
Recording Time: 70 minutes.
Recording Date: August, 1957 - March, 1976.
Release Info: SFW40094, CD, Compilation.
Riding the wave of the renewed interest in traditional American music, Classic Mountain Songs From Smithsonian Folkways Recordings showcases a handful of the greatest mountain ballads as performed by some of the most influential folk singers and songwriters of the 20th century. This collection features many classic performances from a wide variety of regional instrumental and song styles. These diverse styles and songs from the mountain communities of North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee include old-time fiddle and banjo pieces, early bluegrass, and traditional ballads, with a special emphasis on Appalachian vocal traditions. Doc and Merle Watson, Roscoe Holcomb, Clarence Ashley, and Dock Boggs are just a few of the revered roots artists who appear on this stellar compilation. This album is essential for both old and new fans of American mountain music. Compiled and annotated by Jeff Place.
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From the time of its inception in the middle of the 20th century, the Folkways label recorded plenty of traditional folk music from the Southern Appalachians. This well-chosen collection, oriented mostly though not totally toward tracks with vocals, has a couple of dozen examples from the Folkways catalog. Though it's not always totally clear when the songs were recorded (as opposed to issued), it's for certain that they were laid down between the mid-'50s and mid-'90s, with the bulk of them cut during the 1960s. While some might carp that pre-mid-'50s performances aren't represented, this does ensure a fairly high level of fidelity throughout, in versions that are faithful to how these songs have usually sounded over the past few decades and centuries. Appalachian music is usually characterized as music with high lonesome vocals with guitar and banjo accompaniment, and while many of the tracks here conform to that format, there are also a good number of a cappella vocals, as well as numbers in which the fiddle and autoharp play prominent parts. There are some fairly big folk names here, like the duos of Doc & Merle Watson and Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard; Clarence Ashley, who performs one of the most frequently sung and anthologized mountain songs, "Cuckoo Bird"; Roscoe Holcomb, who does an a cappella "Moonshiner"; dulcimer virtuoso Jean Ritchie; Bascom Lamar Lunsford, who does "Mole in the Ground"; Dock Boggs; and Pop Stoneman, patriarch of the Stoneman Family. Still, there are a lot of artists who aren't known to a more general audience, and they're responsible for some of the better performances, like the Phipps Family's Carter Family-like "The Red Jacket Mine Explosion," Berzilla Wallin's a cappella "Conversation With Death" (a song more often titled "Oh Death" in other versions), and Ola Belle Reed's "High on a Mountain." A few of these songs have made deep inroads into the consciousness of American popular music, like "Amazing Grace," "Barbara Allen" (titled "Barbry Ellen" in Jean Ritchie's rendition on this disc), "John Henry," and "Sixteen Tons," a massive mid-'50s hit for Tennessee Ernie Ford, but here done by George Davis, who says he wrote a song ("Nine to Ten Tons") that Merle Travis adapted as "Sixteen Tons." ~ Richie Unterberger
Credits: Compiled By, Liner Notes (Annotated By) - Jeff Place; Coordinator (Production) - Mary Monseur; Liner Notes (Edited By) - Jacob Love; Mastered By - Pete Reiniger; Technician (Production Assistance) - Nathaniel Berndt.
Tracklist:
- 01. Omie Wise - Doug Wallin
- 02. Sugar Baby - Dock Boggs
- 03. I Am A Poor Pilgrim Of Sorrow - Old Regular Baptists
- 04. Sixteen Tons - George Davis
- 05. John Henry - Lesley Riddle
- 06. Lost Indian - Marion Sumner
- 07. Southbound - Doc And Merle Watson
- 08. High On A Mountain - Ola Belle Reed
- 09. Coal Creek March - Pete Steele
- 10. Coal Miner's Blues - Hazel Dickens And Alice Gerrard
- 11. Railroad Blues - Sam Mcgee
- 12. Cuckoo Bird - Clarence Ashley
- 13. Conversation With Death (Oh Death) - Berzilla Wallin
- 14. Lone Prairie - Wade Ward
- 15. Rain And Snow - Dillard Chandler
- 16. I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground - Bascom Lamar Lunsford
- 17. Moonshiner - Roscoe Holcomb
- 18. Wildwood Flower - Kilby Snow
- 19. Barbry Ellen (barbara Allen) - Jean Ritchie
- 20. Daniel Prayed - Doc Watson, Fred Price And Clint Howard
- 21. Wreck Of The Number Nine - Ernest V. Stoneman
- 22. Red Jacket Mine Explosion - The Phipps Family
- 23. Kingdom Come - Norman Edmonds
- 24. Amazing Grace - Horton Barker
Personnel: Doug Wallin - Vocals, Fiddle; Dock Boggs - Vocals, Banjo; Elwood Cornett - Leader (Group); Brother Gillis Reedy - Leader (Song); The Indian Bottom Association, Defeated Creek Church, Linefork, Kentucky - Performer; George Davis - Vocals, Guitar; Lesley Riddle - Vocals, Guitar; Marion Sumner - Fiddle; Doc Watson - Vocals, Guitar; Merle Watson - Guitar; Bud Reed - Guitar; Kevin Roth - Guitar; Ola Belle Reed - Vocals, Banjo; Pete Steele - Banjo; Lamar Grier - Banjo; Billy Baker - Fiddle; David Grisman - Mandolin; Hazel Dickens - Vocals, Bass; Alice Gerrard - Vocals, Guitar; Sam McGee - Vocals, Banjo; Doc Watson - Guitar; Clarence Ashley - Vocals, Banjo; Berzilla Wallin - Vocals; Wade Ward - Fiddle; Dillard Chandler - Vocals; Bascom Lamar Lunsford - Vocals, Banjo; Roscoe Holcomb - Vocals; Kilby Snow - Autoharp; Mike Seeger - Guitar; Jean Ritchie - Vocals; Clint Howard - Vocals; Doc Watson - Vocals; Fred Price - Vocals; Pop Stoneman - Vocals, Harmonica, Autoharp; Leemon Phipps - Vocals, Bass; Helen Phipps - Vocals, Guitar; Kathleen Phipps - Vocals, Guitar; A.L. Phipps - Vocals, Guitar; Norman Edmonds - Fiddle; Horton Barker - Vocals.
Track 01: Doug Wallin And Jack Wallin - Family Songs And Stories From The North Carolina Mountains, 1995
Track 02: Dock Boggs - Volume 2, 1965
Track 03: Various - Old Regular Baptists, SFW CD 40106, 1997
Track 04: George Davis (6) - When Kentucky Had No Union Men, 1967
Track 05: Various - Close To Home: Old Time Music From Mike Seeger's Collection, SFW CD 40097*, 1997
Track 06: Various - Mountain Music Of Kentucky, 1960
Track 07: The Doc Watson Family - The Doc Watson Family, 1990
Track 08: Ola Belle Reed - My Epitaph, Folkways 2493, 1976
Track 09: Pete Steele - Banjo Tunes And Songs, 1958
Track 10: Hazel Dickens And Alice Gerrard - Who's That Knocking? And Other Bluegrass Music, 1965
Track 11: The McGee Brothers And Arthur Smith (6) - Look! Who Is Here - Old Timers Of The Grand Ole Opry, 1964
Track 12: Various - Old Time Music At Clarence Ashley's - Part 2, 1962
Track 13: Various - Old Love Songs & Ballads From The Big Laurel, North Carolina, Folkways 2309, 1964
Track 14: Wade Ward - Uncle Wade - A Memorial To Wade Ward, Old Time Virginia Banjo Picker 1892-1971, 1973
Track 15: Dillard Chandler - The End Of An Old Song, 1975
Track 16: Bascom Lamar Lunsford - Ballads, Banjo Tunes And Sacred Songs Of Western North Carolina, 1996
Track 17: Roscoe Holcomb & Wade Ward - The Music Of Roscoe Holcomb & Wade Ward, 1962
Track 18: Various - Mountain Music Played On The Autoharp, 1962
Track 19: Jean Ritchie - British Traditional Ballads In The Southern Mountains Volume 1, 1960
Track 20: Various - Old Time Music At Clarence Ashley's - Part 2, 1962
Track 21: Various - Mountain Music Played On The Autoharp, 1962
Track 22: The Phipps Family - The Phipps Family, Folkways 2375, 1965
Track 23: Various - Galax Va. Old Fiddlers' Convention, 1964
Track 24: Horton Barker - Traditional Singer, 1962