a magazine dedicated to old-time music

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1 THE OLD-TIME a magazine dedicated to old-time music Volume 12, Number 9 February - March 2011 $ Festival Guide

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3 CDs are Now Available Please check our website for additional details about the CDs in our new series of rare and unique recordings (see below). We are also continuing to offer our prior releases of CDs and DVDs, many of which are now on sale at reduced prices. Reverend Gary Davis FRC Wire Recordings from the collection of John Cohen John Cohen recorded Gary Davis in Davis s home in 1952 using a wire recorder. These recordings from John s collection pre-date the Smithsonian Folkways release of his 1953 tape recordings ( If I Had My Way ) and do not duplicate any of the material there. A rare visit with a blues master, relaxed and in his prime. Jont Blevins Grayson County, VA Banjo Player FRC117 This disc represents one of the masters of the old clawhammer banjo styles of Virginia and North Carolina. Jont Blevins was respected by his peers for being one of the finest banjo players around. On this volume, taken from tapes made by some of the many who came to visit and learn from him, he plays many of the great local tunes of his area. He also plays in some rare tunings that aren t often heard today. Gaither Carlton 1972 FRC118 This is the very first full-length recording devoted entirely to Gaither Carlton (of Deep Gap, NC), a revered and highly influential figure in the world of old-time music. A superb banjo and fiddle player, Carlton toured extensively with his son-in-law, Doc Watson, during the folk music revival of the 1960s and early 70s. Tom Carter s field recordings, made a few months before Carlton s death in June 1972, capture Gaither Carlton in top form, validating his legendary stature among old-time musicians. Harold Hausenfluck Vol. 1: The Fiddling Collection FRC119 Home, Radio and Heritage Records Recordings This first volume of Harold Hausenfluck s music focuses on his powerful fiddle playing, gleaned from personal, radio and Heritage Records recordings. Harold pays homage to some of his fiddling influences (John Carson, Joe Birchfield, Tommy Jarrell, Norman Edmonds, French Carpenter) with stylistic accuracy and great feeling. Harold also plays a number of tunes that are largely unique to his repertoire. Vernon Riddle Old-Time Texas Style Fiddle FRC120 As a young man in the Air Force stationed in Amarillo, TX in the 1950s, Vernon Riddle spent a great deal of time with legendary fiddler Eck Robertson. He learned a great number of tunes from Eck as well as from other iconic Texas fiddlers, including Benny Thomasson, Jack Mears, and the Solomons. This collection presents Vernon s fiddling from his Texas years up through his time in Spartanburg, SC in the early 1990s. To order via US mail, send a check made payable to the Field Recorders Collective to the address below. $15 each CD, $20 each DVD PLUS $5 for US domestic priority mail (Ohio residents please include applicable sales tax). Please check our Web site for additional discs and discounted sets. We accept Paypal and credit cards on our Web site. Field Recorders Collective, 6206 Washington Street, Ravenna, OH The Field Recorders Collective THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

4 THE OLD-TIME A MAGAZINE DEDICATED TO OLD-TIME MUSIC The Old-Time Music Group, Inc. PO Box Durham, NC Phone and fax: (919) info@oldtimeherald.org VOLUME 12, NUMBER 9 FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Sarah Bryan BUSINESS DIRECTOR Peter Honig SENIOR ADVISORY EDITOR Gail Gillespie ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Ruth Eckles CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Bill Hicks, Phil Jamison, Bob Smakula, Clare Milliner, Walt Koken ART DIRECTOR Steve Terrill, 97 watt creative group FOUNDING EDITOR Alice Gerrard ADVISORY BOARD Mac Benford, Hazel Dickens, Hilary Dirlam, Bobby Fulcher, Ramona Jones, Garrison Keillor, Pete Kuykendall, Brad Leftwich, Lee Smith, Pete Sutherland, Joe Thompson OLD-TIME MUSIC GROUP, INC. BOARD OF DIRECTORS Art Aylsworth, Sally Council, Gail Gillespie, Alice Gerrard, Jim Watson FEATURES The Brewster Brothers: Their Story and Knoxville s Glory/ 8 By Dick Spottswood 2011 Festival Guide/ 12 Live! At the Ozark Opry: An Appreciation of Vaudeville and Show Fiddler LeRoy Haslag/ 24 By Howard W. Marshall COLUMNS HERE & THERE/4 No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. Not responsible for loss or non-return of unsolicited photos or manuscripts the Old-Time Herald. The Old-Time Herald (ISSN ) (USPS ) is published bimonthly the first of August, October, December, February, April and June by the Old-Time Music Group, Inc., PO Box 61679, Durham, NC Subscription rates payable in advance. One year: $28 (foreign subscriptions Canada $38 U.S.; Overseas $40). Library/Institutional rate: one year: $35. Periodical postage paid at Durham, NC and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send change of address to the Old-Time Herald, PO Box 61679, Durham, NC The Old-Time Music Group, Inc., is a not-forprofit, tax-exempt corporation under section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. DEPARTMENTS LETTERS/3 CLASSIFIEDS/36 REVIEWS/37 Correction In the last issue of the Old-Time Herald, we misidentified the photographer of the last three photographs in the article A Missouri Valley Gathering. Those three photographs were taken by and appeared courtesy of Ray Walters, Bob Walters grandson. Our thanks and apologies to Mr. Walters. The Old-Time Music Group, Inc. celebrates the love of old-time music. Old-time music grassroots, or home grown music and dance shares origins, influences and musical characteristics with roots musics throughout America. Our magazine, the Old-Time Herald, casts a wide net, highlighting the Southeastern tradition while opening its pages to kindred and comparable traditions and new directions. It provides enlightening articles and in-depth reviews, opportunities for musical learning and sharing, and a forum for addressing the issues and questions that bear upon the field. Cover photos: 2009 Appalachian String Band Festival (Clifftop) and the 2009 Mount Airy Fiddlers Convention, by Alan Teichman. Cover design by Steve Terrill, 97 watt creative group, Greensboro, NC Printed at Sutherland Printing, Montezuma, IA, 2 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

5 Letters In the last weeks of 2010, the Old-Time Music Group sent out our annual fundraising request to Old-Time Herald subscribers. This fundraiser is a vital source of revenue for the OTMG, the non-profit organization that publishes the OTH. We re so grateful that, again this year, you showed such generous support. It s an inspiring reminder for the staff of the OTMG that this magazine, founded by Alice Gerrard nearly a quartercentury ago, is a community effort of which so many are part. Thank you very much! Gratefully, Sarah Bryan Editor, Old-Time Herald Director, Old-Time Music Group Discovering old-time music I am a new subscriber to the Old-Time Herald and a relative newcomer to old-time music in general, only being exposed to it about five years ago. Since then I have taken up the fiddle again after quitting thirty years ago, and banjo a couple of years ago. Fortunately many decades of guitar playing and a dozen years of mandolin playing gave me a jump start to the enjoyment pretty quickly. Shortly after I started playing old-time music I was able to tap into the local (Boston-area) traditional music scene, including old-time, fiddle, and banjo camps, and to get the incredible opportunity to hear, learn from, and get to know people like Ray Alden, Alan Jabbour, Paul Brown, Mac Benford, Riley Baugus, and great local players like Alan Kaufman, Martin Grosswendt, and many others. What is incredible to me in this community is the generosity, commitment, and dedication of the people to pass this music on to a new generation of players and keep its history alive. The folks I have mentioned and many others I haven t mentioned are national treasures and they give me faith that this music won t disappear. To me, this connection to history, with the ability to sit and play tunes with others in a way that could have happened 150 years ago, is a major element of the magic. Which brings me back to the Old-Time Herald. One of the magazine issues this year (I believe it was the issue with Paul Brown s remembrance of Mike Seeger) led to an all-time first in my decades of reading magazines. It was the first magazine in my life that I read coverto-cover... every word... every letter... every review in the back. I kept thinking that I would be able to skim over the next article or review, [that] I would read a few words and be able to skip past, but it never happened. Then I found the next month that this wasn t a one-time occurrence it happened again. Since then there have been some issues where it didn t, but it is still a very common occurrence. Every day an issue arrives is a great day and one when I can t wait to get a few minutes to myself to dive in. Your magazine is excellent! Keep up the great work! It is great because it has a very well-defined and important focus, and dedication that doesn t shift with the tide of popular culture. And of course it is great because of all of the hard work by people that make every issue happen. John Reddick Lexington, Massachusetts More coverage of Northwest needed We need some more representation from the Pacific Northwest. I think you would be amazed at the number of people who came west from the Tennessee/North and South Carolina country just after the turn of the twentieth century [because of] coal mines in Washington, similar topography, logging and farming. The influence of transplanted musicians would surprise you. Bill Nix Independence, Oregon Memories of Bob Walters I was at the [October celebration of the life of Bob Walters, in Tekemah, Nebraska, covered by Israel Tockman in the December/January OTH] and enjoyed it almost as much as the numerous fiddlers who took part. As you will notice from my [hand]writing, I am old, 91. My family attended the dances at the nearby dance hall when Bob Walters was fiddling nearly every Saturday night. What a shame that that era has passed. Roy Anderson Blair, Nebraska 33rd Annual Hiawatha Traditional Music Festival July 22-24, 2011 Marquette Tourist Park Marquette, Mich. Dances, Workshops, Arts and Crafts, Lovely, shady campground, Family atmosphere, Children s and teens activities and music For ticket prices, camping information and more, please visit info@hiawathamusic.org THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

6 ome join us as we celebrate the landmark 20th Anniversary of Warren Wilson College s folk arts workshops, this summer in the heart of North Carolina s beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Old-Time Week, July with Bruce Greene, Dirk Powell, Rayna Gellert, Alice Gerrard, Paul Brown, Gordy Hinners, Carol Elizabeth Jones, Terri McMurray, Phil Jamison, Rodney Sutton, Paul Kovac, John Herrmann, Ron Pen, Susie Goehring, Trevor & Travis Stuart, Sheila Kay Adams, Wayne Erbsen, Rick Good, John Hollandsworth, Sharon Leahy, Don Pedi, Beverly Smith, Jesse Wells, & Meredith McIntosh. ALSO: The Swannanoa Gathering Traditional Song Week, July 3-9 Warren Wilson College PO Box 9000 Fiddle Week, July 3-9 Asheville, NC Celtic Week, July Guitar Week, July Contemporary Folk Week, July Dulcimer Week, July 31-August 6 SUBSCRIBE THE OLD-TIME PO Box Durham, NC year $ info@oldtimeherald.org 2-years $50 Canada: $38 & $70 U.S. Foreign: $40 & $75 U.S. (Please Print) Payment by: VISA MasterCard Check Other Name (as it appears on card) Address City, State, Zip Credit Card Number Expiration Date Day Telephone # Signature If this is a gift please put recipient's name & address above, and include your name here: Here & There Events The Brandywine Friends of Old-Time Music Winter Concert Series is underway, with shows held at the Unitarian Fellowship Hall in Newark, Delaware. Tickets at the door are $17 for members of the general public, $14 for seniors, $12 for members of BFOTM, and free for attendees under the age of 17. Visit or call (302) for more information. Upcoming concerts include performances by the Rye Mountain Boys on February 11, the Kathy Kallick Band on March 18, Joe Herrmann and David McLaughlin on April 15, and the Special Consensus on May 6. From Friday, March 18, through Sunday, March 20, Betty Vornbrock and Kirk Sutphin will be teaching intensive intermediate-level workshops in fiddle and banjo, respectively, at the Chestnut Creek School of the Arts in Galax, Virginia. To register, visit or call (276) On the same weekend, March 18 20, the Suwannee Banjo Camp will take place at O Leno State Park, in High Springs, Florida. An additional day has been added to the schedule this year, Friday, March 17, when participants can spend extra time with faculty for demonstrations and jams. Instructors include Cathy Barton Para, Mac Benford, Paul Brown, Adam Hurt, Chuck Levy, Ken Perlman, Rafe Stefanini, Alan Jabbour, Greg Adams, Alan Munde, Tony Trischka, Janet Davis, Scott Anderson, and James McKinney. For information visit The American Banjo Fraternity Rally will be held May at the Genetti Hotel in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Beginning at 7:30 on the evening of the 21 st there will be a concert of performances on five-string banjos with nylon strings. For more information, visit Competitions Entries will be accepted for the Nebraska American String Teachers Association Fiddle Tune Competition until March 31 (postmark date). The first-place winner will receive $100, second-place $50, and third-place $25. Winners will be announced on May 28 at the Monumental Fiddling Championship at the Homestead National Monument in Beatrice, Nebraska. The winning tunes will be per- 4 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

7 formed at the Championship, and published in Stringing Along, the journal of the Nebraska Chapter of the American String Teachers Association. For rules and guidelines, Online, On the Air Phil and Vivian Williams of Voyager Records have begun posting recordings online from their archive of field recordings of Pacific Northwest fiddlers. The recordings date as far back as the 1960s, and many of the fiddlers featured were born more than a hundred years ago, one as early as Phil and Vivian write, This project was started with the realization that most fiddlers and researchers know very little about the great diversity of traditional fiddling found in the Pacific Northwest. This archive helps document many of the Northwest-style dance fiddlers who are no longer with us, as well as the fiddling brought here from different parts of the world that has influenced the repertoire and style of traditional fiddlers in this region. Visit the place where America s Music was born and lives on! Wind through a rich musical landscape At major festivals and impromptu jam sessions, in concert halls and country stores, sample the music and culture of a region that has had an indelible impact on America and the world. Plan your journey today by calling (276) or visit Heartwood, Southwest Virginia s Artisan Gateway opening June of for a Free Visitor Guide. THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

8 The tunes, in mp3 format, can be found at (click on the picture of the microphone). More recordings will be posted in time, from other field recorders collections as well as the Williams. Phil Williams for more information at Paul Tyler is posting online a large collection recordings, videos, and other materials from his years of fieldwork in Indiana. Included are dozens of recordings by and information about traditional old-time fiddlers, as well as German, Mexican, Macedonian, Balkan, Vietnamese, Serbian, Dalmatian, and other musicians. Also online are video clips from traditional music concerts at the Adler House in Libertyville, Illinois, recordings and other materials from many other musical events in Indiana and Illinois, PDFs of Tyler s writing about traditional music and dance, and much more. The website where this collection can be found is In Juneau, Alaska, old-time music can be heard on the radio at KRNN FM, between noon and 2 PM (4-6 PM EST), on most Saturdays. On the first Saturday of the month, Chris Trostel plays a broad range of folk music; on second Saturdays Tom Paul plays old-time and other folk styles; on third Saturdays Jack Fontanella plays mostly old-time music, with some bluegrass and Cajun; and in months with a fourth Saturday, Jim and Marsha Stey play old-time, bluegrass, and Canadian fiddle tunes. You can tune in at by clicking on the Rain Country radio link. Musicians are invited to send their recordings to Mudlark Sampler, KRNN Radio, 360 Egan Dr., Juneau, Alaska Final Notes Bass player Mark Rose, of Mouth of Wilson, Virginia, passed away on October 29 in Louisiana, at the age of 58. The Lexington, Kentucky, native was a longtime Virginia resident and had played old-time music and other styles in many bands. He was a member of Jim Lloyd and the Skyliners, and the Hytone Hepcats. He had also played over the years with the Konnarock Critters, Nick and Chester McMillian, and the Courthouse Ramblers. He was an instructor in the Junior Appalachian Musician (JAM) program. Mark is survived by his wife Lenora Rose. On November 23, Drake McCon Walsh of Millers Creek, North Carolina, passed away. He was 79 years old. As a small child he would sneak out a banjo belonging to his father, Dock Walsh, and in time learned to play several instruments. In later years he would remember such musicians as Clarence Ashley coming to the Walsh home to play with his father. He served as a corporal in the US Army during the Korean War, and while stationed overseas was a member of a band that needed him to play the fiddle, which learned. The fiddle would become one of his primary instruments. In Germany, he played in a band with Vic Damone. Back home in the States, Walsh had a long career as a salesman for C. D. Coffee and Sons in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. He played music for VFW Post 1142, and at WKBC s Hometown Opry. A great banjo and harmonica player, in recent years, he has been best known as a fiddler and mandolinist, and as a member of the Elkville String Band and the Lloyd Church Band. He is survived by his wife, Mazie Ward Walsh. Evelyn Smith Farmer passed on December 18 in Galax, Virginia, at the age of 92. She was a guitarist, autoharp player, flatfoot dancer, and singer, remembered for her many contest performances and ribbons in the folk song contest at the Fries (Virginia) Fiddlers Convention. She was the daughter of fiddler and banjo player Glen Smith. Clarence Wayne Jarrell, a familiar friendly face at the Mount Airy Fiddler s Convention, died on January 6 in Mount Airy, North Carolina. He was 83 years old. The son of Tommy Jarrell, Wayne loved old-time music, and was a square dance caller. He served in Army during the Korean War, and spent fifty years working at Jarrell s General Store. He was a member of Franklin Heights United Methodist Church, and was dedicated to the preservation of old-time music in Surry County. Wayne is survived by his wife Norma Hill Jarrell. Fiddler Morris Wayne Sleepy Marlin passed away on January 20, at the age of 95. Born in Southern Illinois, he started fiddling when he was twelve years old, and while still in his teens started winning what would become a very long list of fiddle contest titles. He took first place multiple times in national contests in the United States and Canada. He also had a long broadcasting career, which began as a member of the Drifting Pioneers on WGBF in Evansville, Indiana, and later WLW in Cincinnati. During World War II he served in the Air Force, and was a flight instructor at Wright-Patterson Air Base. After the War, he resumed his musical career, broadcasting for twelve years on WHAS-Louisville, and on the Hayloft Hoedown TV show. He also made appearances on The Arthur Godfrey Show, Renfro Valley Barndance, WLS National Barndance, and even To Tell the Truth. Later he formed a band, the Marlinaires, with seven of his eight children, and performed widely with them. Over the course of his career, Marlin played with many luminaries of early country music, including Merle Travis, Clayton Mc- Michen, Lily May Ledford and the Coon Creek Girls, Cowboy Copas, and Arthur Smith. He was the subject of a feature article in the April-May 2010 issue of the Old-Time Herald. Country Singer Charlie Louvin, 83, died at his home in Wartrace, Tennessee, on January 26. Born Charles Elzer Loudermilk in Henegar, Alabama, he and his brother Ira, and their five other siblings, grew up on Alabama s Sand Mountain, a region of strong musical and religious traditions. Charlie and Ira sang as a gospel duo on the radio beginning in 1942 in Chattanooga, calling themselves the Radio Twins. They began performing as the Louvin Brothers five years later. Louvin served during both World War II and the Korean War. Recording both sacred and secular music, the Louvin Brothers released dozens of singles and albums, on Capitol and other labels. Among their early hits was I Don t Believe You ve Met My Baby, which rose to the top of the country charts in That same year, the Louvins joined the Grand Ole Opry. The brothers disbanded as a duo in 1963, and Ira Louvin died in Charlie continued performing solo, appearing on the Opry and recording. During the past decade his music reached a new level of popularity, as he released albums on Tompkins Square and other labels, and appeared at the Bonnaroo festival. The Louvin Brothers were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Although more than half of Charlie Louvin s career took place after his brother s death, still, he told interviewer Terry Gross on NPR, he found himself reflexively stepping to the left when he sang, to make room for Ira to join him at the microphone to sing harmony. 6 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

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10 THE BREWSTER BROTHERS: THEIR STORY AND KNOXVILLE S GLORY By Dick Spottswood What we call country music has in reality always had an economic base in Southern cities, where recording, broadcasting, and publishing centers have flourished. Wayne Daniel s book Pickin on Peachtree (University of Illinois, 1990) outlines the early primacy of Atlanta, where fiddlers conventions in the 1910s begat country music broadcasts as early as 1922 and commercial recordmaking in With the growth of the National Barn Dance on WLS, the center of gravity moved to Chicago, especially after 1931, when the station began to broadcast with a 50,000-watt signal that covered much of the Eastern United States and Canada. By the 1940s, Nashville s Grand Ole Opry assumed primary status, largely due to its own 50,000-watt signal and a live half-hour Prince Albert segment heard across the country every Saturday night on NBC radio, and on Armed Forces Radio overseas. Opry exposure gave Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl, Ernest Tubb, Bill Monroe, and many others national stardom that they turned into lifetime careers. Though these giants reigned, other cities hosted live country music broadcasts from the 1920s onward that featured local, regional, and traveling talent. Record companies in the 1920s and 30s regularly scouted Southern towns to locate and record local talent. Atlanta, Charlotte, Memphis, and San Antonio were broadcast centers and routine destinations for record makers after 1925, but Bristol, Johnson City, Savannah, St. Petersburg, Asheville, New Orleans, Birmingham, and even Ashland, Kentucky, had visits from record companies on one or more occasions before The Brunswick company came to Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1929 and 1930, but failed to capture any music that sold well. But local radio was a different story. Two stations, WNOX and WROL (later WIVK), competed for listeners and brought them great music. WNOX was dominated by producer Lowell Blanchard, who ran the station s Mid-Day Merry-Go-Round that hosted Bill Carlisle, Molly O Day, Charlie Monroe, Archie Campbell, Chet Atkins, the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle, Kitty Wells, Johnnie and Jack, and Mac courtesy of Elaine Vaccaro The Brewster Brothers at WROL-Knoxville; l, Willie G. Brewster, r, Ray Brewster. Wiseman over the years. Wade Mainer and Roy Acuff and others appeared on both WNOX and WROL. The latter was a station dominated by retail grocer and legendary self-promoter Cas Walker from 1929 onwards. Walker was a major radio and television presence into the 1980s. He gave prominence to bluegrass and traditional country music, hosting several major brother bands, including the Osborne Brothers and Jimmy Martin, Bailey Brothers, Webster Brothers, and Brewster Brothers. Martin and the Osbornes didn t stay long, but the others were associated with Walker, WROL/ WIVK, WNOX, and each other for significant parts of their professional careers. The Webster Brothers, Earl (born 1933) and Audie ( ), are best remembered for two remarkable Columbia Records gospel sessions with Carl Butler (another Knoxville veteran) in 1954 and Though Nashville A-team musicians Jack Shook (rhythm guitar), Don Helms (steel guitar), Dale Potter (fiddle), and Marvin Hughes (piano) were on hand, their playing was unobtrusive, and the singing was pure eastern Tennessee mountain gospel. Angel Band became a best seller, and the Websters version of Ira Louvin s Seven Year Blues, sung without Carl, is a masterpiece. Around 1958 the Websters teamed with Bud and Willie G. Brewster to become the Four Brothers Quartet. Music historians are comfortable in placing the Bailey Brothers within the bluegrass rubric, even though their band, the Happy Valley Boys, broke up in 1954, just when the idea of bluegrass as a discrete genre was beginning to catch on. Charley ( ) and Danny ( ) began performing together in the late 1930s. They were working for Cas Walker on WROL when Charlie was drafted into the Army on August 21, 8 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

11 courtesy of Elaine Vaccaro l-r, Cas Walker, Danny Bailey, Willie G. Brewster, Ray Brewster, Junior Huskey. WROL-Knoxville, c Dan corralled the Brewster Brothers, Willie G. ( ) and Ray ( ), to form the Happy Valley Boys. Around 1943, Junior Huskey ( ) joined on bass. In July of 1944, the band got its big chance. As Danny Bailey told Rounder Records in the 1970s, I said, Boys, it s Wednesday and today s auditioning day for the Grand Ole Opry so why don t we go up and have an audition and see what they think about us. The boys started laughing and said, You mean to audition for the Opry? And I said, Yeah, at least we ll get a chance to see the studios, get to see the National Life Building and all that sort of thing. Let s go, OK? They said, Well, why not, we don t have anything else to do right now. They had two groups before he auditioned us and of course other groups were coming in. And I know I thought there s not a chance in the world because they were coming from everywhere to be auditioned. Well, I figured this was one of those deals where they ll listen to us, and don t call me, I ll call you. So finally as I turned to go in I never will forget the big red velvet drapes and this sort of thing the main big studio there was the National Life and Insurance Company. The Solemn Old Judge, I had to introduce myself and the boys, and he said, Well, I want you to do a fifteen minute program just like you do the radio program. Well, I got a little bit nervous at that time, but I said, This is no time to get nervous, so we stepped to the center of the stage and he was sitting over in his chair and he put his fingers to his forehead and dropped his head. We started. We did our theme song. Then I introduced the group like I was doing a radio show. So then, they set up a microphone and this was fed through to the program director s office, which I later learned the program director s name was Ott Devine. So we did the same thing just like, not word for word, but just same numbers. So, they picked up the phones and talked to each other and I heard the Solemn Old Judge say, Yes, this is the Grand Ole Opry material. I don t know, they re just kids, he said. He hung the phone up. He said, Mr. Devine wants to see the leader. Bailey, he wants to see you in his office. I enjoyed your music boys, and he shook hands with each of us. I went in and he introduced himself. Said, I m Ott Devine, the program director for WSM and the Grand Ole Opry, and I said My name is Danny Bailey. He said, Any of the boys older than you are? And I said, No, one of them is the same age and one of them is several years younger. He said, Well, are you prepared to come and work here in a couple of weeks? When he said that, I almost passed out. It was getting close to lunch time, and they had a place called the Eat-A-Bite Cafe just a little ways from the studio. We d been there before. So, Don t tell us, we already know. And I said, I m not going to tell you. So Junior, he was the cheapest, he said, Well, at least, Curly Dan, you got to see the studio like you said. That s one of those, Don t call us, we ll call you. I said, Right Junior. He said, Well, let s not tell anybody we didn t pass the audition back in Knoxville. I said, Let s not even tell them we were up to the studios. No, we can say we went through that we toured the studios, but let s not tell them we auditioned. I said, O.K. So we all get down to the restaurant and they started ordering hamburgers. And I said, Bring us all a T- bone steak with trimmings, and one of the boys looked around and said, Hey, we can t afford that, we re on vacation you know. I think it was Will G. And I said, Oh yes we can, because in two weeks boys, we go to work at the Grand Ole Opry. And they said, You re a liar. And I said, I am not lying either. You want to see the contract? So I pulled it out of my inside coat pocket and I threw it on the table and I never saw THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

12 Vintage & New Stringed Instruments The finest banjos available Visit our showroom! 122 East Ave., Rochester, NY (585) OldTime Herald Isn t it time to spruce up that old case? NEW! OTH Case courtesy of Elaine Vaccaro Willie G. and Mary Brewster, c such celebration. Chairs flying, boys dancing and hollering, and the waitresses all joining in with em. Willie and Mary Elizabeth Brewster had wed on June 10, Mary Brewster was caught unprepared for the Brewster/Bailey success. She had just been employed as a bank administrator in Knoxville when she had to give notice that she and Willie were moving to Nashville. Ray s young family came too, and together they were able to rent a two-story house in Nashville s West End. Mary remembers the audition story a little differently. When they auditioned, Danny sang, You Could Be a Millionaire with Me for the Solemn Old Judge (George D. Hay), who was unimpressed. As they were packing their instruments, he learned that Ray and Willie G. were brothers, and asked them to sing together. They did, and the band was hired on the spot. After a year at WSM, Ray Brewster and Danny had a falling-out, and the Brewsters returned to Knoxville. Charley rejoined Dan when he got out of the service in Unfortunately it created a problem for them on the Opry. The Bailes Brothers from West Virginia, Opry members since 1944, called attention to similarity between their name and the Bailey Brothers. After refusing to change, the Baileys followed the Brewsters back to Knoxville and joined Cas Walker on WIVK. In 1945 the Brewsters worked with Bonnie Lou and Buster on WNOX, where they were featured on the daily Mid-Day Merry-Go- Round and the Tennessee Barn Dance Saturday nights. Ray and Willie G. performed briefly on WROS, Scottsboro, Alabama (where Willie was also a staff announcer), and WVOK s Dixie Jamboree in Birmingham, with the armless steel guitarist Ray Myers ( ). They then regrouped as the Smoky Mountain Hillbillies and published a Song Folio No. 1 with pictures of themselves, bass player E. P. (Cousin Jake) Tullock, and steel guitarist Clifford E. (Little Wilbur) Manning. Jake s high baritone and low comedy later became an integral part of the Flatt and Scruggs show in the 1960s; I know nothing more about Manning. Songs in the Folio come from the Blue Sky Boys, Karl and Harty, Callahan Brothers, Molly O Day, Carter Family, Bill Monroe, Ernest Tubb, and other familiar sources. Junior Huskey became a regular on Nashville record dates and the Opry until his death. On October 22, 1948, Ray Brewster was killed when his vehicle flipped and he was pinned underneath, following a pursuit by a Loudon County, Tennessee, sheriff and his deputy. According to newspaper reports, Brewster s father alleged that the officers had shot out Ray s tires, and the two officers were charged with involuntary manslaughter. By the end of October, community tension had risen to such a level that Governor McCord called out units of the Tennessee National Guard to prevent violence. The officers were eventually exonerated by a grand jury. Rounder Records Bill Nowlin related the gruesome story in a recent article in Bluegrass Unlimited. Willie G. rejoined the Bailey Brothers for a while, and worked with Hack and Clyde 10 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

13 Johnson, and Ray Myers at WPTF in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1949 and While Ray Brewster was alive, publicity photos usually showed Willie holding a fiddle. Starting with Song Folio No. 1 in 1947, later shots often showed him holding a mandolin as he moved closer to the bluegrass orbit. When youngest brother Bud joined Willie on banjo in 1953, the Brewster Brothers were revived. The larger world heard Bud and Willie G. in 1957 when they played on Carl Story s first records in the bluegrass idiom, Light at the River, Got a Lot to Tell My Jesus, and two immaculate instrumentals, Banjo on the Mountain and Mocking Banjo, the latter featuring call-and-response licks from Willie s mandolin and Bud s banjo. ( Mocking Banjo, and its predecessor, Arthur Smith and Don Reno s Feuding Banjos, became the celebrated Dueling Banjos in the 1972 movie Deliverance.) The Brewsters subsequently recorded under their own name for the small Acme label around They worked on and off with Carl Story through most of the 1960s and were prominently featured on his numerous Starday gospel LPs. Willie retired from music in 1969 and became a prosperous mobile home dealer. In the early 70s, Bud joined the Pinnacle Boys as lead singer and guitarist, with fiddlers Randall Collins and Jerry Moore, Larry Mathis on banjo, and Ray Rose on bass. In 1975, Bud opened the Pick n Grin music store in Knoxville, which continues to prosper today. Willie G. Brewster died in He and Mary had a son, David, who died in Their daughter Elaine lives in Florida and is active in local and regional politics. Their son Paul is a member of Ricky Skaggs Kentucky Thunder and is a gifted country composer and singer. Excellent Brewster Brothers and Carl Story discographies are online at Praguefrank s Country Music Discographies, at Dick Spottswood is a Contributing Editor at Bluegrass Unlimited. He hosts The Dick Spottswood Show at WAMU-FM in Washington and online at His book, Banjo On the Mountain: Wade Mainer s First Hundred Years, was published last year by the University Press of Mississippi. Very special thanks to Elaine Vaccaro and her mom, Mary (Mrs. Willie G.) Brewster. Thanks also to Bill Nowlin and Rounder Records for allowing use of the Danny Bailey quote. Willie G. Brewster at WPTF-Raleigh. Willie G. and Bud Brewster, 1950s. courtesy of Elaine Vaccaro courtesy of Elaine Vaccaro THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

14 2011 FESTIVAL AND CAMP GUIDE Every year, the Old-Time Herald compiles a list of gatherings that feature oldtime music and closely related traditions. This year you ll find festivals, workshops, dance and instructional camps, and competitions, both in the United States and abroad. Before planning a trip, be sure to visit the event s website or contact its organizers to confirm that the information listed here remains correct, and to inquire about additional details such as admission cost, handicapped accessibility, appropriateness for children or pets, and travel information. Keep in mind that workshops, dance camps, and instructional camps usually charge tuition, and they often have limited enrollment, so it s best to plan well in advance. If you know of events that should be added, please let us know! June (Santa Ynez) Live Oak Music Festival. Workshops, concerts, dance, children s events, jamming. Info: (805) June (El Cerrito) Fiddlekids, Tehiyah Day School. Workshops, dance. Info: org/fiddlekids, (510) August 26 September 3 (Boulder Creek) Alisdair Fraser s Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School, Camp Campbell. Workshops, jamming. Info: www. valleyofthemoon.org, (415) ALABAMA March 19 (Dothan) Old-Time Fiddlers Convention and Spring Farm Day Festival, Landmark Park. Competition, concerts, jamming, children s activities. Info: (334) August (Mentone) Old Time Music and Dance Weekend, Camp Riverview. Dance, concerts, jamming. Info: October 7-8 (Athens) Tennessee Valley Old-Time Fiddlers Convention, Athens State University. Concerts, dance, competition, jamming, camping. Info: ALASKA April (Juneau) Alaska Folk Festival. Concerts, dance, workshops, children s activities. Info: (907) ARIZONA September (Flagstaff) Pickin in the Pines Bluegrass and Acoustic Music Festival, Pine Mountain Amphitheater. Concerts, competition, dance, jamming. Info: (928) ARKANSAS March (Mountain View) Clawcamp Ozarks, Ozark Folk Center. Workshops, concerts, jamming. Info: www. ozarkfolkcenter.org, (870) April (Mountain View) Arkansas Folk Festival. Concerts, performances, jamming. Info: www. ozarkgetaways.com/folk_festival.html, (870) April (Mountain View) Dulcimer Jamboree and Southern Regional Dulcimer Competition, Ozark Folk Center. Competition, concerts, jamming. Info: (870) May (Mountain View) Thumb Picking Weekend and National Thumbpicking Contest, Ozark Folk Center. Concerts, competition, jamming. Info: (870) June 9 11 (Mountain View) Autoharp Workshop, Ozark Folk Center. Workshops, jamming. Info: www. ozarkfolkcenter.org, (870) July 7 9 (Mountain View) National Shape Note Gathering, Ozark Folk Center. Workshops, singings. Info: (870) August (Mountain View) Old Time Stringband Workshops, Ozark Folk Center. Workshops, jamming. Info: (870) CALIFORNIA May 15 (Agoura Hills) Topanga Banjo-Fiddle Contest and Folk Festival, Paramount Ranch. Concerts, competition, dance, jamming, children s activities. Info: org, (818) June (Nevada City) Alisdair Fraser s Sierra Fiddle Camp, Shady Creek Camp. Workshops, jamming. Info: (530) September (Berkeley) Berkeley Old Time Music Convention. Workshops, concerts, dance, competition, children s events, jamming, open stage. Info: October 9 (Santa Barbara) Old-Time Fiddlers Convention, Rancho la Patera and Stow House. Workshops, concerts, dance, competition, children s events, jamming. Info: org, (805) October 23 (Bonny Doon) Bonny Doon Dulcimer Gathering. Workshops, jamming. Info: www. redwooddulcimer.com, (831) COLORADO April 8 10 (Durango) Durango Bluegrass Meltdown. Concerts, dance, jamming. Info: www. durangomeltdown.com, (970) July 31 August 7 (Winter Park) Rocky Mountain Fiddle Camp, Snow Mountain Ranch. Workshops, concerts, dance, jamming. Info: (303) August (Fort Collins) Rocky Mountain Old Time Music Festival. Concerts, dance, jamming. Info: DELAWARE October (Rehoboth Beach) Sea Witch Fiddlers Festival, Rehoboth Beach Convention Center. Concerts, competitions, jamming, open stage. Info: com/sea-witch-halloween-fiddlers-festival. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA June 4 5 (Glen Echo, Maryland) Washington Folk Festival, Glen Echo Park. Concerts, dance, workhops. Info: (202) THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

15 IDAHO FLORIDA June (Weiser) National Oldtime Fiddlers Contest and Festival, 70 miles from Boise, Idaho, on the Oregon/Idaho border. Workshops, concerts, dance, competition, children s events, jamming, open stage. Info: www. fiddlecontest.com, (208) March (High Springs) Suwannee Banjo Camp, O Leno State Park. Workshops, concerts, jamming. Info: August 1-6 (Rexburg) Idaho International Dance and Music Festival. Concerts, dance, children s events, open stage. Info: April 1-2 (Dade City) Florida Old Time Music Championship, Sertoma Youth Ranch. Workshops, concerts, performances, competition, jamming. Info: INDIANA June 30 July 4, July 7 11 (Washington) Smithsonian Folklife Festival, National Mall. Concerts, dance, workshops, children s activities. Info: si.edu, (202) April 29 - May 1 (St. Augustine) Gamble Rogers Folk Festival. Concerts, performances, jamming, camping. Info: May (White Springs) Florida Folk Festival and Official State Fiddle Contest, Stephen Foster State Folk Culture Center. Concerts, contests, dance, jamming. Info: org/folkfest, (877) September 9-11 (White Springs) Suwannee Old Time Music Weekend, Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park. Workshops, concerts, jamming. Info: stephenfoster/events.cfm. October (Trenton) Florida State Fiddlers Convention, Otter Springs Campground. Competition, dance, workshops, jamming. Info: com/fiddler/annualconvention.htm. June 1-4 (Bean Blossom) John Hartford Memorial Festival, Bill Monroe Memorial Park and Campground. Concerts. Info: com, (314) June (Battle Ground) Indiana Fiddlers Gathering, Tippecanoe Battlefield. Concerts, workshops, jamming. Info: FestivalInfo.html. IOWA August 29 - September 4 (LeMars) National Old Time Rural, Folk, and Bluegrass Festival and Pioneer Exposition of Arts, Crafts and Rural Lifestyle, Plymouth County Fairgrounds. Workshops, concerts, dances, competition, children s events, jamming, open stage. Info: KANSAS September (Winfield) Walnut Valley Festival, Winfield Fairgrounds. Concerts, workshops, jamming, dance, children s activities. Info: www. wvfest.com, (620) GEORGIA April (Dahlonega) Bear on the Square Mountain Festival, Public Square. Workshops, dance, concerts, performances, children s events, jamming, artists marketplace. Info: www. BearOnTheSquare.org, (706) May (Calhoun) Georgia String Band Festival, Harris Arts Center and Cherokee Capital Fairgrounds. Concerts, competition, jamming. Info: bluespond@aol.com. July (Hiawassee) Georgia Mountain Fair, Georgia M ount a i n Fa i rgro u n d s. C o n c e r t s, competition, children s activities. Info: (706) KENTUCKY June 5-11 (Hindman) Appalachian Family Folk Week, Hindman Settlement School. Concerts, workshops, children s events, jamming, dance. Info: (606) June (Whitesburg) Seedtime on the Cumberland. Concerts, jamming workshops, children s events, dance. Info: (606) July (Falls of Rough) Official Kentucky State Championship, Rough River Dam State Park. Competition, jamming. Info: THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

16 August 11-14, El Rancho Mañana Richmond MN (20 mi W of St Cloud, MN) September 7-10 (Olive Hill) J.P. Fraley s Mountain Music Gatherin, Carter Caves State Resort Park. Workshops, concerts, jamming, open stage. Info: (800) October (Berea) Berea College Celebration of Traditional Music, Berea College campus. Workshops, concerts, dance, jamming, camping. Info: LOUISIANA April (Ville Platte) Dewey Balfa Cajun and Creole Heritage Week, Chicot State Park. Concerts, workshops, dance, jamming. Info: www. lafolkroots.org, (337) April 27 May 1 (Lafayette) Festival International de Louisiane. Concerts, dance, workshops, children s events. Info: (337) May 6-8 (Breaux Bridge) Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, Parc Hardy. Concerts, dance, cookoffs. Info: (337) July (Natchitoches) Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, Prather Coliseum on NSU campus. Concerts, dance, competition, children s events, jamming. Info: Nominated 2005, 2007 & 2009 IBMA Event of the Year! Foghorn Stringband Orpheus Supertones Dale Ann Bradley - April Verch Audie Blaylock & Redline Sierra Hull & Highway 101 Monroe Crossing - More TBA Official Old-Time Magazine of the MBOTMA Festival Several stages with concerts, nightly dances, workshops, and children s activities. Good food, plenty of campground picking, and a family friendly atmosphere. Thursday pig roast, swimming beach, and horseback riding too! Two day pre-fest old-time instructional camp for banjo and fiddle on Wednesday and Thursday. Come for the day or camp for the weekend. Call for full brochure! For More Information & Tickets call or visit 14 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

17 October (Lafayette) Festivals Acadiens et Créoles. Concerts, dance, children s activities. Info: www. festivalsacadiens.com. MAINE July (Cornish) Ossipee Valley Bluegrass Festival, Ossipee Valley Fairgrounds. Concerts, workshops, dance, competition, children s activities. Info: (207) August (Bangor) American Folk Festival. Concerts, dance, children s activities. Info: www. americanfolkfestival.com, (207) MARYLAND June 4 5 (Glen Echo) Washington Folk Festival, Glen Echo Park. Concerts, dance, workhops. Info: (202) July 9-10 (Westminster) Common Ground on the Hill, McDaniel College and Carroll County Farm Museum. Workshops, concerts, dance, children s events, jamming. Info: www. commongroundonthehill.org. September 11 (Takoma Park) Takoma Park Folk Festival, Takoma Park Middle School. Concerts, dance, children s events. Info: MASSACHUSETTS April (Mansfield) New England Folk Festival. Concerts, dance, food, children s event. Info: (617) May (Groton) Banjo Camp North. Workshops, jamming. Info: (774) July (Lowell) Lowell Folk Festival. Concerts, dance, workshops. Info: org, (978) July 30 - August 6 (Plymouth) American Dance and Music Week (Pinewoods), Pinewoods Camp. Concerts, workshops, dance, jamming. Info: MICHIGAN June 3 5 (Olivet) Midwest Banjo Camp, Olivet College. Workshops, concerts, jamming. Info: July (Marquette) Hiawatha Traditional Music Festival, Marquette Tourist Park. Workshops, concerts, dance, jamming, children s events, open stage. Info: org, (906) September 9-11 (Remus) Wheatland Music Festival. Workshops, concerts, jamming. Info: org, (989) October 1 (New Boston) Michigan State Championship Old- Time Fiddlers Contest, Applefest Stage. Competition. Info: com/fiddlerscontest.php, (734) MINNESOTA March 4-6 (Minneapolis) Winter Bluegrass Weekend: A Festival of Bluegrass & Old-Time Music & Dance, Radisson Hotel & Conference Center. Workshops, concerts, dance, children s events, jamming. Info: www. MinnesotaOldtime.org, (800) May (Lanesboro) Bluff County Gathering, Sons of Norway Hall/Community Center. Workshops, concerts, dance, jamming. Info: (507) June 3-5 (Richmond) Minnesota Homegrown Kickoff, El Rancho Mañana Campground. Workshops, concerts, dance, jamming, open stage. Info: (800) July 31 (Berrien Springs) Shady Grove Fiddle Fest, The Grove Park. Workshops, concerts, dance, competition, jamming, open stage. Info: August (Richmond) Minnesota Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Festival, El Rancho Mañana Campground. Workshops, concerts, dance, children s events, jamming, open stage. Info: (800) MISSOURI April 1 2 (Boonville) Big Muddy Folk Festival, Thespian Hall. Concerts, workshops. Info: www. bigmuddy.org, (888) June (West Plains) Old-Time Music Ozark Heritage Festival. Workshops, concerts, dance, competition, children s events, jamming. Info: (888) Common Ground on the Hill presents A Maryland Tradition Since 1972 The Deer Creek Fiddlers Convention Saturday, June 11 Carroll County Farm Museum Westminster, MD Competitions in bluegrass, oldtime, and Celtic music and dance Common Ground also offers: CGOTH Festival, July 9-10 Traditions Week One July 3-9 Traditions Week Two July cgothregistrar@yahoo.com Fiddlin Bear Fiddlin' Bear Lake Genero Park HamLin, Pa Seventeenth Annual Old-Time Musicians Gathering Labor Day Weekend, 2011 A four day musicians get together, a festival without a stage. A nice, shady spot beside a lake to camp and make music. Great campsites open or wooded, fire-pits with seasoned hardwood, showers and flush toilets, a children s playground, a pocket sized lake for swimming, And...there s no hired entertainment. All the music and dancing is spontaneous, just us folks jamming and carrying on. One charge includes camping from Friday, 2 pm through Monday, noon. $20 per person, long stay or short. Kids free (18 and under) THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

18 Ashokan Fiddle & dance Camps NEBRASKA October 7-9 (Fremont) Olde Time Rural Music Gathering, Christensen Field House. Workshops, concerts, dance, competition, children s events, jamming, open stage. Info: www. orgsites.com/ia/oldtimemusic. NEW HAMPSHIRE June (Albuquerque) Albuquerque Folk Festival, New Mexico State Fairgrounds. Concerts, dance, jamming, children s activities. Info: (505) Join us for a week of world class music and dance instruction, jam sessions, dance parties, song swaps, great food, friendly people and memorable good times in New York's Catskill Mountains. Western & swing Week June 26 July 2 Swing, Jazz, Honky Tonk, Western-Swing northern Week July New England, Quebecois, Scandi, English southern Week August Appalachian, Old-Time, Cajun & Zydeco Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camps P.O. Box 49, Saugerties, NY office@ashokan.org (845) June 26 July 3 (Littleton) Nordic Fiddles and Feet, Camp Ogontz. Workshops, concerts, jamming. Info: www. nordicfiddlesandfeet.org, (865) September (Portsmouth) Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival. Concerts, singings. Info: org/pmff. NEW JERSEY September 2 4 (Woodstown) Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival, Salem County Fairgrounds. Concerts, Jamming, dance, children s activities. Info: (302) NEW MEXICO May (Socorro) FolkMADness Music and Dance Camp, New Mexico Tech. Concerts, dance, workshops, jamming, children s activities. Info: NEW YORK May (Altamont) Black Creek Fiddlers Reunion, Altamont Fairgrounds. Workshops, jamming. Info: June (Altamont) Old Songs Festival, Altamont Fairgrounds. Workshops, concerts, dance, children s events, jamming, open stage. Info: June 26 July 2 (Olivebridge) Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Western and Swing Week, the Ashokan Center. Workshops, concerts, dance, jamming, open stage. Info: (845) July 1 3 (Sherman) Great Blue Heron Music Festival. Concerts, dance, workshops, jamming. Info: (716) July (Oak Hill) Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Walsh Farm. Concerts, dance, workshops, children s events. Info: com, (888) July (Trumansburg) Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance, Trumansburg Fairgrounds. Workshops, concerts, dance, jamming. Info: (607) July (Olivebridge) Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Northern Week, the Ashokan Center. Workshops, dance, concerts, jamming. Info: www. ashokan.org, (845) August (Olivebridge) Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Southern Week, the Ashokan Center. Workshops, concerts, dance, jamming, open stage. Info: (845) NORTH CAROLINA February (Mount Airy) Tommy Jarrell Festival, Andy Griffith Playhouse, Old-Time Music Heritage Hall and the Downtown Cinema. Concerts, dance, jamming. Info: (336) THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

19 March (Boone) Black Banjo Concerts and Workshops, Appalachian State University. Concerts, workshops, jamming. Info: .unc.edu. March (Dobson) Surry Old-Time Fiddlers Convention, Surry Community College. Workshops, dance, competition, children s events, jamming. Info: (877) April 23 (Swannanoa) Fiddles and Folklife Old-Time Fiddle, Banjo and Stringband Contest, Warren Wilson College. Competition, jamming, dance, demonstrations. Info: www. warren-wilson.edu/~fiddlesandfolklife, (828) April 28 - May 1 (Wilkesboro) MerleFest, Wilkes Community College. Concerts, workshops, children s events, dance. Info: (800) May (Union Grove) Fiddler's Grove Ole Time Fidder's and Bluegrass Festival, Fiddler's Grove Campground. Workshops, concerts, dance, competition, children's activities, jamming, camping. Info: (828) , June 3-4 (Mount Airy) Blue Grass and Old Time Fiddlers Convention, Veterans Memorial Park. Competition, jamming. Info: (336) June 5 11 (Mars Hill) Blue Ridge Old-Time Music Week, Mars Hill College. Workshops, jamming. Info: (828) June 6-11 (Black Mountain) Dulcimerville. Workshops, concerts, jamming, open stage. Info: July (Swannanoa) Old-Time Week at the Swannanoa Gathering, Warren Wilson College. Workshops, concerts, jamming, children s events. Info: (828) July (Sparta) Alleghany County Fiddler s Convention, Higgins Agricultural Fairgrounds. Competition, jamming. Info: (336) August 4 6 (Asheville) Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, Di- ana Wortham Theater. Concerts, dance. Info: (828) x Aug (Little Switzerland) Camp DoReMi, Wildacres Retreat. Workshops, jamming, shape-note singing. Info: (706) September 2 3 (Lake Junaluska) Smoky Mountain Folk Festival, Stuart Auditorium. Concerts, dance, jamming, children s activities. Info: September (Silk Hope) Hoppin John Old-Time & Bluegrass Fiddlers Convention, Shakori Hills. Competition, jamming, dances, workshops. Info: (919) September 24 (Cullowhee) Mountain Heritage Day, Western Carolina University. Concerts, dance, children s events, jamming, shape-note singing, demonstrations. Info: October 1 2 (Brasstown) John C. Campbell Folk School Fall Festival, John C. Campbell Folk School. Concerts, dance, workshops, children s activities. Info: (800) FOLK-SCH. October (Stecoah) Appalachian Harvest Festival, Stecoah Valley Center. Concerts, competition, dance, singings, children s activities. Info: www. stecoahvalleycenter.com, (828) OHIO February (Cincinnati) Appalachian Culture Fest, Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. Concerts, dance, jamming, open stage, demonstrations. Info: (513) May 6-8 (Cincinnati) Appalachian Festival, Coney Island. Concerts, dance, jamming. Info: www. appalachianfestival.org, (513) May 6-8 (Columbus/Galloway) Central Ohio Folk Festival, Battelle-Darby Creek Metro Park,Workshops, concerts, children s events, jamming. Info: www. cfms-inc.org/central_ohio_folk_festival. htm, (614) May (Lisbon) Dulci-More Festival, Boy Scout Camp McKinley. Workshops, concerts, jamming, children s activities. Info: www. dulcimore.org, (330) May 27-29, 2011 Fiddler s Grove Ole Time Fiddler s & Bluegrass Festival Oldest fiddler s competition in North America, celebrating its 85th year. Local Legacy Award winner from the Library of Congress. Competition for bands and individuals. Over $4000 in prize money. Free workshops, jamming, children s activities, camping on-site. Family-run and familyfriendly. Beautiful rural setting. Fiddler s Grove Campground, Union Grove, NC 828/ info@fiddlersgrove.com Photo: D. Jonathan Hutchings THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

20 May 27-29, 2011 ozarks EAST ozarks Clawcamp Mtn. View Arkansas Folk Center March 21-25, 2011 Pre-Event Intensive Fiddle Master Class with Bruce Molsky, Limited Seating Featuring Bruce Molsky Plus Sparky & Rhonda Rucker Alash Matt & Shannon Heaton The Stray Birds Hosted by Simple Gifts Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA Nestled in the beautiful Allegheny Mountains of Central Pennsylvania 814/ Scratchcamp Fur Peace Ranch Meigs County, oh July 29-31, 2011 Scratchcamp is for clawhammer banjo players and old-time fiddle students starting from scratch or those wanting to work on the basics. Stringband Camp with the Boiled Buzzards Mtn. View Arkansas Folk Center August 18-21, clawcampplay Nice! July (Pomeroy) Scratchcamp, Fur Peace Ranch. Workshops, jamming. Info: (412) August 19 (Nelsonville) The Ohio State Fiddling Contest, Stuarts Opera House. Competition. Info: October (Coshocton) Apple Butter Stirrin, Historic Roscoe Village. Concerts, children s events, jamming. Info: (740) OREGON July (Salem) Willamette Valley Autoharp Gathering, Western Mennonite School. Workshops, jamming, concerts. Info: PENNSYLVANIA May (Williamsport) American Banjo Fraternity Spring Rally, Genetti Hotel. Concerts, jamming. Info: May (Huntingdon) Folk College with Simple Gifts. Concerts, wokshops, jamming. Info: (814) A new book coauthored with Bob Carlin, that includes 28 of Creed s Round Peak Classics. For other recordings, books and DVDs contact Dan at OldBzrd@gmail.com DAN LEVENSoN old TIME MUSIC June (Newport) Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering, Little Buffalo Family Campground. Concerts, workshops, jamming. Info: www. mlag.org. August 13 (West Chester) Chester County Old Fiddlers Picnic, Hibernia County Park. Concerts, dance, jamming. Info: September 2-5 (Hamlin) Fiddlin Bear Gathering. Jamming. Info: September (Huntingdon) Greenwood Furnace Folk Gathering, Greenwood Furnace State Park. Info: September 18 (Lyons) Lyons Fiddle Festival, Lyons Community Park. Concerts, competition, dance, jamming. Info: (484) Oct (Punxsutawney) American Banjo Fraternity Fall Rally, Pantall Hotel. Concerts, jamming. Info: SOUTH CAROLINA May (Hartsville) RenoFest Bluegrass Festival. Concerts, contests, jamming. Info: com, (843) TENNESSEE March 4-6 (Lebanon) Breakin Up Winter, Cedars of Lebanon State Park. Workshops, concerts, dance, jamming. Info: March (Clarksville) State of Tennessee Old-Time Fiddlers Championships, Rossview High School. Competition, jamming. Info: (931) March 19 (Chattanooga) Great Southern Old Time Fiddlers Convention, Lindsay Street Hall, Concerts, dance, competition, jamming. Info: June 12 18, June (Maryville) Steve Kaufman s Acoustic Kamps, 17 miles south of Knoxville. Workshops, concerts, jamming, open stage. Info: com, (800) FLAT-PIK. July 8-10 (Murfreesboro) Uncle Dave Macon Days, Cannonsburgh Village. Competition, concerts, dance, jamming. Info: 18 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

21 September 2 4 (Nashville) National Folk Festival. Info: www. nashvillenff.org. September (Bristol) Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion. Concerts, dance, children s activities. Info: (423) October 7-9 (Clinton) Tennessee Fall Homecoming, Museum of Appalachia, 2819 Andersonville Hwy. Concerts, dance, jamming, demonstrations. Info: (865) TEXAS April (Hallettsville) Texas State Championship and Fiddlers Frolics. Competition, concerts, dance. Info: (361) March (Palestine) Palestine Old-Time Music and Dulcimer Festival, Museum of East Texas Culture. Workshops, concerts, jamming. Info: May 26 - June 12 (Kerrville) Kerrville Folk Festival. Concerts, contests, food, children s activities, dance. Info: (830) June (San Antonio) Texas Folklife Festival, Texan Cultures UTSA HemisFair Park Campus. Concerts, dance, food, demonstrations, children s activities. Info: (210) October (Driftwood) Austin String Band Festival, Camp Ben McCulloch. Workshops, concerts, dance, children s events, jamming. Info: www. aftm.us, (512) VERMONT June (Johnson) Northeast Heritage Music Camp, Johnson State College. Workshops, concerts, dance, jamming. Info: www. northeastheritagemusiccamp.com. September 18 - October 1 (Brattleboro) Banjo Building with Will Fielding, Whetstone School of Lutherie. Workshops, jamming. Info: (802) VIRGINIA April 29 - May 1 (Riner) Dare To Be Square East. Dance, workshops, jamming. Info: DARE TO BE SQUARE! APRIL 29, 30 & MAY 1! in RINER VIRGINIA Square Dance Calling Weekend: CALLING and MUSIC WORKSHOPS, DANCES, LATE NIGHT MUSIC and MERRIMENT! For aspiring and experienced callers, dancers and musicians! With callers Michael Ismerio, Phil Jamison, Will Mentor and more! Music by the region s finest dance bands! More info and registration at THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

22 Peach Bottom Farm Fiddle & Strings A rare opportunity to experience Appalachia, its music & heritage, while receiving intensive & fun-filled music instruction by our staff of local, National & World renowned professional instructors. Bring your favorite stringed instrument. (we re not just for fiddle). All ages and levels of motivated strings players welcome. DATE: JUNE 13-17, 2011 LOCATION: INDEPENDENCE, VA (near Galax & Merlefest) 2011 INSTRUCTORS: APRIL VERCH JUDY HYMAN SHANE COOK BRIAN GRIMM BRANDON DAVIS & MORE! STYLES MAY INCLUDE: Appalachian Old Time, Bluegrass, Canadian Old Time, Contest-style, Irish, Scottish & Swing. For Registration & Accommodation Information Visit: peachbottomfarm.com or peachbottomfarm@yahoo.com May 28 (Big Stone Gap) Gathering in the Gap, Southwest Virginia Museum Historical State Park. Workshops, concerts, competition, children s events, jamming. Info: www. gatheringinthegapmusicfestival.com. June (Glen Lyn) Henry Reed Memorial Fiddlers Convention, Glen Lyn Park. Workshops, concerts, dance, competition, children s events, jamming, open stage. Info: June (Independence) Peach Bottom Farm Fiddle and Strings Camp. Workshops, jamming, camping. Info: (276) June (Elk Creek) Grayson County Fiddler s Convention, Elk Creek School Ball Field. Competition, jamming. Info: July (Floyd) FloydFest, Blue Ridge Parkway Milepost 170.5, Blue Cow Arts Pavilion. Concerts, dance, children s events. Info: www. floydfest.com, (888) VA-FESTS. August 8-13 (Galax) Old Fiddler s Convention, Felts Park. Competition, jamming, concerts. Info: www. oldfiddlersconvention.com, (276) Allegheny Echoes 15th Annual Allegheny Echoes Workshops Marlinton, WV June 19-25, 2011 Traditional Music Instruction In: Fiddle: Chance McCoy, Danny Arthur, Bobby Taylor, Jim Mullins, Jake Krack Banjo: Paul Gartner, Tim Bing, Andrew Dunlap Guitar: Jon Mosey, Judy Hudnall, Doug Hepler, Pat Shields, Robin Kessinger, Mandolin: Alan Dutchess Hammered Dulcimer: Bob Shank Bass: Tim Corbett Bluegrass Banjo: Bobby Maynard Bluegrass Guitar: Robert Shafer Bluegrass Fiddle: Charlie Walden Bluegrass Mandolin: Brandon Shuping Bluegrass Dobro: Chris Stockwell Vocals: Patt Plunkett and Val Mindel Creative Writing: Kirk Judd Appalachian Masters: Dan Wilson, Pam Lund, Charlie Loudermilk, Junior Spencer, Richard Hefner, Laura Treacy Bentley Class size limited to 10 students. For a free catalog and more information: muckle_h@hotmail.com taobilly@yahoo.com john.blisard@frontier.com website phone (304) : write Allegheny Echoes Rt. 2 Box 128-M Marlinton, WV THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

23 August 20 (Fries) Fries Fiddlers Convention, Fries Town Park. Competition, jamming. Info: www. graysoncountyva.com, (276) September (Bristol) Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion. Concerts, dance, children s activities. Info: (423) October 22 (Ferrum) Blue Ridge Folklife Festival, Ferrum College. Concerts, demonstrations, children s events. Info: festivals.htm, (540) WASHINGTON February (Olympia) Oly Old Time Festival. Workshops, concerts, dance, children s events, jamming. Info: May (Seattle) Northwest Folklife Festival, Seattle Center. Workshops, concerts, dance, children s events, jamming. Info: www. nwfolklife.org, (206) July 3-10 (Port Townsend) Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Fort Worden State Park. Workshops, dance. Info: (360) August 3-7 (Clifftop) Appalachian String Band Music Festival (Clifftop), Camp Washington-Carver. Competition, concerts, workshops, dance, jamming. Info: org/stringband, (304) August 7-14 (Elkins) Old-Time Week, Augusta Heritage Center, Davis & Elkins College. Workshops, concerts, performances, dance, jamming, camping. Info: (800) August 7-14 (Elkins) Augusta Dance Week, Davis & Elkins College. Workshops, concerts, performances, dance, jamming, camping. Info: www. augustaheritage.com, (800) August (Elkins) Augusta Festival, Elkins City Park and campus of Davis & Elkins College. Concerts, dance, competition, jamming. Info: (800) WISCONSIN July (Madison) Sugar Maple Traditional Music Festival, Lake Farm Park. Workshops, concerts, dance, children s events, jamming. Info: 5 STRING BANJO-TAM banjo-tambourine With or Without Jingles! Limited Supply BANJO-TAM LLC banjo-tam.com nc. res. pay sales tax August (Centralia) Centralia Old-Time Music Campout. Jamming, dance. Info: com, WEST VIRGINIA Making Traditional Music Look As Good As It Sounds QUALITY GRAPHIC DESIGN SINCE 1987 FOR: Music CDs Websites Logos Advertising Brochures Packaging April (Elkins) Spring Augusta Week/Spring Dulcimer Week, Augusta Heritage Center, Davis & Elkins College. Workshops, concerts, jamming. Info: com, (800) May (Charleston) Vandalia Gathering, Culture Center and State Capital grounds. Concerts, competition, jamming, dance. Info: vandalia. June (Glenville) West Virginia State Folk Festival. Competition, jamming, dance. Info: www. wvfolkfestival.org. June (Marlinton) Alleghany Echoes Summer Workshop. Workshops, concerts, dance, children s events, jamming, open stage. Info: 38 Merchant Street Asheville, North Carolina THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

24 July (Dodgeville) Hardanger Music and Dance Workshop, Folklore Village. Workshops, concerts, jamming. Info: (612) July 7 18 (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia) Maritime Fiddle Festival. Concerts, competition, workshops. Info: www. maritimefiddlefestival.ca. August (La Crosse) Great River Folk Festival, UW-La Crosse Campus. Workshops, concerts, dance, competition, children s events, jamming. Info: July (Orangeville, Ontario) Orangeville Fiddle and Step-Dance Camp, Upper Canada Camp. Workshops, jamming. Info: (519) CANADA July (Pakenham, Ontario) Pakenham Fiddle and Stepdance Competition. Competition, jamming. Info: March (Nanoose Bay, British Columbia) Vancouver Island Fiddle Camp, Seven Springs Resort. Workshops, concerts, jamming. Info: nanaimofiddlers/nanaimo_fiddlers/ Fiddle_Camp.html, (250) July 1-3 (Souris, Prince Edward Island) Prince Edward Island Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival, Rollo Bay Festival, Grounds. Concerts, workhops, jamming. Info: (902) July 4 7 (Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia) Sherbrooke Now Fiddle Camp. Workshops, jamming, ceilidh. Info: museum.gov.ns.ca/sv/fiddlecamp.php, (888) July (Quesnel, British Columbia) BC Fiddle Treat, Gavin Lake. Workshops. Info: (250) August 3 7 (Shelburne, Ontario) Canadian Open Old Time Fiddle Championship. Competition, dances, jamming. Info: (519) August (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) John Arcand Fiddle Fest. Competition, concerts, workshops, dance. Info: www. johnarcandfiddlefest.com, (306) August (Salt Spring Island, British Columbia) Salt Spring Island Fiddle Camp. Workshops. Info: (250) DENMARK August (Tønder) Tønder Festival. Concerts, camping, jamming. Info: ENGLAND February (Gainsborough, Lincolnshire) Gainsborough Old-Time Festival, Queen Elizabeth High School. Concerts, dance, jamming, workshops. Info: www. foaotmad.org.uk, September 9-11 (Hastings, East Sussex) Sweet Sunny South, Fairlight Lodge Hotel. Info: FINLAND June 27 July 3 (Haapavesi) Haapavesi Folk Festival. Concerts, dance. Info: GERMANY May 6 8 (Freising) Old-Time Musicians Meeting. Concerts, jamming. Info: 22 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

25 June 12-18: Old Time Banjo, Mountain Dulcimer Flatpicking, Fingerpicking, Old Time Fiddle, Bass, Songwriting Old Time and Traditional Week - June 12-18: Flatpicking: Tyler Grant, Jim Hurst, Steve Kaufman, Robin Kessinger, Marcy Marxer, Roberto Dalla Vecchia; Fingerpicking: Steve Baughman, Eddie Pennington, Chris Proctor, TJ Wheeler; Bass: Rusty Holloway; Old Time Fiddle: Josh Goforth, Stacy Philips; Mountain Dulcimer: Joe Collins; Old Time Banjo: Laura Boosinger; Songwriting: Kathy Chiavola Bluegrass Week - June 19-25: Flatpicking: JP Cormier, Mark Cosgrove, Dan Crary, Beppe Gambetta, Mike Kaufman, Kenny Smith, Uwe Kruger; Mandolin: Alan Bibey, Andrew Collins, David Harvey, Emory Lester, Barry Mitterhoff, Don Stiernberg; Bluegrass Banjo: Gary Davis, Janet Davis, Casey Henry, Jens Kruger; Dobro : Ivan Rosenberg; Bass: Joel Landsberg; Bluegrass Fiddle: Adam Masters & Stacy Phillips Singing Class: Kathy Chiavola; Jam Instructor Both Weeks: Keith Yoder; 101 Instructor: Jeff Scroggins Kamp Doctors - Week One: Ken and Virginia Miller; Week Two: Richard Starkey and Jim Grainger Call 800-FLATPIK to Register A Musical Event Like None Other Held each June in Maryville, TN Specially designed for Ultra-Beginners through Professional Located On The Campus of Maryville College in Maryville, TN - Just 17 mi. So. of Knoxville, TN. Call or Write for your Kamp Brochure or go to Your $ Paid Registration Entitles You To: Rotating 2 Hour Classes with ALL of the Main Teachers All Meals and Lodging (Companion Packages available) Structured Slow and Medium Group Jam Periods Structured Stylistic Jams: Swing, Old Time, BG, Vocal, Gospel Master Classes and Afternoon Specialized Sessions Ensemble Work, Open Mic. Time, Afternoon and Nightly Jams Admission to All The Nightly Concerts in the Clayton Center Scholarships Available at We d like to thank Weber Mandolins, Collings Guitars, Ken Miller Guitars, Taylor Guitars for donating instruments for our big Door Prize Give Away! More to be added! Gold Award Every Year since 2002 Find Out Why! June 19-25: Flatpicking, Bluegrass Banjo, Mandolin, Bluegrass Fiddle, Singing, Dobro and Bass Gold Award Winning More Classes More Education More Fun More Friends Scholarships Available Join us in June! Limited Spaces -Registrations and Kamp Info: Register On-Line Register Today Steve Kaufman's Acoustic Kamp PO Box 1020, Alcoa, TN (Operator s and Tape Machines are Standing By 24 hours) FLATPIK steve@flatpik.com Interested in being a corporate sponsor? Write steve@flatpik.com Don t Sleep Through This Opportunity! The 2011 Kamp Series is Sponsored in part by ~ Acoustic Guitar Magazine, Collings Guitars, Deering Banjos, Downhomeguitars.com, DR Strings, Elm Hill Meats, Fishman Transducers, Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, Heritage Instrument Insurance, Homespun Tapes, Huss and Dalton Guitars, Intellitouch Tuners, Janet Davis Music, Mass St. Music, Mandolin Magazine, Martin Guitars, Naugler Guitars, The PicKing, Pick 'N Grin, Shubb Capos, SmokyMountainGuitars.com, Weber Mandolins and Wood-N-Strings Dulcimer Shop THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

26 Courtesy Joyce Mace; Peek p The Ozark Opry s billing at the Riverside Inn in Reno, Nevada, 1953.

27 LIVE! AT THE OZARK OPRY: AN APPRECIATION OF VAUDEVILLE AND SHOW FIDDLER LEROY HASLAG By Howard W. Marshall At last, a book has appeared tracing the heritage of the Ozark Opry, the longrunning country music show at Central Missouri s Lake of the Ozarks. The book is Dan William Peek s Live! At the Ozark Opry. Launched in 1953 by Lee and Joyce Mace, a pair of young jig dancers, the Ozark Opry was innovative entertainment. It brought together talented local and regional musicians playing violin, banjo, guitar, bass, and other instruments such as saxophone and trumpet, with old-time country singing, square and jig dancing, and vaudeville comedy sketches to create an influential and successful modern-day minstrel show. For many years, among the fine traditional fiddlers gracing the Ozark Opry was LeRoy Haslag of Loose Creek, Missouri. This essay started out as a book review but grew like Topsy. Branson may be the center of today s opry universe, but it was not always so. The Ozark Opry anticipated and created the template for the Branson country music shows that began in 1959 in Southwest Missouri, around Lake Taneycomo and the village of Branson. In its heyday the Ozark Opry competed successfully with Nashville s Grand Ole Opry. Courtesy Joyce Mace; Peek p. 12. Ozark Opry ticket line, 1959.

28 Courtesy Joyce Mace; Peek p. 27. The Lake of the Ozarks Square Dancers at the Chicago Fair, Their style is called both jig dancing and "clogging in Missouri. Across Missouri, many square dancers jig dance while moving through the patterns and calls in the square dance. The Maces called their style Ozark Mountain jig dancing, although their home was a bit north of the Ozark Mountains. A young Miller County couple, Lee and Joyce Mace began in the 1940s winning square dance contests, and both were famous for doing their old-time Missouri-style jig dancing steps while square dancing. Proud of his Osage Indian blood, Lee Mace was a fiddler and guitarist but eventually made the upright slap bass his principal instrument. Lee got his public performance start after service in World War II, when he played dances in fiddle bands at the annual three-day picnics along the Osage River in the Miller County seat of Tuscumbia events fondly recalled by fiddle tune collector R.P. Christeson in his tune books and interviews. During the post-world War II square dance boom, the Maces formed an ensemble called the Lake of the Ozarks Square Dancers, and they were the first to dance on WSM s Grand Ole Opry with taps on their shoes. (Opry management insisted on calling them the Grand Ole Opry Square Dancers.) The group brought audiences to their feet, and WSM offered them ongoing jobs on the Grand Ole Opry show. Lee and Joyce Mace spurned the Nashville scene, however, unhappy with the trend there toward modern and pop-flavored country music. Instead, the Maces stayed in Missouri, their Ozark Opry helping lead the evolution of the country music entertainment business and tourism industry in the Lake of the Ozarks region. The Mace group was the envy of many Nashville stars when they were invited to perform at such prestigious venues at the Chicago Fair in the summer of 1950, and the Blue Room nightclub in New Orleans. These performances gave the Lake of the Ozarks Square Dancers and the Maces high-society exposure among performers such as Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra. The Ozark Opry and other oprys around the Lake of Ozarks eventually butted heads with the Nashville powerhouses. In the 1980s, Grand Ole Opry lawyers sued Dennis Hilton, a competitor of the Maces at the Lake of the Ozarks, whose show was called Dennis Hilton s Shindig Opry, to try to prevent Hilton from using the word opry in his vaudeville show. Lee Mace testified for Hilton at the extensive court hearings, Hilton won, and, today, anyone can use the word opry without fear of legal problems. Numerous well-known musicians served stints on the Ozark Opry through the years. The show s first banjo player, Lonnie Hoppers, went on to fame with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys and other bands. Dale Sledd began his career under Lee Mace s tutelage as an Ozark Opry cast member, and went on to notoriety playing bluegrass with the Osborne Brothers and others; known mainly as a guitarist, Sledd also plays fiddle. Don Russell was a talented fiddler who had performed with Porter Wagoner on the Ozark Jubilee in Springfield in the early 1950s before joining the Ozark Opry. Kelly Jones of Stover is a frequent Missouri state champion fiddler as well as Nashville sideman, recording artist, and session musician. More than a hundred different musicians played in the ensemble over the years. (Old television footage, and a biography of Lee Mace, can be seen on the Miller County Historical Society website at The Opry shows covered the gamut, from old-time fiddle breakdowns for square dancing on stage and red-hot bluegrass fiddle and banjo pieces, to vaudeville comedy, gospel quartet singing, contemporary country music, and interpretations of big band music and rock-and- roll hits. Bill Atterberry s singing parodies as his hillbilly alter ego, Goofer such as portraying Roy Acuff singing The Great Speckled Bird in the bathtub with his head underwater, followed by Porky Pig s version are classics of modern vaudeville. Dan William Peek s 2010 book, Live! At the Ozark Opry, presents the saga in the context of traditional music in Missouri and the evolution of the country music industry. The author of this delightful and readable illustrated history, a native of Versailles, Missouri, played banjo in a Kingston Trio-type folk group of the early 1960s on one of the Ozark Opry spin-off 26 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

29 Lee Mace with his baseball bat bass, Although he had served in the Navy during World War II, during the Korean War Mace was drafted into the Army. During this time as a soldier, he learned to play upright bass fiddle and played in a dance band while stationed in France. Lacking a bass, they rescued a discarded bass with a broken neck from a refuse dump. A friend made a new neck from a baseball bat and Lee brought it back to the States and performed with it on the Opry. Courtesy Joyce Mace; Peek p

30 Courtesy Joyce Mace; Peek p. 45. Courtesy Joyce Mace; Peek p. 48. An early Ozark Opry cast, when the majority of the members dressed in hillbilly or farm boy attire; onstage at "The Casino in Osage Beach. l-r: Bob McCoy (guitar and High Pockets costume), Ramona Bullington, Lee Mace (bass), Basil Robinette (jug player), Lonnie Hoppers (banjo), Annie Rambo (seated Minnie Pearl character), Bob Penny (guitar), Billie Moore (violin); in front are local radio station manager Jim Von Gump and son Jim. Ozark Opry cast, l-r: Lonnie Hoppers, Art Reed, fiddler Don Russell, Bashful Bob Penny, Faith Fowler, Lee Mace, Dillard Stamper. 28 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

31 vaudeville-style shows. Peek moved off to Boston, Massachusetts, and built a business career there, while playing Uncle Dave Macon-style banjo and becoming an authority on the history of competitive darts. Having retired in Boston where he wrote To The Point: The Story of Darts in America Peek moved back to Missouri and set about locating and interviewing surviving members of the old Ozark Opry cast, digging old recordings and photos out of closets, and putting together this book. It is, at once, an important historical document and a great read. The Ozark Opry was a carefully configured alternative to the developing Nashville-style opry show. Joyce and Lee Mace were adroit in giving their show a distinctive and subtly different character. When others dressed up in gaudy sequined Hollywood cowboy outfits, the Ozark Opry cast came on stage in blazers for the gents and gingham dresses for the ladies. The Maces embraced hillbilly stereotypes in their material, particularly in Goofer s comedy routines with other cast members as straight men. Dan William Peek: writes, What is most telling in the understanding of the Ozark Opry as it positioned itself in the emerging country music industry is that Lee Mace embraced the term hillbilly. Through a marketing lens, the separate strategies of Nashville and Lee Mace become crystal clear. Lee saw that by positioning hillbilly music and dance as an exciting new kind of entertainment he could win audiences otherwise not accessible. In contrast, a voice from Nashville in the early 1950s might have proclaimed: Ain t no hillbillies here. Call us country practically suburbanites. Our music is like pop music. Almost the same. This positioning, it was hoped, would win audiences for the newly minted Country and Western music. Lee was selling different; Nashville was selling same. Both would succeed. [Chapter 8, The Hillbilly as Performance Art, p. 47] The charismatic star of the show, Lee Mace, died in 1985 in a crash as a passenger in one of his private airplanes. Joyce kept the show going until 2005, when the Ozark Opry was shuttered; the Missouri transportation department took a vital piece of the Opry s landscape for highway expansion through Osage Beach. The original building still remains, however, with the neon sign out front, and where Joyce Mace and others continue to have an office and recording studio. Announcing! The Milliner Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes 888 pages total tunes in musical engravings, arranged alphabetically in 741 pages. Ten page introduction with explanations and examples. Main index arranged by title, with references to source recordings and cross-references to similar tunes and titles. Key index arranged alphabetically by key. Tuning index arranged alphabetically by fiddle tuning. Artist index arranged alphabetically by fiddler, showing what tunes are included by that artist. Artist profiles section with brief bios of the 347 fiddlers/bands represented in the book. A majority of these fiddlers were born before Also a comments section with interesting information about the tunes and fiddlers. Over-size format, easy to read, cloth hard bound in sewn signatures, lies flat, library/heirloom quality. This is an essential resource and reference book for anyone interested in old time American fiddle tunes. To order visit For more details go to THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

32 LeRoy Haslag, Entertainer LeRoy Haslag of Jefferson City was a key contributor to Peek s book and there is an account of Haslag s life and career as an Ozark Opry entertainer. Haslag s recollections and experiences shed light on the different path taken by fiddlers who gravitate to performance stages and jobs in country music shows. What we might call opry fiddlers and their music are often consigned to the back corners of country music studies. Comparatively little has been documented about these musicians beyond the luminaries of the Nashville juggernaut. The importance of opry fiddlers is marked here in Missouri, one of the hearths of the country music industry. There continue to be dozens of oprys, large and small, across the state where excellent fiddlers strut their stuff below the radar of most old-time fiddling aficionados. Fiddlers with talent, ambition, and willingness to display their music and personas in front of audiences could seek steady work and even careers fiddling with an opry. The opry style show provides a relatively stable venue, a predictable schedule and workday, and offers an option to young fiddlers who do not wish to travel with a touring band or relocate to one of the centers of the industry such as Nashville or Los Angeles. In Missouri in the 1950s and 60s, professional opry show opportunities were limited, for the most part, to locations in the general Ozarks uplands, where the tourism environment and character of the music scene supported an ongoing, stable show. It takes a special combination of skill, personal qualities, ambition, and some good old-fashioned luck to be a successful and lasting fiddler in professional music. Among problems fiddlers encounter when they test the waters with a professional opry, dance band, or bluegrass band is whether to go ahead and jump in. If they do, they are often said to be selling out or going commercial which is ironic, since fiddlers as sidemen are pathetically underpaid and under-recognized members of the semi-professional and professional musical establishment. Indeed, most show fiddlers hold down day jobs to keep afloat financially. LeRoy Haslag was born February 7, 1940, into a family of German American farmers in the rolling Loose Creek landscape east of Jefferson City. Loose Creek was originally named L Ours Creek/ Bear Creek by eighteenth-century French explorers. Haslag s ancestors on both sides of the house came to Central Missouri from the Black Forest area of southwestern Germany after the Civil War. LeRoy s father, Aloysius Haslag, played fiddle music for dances in and around Loose Creek on a Sears-Roebuck catalog violin. LeRoy s mother, Hildegarde Schneider Haslag, played harmonica, but did not accompany her husband Aloysius at public dances in the often-rowdy taverns and halls. Aloysius Haslag fiddled ironclads such as Down Yonder and Red Wing and the old German dance tunes, and also enjoyed the popular music around him, fiddling hit songs from radio and records such as the Gaylords Isle of Capri. LeRoy began playing fiddle and electric mandolin for dances as a teenager in the 1950s. While he was learning the broader repertoire of popular fiddle music from records and radio shows, like his father before him he was also absorbing the distinctive German-American dance music around him, at dances in Cole and Osage Counties. That would serve him well when he started his own band, playing in nightclubs and halls east and south of Jefferson City. Haslag recalls that, at dances in the old German farming communities around Loose Creek and Westphalia, dancers liked the fast waltzes, rather than the slow graceful waltzes. They danced waltzes faster than people did around Jefferson City and north across the Missouri River in the Fulton and Columbia areas of Little Dixie. In 2010 Haslag told me, A lot of times at a dance I like the slow, graceful waltzes, I ll wind up playing them that way and they d say, It ain t fast enough! And then some of them [in the Columbia area] would say, It s too fast, too fast, and I d slow it down. Haslag ventured into the fiddlers contest arena and found success there. He recalls a 1960s contest in Fulton, north of the Missouri River (the historic cultural and geographic divide bisecting Missouri east to west), that was held at the local drive-in movie theatre. Contestants and accompanists had to climb a ladder to the flat roof of the little projection building, where they fiddled into a microphone wired into the car speakers that hung from posts, spaced along the rows of parked cars. As Haslag was stepping up to the microphone, the emcee announced his name and this brought 30 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

33 an enthusiastic response from the audience listening and watching in their cars. When I got up there, a lot of people knew me. I was playing for dances around Fulton. They were honking their horns like watching a movie. I just tore em up, you know. He fiddled Westphalia Waltz and a show tune, with local musicians George Rutherford and Don Rutherford of the Missouri Wildcats dance band as his rhythm players. You tear into a crowd with some of them [show tunes like Listen to the Mockingbird and Orange Blossom Special ] and that s all it took. Some of the other fiddlers went away grumbling about the professional fiddler with an unfair advantage a situation LeRoy Haslag agreed with. It was right at the time they quit judging like that [on audience response], which was no more than fair. If you re going to have a competitive fiddling contest, you sure shouldn t have a guy stomping his foot and grinning and tearing into it like Charlie Daniels does, you know. Haslag had won that drive-in theater contest before he bowed a single note. In another vivid memory from the early 1960s, LeRoy and Harley Thompson decided to drive up north to a big talent show in Palmyra, the county seat of Marion County near the Mississippi River north of Hannibal. LeRoy played in the fiddlers contest and won first place. More than the contest, LeRoy remembers the evening after the contest was over. Haslag and Thompson decided to repair to a nearby tavern for some refreshment before starting out on the long drive home. They pulled out violin and guitar and began playing and singing some of those cold, cold heart Hank Williams songs. Someone s hat started going around the room. They passed the hat, and boy the money started coming in. We was playing those Hank Williams songs, you know. I think we made seventy-five or a hundred dollars in quarters and nickels and dimes. On top of winning the contest, we made some money. By the time they packed up to leave, the two gregarious young entertainers had so much loose change that all their pockets were bulging. LeRoy had to carry his violin to the car in his hand, because his violin case was crammed with coins. Haslag took second place in the prestigious Missouri State Championship at Columbia in 1961, sponsored by the MFA Oil Company. He worked his way LeRoy Haslag, at the 1961 state championship fiddler's contest, in Columbia, Missouri. courtesy of LeRoy Haslag THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

34 Don Leister Violins Richmond, Virginia Expert Violin & Bass Repair Bow Rehairing Vintage Guitars 5-String Banjos 4-String Banjos Mandolins Ukuleles Harp-Guitars Hawaiian, Steel, & Resonator Guitars I N T E R M O U N T A I N G U I T A R & BA N J O 712 E. 100 S. Salt Lake City, Utah tel fax guitarandbanjo@earthlink.net through two preliminary contests at the local and district levels, qualifying for the grand championship in Columbia. However, he found the atmosphere and fierce competitiveness of the contest scene unpleasant and disappointing, the judging fickle, and he stopped entering contests. He concluded that he was not cut out, temperamentally, to be a competitive fiddler. Haslag s leaving the overheated competition scene coincided with the controversial banning, by the newly invented fiddler s associations, of some of his favorite contest winners, Listen to the Mocking Bird and Black Mountain Rag. He would find his impressive settings of these great tunes welcome on the opry stage, however, and these tunes continue to be among the top ten or fifteen favorite fiddle tunes in Missouri. For LeRoy Haslag, pleasing audiences and enjoying the excitement of the ensemble country music show was preferable to the grinding rigors of the ill-paid local dance fiddler or to the cold solo combat of the dedicated contest fiddler. In 1957, Haslag was fiddling with the Maries County Ramblers at the 87 Club on the northern outskirts of California, Missouri. As Peek writes, The 87 Club was a typical venue for country bands of the time, with a few wooden tables, a bar and a plain wooden dance floor. The wall behind the small bandstand was adorned with several small tin signs advertising Stag beer. It was the kind of place mothers warned their sons and daughters to stay away from. Lee and Joyce Mace frequently stopped in at roadhouses like this, to dance, relax, and have a steak dinner. Lee was always on the lookout for fresh talent, and, on this evening in 1958, he asked if could sit in on doghouse bass with the band. He noticed LeRoy Haslag s smooth backup fiddling as well as his square dance tunes, and scribbled down his phone number. A few ears later, in 1963, Lee phoned LeRoy and offered him the fiddle job on the Ozark Opry. Haslag jumped at the chance, started earning a weekly paycheck, and devoted himself to becoming an entertainer. He became the longest serving of the dozen fiddlers that Lee Mace hired through the years. Lee Mace was a master of the stage. He knew precisely what he wanted his young pupils to learn. Under Mace s guidance, Haslag developed a keen sense of showmanship. Lee Mace knew how to sell his show. In an interview with me, he remembered, I d come busting out there on an opening number and play Old Joe Clark or something, just stomp my foot and get with it. Because he [Mace] told me: The first three minutes of a show is the most important; you either capture them, the audience, or you don t. And that s true. And you got to do it right and you got to sell yourself in the first few minutes. (Marshall asks, How do you sell yourself? ) Well, you play with feeling. You get out and play like you mean it. [Play like you are performing just for individuals in the audience.] Eye contact, and just the way you do it. There s magic right there. And a lot of fiddlers don t quite understand that. I mean, I used to go to a lot of these contests, and I shouldn t have won, I guess. But I wouldn t win as much on the ability of how I done it, but rather on showmanship. When I play, I automatically tap my foot, you know. A guy [contestant] might get up there and play his hornpipe, or whatever, and I play Boil the Cabbage Down to a bunch of people well guess which one went over better? Boil the Cabbage Down. 32 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

35 Three violins together, melody and two harmony parts; typically the tune was one of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys great evergreens, Faded Love and Maiden s Prayer. Lee Mace had the fiddlers pose with their bows in the same position to suggest that they bowed in perfect unison (but they did not). l - r: Haslag, seventeen-year-old Paulette Reeves, and Leo Burlsworth, on KRCG TV, Jefferson City, Lee Mace taught Haslag how to walk up to the microphone. He said, Son, don t fool around. Take two or three steps. I can t stand somebody trying to adjust the mic, getting it up and down just exactly. Step up there, put your foot on that stand [base of the microphone stand], raise it up one time, and hit it! I learned a lot about selling yourself, and it comes natural now. What does it take to be a successful opry fiddler? Showmanship. I am able to communicate with people I m playing with. Little tricks you learn. [You] just get up and play a plain old Ragtime Annie or Orange Blossom Special and the house comes down. Some fiddlers especially contest fiddlers and old-time purists prefer not to play Orange Blossom Special, but for opry fiddlers this exhibition piece is an essential tool in their multi-faceted kit. Haslag approached the warhorse with glee. On stage, he would typically insert into Orange Blossom Special what he calls my own antics in the tune: I would put in You Are My Sunshine or, if it was around Christmas, Jingle Bells in the middle of it. In 1965, tiring of the grueling ten-showsa-week schedule and wanting more time with his family, Haslag left the Opry and tried his hand at being a state highway patrolman. In 1968 he met radio and TV impresario Ted Mack at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia and won an appearance with guitarist Darrel Gordon (a fellow state trooper and Ozark Opry alumnus) on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour. Haslag recalls with a smile fiddling Orange Blossom Special at the CBS TV live show in Miami Beach, with the bemused and somewhat confused television studio orchestra accompanying them. In 1969, Haslag left the highway patrol. He kept fiddling, though. During this break in his employment with the Ozark Opry, and as he was ending his time with the patrol, Haslag sat in with Don Elkins and the Missouri Poor Boys. Haslag had met Elkins, a well-known singer and radio show host, in Hermann. Elkins needed a fiddler, Haslag introduced himself to Elkins, and Haslag sat in with the Poorboys at a dance in nearby Stony Hill. Elkins liked what he saw and heard. The Don Elkins band was a popular touring dance ensemble, mostly playing Western swing music, and based east of Jefferson City. The Poor Boys played a live radio show on KLPW AM at Union, Missouri, as well as the Charlotte Peters Show on KTVI television in St. Louis. In addition, Elkins had a morning radio show on KCLU FM in Rolla. A friend of Ernest Tubb s, Don Elkins made periodic appearances on the Midnight Jamboree at the Ernest Tubb Record Shop in Nashville, the late-night live radio show that came on after the Grand Ole Opry on weekends. LeRoy Haslag performed occasionally with Elkins in 1969, playing dances as well as Austin Wood s Nashville Opry at the Lake of the Ozarks, a theatre show that brought in country music stars and package tours from Nashville, Tennessee, and that competed for time with Lee Mace s Ozark Opry. Lee Mace kept Haslag s phone number. Later in 1969, Mace made a call and asked Haslag to come back to the Ozark Opry. After leaving the Ozark Opry in 1975, Haslag took advantage of a gift for art and became a commercial artist in Jeff City, where he did gold leaf work in the state capitol building and custom gold leaf names on elected officials office doors. Haslag continued fiddling on the Opry as an on-call cast member, for occasions when Lee Mace needed him. Barbara Haslag recalls that Mace would always buy a 42-Long jacket when the Opry cast needed new outfits because Lee never knew when he would need to phone LeRoy to come down and fill in. My acquaintance with LeRoy Haslag has had an affect on my research and concourtesy of LeRoy Haslag THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

36 John C. Campbell Folk School Since 1925 Brasstown, NC FIDDLE, BANJO, DULCIMER, GUITAR, FOLK HARP, HARMONICA, CONTRA DANCE, MORRIs DANCE, ENGLIsH COUNTRy, DANCE CALLING Weeklong and weekend classes Nationally-known instructors Friendly environment On-campus housing Delicious meals three times a day Request a catalog FOLK-SCH LeRoy Haslag does some trick fiddling with his special Boil the Cabbage Down with the assistance of Goofer (Bill Atterberry). LeRoy grasps one frog end of the bow in his teeth, Goofer (who plays fiddle) holds the other end in his teeth, and LeRoy holds the violin upside down. Goofer manages to play guitar while all this is going on. siderations of traditional fiddle music. I have come to a better understanding and new appreciation of the role and career of opry fiddlers, a category of players that some people in the fiddle community criticize as simply being flashy showmen. These showmen, however, make conscious decisions to be entertainers as well as musicians, and this transition is challenging as well as rewarding. The shift from dance fiddler or contest fiddler to cast member in a vaudeville show is significant and demanding, and the fiddling shifts, too. Not only does a fiddler need the chops of a professional, he or she must be tremendously versatile and flexible, and will need more than a modicum of stamina, stage personality, and dedication to make it. And, as a team member in a country music ensemble, typically in choreographed, arduously rehearsed routines and sets of tunes, the opry fiddler will have scant opportunity to do what most fiddlers do play fiddle tunes. Trick fiddling has always been part of the stage fiddler s routine. LeRoy Haslag often played Boil the Cabbage Down while holding his violin between his legs and in other comical positions behind his back, and on top of his head. He would also loosen the bow screw and take the frog off, let the horsehair hang down, and fiddle on the wooden bow stick itself; there was enough rosin residue on the stick to make bowing possible. He would take the frog off, wrap the horsehair around over the strings and re-attach the frog and fiddle a tune that way. Trick fiddling techniques and playing in amusing physical contortions are all part of the show that a fiddler provides as a cog in the well-oiled machine of an opry cast. Haslag enjoyed these bits of theatrical fiddling and figuring out different ways to trick fiddle. He bowed his violin with broomsticks, bathroom plungers, and mop handles, to which he had applied enough rosin for them to serve as bows. He always played the same tune for these exhibitions, Boil the Cabbage Down, an ironclad instantly recognizable to audiences. Lee Mace worked out the act to first have LeRoy fiddle the tune straight, with the band s standard accompaniment. Next, the band would play a round of the tune, emphasizing the driving rhythm, while LeRoy got into position to do what he calls his trick act. The band would then continue play while he trick fiddled and while he changed positions and accessories, fiddling behind his back, between his legs, with brooms, anything that seemed like fun. The mop handle was his favorite courtesy of LeRoy Haslag 34 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

37 LeRoy Haslag and Bill Goofer Atterberry at a book signing / reunion jam session for Dan William Peek s Live! At the Ozark Opry, at Downtown Book & Toy in Jefferson City, Missouri, December Here, Haslag plays a violin built by Billy Lee of Wright City, Missouri. Howard Marshall bow, because the loose mop head threads danced around while LeRoy bowed. LeRoy Haslag continues to perform and learn new tunes. He performs with two dance bands in the Jeff City area, Countryfied and Just Us, and he takes part in Thursday night jam sessions at a comfortable Jefferson City restaurant called Johnny s Butcher Shop (a.k.a. Johnny s Barbecue and Steak House). He likes to say, I m more of a dance fiddler now I m not a show fiddler anymore, but Haslag clearly continues to enjoy entertaining listeners and fans. More than twenty years ago he was diagnosed with Parkinson s Disease, but when Haslag brings a violin under his chin and draws a long, smooth bow across the strings, no one would know of his illness. LeRoy is quick to point out to anyone, however, that he has this debilitating disease and he and his wife Barbara often say that fiddle music has an important role in dealing with the condition and giving LeRoy continuing inspiration and pleasure. The Book, and then the Book Signings Live! At the Ozark Opry is a valuable look back at the unique people and traditional music in an important era in the evolution of country music, as well as in the development of the now-famous Lake of the Ozarks tourist area. The appearance of the book is very welcome, but the book signings Dan Peek arranged are a wonderful post scriptum. As I write this in January 2011, Peek, along with several veterans from the Ozark Opry Goofer, LeRoy, guitarist and behind-the-scenes manager Jim Phinney, and bluegrass banjoist Helen Russell are doing book signings at stores throughout Missouri, such as Downtown Book & Toy in Jefferson City. A major element of these book signings, which normally are rather sleepy, laid-back affairs, is the informal music making as the Opry vets pull out their instruments for a freewheeling jam session. These events have evolved into treasured interludes for the old-timers who performed on the Opry; Peek actually put new banjo strings on his Gibson Mastertone. Goofer plans to have some cracks glued up on his old Martin D-35. LeRoy Haslag struggles to keep Parkinson s at bay, but stands tall to play a fiddle solo and beams like a kid with a new bicycle. Wisecracks go around the circle about highway maps and shopping for rebuilt Silver Eagle buses. People of all ages, some of the grandchildren of long-gone people who told them about the Ozark Opry, travel to the book signings to see the old cast members, share memories of country square dances, recall visits to Opry shows, and secure copies of Peek s book signed by the author and musicians. These reunions/book signings have brought old friends and musicians back together and have become, in essence, the next chapter in the saga of the Ozark Opry. Dr. Howard W. Marshall is professor emeritus of Art History and Archaeology and former director of the Missouri Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Missouri. His encyclopedia of the history of fiddle and dance traditions in Missouri, in which appears a chapter on oprys, opry fiddling, and LeRoy Haslag, is in preparation. (Marshall and Dan Peek performed in the Raggedy Grass String Band in Columbia in the late 60s.) Dan William Peek s Live! At the Ozark Opry (The History Press) and LeRoy Haslag s fiddle CD, Reflections of a Missouri Fiddler, are available at, among other stores and the usual Internet sites, Downtown Book & Toy in Jefferson City, Missouri [(573) , Future book signing / reunion jam sessions are being planned for bookstores in Rolla, Lebanon, Osage Beach, Kansas City, and St. Louis, among other locations in Missouri and beyond. THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

38 Classifieds Instruments INSTRUMENTS FOR SALE; GUITARS; 1942 Gibson L-00, Black $3,900; 1948 Gibson L-50, $1,500; 1930 s Vega C-20, small F-hole archtop, $1,500; BANJOS; 2008 Doug Unger Presentation, similar to Fairbanks #7, $5,500; 1976 Harmony Bicentennial, $250; 1928 Vega Tubaphone #3, original 5-string, $2,900 ; New Enoch Tradesman. Fretted, $975; MANDOLINS; Breedlove OO & OF from $895; 1920 Gibson A-2, $1450; and more! Get the details at Smakula Fretted Instruments web site; or call Equipment Celebrating Our 60th Anniversary! Odd Size Remo Renaissance & Fiberskyn Banjo Heads, Many sizes from 8 to 12-1/8, $19 to $21, Good quality calfskin banjo heads, $32; Excellent quality calfskin banjo heads, $45; TKL banjo cases for 11 and 12 rims $125, Superior Bump banjo cases for 11 and 12 rims, $95 plus shipping. Gotoh planetary banjo tuners, $60 per set. Smakula Fretted Instruments, PO Box 882, Elkins, WV 26241, , Wire Style Adjustable Banjo Armrests, nickel plated and unplated, $15. Smakula Fretted Instruments, PO Box 882, Elkins, WV 26241, , Sharing Songs Since 1950 Basic & sustaining Members Receive Magazines & cds of songs from Each issue! (Plus discounts on Legacy Books and More!) sing Out! Magazine: Each BIG quarterly issue features songs to learn and play, plus in-depth articles, columns, teach-ins, news, reviews, festival listings and more (with exclusive sampler CD)! For special anniversary events, a FREE catalog of folk music publications or for membership info: < or call Toll-Free: SING-OUT P.O. Box 5460, Bethlehem, PA Phone: <info@singout.org> Ask how you can get a FREE CD by joining! BACK ISSUES OF THE OLD-TIME AVAILABLE ON OUR WEBSITE 36 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

39 Reviews Alan Lomax s Southern Journey, Global Jukebox #GJ1001 Volume 1: Wave the Ocean, Wave the Sea. Wade Ward - Chilly Winds / Texas Gladden, Hobart Smith, and Preston Smith - Lonely Tombs / Ed Young, Lonnie Young, and G. D. Young - Church, I Know We Got Another Building / United Sacred Harp Convention - Sherburne (#186) / Bessie Jones and group - Reg lar, Reg lar, Rolling Under / Floyd Batts and prisoners - Dollar Mamie / George Fields - Bob Johnson s Tune / Silver Leaf Quartet - Dark Day / Texas Gladden - Whole Heap of Little Horses / Forrest City Joe and his Three Aces - Drink On Little Girl / Johnny Lee Moore and prisoners - Early in the Morning / Ollie Gilbert - Pretty Polly Oliver / Neal Morris and Charlie Everidge - Wave the Ocean, Wave the Sea / Fred McDowell and Fanny Davis - Gravel Road Blues / Vera Ward Hall - Riding in a Buggy / Daddy Cool on WEUP Huntsville Volume 2: Worried Now, Won t Be Worried Long Sidney Carter - Worried Now, Won t Be Worried Long / Norman Edmonds and the Old Timers - Walking in the Parlor / Rosalie Hill - Rolled and Tumbled / Ishman Williams and the William Singers - The Old Ship of Zion / John Davis, Henry Morrison, and the Georgia Sea Island Singers - Hop Along, Let s Get Her / United Sacred Harp Convention - Hallelujah (#146) / E. C. and Orna Ball - The Cabin on the Hill / Ed Young, Lonnie Young, and G. D. Young - Ida Reed / Bright Light Quartet - I m Tired / Viola James - I m Going Home to Live with Jesus / Boy Blue and His Two - You Got Dimples in Your Jaws / Wade Ward - Cumberland Gap / Johnny Lee Moore - Levee camp holler (Downtown Money Waster) / Almeda Riddle - Lonesome Dove / Neal Morris - Turnip Greens Volume 3: I ll Meet You On that Other Shore Fred McDowell - What s the Matter Now?/ Bookmiller Shannon - The Eighth of January / Ruby Vass - Old Gospel Ship / Union Choir of the Church of God and Saints of Christ - None But the Righteous / George Spangler and Thornton Old Regular Baptist Church congregation - Why Must I Wear This Shroud? / Neal Morris - Sing Anything / Vera Ward Hall - Black Woman (Wild Ox Moan) / Floyd Batts - Dangerous Blues / Hobart Smith - Railroad Bill / Unidentified woman and St. James Church congregation - I ll Meet You on that Other Shore / Charles Barnett - Moses Was a Servant of the Lord / Spencer Moore and Roy Everett Blevins - The Girl I Left Behind / Lucius Smith - Goodbye Honey, You Call that Gone / John Davis and the Georgia Sea Island Singers - Moses, Don t Get Lost / Almeda Riddle - Rainbow Mid Life s Willows Volume 4: I ll Be So Glad When the Sun Goes Down Wade Ward and Charlie Higgins - Did You Ever See the Devil, Uncle Joe? / James Shorter, Viola James, and the Independence Church congregation - Jesus on the Mainline / Mattie Gardner, Ida Mae Towns, and Jessie Lee Pratcher - Green Sally Up / Fred McDowell - Woke Up This Morning / Ollie Gilbert - Joseph Looney / United Sacred Harp Convention - Calvary (#300) / James Lindsey and the Mountain Ramblers - The Old Country Church/ Willis Proctor and the Georgia Sea Island Singers - One of These Days / Norman Edmonds and the Old Timers - Sally Anne / Texas Gladden - Three Little Babes / Hobart Smith - Banging Breakdown / John Dudley - Clarksdale Mill Blues / Miles and Bob Pratcher - All Night Long / Neal Morris - The Juice of the Forbidden Fruit / Henry Morrison - Lazarus / Ed Lewis and prisoners - I ll Be So Glad When the Sun Goes Down / Sidney Carter - Leather Britches Volume 5: I m Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die J. E. Mainer s Mountaineers - Number 111 / Fred McDowell - 61 Highway / Bright Light Quartet - Chantey medley / E. C. Ball and Lacey Richardson - Tribulations / Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers - Daniel in the Lion s Den / Unidentified woman and Pentecostal Temple congregation - Heaven is Mine / Emma Hammond - Shout Lula / Ervin Webb and prisoners - I m Going Home / WROS Scottsboro Old-Time Religious Hour excerpt / Hobart Smith - The Devil s Dream / Sid Hemphill and Lucius Smith - The Devil s Dream / United Sacred Harp Convention - The Last Words of Copernicus (#112) / Elder I. D. Back - Poor Pilgrim of Sorrow / Vera Ward Hall - The Last Month of the Year / Miles and Bob Pratcher - I m Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die I m loving this monumental set of music, which has been issued to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Alan Lomax s collecting trip through the American South. The 78 tracks are but a drop in the bucket, or should I say the ocean, of Alan Lomax s traditional music documentation. Nearly every single cut is something I want to listen to over and over again. Fifteen tracks of previously unreleased or alternate versions have been added to material drawn from the old Southern Folk Heritage Series LPs, with fresh new programming and notes by Nathan Salsburg of the Alan Lomax Archive, which is starting its Global Jukebox imprint with this project. If you are tired of your scratchy old LPs, you can now buy brand new LPs, or get this material as a digital download. The repeated repackaging of the Lomax material is irritating, as I ve found myself buying the same material several times over. What sets this new set apart from the Rounder reissues, and makes it worth buying, is that this new set is not organized by region or genre, which makes for much more compelling listening. I tried to sort out what material included here might be available elsewhere, but it s kind of tangled. Apparently the Southern Journey CDs listed on the org site are out of print, both physically and digitally. Rounder has them available as downloads, but not all the previously released material from the new set is on the Rounder collections. Fifty years ago in the early 1960s, long before the Internet, before cassette tapes even, it was not easy for young folk music acolytes to get access to field recordings, which tended to be jealously guarded by the collectors (and their friends and associates). Like the Harry Smith Anthology, but using contemporary field recordings, the Southern Journey LPs were significant when they were first issued in the 1960s because of their influence on musicians who themselves went on to become influential. In today s world, with thousands upon thousands of field recordings available for free on the Internet with a click of the mouse, these recordings may not seem as important especially as the traditional music scene becomes more and more specialized ( I play only tunes from south- THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

40 eastern northwestern Kentucky in crosstuning, but tuned down a little more than a step and a half for that authentic sound, plus the fiddler who was the source had to have had biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast that morning. ). In 1959 and 1960, Alan Lomax visited and recorded many people he had documented in previous decades: Vera Hall, Tex Gladden and Hobart Smith, Wade Ward (who had made commercial records for Okeh in the 20s), and Lonnie and Ed Young (whom Lomax had recorded for Fisk University in 1942). In addition, on this trip he made some extremely significant discoveries, including Fred McDowell. Part of Alan Lomax s artistry was his ability to convey a strong sense of place, as with Forrest City Joe in the juke joint, or Texas Gladden singing a lullaby to her granddaughter. These field recordings were the first to be made in the South using stereo miking, which Lomax was quite enthusiastic about, and certainly the recording quality is much higher than what I ve become accustomed to in other field recordings. Who and what material Alan Lomax chose to record, what he chose to include on the original Southern Journey set, and what he chose to leave out, was a reflection of his personal esthetic, and shaped the way city people viewed traditional Southern music in the 60s. In this way he resembled his father, John Lomax. Some people find this co-opting of traditional music to be irritating, and in some ways it is, but we can t deny that Alan Lomax left behind an unbelievably huge treasure trove of documentation for us to enjoy not just sound recordings but also photographs and films. What I love about this particular batch of music goes beyond the wonderful performances and the extremely high quality of recording. For me, it is the breadth of the project, the way Lomax paints a broad picture of the musical landscape, the variety in musical styles, the commingling of sacred and secular, black and white, of different regions from the menhaden fishermen to the mountain ballad singers to the Georgia Sea Islanders to the Mississippi blues musicians. I would have liked to hear more solo fiddling, and I wish that Alan Lomax had included Southwest Louisiana on his trip; wouldn t it be wonderful if he had been able to revisit Wayne Perry? Some unusual cuts stand out among the familiar sounds of gospel singing and banjo picking, such as 84-year-old Charles Barnett s Moses Was a Servant of the Lord accompanied by washtub I defy anyone to listen to this without getting happy! It reminds me in some way of the singing of Joseph Spence and other Bahamian singers recorded in the same era. I hope that we all will have that much energy and joie de vivre when we are in our eighties. The juxtapositions of various kinds of unaccompanied singing throw the similarities and differences into sharp relief. For example, the Georgia Sea Island Singers earthy work song Hop Along Let s Get Her is followed by the United Sacred Harp convention (uncompromising, strong, sure). If aliens landed and started making this sound, I bet people would be running for cover. Alan Lomax described this music as militant and it does call to mind an army. The solfa-do part at the beginning is especially alarming as it has the feeling of being in a code that only the singers understand. Two unaccompanied vocal solos, one by Parchman Farm inmate Johnny Lee Moore and the other by Almeda Riddle, have double the impact when next to each other; each singer extracts the most out of the voice, each produces a pure tone and great emotional intensity and yet they are worlds apart. Also among my favorites are the unaccompanied women vocalists, both white and black. It s always a pleasure to hear more of Vera Hall, of whom Alan Lomax wrote: The sound comes from deep within her when she sings, from a source of gold and light, otherwise hidden, and falls directly upon your ear like sunlight. Like much of Lomax s prose, it s kind of over the top but not really. Her voice is extraordinarily majestic and supple, with a natural vibrato that is used judiciously. Here (in a previously unreleased cut) she interweaves two simple children s songs, Riding in a Buggy and Candy Gal. It s a golden bright buggy, oh yes oh yes. And hers is a golden bright voice. Ollie Gilbert sings Pretty Polly Oliver, a tale of an independent-minded, crossdressing young lady, and Almeda Riddle a splendid Rainbow Mid Life s Willows, also known as Locks and Bolts. Texas Gladden s lullaby Whole Heap of Pretty Horses was clearly Gillian Welch s inspiration for Didn t Leave Nobody But the Baby, her hit song from O Brother Where Art Thou? Other sacred choral singing here includes white Primitive Baptist lining out, very stark and stern unison singing, in contrast 38 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

41 with (previously unissued) the liningout unison singing of St. James Church, a black Primitive Baptist church, which also incorporates clapping and shouting. Some of the black sacred singing is very modern sounding: Ishman Williams and the Williams Singers, backed by electric guitar, were on tour in the Mississippi Hill Country when Lomax stopped by St. Peters Church because this wasn t representative of the region, it was never issued, but it is gorgeous! I m about ready to convert when listening to the Union Choir of the Church of God and Saints of Christ, who believe that African Americans are the true descendants of the Ten Tribes of Israel. The Pentecostal Temple s Heaven is Mine is definitely the most earthy singing about heaven, at least on this set of music. In a class by itself is the heart-wrenching music collected from prison inmates at Parchman Farm. Alan Lomax had been there first in 1933, at the age of 17, with his father John Lomax, and his writing about the prison music (quoted in the booklet) seems somewhat romanticized; he apparently found this music much diminished from his visits to Parchman Farm decades earlier. To my ears these prison recordings give a feeling of disquieting immediacy I know that Parchman Farm must have been a hellhole, but some extremely beautiful music certainly flourished there. It made me think about conditions in today s prisons it doesn t seem possible that they would harbor this kind of art, but is that because the whole prison system is so much bigger and therefore so much more impersonal, or is it that we don t have an Alan Lomax visiting and documenting? Vocal music is emphasized but there s plenty of string band music as well: fiddle and banjo by Wade Ward and Charlie Higgins, Hobart Smith, Norman Edmonds, and black string band music by Miles and Bob Pratcher (the delightful I m Gonna Live Anyhow Til I Die ) and Lucius (according to Mike Seeger, pronounced luscious, as in a ripe peach) Smith. There s the archaic African-sounding fife and drum music of Sid Hemphill and of Ed and Lonnie Young, the serene yet apocalyptic E. C. Ball, a lively Number 111 (a version of Lee Highway Blues ) by J. E. Mainer s Mountaineers (apparently recorded in the middle of the night after Alan Lomax arrived hours late for the session), and, in a nod to a postwar hillbilly genre, one lone bluegrass song, The Old Country Church, by James Lindsay and the Mountain Ramblers (no Otis Burris though). Sid Hemphill also was a fiddler, although his fiddling isn t heard here. His daughter Sidney Carter sings a great unaccompanied Leather Britches (not the one you ve heard), and another song that is identical to the Baxters Bamalong Blues, called Worried Now, Won t Be Worried Long (that phrase crops up on the Baxters recording too). She sings it in the same key as the Baxters did, and even mimics the fiddle ornaments. Alan Lomax discovered Mississippi Fred McDowell on this trip. Gravel Road Blues has a vigorous, young-sounding Fred McDowell and Miles Pratcher on guitars laying out a groove with the momentum of a freight train going down a steep grade, while Fanny Davis (McDowell s sister), listed as playing comb, provides a wordless high accompaniment, mirroring in turns the vocal and the slide guitar. There s plenty of other fantastic blues here; I can practically feel the humidity when listening to Boy Blue and His Two. Another of Sid Hemphill s daughters, Rosalie Hill, does a scary-good Rolled and Tumbled. She must have had really strong hands, bending the strings more than a whole step in some places, with the guitar tuned in Spanish but a step lower. Out of the 78 selections, there were just a few things that I didn t care for. Wave the Ocean is charming, but I found the rest of Neil Morris songs tiresome, too much in the self-conscious commercial folksinger style, and I didn t care for Ruby Vass s thin and weak singing either. But you can t have everything, and in the digital realm, it s easy to erase or put aside the cuts that you don t like. The material was remastered from the original tapes; to my ears, some of the tracks could have stood to have the DBs bumped up a little bit. The digital download comes with digital booklets, one for each LP, with good notes by Nathan Salsburg, and beautiful photos by Alan Lomax. I wish that the notes had included the track times; that would be especially helpful to radio programmers. Major kudos to Nathan Salsburg for his excellent curating, and to Mississippi Records for issuing this material on LP. I would think that every reader of the Old- Time Herald would want this set. Very highly recommended. Suzy Rothfield Thompson To order: (LPs) Mississippi Records, (503) , or via digital download. Makers of High Quality Hand- Printed Letterpress Goods by way of reused and recycled equipment up to 200 years old 413 South Gay Street H Knoxville, TN phone H fax THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

42 Vintage Instruments Since 1974 Acoustic Fretted Instruments Philadelphia watt creative group design for print, web & multimedia 1400 Lexington Ave. Greensboro, NC (336) Phone & Fax WILL FIELDING Gaither Carlton, 1972 Field Recorders Collective FRC 118 Sally Ann / Fisher s Hornpipe / Jump Up Jenny / Fire on the Mountain / Untitled / Wild Goose Chase / Tennessee Stud / Boil Them Cabbage Down / Elzic s Farewell / You Climb the Mountain (Yew Piney Mountain) / Fire on the Mountain / Down the Road / Cumberland Gap / Untitled / Old Man, Can You Play the Banjo / Heaven Was There / You Are My Sunshine / Barbara Allen / Sugar in the Coffee- O / I Gave My Love a Cherry / Old Davy Dugger / Fireball Mail / Rabbit in the Pea Patch / Pop Goes the Weasel / Sally Goodin / John Henry / Fly Around My Pretty Little Pink / Molly Hare / Wish My Bonnie Would Come / Wild Bill Jones / Fire on the Mountain - Turkey in the Straw / Log Cabin in the Lane / Wagoner s Lad / Jack of Diamonds (Drunken Hiccups) / Bright Sunny South / Black-Eyed Susie Gaither Carlton ( ) was Doc Watson s father-in-law. Very likely, we would not have heard of either of them if not for Ralph Rinzler. He ran across Clarence (Tom) Ashley at the 1960 Union Grove Old-Time Fiddler s Convention and realized he was the same person who had made fabulous old-time records in the 1920s. Ashley had a long history performing with medicine shows and other groups, and when Rinzler suggested a recording session, he gathered some neighbors and acquaintances to form a string band. He recruited Doc Watson, who was playing electric guitar in a local country- Western swing band. Doc knew the oldtime tradition he just hadn t realized there was a market for it in the North. The all-star lineup that Rinzler recorded included (in addition to Ashley and Watson) Clint Howard, Fred Price, and Gaither Carlton. The result was a series of memorable Folkways LPs, now rereleased by Smithsonian Folkways: Doc Watson & Clarence Ashley (SF40029/30) and The Doc Watson Family (SF 40012). The fiddlers on these recordings represent two generations: Gaither Carlton played an older style that would have been typical of mountain fiddling before the phonograph, while Fred Price had a smoother stroke with more sliding notes, probably influenced by such recorded fiddlers as Leonard Rutherford. They were both farmers, but Price was more willing than Carlton to appear at folk festivals, so typically, Ashley appeared with Price on fiddle and Clint Howard on guitar. And, in fact, Carlton does not appear on as many recorded cuts as Price. So this CD is a welcome balancer, demonstrating Carlton s wide old-time repertoire. He plays fiddle on some cuts and clawhammer banjo on others. Tom Carter (who, along with Ann Kadesch, made these recordings) accompanies on some of these, but stays well in the background. The result is a well-presented showcase. It is particularly useful for learning Carlton s tunes and phrasing, because none of these are played at breakneck speed. If you find a tune too easy, though, you won t get bored listening to it, because no cut on this CD is longer than two minutes. Unfortunately, fiddle tunings are not given, so you ll have to figure those out for yourself. Earlier collectors would have ignored such pieces as You Are My Sunshine, Tennessee Stud, and Fireball Mail, on the misguided idea that these tunes aren t authentic folk music. Fortunately, our understanding of what constitutes traditional music had changed by the time Carter and Kadesch made these recordings. It s a treat to hear them reproduced by a fine musician. The sound quality is very good for a field recording. Most of the tunes correspond with those that I ve heard before under the same titles. Exceptions are Fisher s Hornpipe and Jump Up Jenny. Carlton does not sing with any of these tunes, but he occasionally recites a verse or two of a song by way of introduction. (These are separate cuts, but, to save space, are not listed above.) This is an excellent overview of the repertoire of a fine musician from the old-time hotspot where North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee meet. Congratulations to the Field Recorders Collective for releasing this one, and I hope there will be many more coming in the future. Lyle Lofgren To order: 40 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

43 Jont Blevins Grayson County, Virginia Banjo Player Field Recorders Collective FRC 117 Jont Blevins, banjo; Thornton Spencer, fiddle, guitar. Cumberland Gap / Cluck Old Hen / John Hardy / Shortenin Bread / Variations to Shortenin Bread / Cripple Creek / Sourwood Mountain / Casey Jones / Soldier s Joy / Johnson Boys / Black Eyed Susie / Cumberland Gap / Groundhog / John Henry / Johnson Boys / Reuben / Rambling Hobo / Old Jimmy Sutton / Reuben / How Jont learned to play / John Hardy / Cripple Creek / Cluck Old Hen / Johnson Boys / Old Jimmy Sutton / Reuben in low bass / Shortenin Bread in low bass / Rambling Hobo / Cripple Creek / Old Molly Hare / Black Eyed Susie (fragment) / Casey Jones / Old Molly Hare / Old Jimmy Sutton / Sourwood Mountain. Jont Blevins name has often come up in conversations with Thornton and Emily Spencer of Whitetop, Virginia, but I never had the chance to meet him when I lived around Galax in the 1980s. Widely acknowledged as a fine clawhammer banjo player, Blevins was born in 1900 and died in 1995, and learned to play mostly from Emmett Long, who was born in He also passed on his music to younger players who sought him out, including Thornton and Emily. This CD will be of great interest and should be part of the library of anyone interested in old-time banjo music. It consists mainly of short snippets of solo banjo, a lot of familiar tunes that were played locally, sometimes the same tune from two or three different sessions, often with slight variations or in different tunings, such as Cripple Creek, Reuben, Rambling Hobo, Old Jimmy Sutton, Black Eyed Susie, and a few others. There is a brief (1:52) interview with Blanton Owen and Jont Blevins (I would have liked to hear a bit more of this), and occasionally there are snippets of talk at the beginning of tunes. As is the case with a lot of the FRC CDs, their purpose is to get the material out there so people can hear it instead of having it molder away in personal archives never seeing the light of day. This is a good thing. It broadens our knowledge of and perspective on the music and on our cultural heritage, and who knows listeners who don t know A from Z about old-time music might be so turned on by the sound that they will start to dig deeper, become passionate and converted... who knows? FRC is not necessarily appealing to a wide market; the recordings are what they are, often done on a shoestring by friends or students who just wanted to get the music down on tape, or occasionally by a folklorist who might have had better equipment. This CD is mostly very well recorded. There is a beautiful photo of Jont by Mark Sanderford on the cover. As usual, the notes are very sparse, and I couldn t find more information on the website. Folks who are interested in source music and source musicians, and of course in banjo music, should add this CD to their collections. It is another example of a little-known, local, traditional musician. There are many gems that fall into this category. This is one. Kudos to FRC. They deserve all the support they can get. Alice Gerrard To order: Juan ANA Tua School of Old Time String Band Music Books for: Fiddle, OT Banjo, Mandolin, Guitar, Bass Viol, Cello, & Viola Contact: Doc Murphy Summer Cell (June - Sept) (freemanewer@gmail.com) THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

44 ! String Band Music From 100 Years Ago! Dennis Pash (banjo-mandolin) Nick Robinson (mandolin) David Krinkel (guitar) " Lovely music, lovely album. " -- FRoots, UK Available from CD Baby County Sales Elderly Instruments Old-Time Smoky Mountain Music: 34 Historic Songs, Ballads, and Instrumentals Recorded in the Great Smoky Mountains by Song Catcher Joseph S. Hall Great Smoky Mountains Association John Hannah My Home is in the Smoky Mountains / Bessie Rabb Down in the Willow Garden / Willis and Dexter Bumgarner Bonaparte s Retreat / Myrtle Conner Come, All You Young Ladies / Jack Johnson I Started Out A-Courting / Cataloochee Trio Sourwood Mountain / Bill Moore and Vic Peterson The Ramshackle Shack / John Davis and Shorty Smith Going Down This Road Feeling Bad / Myrtle Conner Kitty Wells / Bill Moore s Quartet Crying Holy Unto the Lord / Unidentified guitar playing (probably Bill Moore) / Carl Messer - My Curly-Headed Baby / John Hannah The Girl I Love Don t Pay Me No Mind / Leatherman Brothers John Henry / Bill Moore, Paul Buchanan, Hardy Crisp Cackling Hen / Bill Moore That s How I Got My Start / Clarence Sutton Don t Forget Me, Little Darling / Myrtle Conner Pretty Little Miss / Herman Smith and David Proffitt Chinese Breakdown / Unnamed [CCC] Company 15 members Mule Skinner Blues / Jim Sutton Ticklish Rubin / Helen Gunter The Big Bend Killing / Willis and Dexter Bumgarner Polly Put the Kettle On / Zeb and Winfred Hannah Conversation with Death / Myrtle Conner Paper of Pins / John Hannah Boston Girl / Clarence Sutton The Dying Cowboy / Chub Karns, Francis Lum Cripple Creek / Unnamed Company 15 members Ground Hog / Boyd Strickland Up on Big Pigeon / Unidentified John Henry / Robert Ray Driving Down the Highway / Myrtle Conner Little Rosewood Casket / Betty Messer On Top of Old Smoky 1939 was a year of introspection for the United States. Tragedy of unimaginable scope was unfolding in Europe, but here in the US, frayed and depleted from a decade of the Depression, our attention was directed inward. Many of the cultural milestones of 1939 had to do with America examining itself with Americans learning about other Americans, whether of different races, regions, or economic classes, or of earlier eras. After Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, refused to allow Marian Anderson to perform for an integrated audience, she instead gave a concert from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and drew a crowd of 75,000 on Easter Sunday. Gone With the Wind premiered in movie theaters across the country, bringing the Civil War and sectionalism back to the forefront of national conversation, in a time when many veterans still donned their blue or gray or butternut for reunions and parades. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was also onscreen, and The Philadelphia Story was onstage, each in its own way a story about friction between members of different economic strata. Billie Holliday s recording of Strange Fruit, and Steinbeck s blockbuster novel The Grapes of Wrath, shook up the privileged and complacent, making them uncomfortably aware that many of their fellow citizens lived and died under cruel oppression; and those who could counted their blessings when a deteriorating Lou Gehrig declared himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. It was in this cultural environment that immensely important field recordings 42 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

45 were made of traditional musicians in America. John and Ruby Lomax covered 6,500 miles of the South in 1939, recording as they went along, while Alan Lomax was busy broadcasting folk music over CBS Radio and helping introduce the world to Huddie Ledbetter. Herbert Halpert looked like a moonshiner hauling a load of hooch as he drove through the South, his vehicle weighted down in back with his heavy recording equipment; his 1939 trip yielded hundreds of important recordings, including those of Mississippi fiddlers Hatcher, Claunch, and Canoy. The WPA had other great documentarians fanning out across the country that year, including Charles Seeger and Stetson Kennedy was the heyday of federally-sponsored fieldwork. It took the passage of thirty-plus years, and the efforts of a new generation of field recorders, before we would be blessed with another such comprehensive self-portrait of a musical moment in time. One of the lesser-known of the field recorders who were at work in 1939 was Joseph S. Hall. In East Tennessee and western North Carolina, a huge cultural upheaval was taking place as entire communities were displaced to make way for the development of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The National Park Service recognized that a trove of heritage would inevitably be lost as the result of the federal government s decision to preserve and recreate wilderness at the expense of local community life. To mitigate some of the loss, the NPS engaged Hall, a Sorbonneeducated Californian who was studying linguistics at Columbia, to set off into the Smokies and record the speech of the region s inhabitants. Hall made local Civilian Conservation Corps camps his homebases, while venturing into communities like Tuckaleechee and Cataloochee with his recording equipment. Hall was evidently a personable sort who got along well with the people whose culture he was documenting; his love of hunting gave him entrée to the men s social circles, and women were glad to tell him about their own interests, in which, according to Hall s recollections, recipes and quilts were prominently featured. And although the main purpose of his research was to document speech, Hall found that music was an integral part of community life in the Smokies, which necessarily found its way onto the recordings as well. This CD, Old-Time Smoky Mountain Music, offers a sampling of those musical performances. One of the fascinating things about this release is that few of the artists presented are members of the pantheon of wellknown traditional musicians who were active in the region in Some may be familiar for example, fiddler Hardy Crisp was recorded several years later by Margot Mayo, Stu Jamieson, and Freyda Simon. But Hall was really collecting music at a grassroots level, and though some of the musicians he recorded have last names that are strongly associated with old-time music in the region, they re not the individuals we might predict would be in such a collection; rather than Samantha we have Willis and Dexter Bumgarner, and rather than Grover we have Clarence and Jim Sutton. Because some of the artists recorded were members of the CCC, it s not certain (though neither is it unlikely) that they themselves were natives of the Smoky Mountains. Most of the songs and tunes on this disc are standards of old-time and early country music. Because Hall was not focusing his collecting efforts on music, this is not a collection of the sort many OTH readers are accustomed to, in which the musician records a large part of his or her repertoire, reaching back into memory for obscure material. More likely, the people who shared music with Hall were presenting the pieces from their repertoires that they considered their best. For that reason, although most of the music here is not unusual, many of the performances are fairly polished for field recordings. Among the standout recordings here are five songs sung by Myrtle Conner of Gatlinburg. She has a clear, high voice, and sings in a totally natural manner that draws upon the natural sweetness of her voice rather than stylistic ornaments. She seemed to favor songs of lost love and courtship gone wrong here she sings a lovely Kitty Wells, and the similarly mournful Little Rosewood Casket, as well as a cheerful Paper of Pins that reminded me of the version sung by Mary Jane Queen of Jackson County, North Carolina. I d like to hear a whole album of Myrtle Conner s singing, if there were enough material; I hope there are more recordings of her than these five. Another great plain singer here is Bessie Rabb, recorded in Allens Creek, Haywood County, North Carolina. She has a sharper, more world-weary voice than Conner, ideally suited to the one piece she sings, Down in the Willow Garden. There is other unaccompanied singing on this album, including a peculiar I Started Out A-Courting sung by Jack Johnson of Tuckaleechee Cove, in Blount County, Tennessee. The lyrics are sort of a blend of familiar versions of The Old Man Below with the Old Shoes and Leggins story. At times it sounds like Johnson is making up the tune as he goes along, with some curious variances of speed and key. It adds some unintentional entertainment to what s already an interesting performance, and I quite liked it. In the close male duets on this album, there s a clear influence from the recordings of Wade Mainer and Zeke Morris, both fairly local to the region that Joseph Hall covered. In particular, a (cheerful, up-tempo) version of Conversation with Death sung by Zeb and Winfred Hannah, of Cove Creek in Haywood County, North Carolina, reminds me of some of the Mainer recordings on Bluebird. Bill Moore and Vic Peterson, recorded in Waynesville, North Carolina, sing in a similar style on The Ramshackle Shack. Theirs is an extremely polished performance, as are the other pieces that feature Bill Moore; clearly Moore and some of his partners were at least semiprofessional musicians. There s a nice Cackling Hen in which Moore and Paul Buchanan, also a guitarist, back Hardy Crisp s fiddling. For the most part these recordings are clean, though muted. Hall did a nice job of balancing the instruments and voices. On a couple of cuts, however, warping of some sort on the original recordings causes pitch changes that had me reaching for the Dramamine. A solid mandolin-led John Henry by the Leatherman Brothers of Bryson City, North Carolina, is thoroughly marred by wild pitch changes; it s good that we have documentation of these two skilled musicians, but it s quite hard to listen to for reasons that have nothing to do with their performance. Listeners used to the spectrum of sound quality to be found in field recordings of the era will probably take this somewhat in stride, though it will be jarring to broader audiences. The liner notes include an essay about Joseph Hall written by Michael Montgomery, and an essay, The Real Music of These Mountains, by Ted Olson. Montgomery s contribution will be especially interesting to readers who are intrigued by the whole process of field recording, and the interpersonal and intercultural relationships inherent to many such ventures. Olson s essay, also excellent, is geared towards a very general audi- THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

46 ence, and not to those, like readers of the Old-Time Herald, for whom many of the concepts he introduces are givens the difference between old-time music and later forms, the role of commercial recordings in traditional musicians repertoires, and so on. The song notes too offer few surprises for an old-timeimmersed audience, but do a very good job of explaining the significance of the pieces for an audience who will be hearing John Henry or Cripple Creek for the first time. This is the primary audience for whom this CD is intended, as one might guess from the use of the name song catcher in the release s subtitle. That said, there is a great deal of significant old-time music here, and OTH readers will find the album both interesting and enjoyable. Proceeds from the sale of this disc support the work of the Great Smoky Mountains Association, a nonprofit organization established more than fifty years ago. For months leading up to the release of Old-Time Smoky Mountain Music, the producers searched for surviving artists who recorded music for Joseph Hall. They provided area newspapers with their names, asking relatives or friends to put them in touch, and circulated the lists on social media sites. It seems that the search is ongoing: at the end of the CD s notes is the request, If you are one of the performers, or know of somebody who is, please contact Great Smoky Mountains Association so that all surviving musicians may be recognized. Discovering their music for the first time is a treat, and it would indeed be a great thing to learn more about these artists. Thanks to the Great Smoky Mountains Association for bringing well deserved attention to the early musicians of the Smokies, and to the contributions of Joseph S. Hall. Sarah Bryan To order: (888) Note to Artists and Record Companies Please send all material for review to the OTH (PO Box 61679, Durham, NC 27715). Please do not send to individual reviewers. What gets reviewed is determined at the discretion of the OTH according to space available, balance of old and new, and compatibility with our mission. We cannot review everything that comes in nor guarantee that because we received it we will review it. We do not return materials to the sender. Thanks! Adam Hurt Earth Tones: Solo Gourd Banjo Music Ubiquitone 003 Fortune / Black Jack Grove / Stillhouse / Josie-O / Indian Nation / Flannery s Dream / Jack Wilson / Fire on the Mountain / The Wandering Boy / Old Beech Leaves - Sheeps and Hogs Walking Through the Pasture / Rye Straw / John Riley the Shepherd - Brushy Fork of John s Creek I m sorry I didn t write this review in time for the Christmas rush, because it s the perfect winter present, and everyone should have given and received it. However, it s also a perfect spring, fall, and summer present, so get on it, everybody. Adam Hurt of the graceful touch, of the clear tone, of the delicate ornaments, of the natural, breathing dynamics yes, that Adam Hurt he s made an all-gourd-allthe-time recording. Hence the earth tones. You could say that this music pretty much comes from dirt, all except for the (cat-fans unite) nylon strings. Dirt refined, dirt hollowed out, dirt tuned about three steps low. Except that Hurt s playing is about as far from dirty as you can get. His fretless intonation is sweet, right on, and not at all boringly tidy lots of flavorful slides in both directions, textural damps, the finger-sound of flesh on fat string but now I m making it seem like the music is muddy, which it is not I m just trying to convince non-melodic types that this is great music. Even on a gourd, Hurt plays more elaborate melodylines than many of us might on any banjo, but this is not a stream of notes, it s a body beat, overtones, a landscape. Hurt, of course, is an incredibly skilled musician, and let me tell you, the skill only makes more musicality and soulfulness possible. I know that some have been put off by his approach perhaps exemplified by the Big Scioty on his 2006 album Insight. That s not old-time music, some might have said, or, What an awesome but weird way to play the banjo. Get over it, people! Is it beautiful or not? Yes, it is. Many of Hurt s approaches could be annoying in less capable hands, where they might mess up the timing or result in an art piece or show-off piece. Here, the details add up to something very centered, whole, musical. Each tune feels that it s found its natural form, and all the techniques shape a sweet and organic way to travel the tune. I couldn t do it without the tune going all herky-jerky, but Hurt catches the melody note on the fifth string, repeatedly (I particularly noticed this in Black Jack Grove ), and he often slips a triplet in on the way from one note to another lovely triplets, peppery little accents. The pauses here and there someone else might overly dramatize, but here they are small openings, little living breaths. Hurt s current admirers don t need to be convinced. They already know that his technique matches his musical sense. I ll just add that I think his playing is becoming even more soulful. He s a deep and deepening player, and the gourd is a lovely expression for this richness. Earth Tones is listenable in two ways: It repays detailed, focused attention, and you also just want to have it on all the time, phrases and moods flowing by. As you might imagine, with a gourd banjo, the album as a whole makes a soft-ish, indeed earth-toned, mood, but that doesn t mean every tune is the same. Though all tempos are slower than dance tempos, Fortune makes a lively opening to the album. Later we get a beautifully dreamy Stillhouse (I never would have thought of playing it slow like that, but oh, it s lovely), the dark, slower-than-a-march Flannery s Dream, a Ryestraw with a grumbly low part and smooth high part... well, fill your house with all of it. The CD packaging itself lists only the tune titles and the basic information about production and design, but go to Hurt s website ( to find the tune sources. He uses three tunings on the album regular double-d, open A, and what he calls Sandy River Belle tuning modal with the fifth string down a whole step, which usually comes out in G but all of these tunings are low, so that the D tuning s in A, the A tuning s in E, and the Sandy River Belle tuning s in D. Want to find out more about the banjo Hurt is playing, made by David Hyatt? Hurt s website will link to Hyatt s website ( where you can find out more about this very thoughtful maker, a student of Clarke Buehling, who is following his own inspirations. OK, I said it already. This is a beautiful album. Get it, people. Molly Tenenbaum To order: 44 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

47 New North Carolina Ramblers Live & Lively Old Blue Records OB CD 706 Kinney Rorrer: banjo, vocals; Kirk Sutphin: fiddle, banjo; Jeremy Stephens: fiddle, vocals, guitar, autoharp; Darren Moore: guitar, vocals, piano, autoharp; guests Trish Fore, Kevin Fore, and Riley Baugus on guitar and banjos. Flyin Clouds / Flop Eared Mule / Forked Deer / Surry County Sally Anne / Lost Indian / My Name is John Johanna / Texas Gals / The Fate of Dewey Lee / Alabama Gals / Dan Carter Waltz / Don t Let Your Deal Go Down Blues / Baltimore Fire / Will You Miss Me When I m Gone / Hickman Rag / After the Ball / Round Town Gals / In a Cottage by the Sea / The Letter that Never Came / Sandy River Belle / Under the Double Eagle / Weary Prodigal Son / The Wreck of the C&O Sportsman / Mississippi Sawyer / Yellow Rose of Texas Live is because the first few numbers on this CD were recorded live at a concert in Mount Airy, North Carolina (which is when the guests mentioned above played with them), and lively because, as the notes state: the NNCR... never cease to astonish their audiences playing unfamiliar tunes in expected ways, [and] playing familiar tunes in unexpected ways... And this is true. Jeremy, Darren, Kirk, and Kinney are four very fine musicians. On this CD Kirk is doing the fiddle honors (although he is also a very good banjo player). Kinney plays fingerstyle banjo and sings, and does the emcee work on the live portion, assisted by Trish, Kirk, and Kevin. Darren and Jeremy (who have often worked together as a duo) and Kirk are the younger of the four, and all have been influenced by older, traditional styles of music, and by their parents, grandparents, and older mentors, as well as by old recordings. They are old souls at heart and their music reflects both their knowledge of old-time music and the deep love and respect they have for the genre and for the musicians they learned from. Kinney is the patriarch of the group, well known THE LATEST FROM Old Blue CD 706 LIVE & LIVELY THE NEW NORTH CAROLINA RAMBLERS Old Blue CD 705 KIRK SUTPHIN & RILEY BAUGUS LONG-TIME PIEDMONT PALS Round Peak Banjos KEVIN FORE FROLIC IN ROUND PEAK Heritage HRC-CD-147 KEVIN FORE ROUND PEAK, THE TRADITIONCONTINUES E R O KEVIN F Musician & Maker of Fine, Hand-Built Round Peak Banjos KEVIN FORE BANJO #21 Old Blue CDs available at OldBlueRecords.com Check for the website for specials! Kevin Fore CDs and Banjos available at Most CDs also available at CountySales.com, Elderly.com and CDBaby.com THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

48 A unique compilation of old-time Piedmont music Includes: 2 CDs 20 Piedmont musicians 48 tracks Full liner notes Biographies & photos of NC musicians such as Marvin Gaster, Lauchlin Shaw, & many more! Produced by Wayne Martin, Sponsored by PineCone Funded by North Carolina Arts Council with support from National Endowment for the Arts To order, call or visit: PineCone is a private, non-profit charitable organization dedicated to preserving, presenting and promoting traditional forms of music, dance and other folk performing arts. PineCone is supported by the City of Raleigh Arts Commission, the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County with funds from the United Arts campaign, and the NC Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources. for his banjo playing, singing, sense of humor, and knowledge of the music. He is the author of Ramblin Blues: The Life and Songs of Charlie Poole. Related to fiddler Posey Rorer, who played in a band with Charlie Poole, Kinney plays banjo in the Charlie Poole three-finger style. The CD starts out with a live performance and includes the first six tunes and some good old country humor, and continues with a fine mix of tunes and songs some of the best old-time music I ve heard in a long time. I love the sound of the piano on several cuts; it adds an extra lilt, voice, and rhythmic dimension to tunes like Texas Gals, Hickman Rag, and Under the Double Eagle. I love the way Darren goes into the treble on the keyboard at times. This works particularly well with the counterpoint of the finger-style banjo. Jeremy and Darren perform several duets: The Fate of Dewey Lee, Will You Miss Me, After the Ball, and Weary Prodigal Son, either with two guitars or guitar and autoharp. The sound is very reminiscent of the original Carter Family, but beyond that it is their own sound, authentic and real. Kinney is also a masterful singer and does the lead honors on John Johanna, Don t Let Your Deal 46 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

49 Go Down, Baltimore Fire, The Letter That Never Came, and Wreck of the C&O Sportsman. Kirk Sutphin is the fiddler throughout. I have always loved Kirk s fiddling (and banjo playing), and he doesn t disappoint here. He surely is one of the great secondgeneration classic old-time fiddlers. All put together, these are four master musicians who have created a unique band sound in the New North Carolina Ramblers, and this is a CD chock full of a variety of old-time songs and tunes played with love and passion for the music. Alice Gerrard To order: (540) Kirk Sutphin and Riley Baugus Long-Time Piedmont Pals Old Blue CD-705 Silly Bill / Susanna Gal / Lonesome Road / Last of Callahan / Riley and Spencer / Evening Star Waltz / Roving Cowboy / Paddy on the Turnpike / Fortune / Drunkard s Dream / Liberty / Cripple Creek / A Married Man s Blues / Pretty Little Shoes / John Hardy / As Time Draws Near / Big Eyed Rabbit / John Brown s Dream / Birdie / West Virginia Farewell / Wild Bill Jones / Forked Deer / Molly Put the Kettle On taught his son H. O. Jenkins, who was another friend of Kirk and Riley as they were growing up, and well into the twenty-first century. (See the October-November 2006 Old-Time Herald for information about H. O. Jenkins and his family.) As you would expect with this background, many of the tunes and songs on this CD come from, or through, Tommy Jarrell: Fortune, Cripple Creek, Big- Eyed Rabbit, John Brown s Dream. It s not that simple, of course. If you ve got even a moderate-size CD collection, you probably have multiple recordings of John Brown s Dream. Compare, if you can, the fiddle-banjo duet of Da- Costa Woltz and Ben Jarrell (Document 8023) with Tommy and Fred (County 2702) and then with Kirk and Riley. Each pair of musicians has added something, and each is firmly in the tradition we call Round Peak. Then, listen to some other band s take on it, and decide whether there may be something to the true vine theory after all. Other Round Peak-area musicians are well represented here. Charlie Lowe is the source for both Tater Patch and the three-part Molly Put the Kettle On ; Kahle Brewer gave us West Virginia Farewell, preserved in field recordings The world s most trusted source... Since for the best of everything in old time music! Toll-Free (USA only) outside USA FREE CATALOG Floyd, Virginia You don t need a full string band to make great music. It can be done with just two instruments and one voice, and this CD is proof of that. Kirk Sutphin and Riley Baugus have been friends since 1977, and have been making music together for about as long. This very wonderful CD draws its inspiration not from modern bands like the Camp Creek Boys or the later Smokey Valley Boys, but from the older musicians who formed the first Galax-area bands to be recorded: DaCosta Woltz s Southern Broadcasters and Frank Jenkins Pilot Mountaineers. In fact, there s a direct line of descent: Ben Jarrell, fiddler in Woltz s band, taught his son Tommy how to play the fiddle, who in turn passed on a lot of his music to Kirk and Riley. Frank Jenkins played with his son Oscar (and with Ernest V. Stoneman) in the Pilot Mountaineers, and Oscar Music and Dancing for Everyone! Heritage Music Every Weekend In the Blue Ridge Mountains T H E F L O Y D COUNTRY STORE THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

50 Repertoire Builder Series: CD, Written Music & Chord Charts 25 Mostly Familiar Tunes for Mandolin (with tab) 25 Reels, Hornpipes, Marches, & Jigs for Contra Dances 25 Challenging Reels, Hornpipes, & Jigs for Contra Dances 25 Hoedowns & Reels for Squares & Contras 25 Waltzes 25 Couple Dances: Schottisches, Polkas, Two-steps, Pattern Dances $15/Packet plus $3 shipping for 1, $4 for 2 in U.S. Voyager Recordings MP3s at Profiles Tablature Reviews Featuring the OId-TIme Way Quarterly Special Section Call or Write for a FREE Sample Copy! PO Box 3418 Annapolis, MD by Mark Sanderford. Birdie arrives via Fred Cockerham and Oscar Jenkins, while Oscar s son H. O. gave them Paddy on the Turnpike and Evening Star Waltz. Something this reviewer finds particularly fascinating is that tunes outside the standard Round Peak tradition can be played well in that style (especially when played by Kirk and Riley). Check out, for instance, what Pretty Little Shoes, from Ward Jarvis of West Virginia and Ohio sounds like or Last of Callahan, from William Stepp of Kentucky. When I heard Susanna Gal done as a clawhammer/two-finger banjo duet, I was sure that somehow I was hearing the other side of Woltz and Jenkins Sweet Sunny South. A quick trip to Russell reassured me that no such record existed, and this was the creation of Kirk and Riley. One more reason to buy this CD, if you don t have enough reasons already. Kinney Rorrer s introductory essay about Kirk and Riley talks about visits that they both made to Jarrell and others, musicians Kirk refers to as grandpa figures. One can learn a lot from listening to the old 78s (perhaps on Document 8000 CDs), but even more can be learned through watching bowing patterns, the left-hand slide on the banjo, and nuances learned only through direct contact. Add to this Kirk and Riley s own skill, and the tight, almost telepathic sound that comes after over thirty years of making music together, and it is clear why this is a very good CD. Pete Peterson To order: (540) $4 Shoe I m Worried Now Morgan John: banjo, lead vocals; Tom Collicott, guitar, harmony vocals; Tony Mates: fiddle; Dan Tenenbaum: fiddle; Jere Canote: harmonica, ukulele I m Worried Now / Fatal Wreck of the Bus / Nancy Ann / Warfield / Georgie / Golden Slippers / Honey Babe Blues / Texas Bobwire / Buffalo Girls / Smokey Mountain Bill / Worried Man Blues / Too Young to Marry / Man of Constant Sor- row / Wild Hog in the Woods / Didn t He Ramble / Ma and Pa and Me For a group that bills itself as a banjo-guitar-singing band, the Seattle-based duo of Morgan John and Tom Collicott, known as $4 Shoe, includes on their debut recording only a handful of songs in that configuration. Of the seventeen tracks here, four are solely banjo-guitar-singing songs. The first of these is the ¾-time topical ballad The Fatal Wreck of the Bus, first recorded in February, 1936, by J. E. Mainer s Mountaineers. At the time of Mainer s recording, the event was but two months past, and the ballad described the accident in which a Greyhound bus fell through an open drawbridge over the Appomattox River near Hopewell, Virginia. $4 Shoe s version lacks the fiddle and second guitar of Mainer s quartet version but is every bit as good at capturing the sentimental nature of the song. They next use the banjo-guitar-singing configuration on Georgie, which is the Child ballad (#209) known as Geordie. Here the banjo s inclusion offers a more old-time country sound than the folkier version recorded by Joan Baez in the 1960s. Morgan John concludes the track by tacking on an original banjo tune that pairs well with Geordie s Black Jack David -like melody. Banjo, guitar, and singing are also featured on a jaunty Honey Babe Blues, and on a spare cover of Man of Constant Sorrow that has hints of the Stanley Brothers in the vocals. Among the remaining 13 tracks, one is a fiddle version of Golden Slippers and six are fiddle tunes that range from the somewhat obscure ( Nancy Ann and Texas Bobwire ) to the somewhat standard ( Too Young to Marry ). Six other tracks are vocals on which the banjo-guitar duo is augmented by ukulele, harmonica, or fiddle. It is among the vocal numbers that can be found the most compelling music on the recording, and when I say that, I include the four previously-mentioned banjoguitar-singing tracks. The fiddle tunes are interesting, but the vocals are what make this recording go. Among the best of the vocals are the aforementioned The Fatal Wreck... and Honey Babe Blues, and the three Delmore Brothers songs I m Worried Now, Trouble On My Mind, and Smokey Mountain Bill. Actually, I d have to put the Delmore covers in a class of their own. By using a banjo and uke (which the Delmores never did) on those tracks, $4 Shoe has crafted a sound of their own that includes a decidedly banjo-induced lope blended with a light, chugging 48 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

51 uke backing, and which includes a grittier and sort of laconic vocalizing, all of which contrasts with yet retains a good bit of the even-handed and gliding instrumental feel and the smoother brother harmony that was the essence of Alton and Rabon s sound. You d still have to give the nod to the Delmores, but you d also have to say that $4 Shoe versions are of a good spirit and highly entertaining. That could be said of this recording as a whole, as well. Bill Wagner To order: (206) Molly Tenenbaum Goose & Gander Molly Tenenbaum, banjo, vocals; Dan Tenenbaum, guitar, vocals Bowling Green / Little Birdie/ Old Kimball/ Rocky Hill/ Johnny Gordon/ Scat Tom Kitty Puss / I Went Down to Raleigh/ Golden Willow Tree/ Old King Cole/ New River Train/ Old Bald Eagle / Doney Where You Been So Long/ London Bridge / Childhood Song On her new CD, Goose & Gander, Molly Tenenbaum focuses on singing rather than the banjo playing for which she is best known (her previous CD, Instead of a Pony, was brilliant!). On about half the tracks, her brother Dan joins her, playing rhythm guitar and occasionally singing harmony. Although the material is drawn from children s songs and nursery rhymes, this is not a children s album per se. I can imagine a five-year-old Wednesday Addams enjoying this CD; perhaps the darkness that lurks under the surface of children s rhymes seeps through in some subtle fashion, or perhaps I have been reading too many old New Yorkers. Molly uses her poet s ear to infuse fresh meaning and feeling into lyrics that might otherwise seem pedestrian. Among her sources are Jean Ritchie s Children s Songs and Games from the Southern Mountains and Christina Rosetti s Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book. The only instrumental is Family Song, which word- lessly alludes to the title of the CD, from the chorus of Johnny Gordon. She really knows how to draw tone out of the banjo, with a deep and relaxed groove that breathes but also has plenty of drive. And, she knows how to accompany a song as well as how to pound out a square dance tune. Old-time banjo playing doesn t get any better than this. I have the greatest respect for her both as a musician and as a poet, but on this CD, much of the singing does not measure up to the high quality of the banjo playing. At their best, Molly s vocals have a naïve, unaffected quality. In phrasing and delivery, her singing often calls to mind that of Jean Ritchie and Peggy Seeger (both cited as sources here). On Texas Gladden s Old Kimball, a variant of The Cuckoo, she really lets loose and totally nails the high falsetto part, managing to be both dramatic and matter-of-fact at the same time. The somewhat child-like timbre of her voice is an effective contrast to the tubby sound of the banjo. The dreamlike quality of London Bridge may stem from how she shapes her notes in a subtle way, again very emotive yet also natural. Of the songs at faster tempo, Old Bald Eagle is the most successful; Molly sings with more feeling and in a more playful way on these than she does on some of the other fast songs, and the brother-sister vocal duet has that effortless match of phrasing and enunciation which can only come from siblings. The harmonies are not the close harmonies of the Monroe Brothers or the Blue Sky Boys; rather than thirds there are lots of sixths, with Dan singing harmony below Molly. It s easy to imagine them singing in the back seat of the car on a long family trip. Some of the material is less well suited to Molly s vocal style. She is not a powerhouse singer by any means and I wouldn t have started the album with two songs ( Bowling Green and Little Birdie ) that are associated with such strong, full-voiced singers as Cousin Emmy and Ralph Stanley. I really like it that her singing is so natural and devoid of affectation, but sometimes it lacks self-assurance and that affects both the intonation and tone. The super-fast songs in which one has to sing a complex melody and spit out the words with great accuracy don t always quite come off. Also, some of the songs seem to have been pitched a little too low. The packaging is elegantly simple, a brown wrapper with squares pasted on front and back. Sources, banjo tunings, and capo positions are given with the track listings; Molly informs me that the tuning for Doney Where Since 1994, the quarterly source for traditional fiddle music! Excerpts online at (+ hundreds of fiddle-related links!) Free sticker with subscription: So many tunes, so little time! Have fiddle will travel. Fiddle: A violin with attitude! Got rosin? Tuned, rosined, and ready! U.S.: $25/year; $7/sample Please send a check to: Fiddler Magazine, P.O. Box 125, Los Altos, CA (For credit card payments, please go to www. paypal.com; on send money page, enter info@fiddle.com as recipient s address; enter your address in memo field.) THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

52 You Been So Long is a misprint and should read g#eg#be (D tuning a whole step up). Additional liner notes are available online at There s a teaser on the back of the CD wrapper, after the thank-yous: Next time, Colin Harris will be fiddling. I look forward to that! Suzy Rothfield Thompson To order: The Dustbusters Greenback Dollar / Ain t That Trouble in Mind / Bonaparte s Retreat / Rolling Mills / Rye Whiskey / John Brown s Dream / All Night Long / Flying Indian / You May Leave / Frankie / Cumberland Gap / Diamond Joe / Jailbird Love Song / Molly Put the Kettle On / The Coo Coo / Bed Bug Blues / Run Molly Run / Sally Johnson / Willie Moore / Old Blue The Dustbusters are a New York City-area trio devoted to recreation of the older sounds of old-time, early blues, and jug band music. Walker Shepard, Eli Smith, and Craig Judelman all sing, and they play an array of instruments that range from fiddle to pump-organ. They clearly have a vision of how they want to sound, as faithful to the originals as possible. Even their instruments have that mail-order sound that I associate with the old recordings. I don t know much about them. The CD has no liner notes to introduce or describe the band and its members. The production of the packaging is bare-bones at best, with only titles of songs and instrumentation for each one, and not much more, a small picture of them live in concert, and a drawing on the cover. All in all it has the look of a homemade production. The recording quality is adequate fine for me, really. I am always more interested in the music. One of the tunes, Polly Put the Kettle On, seems to be intentionally recorded to sound like a 78, and it does indeed. The Dustbusters seem to place themselves squarely at the feet of the older generation of players, particularly the New Lost City Ramblers. In fact, the venerable John Cohen has become a mentor and often performs with them. Their material is drawn from old commercial and field recordings, and I imagine John Cohen eagerly feeding them tunes and songs from his extensive archives. I am delighted when young people are drawn to learning from the older sources, in a time when many seem to learn only from each other, come to this music from a highly educated musical background, and sometimes play this music only because they can. The Dustbusters are obviously scholars of the music, but they are anything but slick. They have their rough edges, and some of the youth and inexperience shines through, but the honesty of the music is undeniable. In some of the faster fiddle-driven numbers, the rhythm tends to falter and the phrasing occasionally gets jumbled. The stuff that I like the best is in fact the slower bluesier and jug-band numbers, such as Bed Bug Blues and All Night Long. Walker does some nice slide guitar on Jailbird Love Song, a song the source of which I don t know. His banjo playing and singing are also nice on Rolling Mills, one of my favorite old songs, although I have to disagree with the choice of having a fiddle in the arrangement. The fiddle part is well played but I find it inappropriate for this type of banjo song. Songs of this kind, like Fred Cockerham s Roustabout, stand on their own without having to become string band numbers. But that s just my own stylistic opinion. Craig s fiddling is precise throughout, but once again better in the slow numbers. Eli is a solid multi-instrumentalist, and a singer with an experienced voice. I have not seen the band perform, but I have the feeling that their show must be entertaining and educational. On this CD they present a varied program of songs, tunes, and blues numbers that should satisfy many listeners. Rafe Stefanini To order: www. thedustbusters.blogspot.com US Senator Robert Byrd Mountain Fiddler County Records CO-CD-2743 Robert Byrd; fiddle; Doyle Lawson: guitar; James Bailey: banjo; Spider Gilliam: bass. Red Bird/ Turkey in the Straw/ There's More Pretty Girls Than One/ Cripple Creek/ Forked Deer/ Don't Let Your Sweet Love Die/ Cumberland Gap/ Rye Whiskey/ Durang's Hornpipe/ Roving Gambler/ Old Joe Clark/ Wish I Had Stayed in the Wagon Yard/ Come Sundown She'll Be Gone/ Will t he Circle Be Unbroken This is a (perhaps) overdue CD release of an LP released in Robert Byrd was then merely a long-serving senator, not the icon of the Senate that he became. He also was an excellent fiddler and, as Barry Poss tells it in this release s notes, was really excited to be making a record. His West Virginia fiddling heritage is clear, both with tunes and songs. His playing and singing are strong and forthright. The accompaniment is more of a bluegrass style, with Doyle Lawson on guitar, James Bailey on banjo, and Spider Gilliam on bass, all members of the Country Gentlemen at that time. A little after the album came out, I remember, I was talking to one of the Country Gentlemen who had been in Byrd s backup band, and he said, He (meaning Byrd) took all the breaks. Obviously it was his first experience with an old-time project. One interesting feature is occasional spoken intros to tunes by Byrd. I particularly liked the tunes Red Bird, a nice version of Durang s Hornpipe, and the song Come Sundown She ll Be Gone. Thanks to County for rereleasing this one. Jim Watson To order: The Liedstrand Family In Harmony Mt. Wow CD-001 Begin the Day / Arti s Jig / Holding Fast / Jenny Won t You Drink Some / Le Temps des Puces / Pine Tree / Happy Hayseeds Two- Step / I Will Arise / Leela / Joe Politte Tune / Till the End of the World Rolls Round / Everybody Has a Laughing Place - Laughing Boy / Lamplighters - Liverpool Hornpipe - Miss Brown s Reel / Mountain Roads / Half Way Pond / La Spagnola / Hymn Set 50 THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011

53 Come with me, back to the thrilling but quieter days of yesteryear, before the invention of CDs, DVDs, VCRs, television, even radio and phonographs, and imagine what families did to entertain themselves. Those who had learned to play instruments sometimes combined into family bands, in which two or three generations would make music together. Here it is 2011, and we have a recent example of such a band: three generations of the Liedstrand family making music together and having fun. If you liked the Mt. Diablo String Band s CD (reviewed in Old-Time Herald OctoberNovember 2008), then you will enjoy this one too. The former band is Carl and Corbin Pagter playing with the Liedstrands; this one is just Liedstrands. Both are so much fun to listen to, I believe, because of the obvious joy that these artists have when playing music. Good instrumental chops, as I have said so many times before, are necessary, but not sufficient. I tried to make a list of the different traditions represented here. There are many of them, and all well-played. There s an Irish reel from County Sligo, a Kentucky version of Paddy, Won t You Drink Some Good Old Cider, a French waltz (via Bertram Levy), a Joe Politte tune (he New from Old 97 Wrecords Available at the Old 97 Wrecords Store and on itunes Old 97 Wrecords 1400 Lexington Ave. Greensboro, NC phone & fax THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH

54 was of French ancestry, too), three New England dance tunes in a medley, Halfway Pond, a Jim Childress original, the Happy Hayseeds Two-Step via Kenny Hall... the mind boggles, and those are just some of the instrumentals. Worthy of special notice is the medley of four Swedish hymns, which ends the CD. It is played simply, with one violin and piano. This is what an ongoing family tradition sounds like! (I wonder how many generations of Liedstrands have known these hymns.) The Liedstrands embrace the teachings of the spiritual leader Meher Baba, and his teachings have inspired a number of the Liedstrands songs, some of which are here. In fact, a simple way to characterize the songs on this CD would be this is a non-christian gospel album. The message is one of love, of joy, of acceptance, and of growing closer to God. Almost every song here is a happy song. Sometimes it s right out there, as when the title is Everybody Has a Laughing Place, from an old Walt Disney movie. There s one about romantic love, Till the End of the World Rolls Round, which I need to learn and add to my short list of happy love songs. And there are some about the happiness of loving God. To summarize: you will feel happier after you buy and listen to this CD. You ll have heard some very good music, too. Pete Peterson To order: DVDs The Henry Reed Legacy Horse Archer Productions In 1966 Alan Jabbour, searching for fiddlers and fiddle tunes, was directed by fiddler Oscar Wright to Glen Lyn, Virginia, to the house of Henry Reed. This meeting led to the establishment of Reed, and also Jabbour, as legends in the oldtime fiddle music community. This DVD attempts to show the kind of human be- ing Reed was, and the effect he had on those around him. There s some talk, by Jabbour and others, about his fiddle style, and unfortunately there doesn t seem to be any footage of Reed himself, so recollection is all there is to go by. Several of Reed s twelve children, along with his neighbors, are interviewed, and the picture emerges of a hard-working man who had a great sense of humor, loved to play music and share his music with others. His sons Dean and James played a lot of music with him and say that he was exacting in getting the tunes right, both notes and chords. Jabbour talks of Reed obviously sharing his interest in the tunes by thinking of what he would play the next time Alan would visit. Alan Jabbour was young when he met Reed and he says it changed his life. Now another young generation, personified by Chris Via, has been affected by Reed, learning his tunes and starting a fiddle festival in Glen Lyn. This DVD is a testimonial to Henry Reed, and also to Chris Via for helping to carry on the tradition of Reed; and that, along with the great music, is the Henry Reed legacy. Jim Watson To order: Books Frank Maloy 159 Original Georgia Fiddle Tunes Patuxent Music A couple of years ago, Georgia fiddler Frank Maloy had a creative spurt and began composing fiddle tunes by the dozens. As the manuscripts piled higher over the next several months, he switched from naming the tunes for friends and musicians and turned to the counties of his home state. When he d finished, he had one for each county in Georgia, all 159 of them, and that soon led to this fiddle tune book and three-cd set. Contained herein are all of those county tunes, each handwritten in clean, clear, standard notation. 116 of them are titled by Maloy as breakdowns, 24 are reels, and 19 are hornpipes. Key-wise, Maloy spreads the tunes around, though interestingly, he chose to write more in the key of C (25 tunes) than in A (23 tunes). Why this is, he doesn t say. Creativity sets its own rules, I guess. The key of D (51 tunes) gets the most, followed by G (40 tunes), while the more obscure keys of F (16), E (two) and B flat (two) get the fewest. There are no tempo markings, but there is a listing of some 285 Georgia fiddlers past and present, all counter-listed beneath their home counties. To learn the tempos you ll need to listen to the three CDs of fiddler Casey Driscoll backed by guitarist Jon Grisham playing each tune through twice. What you ll find is that most of the tunes are taken in fast-medium to medium-fast range with a couple, for example Candler County Breakdown, being somewhat slow and swingy and a few others, for example Twiggs County Reel, being quite fast. The big question is, of course, can a man write 159 fiddle tunes in a few months and have them sound good and avoid being repetitive? Having played through all 159 tunes before listening to the CDs, I can honestly say I find no bad tunes, though some are of an average quality. Most are in the good range and more than a few rise to the very good range. Listening to the CDs did change my conception of several, adding more to the very good range. A few things that would have helped raise more tunes to a higher level would be having a bit more rhythmic variety, a few more chromatic notes, a few more surprises. As it stands, the majority of the tunes are mostly long, often unbroken, streams of sixteenth notes. In the whole of the book, I find but one tune, Union County Breakdown, that uses a dotted note. Moreover only a few use eighth notes as an integral part of the melody and there are no quarter notes or long bow notes, and few double stops. The best of the tunes are those that break from the steady sixteenth-note patterns or offer more of a song-like quality in the melodic line. All that said, it is doubtful that anyone, including Franz Schubert, could write 159 tunes in a few months and have them all be good. That there are a number of very good songs here is a testament to Frank Maloy s talent and creativity. Bill Wagner To order: (301) THE OLD-TIME HERALD FEBRUARY - MARCH 2011