The Old-Time Herald Volume 9, Number 2
Reviews

It isn’t every day that a blockbuster set of old-time music gets issued commercially. This year, however, we are so honored, by the appearance of this excellent 7-CD set of old time music from Kentucky, culled from 78 rpm recordings from the 1920s and ’30s and from several field trips that resulted in field recordings now housed at the Archive of Folk Culture in the Library of Congress. These latter recordings were made on instantaneous disks by a number of collectors, but most were generated during a Fall 1937 trip through Eastern Kentucky by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax. Twenty-three years ago, Gus Meade had a vision of issuing a variety of Kentucky old-time music from its storied past. The first installment of this plan was manifested by Richard Nevins’ then-new record label, Morning Star Records. Three recordings, on vinyl, with extensive notes, came out with string band/fiddle music that had been recorded by the Gennett label of Richmond, Indiana. There were plans to bring out more recordings, but the vinyl recording industry went down the tubes. Gus Meade, alas, died a few years later, way before his time. Not that long ago, we started seeing interesting anthologies of old-time music on the Yazoo label, again helmed by Richard Nevins. In 1995, The Music of Kentucky appeared in two volumes on Yazoo, a lovely set mixing 78 rpm recordings and AFS [these instantaneous disk recordings cited above -- the acronym stands for what the archive then was called, The Archive of Folk Song at the Library of Congress] sides. That set, however, was only a teaser for what would show up in 2003. In the meantime, many of us kept wondering if those three Morning Star LPs would ever get reissued. We’d hear rumors that tantalized, such as “Yes, they are coming … in a way.” And now, the time of The Coming is upon us. Feast your ears, and eyes, upon this set. These disks will not be sold individually, this is meant to be a 7-CD set, so I recommend you shop around for the best price, save your money, then when you have enough, grab this, don’t let it elude you. That is my bottom line. This is an essential collection, a true “must-have” item. I will get into positive and constructive criticism later in this review, as well as descriptives. It is not perfect, but I am not complaining.

Upon opening the box, one is greeted by a 5-1/2" by 11-3/8" 32-page booklet, very impressive. It features a lot of great photographs of many of the artists whose music graces this set, and also a few others. Richard Nevins penned the preface and a lengthy essay about the commercial recordings and the artists who made them. Charles K. Wolfe wrote a similarly lengthy essay about the AFS field recordings and artists. Therein follows CD by CD listings of all the songs/tunes and performers, with a key that identifies nearly all the artists on most tracks. Also enclosed is a facsimile of a letter from Green Bailey to Doc Roberts and the back cover contains the lyrics to James Howard’s The Old Fish Song. We also get a couple pages of advertisements for related Yazoo ‘product.’ This is not to be sneezed at, as I also recommend every title listed in the “ad section,” especially the aforementioned 2 CDs, The Music of Kentucky. If you don’t have them, you need to get them, as they are intended to complement this anthology, or vice-versa.

Mr. Nevins took great pains, I am told, to locate the best-quality recordings for those tracks he wished to issue on this set. The mastering process took about two years. Nevins has a great reputation as a 78 mastering expert, so be assured that the sound quality, for the most part, is the best one could generate from these old recordings. It is a matter of personal taste, in my opinion, how much filtering or equalization one should use on these recordings. I would have preferred more digital cleanup than is heard on most of these sides, but I certainly can live with this; it is far superior sonically to previously issued recordings of some of these pieces. There is a point of diminishing returns in noise suppression, so if one is to “err,” I prefer the erring on the conservative side, so that little or no music signal is lost. That said, there is nothing at all wrong with the presentation herein, once one understands that there will be surface noise from the friction of the playback needle in the musical grooves, not to mention pitting and erosion from seventy-plus years of enthusiastic playing.

Although the booklet notes are an excellent exposition of the time and place that these recordings were made, and include mini-biographies of most of the primary characters, I feel pretty strongly that there should have been more. I think there should have been more comparisons and contrasts of style and repertoire, perhaps a bit about song/tune history and etiology. Who influenced whom on this set, who was ‘covering’ what other popular artists of the era and which of these Kentucky artists were to become influential themselves. There is a bit of this already going on in the notes, but I felt there should have been more. I also realize, in a moment of uncharacteristic practicality, that to include all that I would want to see would make for a huge book, and that would necessarily drive the cost upwards. So perhaps these suggestions I just made had already been considered. But I still will whine about it, for I find this to be a very important set, and as such, deserves as much documentation as possible. Also, I have a strong sense of irony in that this is dedicated to Gus Meade, a person who was consumed by details and minutiae. I spent, in preparation for this review, quite a bit of time searching through Gus’s reference works, both published (Country Music Sources, articles, essays, discographies) and unpublished (The Fiddlers' Compendium, various correspondence and notes) to actually make and validate some of the connections I’ve alluded to here. Perhaps I’ll present them later in this review, or maybe I’ll start up a cottage industry of related writings initiated by the publication of this CD set.

Another comment I’d like to make, and I hope it is not taken as negative criticism, is that the folks who are not present in this set would make a lovely anthology as well. I hope that this set sells well, so that Mr. Nevins and Yazoo continue this concept and issue further CDs to flesh out an even fuller picture of what was happening then in Kentucky music circles. Some of the more notable omissions from this set, from the AFS material, would include Aunt Molly Jackson of Wilton County, harmonicist Volney Fraley of Ashland, Tex Vanderpool of Ashland, Rosa Hicks Day, also of Ashland (she had been one of Jean Thomas’ premier singers at the American Folk Song Festival, married Bill Day and lived next to Ed Haley -- she was from Clay County, West Virginia originally, the home of both her older brother Lora Hicks and renowned fiddler French Carpenter). Also missing in action are Tillman Cadle (Middlesboro), Lee Skeens (Wooten), George Custer Nicholson (Providence), McKinley Asher of Hyden, Jimmy Hammick of Hyden, Bev Baker of Hazard (he was Luther Strong’s father-in-law), and Luther Strong and Bill Stepp (Stepp does appear here in duet with bnajo player Walter Williams). The two latter “brag fiddlers” are well represented on The Music of Kentucky, but perhaps a small sample of their expertise would have been in order in this set. Mae Puckett and Nell Hampton, sisters, from Magoffin County are sadly missing here, as well. They make up an interesting microcosm of life in Magoffin County. Their father, Clay Walters, has one track here, but having a selection or two from Nell and Mae would have rounded out the collection nicely, methinks. I love Nell’s voice, in particular. We heard from Mae on Volume One of The Music of Kentucky [TMOK] where she played guitar behind Bill Stepp’s fiddling. And what of Jilson Setters? Though that stage name is how most of his music was presented, we are introduced to him here as J.W. Day, and we only get to hear his 1927 commercial fiddling sides. I think that many of his AFS recordings surpass in fiddle appeal those commercial sides, but we also are deprived of his great singing (though we do get treated to the rare pleasure of hearing his brother Robert sing). But in the big picture, these are minor quibbles. None of these disgruntled noises from me should prevent you from picking this set up and greatly enjoying it. Let us now hear about the folks who are on this set.

The largest presence here is by the Burnett & Rutherford circle. They were based around Monticello, on the Cumberland Plateau, and were already seasoned performers when the recording industry beckoned. They account for over 20 of the tracks here, and I’m not complaining one bit (well, maybe they could’ve slipped in another artist in lieu of a couple of these… especially considering the use of both All Night Long Blues and Richmond Blues, the identical song done twice by the same band, though with different personnel). Their vocals are strong, confident, and the instrumentals and accompaniment sure. Rutherford’s eely, sliding phrasing has yet to be copied or even well-mimicked, and as such is a signature of their music, so beautiful. Dock Roberts is yet another major figure who has even more a showing here than first obvious, as he is not the name on all the recordings herein on which he plays. He fiddles gorgeously behind Ted Chestnut and Green Bailey and duets nicely with Jim Booker on Sourwood Mountain. The Bookers, African-American musicians extraordinaire, were strong influences on Roberts’ music, so how fortunate we are to have some of their music here. Jim Booker’s brothers Joe and John even took turns backing Roberts on guitar in his August 1927 session, producing 8 issued sides. This occasion seems to imply a shared recording date among The Booker Orchestra, Taylor’s Kentucky Boys (in which Jim was the fiddler, with an otherwise European-American band) and Doc’s ensemble, but the dates for known sessions don’t quite mesh. Be that as it may, there is still a lot to be told and to hear regarding the give-and-take between Black and White old-time musicians. Meanwhile, we’ll just sit back and enjoy what we already have.

Fiddler Andy Palmer stands as a giant in my eyes, as his masterful performances on several of the Jimmy Johnson String Band sides will wonderfully illustrate. His sides are the very exciting 1932 recordings, not the JJSB’s 1931 recordings where Lee Smitha’s and Dewey Akers’ doubled fiddles didn’t quite add up to the power and grace of Palmer. Not bad, mind you, but we are comparing them with one of the major fiddlers in a state overflowing with them. A sidebar here perhaps on William Houchens, like Palmer from Anderson County, would have been appreciated. Not only was Houchens one of the earliest country musicians to record (in September 1922 for Gennett —9 months before Fiddlin’ John Carson’s first session for OKeh and only 3 months following Eck Robertson’s earliest session for Victor) but his first tune, a medley beginning with “Arkansas Traveller,” features one of Palmer’s favorite numbers, “Shippen Port.” Houchens’ “Big-Eared Mule,” from 1923, presages John Salyer’s rendering of that number that really did not become public until the 1980s. And the venerable Doc Roberts covered a few of Houchens’ medleys not only with the same sequence of tunes, but also in an imitation of his style. It’s a shame he did not make the cut for this set, but perhaps will appear on a later Kentucky-themed set on this label. One can only hope.

I could gush for hours on favorites. One would be the presence of the Ted Gossett and Tommy Whitmer led band, with frenetic energy and mind-blowing fiddling, especially by Gossett. Another huge favorite of mine whom I am so glad to see in some abundance here is the fellow who ends the last disk, the Rev. Buell Kazee. For some reason he seems to have escaped the scrutiny of most of the current generation of enthusiasts. Hailing from Magoffin County, he had a masterful touch on the 5-string banjo and offered wonderful texts on lyric songs and ballads, but primarily ballads, with a galloping, breakneck banjo cadence behind the slow lyric line. He had a strong, full, controlled voice, which usually occasions someone cite his formal voice training. But I find a lot of the hill country still there in his recordings, as he does not come across as some city-billy. This man had dirt under his torn fingernails at some point of his life, he lived the life, walked the walk, he remembered. He was the real deal. Similarly in a way, we are treated to the vocals and banjo of Justis Begley (is that really a photo of him in the booklet? I've seen that photo many times and it’s always been presented as an unknown/unnamed banjo player. Did it finally get identified?), who presents not only fine picking on “Run Banjo,” but gives the fullest text to date for the old chestnut “I’ve Been All Around This World,” but with his own twist, in time. Begley claims it as his own, and I have no doubt that this particular text is his. We are treated to several of Walter Williams’ unbelievably fast banjo numbers, he who most know as a sometimes accompanist to Bill Stepp. We have Marion Underwood’s brilliant fingerpicked “Coal Creek March,” too (wouldn’t it have been great to also include Pete Steele’s great interpretion of that spectactular showpiece for comparison? Steele, then—1938—living in Hamilton, Ohio, contributes a number of excellent banjo performances, as well) and his fine interlocking duets with Jim Booker. Dad Crockett also contributes a lovely banjo song with “Sugar Hill,” as well.

I better leave the 5-string alone, now, so I don’t shortchange some other great performances with my omission; it’s become obvious that even if I had the entire issue this quarter, I could easily fill it with commentary on this set. There was a wide variety of traditional music in Kentucky before World War II and this set seems to at least touch most of it. We have the string bands, the virtuoso solo instrumentalists, lyric singers, balladeers, music secular and religious of all sorts (I had better laud the stirring performance of Sherwin Sizemore and the Church of the Ten Elders before I catch hellfire from his biggest fan—you know who you are!). It is stimulating, not all perfect of course, but a massive effort nonetheless. It is a must-have item for most home collections, in my opinion. Kudos must go out to the ramrod of this project, Richard Nevins, and to all who contributed, to writing, locating the best-known copies, who helped every inch of the way. It is a remarkable feat to pull all this together, no matter what we nit-pickers might have to say or quibble about. I’m not done talking about it either. I am considering writing a track-by-track commentary, comparison and contrast, and exposition, somewhere. Perhaps I’ll write it and stick it on the Web somewhere, maybe on my own website, on the Old Time Herald’s, or another sympathetic site. Others should feel like they can add or kibbitz. We’ll always do that. Look how long people have been jawing about the Harry Smith Anthology! I think this set will find itself in some pretty estimable company, like the Smith Anthology. And it may grow, if Yazoo adds similarly-themed sets in the future. I’ve always thought of the 1920s as a Golden Age of recorded old-time music, but with the reissue, availability and new issue of precious gems in the recent past, I may reconsider and pronounce these days as the true Golden Age.

-Kerry Blech

To order:
Yazoo Records

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