Track Listing

1. Remember and Do Pray for Me - Lloyd Chandler
2. Silk Merchant's Daughter - Dellie Norton
3. Rambling Hobo - Gaither Carlton
4. Apple, Blossom - Gaither Carlton
5. Pretty Crowing Chicken - Frank Proffitt
6. Forkey Deer - Sidna Myers
7. Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down - Frank Proffitt
8. Cumberland Gap - George Landers
9. Rolling Mills Are Burning Down
10. Half Shaved - Wade Ward
11. Shady Grove - Wade Ward
12. Old Joe Clark - Wade Ward
13. Nitches over the Hill - Wade Ward
14. Twin Sisters
15. Fortune - Fred Cockerham
16. Little Satchel - Fred Cockerham
17. Barker's Creek - George Landers
18. Young Emily - Dellie Norton
19. Early, Early in the Spring - Dellie Norton
20. Warfare - Estil C. Ball
21. Pretty Polly - Estil C. Ball
22. Fox - Estil C. Ball
23. Conversation With Death - Lloyd Chandler
24. I Wish My Baby Was Born - Dillard Chandler
25. Carolina Lady - Dillard Chandler
26. Scotland Man - George Landers
27. Alabama Girls - Sidna Myers
28. No Place Like Home - George Landers
29. June Apple - Fred Cockerham
30. Frankie Baker - Fred Cockerham
31. Jennie Jenkins - E.C. Ball, Orna Ball
32. Little Sadie - Gaither Carlton
33. Cumberland Gap - Frank Proffitt

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11332 in Music
• Released on: 1995-03-21
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Whether just starting, or a long-time fan. Excellence!
A few years ago I had lofty dreams of writing a ton of jazz reviews in helps of hoping people during the renewed interest in jazz that was temporarily caused by Ken Burns' documentary. Then a couple years ago I had more lofty dreams of writing a ton of pre-bluegrass mountain music reviews in the wake of the interest caused by O' Brother Where Art Thou. In both cases I never really got around to it and the moment passed, but here I am now writing some reviews for the music of the upland South. Better late than never.

Quite simply, I love this collection of tunes recorded in the field by John Cohen in Virginia and North Carolina in 1965. This is one of the best single discs of mountain tunes you can buy. Great performances, recording quality, and variety. Whether we're talking about the craggly, worn-out sound of George Landers voice or the heavenly bliss of Wade Ward's solo banjo version of Shady Grove, this is a masterful collection. Wade's Shady Grove is one of those things that I wish could go on for 10 uninterrupted minutes. Ditto for Gaither Carlton's Little Sadie.

With E.C. Ball's version of Pretty Polly we are given one of the least menacing versions of this tune ever recorded, but he's doing something on the guitar that gives the effect of having sympathetic strings. It makes for an odd effect. If I knew Hindustani guitar master, Debashish Bhattacharya, I'd certainly play this track for him just to see his reaction.

With 33 tracks, most of them great, I could be here all day giving a track-by-track rundown, but no one wants to read that and it'd take a long time for me to write it. However, no review of this disc could be complete without dumping a ton of praise on Lloyd Chandler's heart-stopping, bone-chilling version of Conversation With Death. This is what the music of the hills is all about. This is one of the definitive "solo vocal" mountain recordings ever, in my opinion. Four minutes of freeze-you-in-your-tracks soulful, tortured perfection.

On this disc you get everyone from Sidna Myers to Dellie Norton to Dillard Chandler to Wade Ward, plus everyone mentioned above. The bottom line is that you should own this disc. If you found this disc then you're obviously interested in this sort of thing, and if you are, you will not be disappointed.

Stunning
This is, quite simply, one of the finest recordings ever put out of authentic Appalachian rural music. It's my personal number one favorite of all, but that's just my opinion. Irregardless, it's one of the top five on probably anyone's list. It's difficult to know what to call this music - it's not bluegrass, it's not folk, is it old time? Well, this is old time before anyone used the phrase. This is the germ, the center, the core. In my opinion, all other old time recordings flow out from here. Get this, then get "Mountain Music of Kentucky", and go from there. This album flipped all the lights on for me and permanently changed the way I look at music: not as something done for idle entertainment, but as a gush of blood that comes out of the soul.