Track Listing

1. Shaking off the Acorns - Mike Seeger
2. Leaving Tennessee - Tim O'Brien, Mike Seeger
3. Memory of Your Smile - David Grisman, Maria Muldaur, Mike Seeger
4. Only Remembered - Kate Brislin, Larry Hanks, Mike Seeger, Jody Stecher
5. Mayor Is Good Old Boy - Hank Bradley, Mike Seeger, Sue Thompson
6. Boat's Up the River - David Reed, Mike Seeger
7. East Virginia Blues - Jack Cooke, Mike Seeger, Ralph Stanley
8. They're at Rest Together - Hazel Dickens, Tom Gray, Mike Seeger
9. Ballad of Hollis Brown - Bob Dylan, Mike Seeger
10. Oh My Little Dutch Girl - Jimmie Driftwood, Mike Seeger
11. Deep Shady Grove - Jean Ritchie, Mike Seeger
12. Cripple Creek - Etta Baker, Mike Seeger
13. Oldtime Sally Ann - Paul Brown, Paul Brown, Tommy Jarrell, Mike Seeger
14. Rose in the Mountain - Carol Elizabeth Jones, James Leva, Mike Seeger, David Winston
15. Little Cabin Home on the Hill - Carol Elizabeth Jones, Mike Seeger
16. Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender - Mike Seeger, Peggy Seeger
17. 900 Miles - Mike Seeger, Pete Seeger
18. Savoy Family Waltz - Michael Doucet, Marc Savoy, Mike Seeger
19. I'm Going to the West - Mike Seeger, Peggy Seeger, Penny Seeger
20. Bound Steel Blues - The New Lost City Ramblers, Mike Seeger
21. Brown's Ferry Blues - John Jackson, Mike Seeger
22. You've Been a Friend to Me - Janette Carter, Joe Carter, , , Mike Seeger
23. Frog Heaven - Sandy Bradley, Mike Seeger, Phil Williams, Vivian Williams

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #122242 in Music
• Released on: 1994-10-10
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
The CD includes 23 songs, each featuring Seeger on vocals, mandolin, banjo, guitar, fiddle, autoharp, ukelele, and/or jaw harp. His old-timey trio, the New Lost City Ramblers, who have never officially broken up despite long lulls of inactivity, reassemble for a spirited version of "Bound Steel Blues." Seeger joins his sisters Peggy and Penny for two songs and his step-brother Pete for a terrific version of "900 Miles." The Ramblers, Peggy, Pete, Hazel Dickens and Maria Muldaur, Michael Doucet and Marc Savoy, mandolin virtuoso David Grisman, bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, Kentucky balladeer Jean Ritchie, Kathy Mattea's songwriter Tim O'Brien, and others all make guest appearances.

Perhaps the most notable collaboration is a new recording of "The Ballad of Hollis Brown," with Bob Dylan singing his 1963 song in his older, darker voice, and Seeger giving it a prickly banjo backing. Just as moving in its own way is "They're at Rest Together," a gospel eulogy for T.B. victims sung by Seeger and Dickens with a firm bass line by the Seldom Scene's Tom Gray. Another special moment is "Brown's Ferry Blues," originally done by the Delmore Brothers but given a ragtime spryness by Piedmont bluesman John Jackson. Muldaur redoes the Stanley Brothers' "The Memory of Your Smile" as if it were a Bessie Smith tune; Grisman and Seeger provide the bluesy picking behind her. All 23 tracks--mostly recorded in '93-'94 but some as old as 1980--prove not just the continuing vitality of traditional acoustic music but its tremendous diversity as well. --Geoffrey Himes

Customer Reviews

Great samples of Mike's playing with friends.
If you are a fan of the late Mike Seeger, and/or old time music, I highly recommend this CD. It really does feel as if he is in your living room playing with his friends and family. And what's not to like about the cut with Bob Dylan singing "The Ballad of Hollis Brown"?