Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Georgia Buck - Odell Thompson
2. Corrina
3. Going Down the Road Feeling Bad - Etta Baker
4. Low Baked a Hoe Cake - Libba Cotten
5. Snow a Little, Rain a Little - John Snipes
6. Fox Chase [#] - Dink Roberts
7. Going to Write Me a Letter - Ola Belle Reed
8. Worried Blues - Samantha Bumgarner
9. Mr. Garfield - Bascom Lamar Lunsford
10. Cleveland's Marching to the White House [#]
11. Old Doctor That Fell in the Well [#] - Marvin Gaster
12. Hello Coon [#]
13. Sugar Babe - Scotty Wiseman
14. Reuben's Train - Doc Watson
15. Rambling Hobo - Gaither Carlton
16. Cumberland Gap - Frank Proffitt
17. Roustabout [#] - Fred Cockerham
18. Cotton Eyed Joe
19. John Henry [#] - Tommy Jarrell
20. Lost Indian - Kyle Creed
21. Cripple Creek [#] - Charlie Lowe
22. Under the Double Eagle - Carlie Marion

Disc 2:

1. Blue Ridge Mountain Home [#] - Glenn Davis
2. Little Log Cabin in the Lane [#] - Kelly Sears
3. Royal Clog
4. Arkansas Traveler/Old Black Joe/Sweetheart, Would You Care? [#]
5. Babtist Shout - Frank Jenkins
6. American and Spanish Fandango
7. Shuffle, Feet, Shuffle - Fisher Hendley
8. Missouri Waltz [#]
9. Italian Waltz [#]
10. There'll Come a Time - Charlie Poole
11. Man Who Wrote 'Home Sweet Home' Never Was a Married Man - Mack Woolbright
12. Cotton Mill Blues - Wilmer Watts
13. Come Bathe in That Beautiful Pool - Doc Walsh
14. Biscuits - Arnold Watson
15. Whoa, Mule, Whoa [#] - Hobbie Whitener
16. I Left My Old Home in the Mountains [#] - George Pegram
17. Short Life and It's Trouble - Wade Mainer
18. Nancy Rowland - Snuffy Jenkins
19. Railroad - A.C. Overton
20. Nut Medley: Chinquapin Hunting/Acorn Hill Breakdown [#] - Carroll Best

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #227988 in Music
• Released on: 1998-03-10
• Number of discs: 2

Customer Reviews

Essential for Every Banjo Player
Every banjoist ought to have these CDs. Then again, everyone ought to become a banjoist, or at least one in every home. The selections form a nice picture of the history and development of banjo playing in one of the most banjoeyed areas of the country, North Carolina.

Master banjoist, producer, folklorist, and fashion plate Bob Carlin provides a very serious set of notes and introduction to the CDs and a very nice order to help illustrate the history. Like his books on music--I would recommend his recent book on Carolina Piedmont string bands in which one can see pictures of many of the performers on these CDs and follow the changing context of the music--Carlin tries to present the most information, the most music, and let it talk, without drawing too many conclusions and conjecturs. He has the mark of a man who knows that when you really know something, you know how little we all know.

The first six tunes on the first side are special to me, as Carlin begins with six African American banjo players from North Carolina. They are first, even though the earliest one of these recordings was made in teh 1950s, as part of a statement about the African American origins of the banjo in general, but also of North Carolina banjoing in both clawhammer and finger styles. I particularly love the work here by Dink Roberts, my favorite banjo player.

While the clawhammer and other down picking word on the first CD are important to my ears and my style, I am most impressed with the recordings of finger picking styles on the second CD. I haven't seen or heard much of that kind of banjo playing before. Current old time music banjoists tend to be pretty glued to clawhammer. If they do finger styles it is often the older more archaic styles favored by Dock Boggs or Charlie Poole. Yet, on the second CD we see the rise in both virtuosity and musicality and countriness and bluesiness of finger style banjo in the Carolinas starting from work that was just beyond that of the 19th Century Classic banjoists, to work that was ready for the next step, taken by a Carolina banjoist named Earl Scruggs: BLUEGRASS.

As I have said, this CD set is nice wonderful and listenable music like all banjo music. I realize I might be prejudiced being a man who has gotten 4 banjos in the last 5 years. But then if you listen to this, you might get prejudiced too and get you a banjo or two!

Worth It If You Like Old Time Appalachian Banjo Music
When I first started learning to play the banjo I really didn't know too much about it, I didn't know any one else who played, and had to teach myself (not as hard as it sounds already knowing how to play guitar). At first I started learning bluegrass and 'melodic' clawhammer but it wasn't terribly satisfying and I gave up for about a year. Then I decided to persue some other types of playing which were far more satisfying to play for my own enjoyment. This is the first CD where I really found the style of music I wanted to play. It is known as 'Old Time' banjo. 'Old Time' banjo itself encompases a wide range of styles, some geographically specific, but it is mostly based on the classic 'clawhammer' technique. That's it for the banjo lesson, now for the CD review. Nice music. It's a half/half mix of newer recordings which are nice and clear, and older historical recordings which have poor sound quality. Still, it suited my purpose very well. Of particular interest to me were the follwing performers: Etta Baker, Marvin Gaster, Bertie Dickens, Kelly Sears, Snuffy Jenkins and A.C. Overton. There are other good tunes on here but the abovementioned are my favourites. I also own Kentucky Old Time Banjo (see my review) and Black Banjo Songsters Of North Carolina and Virgina (see my review). In order of enjoyability (is that a real word?) this CD ranks second behind Kentucky Old Time Banjo and better than Black Banjo Songsters etc. . If you're a fan of old time banjo, pick this CD up, it's well worth it. If you're interested in learning old time banjo I suggest you buy at least this and Kentucky Banjo.

Six stars for NC Banjo Collection
This 2-CD set is one of Bob Carlin's finest preservation/reissue recordings. I'd had a copy for 10 years & misplaced it during a move & missed it greatly. North Carolina truly is banjo country and anyone interested in the history of banjo music in the state needs to have this well-documented, well presented set. You will hear many styles of banjo from all corners of the state, from the coast to the mountains--from the well-known clawhammer/down stroke styles, to the equally wonderful variety of home-grown & individualized fingerpicking styles. I live in the Piedmont where fingerpicking/uppicking was once quite popular (Charlie Poole!) & refer to it often for inspiration.