Track Listing

1. I've Always Been a Rambler
2. Handsome Molly
3. I Saw a Man at the Close of Day
4. Going Down the Lee Highway
5. Never Be as Fast as I Have Been
6. Omie Wise
7. On the Banks of the Old Tennessee
8. Rose Conley
9. Train 45
10. I'll Never Be Yours
11. Short Life of Trouble
12. Old Jimmy Sutton
13. Tom Dooley
14. Dark Road Is a Hard Road to Travel
15. He Is Coming to Us Dead

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #300952 in Music
• Released on: 1999-04-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.com
Listening to Grayson & Whitter is like getting behind the wheel of one of Henry Ford's original model Ts. Their sound might not be as polished as we're accustomed to in the digital age, but these men were true pioneers of the bluegrass sound. Blind since early childhood, G.B. Grayson used music to support his wife and six children. In search of bills and coins, he showcased his nasal vocals and his high-lonesome fiddling on street corners, in storefronts, and in roadhouses before he met guitarist Henry Whitter at a fiddler's convention in Mountain City, Tennessee. Part songsters, part entertainers, and part storytellers, Grayson & Whitter appeal to history buffs as well as to avid bluegrass listeners who want to explore the genre's late-1920s roots. With only two years' worth of recordings, the duo combined their Appalachian musical roots with the oral tradition to give us several enduring song-stories such as "Going Down the Lee Highway," "Tom Dooley," "Handsome Molly," "Train Forty-Five," and "On the Banks of the Old Tennessee"--all of them country standards. Their performances resound with authenticity, reinforcing their status within country lore. --Andrew Scales

Customer Reviews

One of my Desert Island Discs.
If you don't feel that you have to have every single thing by this essential early country duo, in which case you'd buy the forthcoming Document CDs, then by god, you better own this! Some of the most soulful singing and fiddle playing by the blind Grayson, with the perfection of Whitter's guitar accompaniment.

A "must have"
The work of Grayson & Whitter included on this album is truly a national treasure. If anyone knows where to obtain other recordings of Henry Whitter, whether on CD or record, please let me know at "jones.russell@justice.law.utk.edu". Furthermore, if you are aware of any biographical works on Whitter's life, let me know, for I would be extremely interested in learning more about this bluegrass pioneer.

For a more comprehensive look into the genius of Grayson & Whitter, check out the Complete Recorded Works Vols. 1 and 2. (available on Amazon)