Tennessee Folklore Society

Tennessee Folklore Society
	Artist Title: Publisher: Format: Price:	Bob Douglas Sequatchie Valley: Seven Decades of Country Fiddling Tennessee Folklore Society LP $8
"Bob Douglas' musical experience is monumental, and, for most fiddle enthusiasts, a thrilling surprise. Born in 1900, he had been a childhood companion to Curly Fox; he recorded for the Victor Company with the Allen Brothers in 1928; he toured with Clayton McMitchen and Carl Cotner through the Midwest; he fiddled against Natchee the Indian, A. A. Gray, and Lowe Stokes and beat them all; he gave the Louvin Brothers their first paying job in country music; Jess Young was his father's close friend; Arthur Smith, Jimmy McCarroll, and Earl Johnson all crossed his path. Three times he has been a guest of the Smithsonian Institution's Festival of American Folklife, and, in 1975, won first place in their national fiddling contest. In 1989 he just won two fiddling contests - the only two he entered that year. "Sequatchie Valley includes archaic solo fiddle pieces, smooth blues, rip-roaring breakdowns, a '50s radio broadcast, and the first recordings of the Louvin Brothers. Bob Douglas' guitar playing is here - the finger-picking style he learned from a young black man in 1917, and backup for his 82 year-old father, Tom Douglas. The raw material for this project was taken from home discs and tape recordings, 78 rpm Victor recordings, 45 and 33 rpm custom-press records, radio station transcription discs, and field recordings from the Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project. In all, seven decades of fiddling are presented by an under-appreciated master musician." - TFS. Includes a glossy 12-page booklet of notes with some great photos.
	Artist Title: Publisher: Format: Price:	The Hicks Family A Cumberland Singing Tradition Tennessee Folklore Society LP $8
"The discovery by folklorist Bobby Fulcher of the remarkable Hicks Family and their unparalleled ballad-singing tradition rates as one of the high points in folklore studies of the late 20th century. This LP features 20 songs performed by various members of the Hicks family and includes a 24-page booklet of notes by Bobby Fulcher and Charles K. Wolfe." - TFS.
	Artist Title: Publisher: Format: Price:	Will Slayden African-American Banjo Songs from West Tennessee Tennessee Folklore Society CD $14
In 1952 Will Slayden was working as a sharecropper in western Tennessee when Charles McNutt stopped by to ask if he could record Slayden's music. Slayden was between 60 and 70 years old at the time and hadn't played banjo in around twenty years, but his name had come up during McNutt's inquiries in Memphis regarding locating local black musicians who played five-string banjo. He had been told that Slayden played "drag thumb" style, a term he hadn't heard previously (nor has he heard it since). Slayden no longer owned a banjo so he borrowed McNutt's and they started recording. His playing is understandably tentative at first, but soon he's getting his chops back and it's exhilarating to hear. By the time we get to "Old Hen Cackled" he's really cooking and clearly having a ball, letting loose with some nimble picking and clucking like a man reborn. The first time I listened to this disc I could almost swear that I heard the rat-a-tat snare beats of the fife-and-drum bands that were popular in that general area. Maybe Slayden played at parties? It sure sounds like dance music sometimes, such as on his rendition of "Shortnin' Bread," where musical and lyrical phrases are repeated frantically with slight variations throughout the song. Slayden's wife Emma, who initially wasn't pleased with the notion of her husband being recorded, joined in to sing a few gospel numbers which give credence to one of my rules of thumb for old-time music: involvement of the wife is a good sign. Not much is known about Will Slayden apart from his music, but the booklet which accompanies the disc, with notes and lyric transcriptions from McNutt and Grammy-winning writer Dr. David Evans, helps to elucidate the situation. And when you consider that these recordings went unreleased for fifty years, we're certainly headed in the right direction.
	Artist Title: Publisher: Format: Price:	Various Artists It's Just the Same Today: The Barnicle-Cadle Field Recordings from Eastern TN and KY Tennessee Folklore Society LP $8
"Mary Elizabeth Barnicle (ca. 1898-1979) was one of the most prodigious recorders of, and educators about, the folklore and folklife of the South. ... The scope of her documentary endeavors is in part reflected in her vast collection of over 600 field recordings; most of these were made on 78 rpm aluminum or acetate discs, often under primitive conditions in remote cabins, country stores, or schoolhouses, between the years of 1935-1951." - TFS. Nice collection of unaccompanied ballad singing and some smoking fiddle breakdowns. Includes a 12-page booklet with notes by Willie Smyth.