Appalachian music reviews

Few genres of music have been so shoddily reissued as Southern Gospel, the white style of religious music that began in the early 20th century. This impressive four CD box sets out to correct some of that oversight. The groups here are mostly country groups, singers that also had careers in the hillbilly field as it was then known. There are some impressive gospel sides on this set, most importantly the Phipps singers and Alfred Karnes. (The Document cds of these artists were recently deleted, so it nice to have the sides back in print.) Very welcome are cuts by the Laurel Firemen and Vaughan quartets, though much more of the white quartet material needs to be reissued to have a fuller appreciation of the genre. If you enjoy country style gospel and are interested in the history of early Southern Gospel, this is a set you need to add to your collection.

Playing Time - 64:28 -- At first glance, one has to chuckle at the subtitle of this album, "Stars of Old Time Music." Perhaps with a few more "O, Brother Where Art Thou" and "Cold Mountain" movies, old-time music will have its stars, but I think that's still a long ways off. Twenty-one cuts pulled from Rounder Record releases spanning from 1972-2005 comprise this sampler. The "stars" featured are among the best purveyors of this genre of music - Ola Belle Reed, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Mike Seeger, Doc Watson, Hazel Dickens, Etta Baker, Ginny Hawker, Blue Sky Boys, and others. Similar to another Rounder old-time music sampler "Come to the Mountain: Old-Time Music for Modern Times," this album provides thoughtful liner notes (by Scott Alarik), artist descriptions, and credits for each song.

This old-time mountain music is performed by ordinary folk, with plenty of emotional electricity and without any grandstanding. The vocals particularly impart an intensity that is emotionally-charged. Most tracks feature solo vocals, although it's nice to hear a few cuts with harmonies, such as "If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again" (Blue Sky Boys) and "Time Are Not What They Used to Be"( Ginny Hawker and Hazel Dickens). There is even a one-minute song, "The Traveller" featuring sacred harp singers of Georgia and Alabama.

"Cripple Creek" (Mike Seeger & Etta Baker), "Sweet Sunny South" (fiddled by Buddy Thomas), "Midnight on the Water" (Ralph Blizzard and the New Southern Ramblers), "Cruel Willie" (Connie & Babe and the Backwoods Boys) and "Bully of the Town" (guitar by Etta Baker) are the instrumentals among the cuts. Major record label samplers like this one are welcome entries in their catalog of offerings. The multitude of songs resonates with authenticity of our deepest musical traditions.

As producer Ken Irwin once said, "In thinking about how to sell the music, I came up with the idea of `Stars of Old Time Music,' and we all liked it. For those who don't know the old-time music scene, they might actually buy it thinking it was what it sounded like and for those who knew the scene, they'd see it as being tongue in cheek....When I was growing up, we used to collect trading cards, and the matched sets were highly valued. You tried to collect all of those with the same frame or the same look or whatever. With some of the reissues, we have been successful reaching some of the newer fans to the music by putting together compilations of quality music with a similar look to them hoping that people who had enjoyed the earlier ones would take a chance on the newer ones."

The compilations from this record label are a great way to showcase many singularly impressive talents. Find your favorites among the sampled artists, and then buy their complete albums to explore them further. (Joe Ross, staff writer, Bluegrass Now)

You might call me a biased jamband fan, but YMSB's music cannot be denied. YMSB is a some sort of offspring of bluegrass, and their hard hitting lyrics and perfect delivery mesh well. They play with so much passion and energy, and they are a just plain fun to listen to. This a four member band headed by a mandolin(Jeff Austin), stand up bass(Ben Kaufman), Banjo(Dave Johnston), and acoustic guitar(Adam Aijala). They also had a special guest David Anger on the fiddle which added a nice touch to the band. This cd is massive and includes 23 tracks, with many of them spanning over 7 minutes. YMSB isn't a band that takes itself too seriously and throughout the cd they joke around and are hilarious. These songs are the best songs on the cd in order of importance.

1)Traffic Jam- catchy, contaigious, and fast paced. A slow build up to about 1 1/2 minutes then they really do some heavy jamming, and don't stop for the rest of the song. Great fiddling and banjo work throughout. Superb! Great JAM!

2) Peace of Mind- a little slow to get to the jam but well worth it. Intersting fiidle work to start it out and then it blossoms into a nice groove that flows perfectly into Snow on the Pines.

3) Snow on the Pines- great build up and rhythm. Some of my favorite lyrics in the cd. EXCELLENT mandolin pickin. So catchy i got to put this song on now.

4) Kentucky Mandolin- great fiddle/mandolin tune. Great bass solo near the end that has this funky groove carring on, very chill. At the end of the song YMSB are just plain hilarious, and every time I hear their dog hollars I crack up.

5) Bloody Mary Morning- I love this cover, nough said. All YMSB really were on.

6) Left Me In a Hole-straight up bluegrass, and is a very fun and happy tune.

7) Little Rabbit- Again this song is just appealing, more blugrass-esque but has a long extended jam. Dave Johnston carries the tune along with the banjo and never lets up.

I wish i had the patience to write a review on every song, but believe every song is worth while. Luckily I got see YMSB at the FoX theatre, and they are amazing live. They offer alot of crownd interaction unlike many big name jambands. If your into SCI, Phish, Leftover Salmon, Keller Williams, or whatever just check these guys out.

Playing Time - 55:25 (disc 1); 65:47 (disc 2)-- A large contingent of Yonder Mountain String Band fans were out in full force at Planet Bluegrass in Lyons, Colorado in September 2003 for the live recording of this 23-track album at Kinfolk Celebration 2003. The band's distinctive jamgrass sound is supplemented with the expert fiddling of Darol Anger. Four tracks at the end of the 2-CD album also include Rashad Eggleston and Brittany Haas. Regular band members Jeff Austin (mandolin), Dave Johnston (banjo), Adam Aijala (guitar), and Ben Kaufmann (bass) all contribute original material to the band's spirited repertoire. Besides material from Willie Nelson, John Hartford, and Bill Monroe, the band also covers four songs penned by songwriter Benny "Burl" Galloway. The lyrical messages of their original material are interesting. Their material is well-rehearsed and arranged. Not sticking to straight three-chord traditional progressions, YMSB punctuates and accentuates their music with a lot of excitement. The fun they have energizes their audiences.

While quite a few of their songs fit the standard 3-4 minute timeframe ideal for radio airplay, it's interesting to note that they also serve up eight songs that span anywhere from 6 to 10.5 minutes. Spread throughout their sets, these improvisational adventures take us on journeys that ebb and flow like an ocean's tide. In fact, four songs on disc 1 (their first set) progress effortlessly as a medley that spans over 26 minutes. The crowd is left in a wild frenzy. The encore is John Hartford's "Holding," introduced with the advice, "if you're holding, then don't hold out" and accentuated with Anger's pizzicato fiddle. Liner notes are remiss in not identifying who is singing on each song.

Since day one, YMSB has held that their fans, the Kinfolk, are the cornerstone to their success. "Mountain Tracks: Volume 3" is a testament to their ability to incite a crowd to riotous support of acoustic jamgrass music. (Joe Ross, staff writer, Bluegrass Now)

Yonder rocks. This album is another of their well-captured live shows and is deffinitely good tunes. Go see them in concert.

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.

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!