Appalachian music reviews

In this age of non-imaginative "street-based" songwriting, it is nice to see that there are still some artists that remember the music that provided the soundtrack of this country's history. They remain faithful to the original style and instrumentation, yet give it a nice new sound. Definitely a must-have for any serious music listener. Take a listen, and return to a better, simpler time in our nation's history.

This is by far the best CD Stella has ever released. The songs are all familiar and the harmony vocalists are incredible. If you like Gospel music you must have this CD.

Timeless classics played on handcrafted instruments: acoustic guitar, mandolin, dobro, autoharp, high string guitar and bass.

Sure to be a Christmas classic! Played on either handmade or vintage insturments, the tones to their songs are unforgetable!

A superb selection of favorite gospel songs and medelies. The gentle string instuments make for easy listening, but I can not help singing along as I catch the tune. The easy transitions between songs and the familiar melodies transport me back to my family sing alongs and comfortable church gatherings of times gone by.

Weve been planning our wedding for so long now, and it seems like there's no way we can please everybody that'll be there. The cake, the church, the flowers, yikes! It's good to find this wedding album that has the songs we want, but played in a style that our family and friends will notice. I love the strings and the guitars and how happy it all sounds.

British music mixed with African drum beats in Virginia. This is the British side saved. Only fifty years ago in Saltville, Virginia the British Ballad was being sung like it had been for several hundred years. Texas Gladden was the keeper of the flame. She is gone and so is the music. There is probably no body left that can sing these songs with this much honesty and authenticity. Allen Lomax should get the Nobel Peace Prize for saving all this music

I first heard of Jean Ritchie through a video on old time music and this is the first cd i've been able to find of her recordings, the other ones are already out of print. If you love old time mountain music or traditional bluegrass, you will want this cd in your collection. Jean has one of the purest voices that i've ever heard in mountain style music. The only other Person that comes to mind is Anita Carter. There both Appalachian Angels in my opinion.

This was one of the first real Old Time CDs I ever bought, years ago. I had heard amazing things about Tommy Jarrell and as soon as I put it on, I knew why. TJ is not a smooth fiddler, and he does not produce the world's greatest tone. But what he does... oh, the rhythm! The bowing! The soul! TJ encompasses the true spirit of traditional music. Fred C. puts some great banjo on these tunes which he knows just as well as Tommy. In fact, both these fellas were masters of both banjo & fiddle. That's one thing I never did figure out. Why not do some with switched instruments? Doesn't matter, it's a gem and all lovers of old time music should own this.

I enjoy this CD. It's been an inspiration to me and my husband. We met The Moody Brothers in France on vacation while they were working at EuroDisney in 1997. They're a great group with good harmony. Sailor, Soldier, Christian is my favorite song written by Carlton and David. Paul and Silas is another good track. I would highly encourage anyone who likes up-tempo Christian Country Music to buy this CD. You'll love it!

This CD contains a superb selection of old-time string music and vocals from an era that currently seems to be overlooked by the country-western crowd, and, to a certain extent,even the bluegrass affcionados. Some of the recordings in the mix are obviously dated and not the highest quality, but these are countered by crystal-clear performances by such greats as the New Lost City Ramblers, Mike Seeger, George Pegram, the Spare Change Boys, Mother Maybelle Carter and Doc Watson. This CD contains fiddle tunes, waltzes, cloggin' tunes, spirituals, instrumentals and vocals that are pure and totally acoustic. I love putting this CD in my truck, rolling down the windows, opening the moon roof, and cranking up the volume, drowning out the hip-hop coming from the hoopdies in the other lane. It's a fantastic selection.

In this, the fourth of a series of collections culled from Smithsonian Folkways' massive archives, the focus is on the deep mountain music of masters famous and obscure, and the quality is uniformly high. Another plus is Jeff Place's excellent liner notes, which include informative annotations to each song or tune and performance. All told, this is the sort of thing that ought to make any devotee of Southern roots sounds very, very happy.

The performances come from both rural and revival artists, but the difference is academic, and the two meld into a seamless whole. Inevitably, a few songs are old, albeit never unwelcome, reliables, such as Dock Boggs's "Country Blues" and Clarence Ashley's "Little Sadie," but there are plenty of surprises, too. One has Maybelle Carter and Sara Carter Bayes reunited in the 1960s to do, interestingly, a song associated with the Delmore Brothers. The wonderful late-1960s LP -- never reissued in its entirety as a CD -- that Cousin Emmy recorded with the New Lost City Ramblers is tapped for an energetic, assured rendition of "Bowling Green" (also memorably sung elsewhere by the revivalist duo the Kossoy Sisters, and not to be confused with the Everly Brothers song of the same name). Roscoe Holcomb's "Trouble in Mind" is almost disorienting in its intensity, transforming a familiar song into something else entirely. There's Wade Ward's rocking banjo instrumental "Chilly Winds" (aka "Going Down This Road Feeling Bad") and Etta Baker and Cora Phillips's gorgeous banjo/guitar duet "Jaybird March." And there's everything else, too. If you're looking for mountain music at its peak, Smithsonian Folkways has -- as usual -- brought you there.