Country Blues > Down the Dirt Road

Gems from the Lomax collection

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jostber:
Another gem from Lomax here, from Haiti:

http://www.document-records.com/alan-lomax-haiti.asp

banjochris:

--- Quote from: davek on February 12, 2010, 12:38:24 PM ---
From Vol 1 what really caught my ear was Pretty Polly by Estil Ball.  It is sung in a style similar to Doc Watson, and nicely fingerpicked, using some  unusual bass line patterns.  The guitar is beautifully recorded.  Playing in D, maybe drop D or open D, but I think it is more playable in standard for me.  I don't hear the low D in the recording.  The song is modal, so the guitar rarely leaves D.  For me this is wild and instructive, because the vocal clearly moves to the IV chord. 

--- End quote ---

Dave, try capoing up and playing it out of C position. The bass notes will fit right into C and G shapes. I have another recording of Ball playing Pretty Polly (on an excellent album recorded by John Cohen called High Atmosphere) and on that recording he plays it out of E position, using the exact same bass notes and accompaniment pattern, but with the occasional minor-major third hammer on on the G string, which gives it something of a different feel.

Southern Journey Vol. 2 has some excellent old-time music, including more from Ball and some playing from the great Hobart Smith.
Chris

uncle bud:
I second Chris's recommendation of the old-time focused Southern Journey Vol. 2. Not only does it have the Hobart Smith material he mentions, but a number of tracks from Wade Ward playing both solo and with Charlie Higgins and others.

Johnm:
Hi all,
Sorry for a bit of thread creep, but E.C. Ball made two wonderful albums with his wife, Orna Mae, for Rounder in the early '70s, with lots of excellent guitar-playing and terrific hymn-singing.  The great guitarist and guitar maker Wayne Henderson knew and was influenced by Estil Ball, growing up with the Balls as neighbors.
All best,
Johnm

uncle bud:
Recorded on one of John Lomax's field recording trips made without Alan, in June of 1936 at the State Farm in Lynn, Virginia, Jimmie Strothers is one of those musicians we're just damn lucky got recorded, because he disappears after that. (In this case, recorded by Harold Spivacke, who manned the equipment that day.) Almost nothing is known about him. Apparently when Lomax arrived at the State Farm, the warden had arranged for a quartet to perform for the visitors. Only problem was they were terrible. On the steps of the warden's house, however, was a blind banjo player and Lomax eventually zeroed in on him, getting rid of the quartet. "[T]o Spivacke's amazement" Lomax "did nothing but talk to him for hours. Lomax encouraged the blind musician to tell his life story, 'swapped songs with him and did everything but make records'..." This was Jimmie Strothers.

His recorded repertoire, played mostly on banjo with a couple songs on guitar, suggests he was not very young and very much a link to the end of the nineteenth century, and includes versions of Cripple Creek (as Thought I Heard My Banjo Say) and Tennessee Dog. It's a mix of folk songs, minstrel material and religious songs, even some dirty material like Poontang Little, Poontang Small, and an 8-bar blues called Going to Richmond that stretches to a remarkable 6 minutes. A loose and rhythmic player with a rich voice, Strothers is a joy to listen to and only makes you wish he'd been recorded much more.

There's only 14 or so tracks, some quite short. Some are found on the Alan Lomax Collection - Deep River of Song series - Virginia and the Piedmont - Minstrelsy, Work Songs, and Blues. Most of it, with the exception of Going to Richmond, is available on the Document CD, Field Recordings Vol. 1: Virginia (1936-1941) DOCD-5575. Richmond is on the Deep River of Song disc.

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