I got Spencer Moore's album in the mail today. I don't know much about him, so I won't pretend to -- instead, here is a crop from the Tompkins Square Records site:
88 year old country singer Spencer Moore played a tent show with the Carter Family in the 30's, and was recorded in 1959 by Alan Lomax, who called him "as genuine as a rail fence." This is his debut album.
It's great. I mean really,
really great. There are some old standards ("May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister?," "Wildwood Flower," etc), and a few original tunes on it, but not a single track that I haven't liked.
I'll be honest - the guitar playing isn't perfect. His vocals are strained with age. His phrases is...well, creative. But the overall package is so good (is "authentic" still a dirty word here?) that these things don't bother me.
I won't wax poetic much more, except to say that anyone who enjoy early American music would probably appreciate this album as much as I have. I hope the guys at Tompkins Square keep digging and find more treasures like this one. You can hear a sample song on the site here:
http://www.tompkinssquare.com/spencer_moore.html(This is an album review, but it's not country blues, so I stuck it here. Mods, please feel free to move it if it would be more appropriate in "Album Reviews.")
