Customer Reviews

High Lonesome Sound

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4 star:		(1)
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My wife gave me this recording several years ago as a birthday gift. After listening to it once or twice (and reading the fascinating and impassioned liner notes), I set it aside as odd, strange, and most peculiar. Although Mr. Holcomb is a fluid instrumentalist, his voice is so high and unusual that I did not see how his songs could bear repeated listening.

I was wrong, about as wrong as a body could be. A couple of years later, I picked up the recording again and listened to it with care. The peculiar and high-pitched voice grows on you, and the powerful and honest delivery is moving in the most compelling way. I now think that Roscoe Holcomb stands on a par with Blind Willie Johnson (in his time an equally obscure and strange singer) as one of the greatest exponents of American-born and bred music. This recording grows on you. I'm extremely grateful that this legacy of Holcomb's great artistry has been preserved for those of us who did not have the joy of listening to his searing voice and delivery while he still lived.

Roscoe Holcomb's music is not typical, or just a sampling of some traditional archaic musician playing on his back porch. ROSCOE HOLCOMB WAS A GREAT ARTIST. HE WAS A GREAT SINGER, A UNIQUE AND FLUID BANJO PLAYER, AND A GUITARIST WHO WAS STARTLING AND UNIQUE, AND NO SLOUCH ON THE HARMONICA. He has a way of selecting verses and tying them together in a special way that make songs his own, even if they have been done 1000 times by 10000 other singers. Anyone who hears his version of Old Smokey can understand that.

He had a way of infusing feeling into his music, and music into his feelings that few singers have. Back in the day, Eric Clapton used to talk about how Roscoe was his favorite singer, later Eric claimed only his favorite white country singer, but, that is a pretty high ranking.
Roscoe's music is not as some here have thought, something you would have heard 100 years ago. Holcomb's music involved a synthesis between Black blues music and some of the white traditonal music no celtic recording could capture In fact, when asked to describe himself Roscoe would always say he was a blues singer as people who knew him in his community would also describe himself. His ears have found not only traditional styles, but the recordings of Jimmie Rogers and the Stanley Brothers. He is clearly in dialogue with recording commercial country and blues music and with African American styles on the banjo and open tuning guitar.
This is like fine wine. Myself, I can only listen to it certain times,otherwise, all I will want to do is play Roscoe's songs in Roscoe's style when I perform myself.
This is a great artist, a man not just typical of some genre or culture, but a man with special talents to make that speak and sing in a special way.
Everyone with ears should have this CD.
We should give special thanks to John Cohen, the photographer, the musican, the New Lost City Rambler who worked to get out these original recordings, and who then worked to compile this collection on CD and got them to put it out.
Thanks John
PS does anyone know if John's Film "The High Lonesome Sound" is available on video.

This music is so authentic it can almost be called a field recording. He lived this music, and he lived through this music. Here is a prime example of music intertwined with life, the way it should be for all of us. It is true music, warts and all. This is not Hollywood, nor is it "O Brother, where Art Thou?" You feel his joy and pain through his voice and through his playing (he even plays a damaged banjo on one of the tracks, which only enhances the music in the context). The songs have a feeling of meaty catharsis, of real unrequited pain, but where there's grieving there's also healing. To call it depressing is to miss half of the show. This music is true pain and true joy. "Trouble in Mind" sums it up very well. The healing power of music is well demonstrated here.

I've played this for a friend, and he asked me "How can you stomach this?" My answer was "How can I NOT stomach this?"

Buy it. It will grow on you.

Roscoe Holcomb spent most of his life as a coal miner and construction worker. He was never a professional musician.

This is not packaged music. It is intense and powerful. It is profound and disturbing. Once you've heard it, this music will haunt you for the rest of your life.

The weird modal and atonal singing found on this cd will just absolutely chill your blood. "Otherworldy" is an overused adjective--- but, it's not only acurate but an understatement in the case of this disc. Roscoe imbues these ancient tunes with a hard-won honesty. These are absolutely magical. There is no one who sings this way. They will haunt you forverer. Makes the Palace Bros. sound like the Backstreet Boys.

This is traditional music at its very best. Not easy to listen to at first but the more you play the more you feel something of the grinding poverty found in many regions of the USA and how people of great spirit overcame it through faith and music. Both moving and inspirational this is one of the all time great albums. Fantastic.

I was first introduced to the music of Roscoe Holcomb when I became interested in folk music in the early 1960's. I regard his recording of "Little Bessie" to be amongst the best recorded songs I have ever heard. I was fortunate enough to attend a raucus Gary Davis concert in Edmonton, Alberta in 1970?, and that is about the only time I have ever seen a man deliver as heart felt songs as Roscoe did on the "High Lonesome Sound." And I would like to add an unmeasurable thanks to the Folkways people for the incredible gift they have given the world.

The title characterizes the music; it's high lonesome music at its best. No high tech mixing, just honest, straight from the heart music that has been passed down from generation to generation, with Roscoe Holcomb's distinct voice and style of play. A must for the serious "old-timey" music collector.

I'm not gonna get up on my high horse like some people do on these Amazon reviews, but I will say this: The High Lonesome Sound is a CD I have never gotten sick of. It is probably the best bluegrass/old timey album I've ever bought.
Holcomb's vocals, particularily on the first track, give me goose bumps every time I hear it. His harmonica playing and banjo picking is distinctive and first rate. If you are a fan of older music, bluegrass, blues or country... BUY THIS CD!

Roscoe Holcomb is the real McCoy and my grandmother was a Kentucky McCoy who loved this sort of singing. I grew up with it and have heard most of the good ones, but Roscoe surely is at or near the pinnacle. This keening type of music is not for everyone, but if you love it, like it, or just are interested in it, you won't find a better performer in the genre than Roscoe Holcomb. He is high - makes Del McDoury, who is one of my best favorites, sound like a bass or a baritone, at least - and the sound does sound as though he is lonesome and soon, you are too. Roscoe's music hails back to the days before bluegrass became big, before Roy Acuff, and before the impossibly tight harmonies of Flatt and Scruggs, all of whose music grew out of the type that Roscoe lays out. Its hard to imagine a more just flat out enjoyable disk than this one.