Customer Reviews

Hollerin'

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one the most educational and entertaining recordings on the market! Explored as a true art form and a pragmatic communication device, Hollern' calls your ears to attention. I love this album for it's wealth of folk history found in many stories told by local winners of the National Hollern' Contest in Spivey's Conrner, North Carolina. I adore this album for it's no holds barred musicianship from every single hollerin' fool with thier personal renditions of familiar tunes. The highest notes are pure melismatic bliss! Recorded on location in North Carolina in 1975 and 1976, these recording are a treasure of American musical folk idioms, unique and mostly now forgotten. A holler may simply communicate some request or statement. A holler could be a way to embellish and enjoy an old tune. The greatest hollers satisfy both purposes. You have not lived until you've sat down and heard these champions holler!

The only remaining recording of some of the early National Hollerin' Champions and competitors. It should be included in the Library of Congress & National Archives, along with the other documentaries that are already there, if it has not been done already. An updated version with additional recordings of more recent champions would be nice, as well, along with an oral history of the National Hollerin Contest & cultural history of the "almost lost art of hollerin'."

Recorded in 1975, Hollerin' features the unforgettable Leonard Emanuel and others, live at Spivey's Corner North Carolina. The double record set I ordered from Rounder Records came in very handy back when Bunk was still slumming around in apartments. If one of the neighbors were making too much noise, I'd just slap side one on the turntable, crank it up, and laugh and laugh and laugh. Lucky you, it's now available on CD, and well worth the bucks for the entertainment. Try it on your loud neighbors. It works.

Nice to have unique recordings. This one is certainly one of those. It's a good history of a folk custom no longer in existance. Thank you for making it available for purchase.