Customer Reviews

Old-Time Music From West Virginia (1927-1929)

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These are superb vintage bluegrass and blues numbers performed by "old-time" white artists of prodigious talent. The Williamson Brothers and Curry steal the show, for this listener, with their perpetual-motion bluegrass highlighted by the wonderful train song "Cumberland Gap" ("Can't find water to wash your face") and "Gonna Die with My Hammer In My Hand," a superior version of "John Henry" featuring a backbeat that cries out for, but does just fine without, some Sun Studio echo. Dick Justice, a guitar-and-vocal master of many vocal timbres, plays blues and circle-of-fifths ballads that would have sounded at home thirty years later at Woodstock. In fact, on the number "Henry Lee," a compendium of murder-ballad motifs, Justice sounds enough like Bob Dylan to BE Bob Dylan. Frank Hutchison, every bit as nimble in his ragtime-style picking and a gifted slide guitarist to boot, growls his way through less colorful, but equally fun, ballads, highlighted by "The Chevrolet Six," which he portrays as the moonshiner's getaway car of choice. The sound quality is mostly very good, and astounding in spots. The tiny number of badly-worn sides are, I'd assume, in such condition owing to their rarity. We should rejoice that this wonderful music has survived at all. Get this!

I am very lucky to have grown up with this music in my life. My Dad and Uncle would be so pleased and happy to know of the appreciation shown to their efforts. I am the daughter of Ervin,who sings lead and plays guitar, and the neice of Arnold who played fiddle on these recordings. Thanks to the efforts of everyone involved in finding and publishing this music. Gratefully, Helen Williamson