Customer Reviews

The Unsung Father Of Country Music 1925-1934

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This is a wonderful two disc collection of 46 songs by early Country Music pioneer Ernest V. Stoneman. It should, if there's any justice controlling the music world, provoke a deeper recognition in early country music fans, and in anyone interested in the history of American music, of the value of Stoneman's contributions. The entire package makes the case, and makes it well, that Stoneman has at least as much a claim on the title of Father of Country Music as more well-known pioneers such as Charlie Poole and Jimmy Rodgers. Stoneman avoided the personal excesses of the former and lacked the superstar status and distinctive personality of the latter. Moreover, as Henry Sapoznik's liner notes point out, Ralph Peer's continued over-eager marketing of Rodgers after his death helped create a mythology around Rodgers that still frames our assessment of the development of early country music. This box-set is a giant step forward in the efforts to retrieve Stoneman from relative obscurity and to develop a greater appreciation for his gifts as a songwriter, arranger, and recording artist.

He recorded on a number of different labels and with a variety of outfits, which contributes to the diverse and highly textured sound of this collection. In addition to recording solo, Stoneman recorded with groups featuring members of his family, including his wife Hattie on fiddle. He also cut sides with Galax, Va. brothers Herbert and Earl Sweet and with father and son team Frank and Oscar Jenkins, from North Carolina.

Stoneman was a multi-instrumentalist, manning not only the guitar but the autoharp and banjo as well. Songs such as "The Titanic" and "The Wreck on the C&O" feature Stoneman on his autoharp and self-accompaniment on harmonica. The slightly eerie drone of the autoharp on the "The Titanic" befits its subject matter. Stoneman's crisp guitar work, featured on many of the tracks, is full of the active bass-run style that characterizes Old-Timey guitar playing. The rich variety of musical styles used by Stoneman and his rotating cast of bandmates is impressive. The discs feature recordings of fiddle tune standards, ballads, gospel numbers like "The Resurrection," and hillbilly vaudeville bits.

The packaging is attractive and informative, including pithy annotations for all of the songs. The twenty page essay by Sapoznik is well-written and lively, telling Stoneman's story and providing the sort of historical background and cultural context that help bring the tracks to life. Scattered throughout the package are photographs of Stoneman and his family, reproductions of early twentieth century postcard images of western Virginia, and ancient advertising images. The re-mastering work of the original 78 records by Christopher King is excellent; the tracks have minimal crack and hiss. In fact, they suggest that the aesthetic principle guiding his transfer work is that noise should be minimized, but not at the price of allowing the recordings to lose their character precisely as 78s. Pass this one by at your peril, Old-Timey Music fans.

The sound of a phonograph needle settling into the crackling groove of a timeworn 78 rpm record opens this 2-CD retrospective of early country music pioneer Ernest "Pop" Stoneman. The needle drop has become a signature of sorts for Christopher King, the Grammy-winning compiler of 2007's "People Take Warning! Murder Ballads and Disaster Songs, 1913-1938," as well as 2003's "Charlie Patton: Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues." Together with award-winning author and musicologist Henry "Hank" Sapoznik, King has crafted a series of CD compilations that faithfully reproduce the tinny sounds of phonograph records from the early 20th century, warts and all. There is almost no digital cleanup to speak of; the hiss, crackle, and pop of time and age is an indelible part of the presentation, as vital to the music as the players and instruments.

In the case of King's latest release, "Ernest V. Stoneman: The Unsung Father of Country Music," the surface noise of the old original 78s acts as a kind of portal into an earlier time, coloring the music in the sepia tones of a long gone age. Collecting tracks recorded between 1925 and 1934, this beautiful package (including a book of extensive pictures and liner notes handsomely designed by Susan Archie) serves as an overview of Stoneman's unsung career. Born in Carroll County, Virginia in 1893, Stoneman was one of the earliest country music journeymen of his day, playing a variety of instruments (most notably the guitar, autoharp, and banjo) and writing his own songs. His recordings from the mid-1920s for such labels as OKeh and Victor helped bring Blue Ridge mountain music to a wider audience. Stoneman was also a key player in the now legendary Bristol sessions, in which such imminent country acts as the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers were recorded for the very first time.

Some of Ernest Stoneman's more dire tales of death and disaster, such as "The Wreck of the Old '97" and his first and only hit, "The Titanic," appeared on last year's celebrated "People Take Warning!" Those songs return here as examples of his torn-from-the-headlines disaster balladry, but this collection demonstrates how versatile a songwriter Stoneman was by displaying a wide selection of musical styles. Tragic odes to gruesome railroad accidents ("The Fate of Talmadge Osborne") vie with raucous fiddle reveries ("West Virginia Highway" and "Flop Eared Mule"). Joyous gospel hymns such as "Are You Washed in the Blood?" and "There's a Light Lit Up in Galilee" put one in mind of long-forgotten baptisms by the riverside and rural one-room churches, while hillbilly comedy skits like "Possum Trot School Exhibition" and "Old Time Corn Shuckin'" provide the perfect antidote of country store whimsy and moonshine mirth. Tales of lost love and courtship like "Too Late" and "The Spanish Merchant's Daughter" hang in the air with the cloying sweetness of maple syrup, revealing an innocence and naivete long extinct in this modern world.

This is the original country music, born in the hills of southwestern Virginia long before country music became synonymous with Nashville. Music that is smooth yet deceptively strong, like the finest corn liquor. Fans of the Carter Family, Dock Boggs, the Skillet Lickers, Charlie Poole, and Jimmie Rodgers will be inevitably drawn to the sweet lilting sounds of Stoneman, as will anyone with a desire to hear rural roots music in its infancy. This music surpasses its own time and place and lives on through the strange alchemy of the phonograph needle and the dusty old 78.

For some time I survived on the County Records Stoneman collection, but this collection gives the listener direct access to Stoneman's truly diverse talents. The ripping, romping "Long Ear Mule" is reason enough to get the discs. Then there's the hilarious "Religious Critic," forerunner to the light comic sensibility of modern country music. But the king of them all, for me, is Stoneman's version of "The Wreck of the '97," by far the best version of the tune I've heard. Its quick guitar runs and syncopated fiddle/harmonica break perfectly captures the tragedy of speed.

The packaging is suberb, and the remastering is excellent.

If you even think you like old-timey country, you got to get this in your ears ASAP.

I don't like much, but I really like this set. Saved me literally years and hundred of dollars looking for old 78's. But more impressive is the notes which provide context for what you're actually listening to. Highest recommendation possible.

If you want to understand the history and roots of American music, you have to know how country music came to be. With this CD set, you will get the story of one of country's founding fathers and most brilliant performers.

This is an astounding work. Stoneman was one of the early creators of what we now call country music and his accomplishments were nearly forgotten. He was the first A&R guy, the progenitor of the modern singer-songwriter, an accomplished singer and instrumentalist and his children went on to be great musicians. But until this set, only collectors of old records and country music scholars were truly aware of his importance.

Chris King and Hank Sapoznik have rectified this injustice. By picking his best recordings and expertly gleaning the music from the old discs, they have made his work accessible to modern ears. And the notes put his career and accomplishments in context. His life was a story that couldn't have made up: rags to riches to rags to riches.

Can't recommend it highly enough.

This is just an amazing collection. King and Sapoznik have absolutely nailed it in terms of identifying Stoneman's importance to American music. As always, they have also provided impeccable selection of material, great remastering, and well-written, intelligent notes.