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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A WINNER FROM THE BAND THAT MADE OLD-TIME MUSIC FUN, June 5, 2000
Submitted for your approval: it's the '70s, and you're an awkward teenager who has just been "initiated" into the little-known parallel universe known as the Old-Time Country Music Revival. In this dimension, the timeframe is permanently locked on the 1920s and '30s-- yet the Revival's festivals, called "FIDDLERS' CONVENTIONS," look like mini-Woodstocks and most of it's participants like Dead Heads... except they're clutching vintage fiddles, guitars, mandolins, upright basses, 5-string banjos and weird "banjoid" instruments, like banjo-ukeleles and banjo-mandolins. All over the given festival's campsite are jam sessions that go on for hours where old friends and new merrily swap obscure tunes learned from scratchy 78 rpm records and field recordings. Then, you mosey on down to the main stage. Check it out-- there are four guys and one gal up there who look like you and your friends, except for one difference; they can play the grits out of this stuff on high-octane and they're having a blast doing it. You've now entered the HIGHWOODS STRING BAND Zone. Thanks to Rounder Records, you can recapture the magic of the Highwoods String Band on this reissue of recordings made from 1972 to 1978. Here you can hear the tight-- but fun-- band arrangements that helped define today's old-time string band sound. Taking the lead are Walt Koken's and Bob Potts' twin fiddling and Mac Benford's racous 5-string banjo, while the rhythm section, made up of Jenny Cleland' bass fiddle and Doug Dorschug's guitar, propels the band and gives it a driving back beat. The Highwoods repertoire are tunes and songs culled mainly from old-time music's Golden Age, the 1920s and '30s, when fiddlers, banjo players and string bands from all over the South were eagerly recorded by the major labels of the day and the Grand Ole Opry was born. Sources include seminal bands, like Uncle Dave Macon & the Fruit Jar Drinkers and Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers, and the great fiddle & guitar duos, such as Grayson & Whittier and Narmour & Smith, too name but a few. Yet, the Highwoods main influence is clearly the racous North Georgia style of Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers. Old-time musicians coming up today could definitely learn a thing or two about performance style and presentation from Highwoods. For example, the Highwoods String Band, emulating their sources, saw themselves as professional performers and were not adverse to using "shtick" like Skillet Licker-style funny skits to introduce numbers and entertain their audiences. Likewise, our current generation of old-time banjo players should follow Mac Benford's example and delve into the rich variety of playing styles found in those early recordings-- ranging from two and three-finger picking to the present-day favorite, clawhammer. The sound quality and production of this album are first rate. My only complaint is that the liner notes tell us nothing about the individual cuts or the sources of the material presented. Be that as it may, I highly recommend this album: it's great for parties and car trips. So, pop FEED YOUR BABY ONIONS into your Shopping Cart... if for no other reason than to find what the heck the title means.
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