Close To Home: Old Time Music From Mike Seeger's Collection 1952-1967

Mike Seeger

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 17, 1997)
• Original Release Date: June 17, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Smithsonian Folkways
• ASIN: B000001DJW
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #209,386 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Mike Seeger's fame is often overshadowed by his older half-brother Pete Seeger's notoriety, but his contributions to the American folk canon--both as a member of the New Lost City Ramblers and as a song collector--are pretty impressive in their own right. Close to Home is Seeger's hand-picked selection of recordings he made on visits to the south in the 1950's and 60's. It's a refreshing, very well annotated sampler, chock full of previously unreleased old-timey tracks by important artists like Sara & Maybelle Carter, Elizabeth Cotten, Dock Boggs, Wade Ward and Texas fiddler Eck Robertson. Some of the lesser known musicians, though, steal the show--just check out Kilby Snow's stunning autoharp solo, "He Will Set Your Fields on Fire." --Michael Ruby

Product Description

In the 1950's and sixties musician-collector Mike Seeger, inspired by the great folksong collectors of the 1930's, visited traditional musicians of the rural South. This is his handpicked selection of the recordings made during those visits. Included in the 38 selections are previously unreleased recordings by the well-known Sara & Maybelle Carter, Arthur Smith, Elizabeth Cotten, and Dock Boggs, as well as treasures by lesser-known artists. The enclosed booklet contains photographs and notes on the performance, which include virtuoso fiddle, banjo, and guitar music, unaccompanied ballad singing, and a story-teller entertaining his buddies in a fiddler's convention parking lot.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great guide to old time, June 11, 1998

By A Customer

I am fairly new to Old Time music, but I found this album a great resource/roadmap for finding out more about this style & the people who play(ed) it. Many of the artists on the disc are not as obscure & forgotten as I first thought. The fact that the music is recorded live makes it easier to listen to than reissue compilations from poorly remastered 78s and there are some great songs. The liner notes are informative & interesting. I highly recommend this CD.

3.0 out of 5 stars He laid his banjo down and he died, August 11, 2009

By	Pharoah S. Wail (Inner Space) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

With Mike Seeger's death on 8/7/09, we've lost someone who did a great deal to help America discover America. A real America made up of people who worked hard, played and sang hard, lived what they sang about and developed cultural traditions and creativity well above any of the ways they've been misrepresented in the mainstream media.

I've long thought of this as a sister cd to High Atmosphere, though be it a less successful one for my tastes. This disc is softer, overall. It doesn't have as much grit as I generally prefer, though I've still always enjoyed much of it. Wade Ward is one of the all-timers of 20th Century music... but there's more and better of him on High Atmosphere. Remember, all those Boggs recordings Mike mentions in the liner-notes later came out as Dock Boggs: His Folkways Years 1963-1968. Clarence Ashley makes an appearance here, though unlike Boggs who became grittier and more hard-hitting with age, Clarence became smoother. When I crave Clarence, I reach for Greenback Dollar: 1929-1933. This is the disc that first turned me onto autoharp genius Kilby Snow, though even he went on to be much better represented with the release of Masters of Old-Time Country Autoharp.

An understated, subtle highlight for me is Clarence Ferrill's I Would Not Live Always. I've never been able to shake the notion that this guy was a major influence on Bruce Molsky's haunting Man of Constant Sorrow on Fiddlers 4.

Hopefully Smithsonian/Folkways will still see fit to release the full recordings of Wade Ward even though Mike won't be here to light the fuse. All in all, this is a nice little disc but never one that I've been compelled to reach for as often as Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia or Blue Ridge Legacy - The Alan Lomax Portait Series.

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent collection, June 25, 2009

By	Michael J Morris - See all my reviews

Another great release from Smithsonian Folkways. This is an excellent collection of ballads, songs, fiddle tunes and banjo tunes collected by Mike Seeger from ordinary folks in the Southern United States. Recorded by Seeger on a series of trips spanning several decades, there is a nice balance between better known performers like Dock Boggs and more obscure musicians such as J.J. Neece. While some of these artists (Boggs, Sara and Maybelle Carter, Clarence Ashley, etc.) had commercial careers, these are all field recordings - folk music in its natural state.