Down to the Cider Mill

Tommy Jarrell

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 11, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: County Records
• ASIN: B000BPK2IE
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #170,430 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist
Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham, and Oscar Jenkins learned their music in the early years of the twentieth century in the mountains of northwestern North Carolina. When these recordings were made in the 1960s and early 70s, these brilliant musicians still maintained very high standards of performance. Tommy’s highly animated and syncopated bowing give a grand lift and dance pulse to his playing and the compelling plaintive inflection he employs in both his fiddling and his wonderful singing can really get a hold of you. Fred is one of the finest clawhammer style banjo players ever and plays in the archaic fretless style, which generates a haunting tonality and dramatic slides in pitch. He also employs only open tunings, as does Tommy, for almost his entire repertoire. As can be heard here, these two musicians play in a note-for-note, hand-in-glove tandem, the product of two people raised playing together. Oscar, on the other hand, plays banjo in standard tuning and employs his own completely unique style – picking with his thumb and forefinger while simultaneously using the latter for upward and downward chordal strokes. He plays a wonderfully rich accompaniment to Tommy’s lead, and at times a fascinating counterpoint.

-from the liner notes by Rich Nevins

Product Description
For pure excitement and irresistible foot-tapping dance rhythm, you cannot beat the music of the rural countryside of times past. The three wonderful artists heard on this disc are fine examples of just how powerful and expressive this music can be.

When we had the pleasure of recording Tommy, Fred, and Oscar way back then, we felt as if we had gone back in time to a still earlier period like the 1920s, so in command were they of the music and so powerful and eloquent were their performances. Thankfully their performances live on to delight and enthrall the spirit and to animate the legs, and you just can’t ask for more than that from music.

-from the liner notes by Rich Nevins