"DOWN HOME" #181 Saturday, August 4, 2001 Hosted by Chuck Taggart, email chuck (at) downhome (dot) org Visit The Gumbo Pages

No offense, y'all, but today I'd rather have been at the 12th Annual Appalachian String Band Music Festival in Clifftop, W. Virginia, sitting back, sipping some Maker's Mark and listening to lots of great old-time music all around me. Barring that, we just listened to lots of old-time Appalachian and traditional American music on the show today. Maybe we can make it to Clifftop next year. J. P. and ANNADEENE FRALEY - Margaret's Waltz [MARYSVILLE/Rounder] JAKE KRACK - Yew Piney Mountain [ONE MORE TIME/WiseKrack] with Dwight Diller on banjo, from whom Jake presumably learned the tune. DWIGHT DILLER - Sail Away, Ladies [HARVEST: W. VIRGINIA MOUNTAIN MUSIC/ Yew Piney Mountain Music] DIRK POWELL - Brown-Eyed Rabbit [IF I SHOULD GO TEN THOUSAND MILES/Rounder] Jim Miller on vocals. EDDEN HAMMONS - Digging Potatoes [THE EDDEN HAMMONS COLLECTION, VOLUME 1: THE LEGENDARY WEST VIRGINIA FIDDLER FROM 1947 FIELD RECORDINGS/ W. Virginia University Press] THE VOLO BOGTROTTERS - The Feller That Looked Like Me [OLD TIME STRING BAND WITH VOCAL ACCOMPANIMENT/Marimac] SARAH GUNNING - Come All You Coal Miners [COAL MINING WOMEN/Rounder] MAC BENFORD & THE WOODSHED ALL-STARS - Hangman's Reel [1st 1/2 C/Marimac] HAZEL DICKENS - Black Lung [COAL MINING WOMEN/Rounder] GID TANNER & THE SKILLET LICKERS - Devilish Mary [OLD TIME FIDDLE TUNES AND SONGS FROM NORTH GEORGIA/County] C. J. CHENIER & THE RED HOT LOUISIANA BAND - It's Alright [STEP IT UP/Alligator] Son of the King, with his latest. There's almost nobody left in zydeco (other than Nathan Williams and Buckwheat) who still plays the piano accordion with chops like these. FREEMAN FONTENOT - Contredanse [ZODICO: LOUISIANA CREOLE MUSIC/Rounder] While contradancing of English origin is still popular in the U.S., among the Creoles and Cajuns of Louisiana it died out in the 1920s. Freeman Fontenot still remembers some of the old "contredanse" tunes, "longtemps passé". BEAUSOLEIL avec MICHAEL DOUCET - Amédé [LOOKING BACK TOMORROW: BEAUSOLEIL LIVE!/Rhino] ZACHARY RICHARD - Écrevisses [COEUR FIDÈLE/Audiogram] TOMMY JARRELL - Susanna Gal [JUNE APPLE/Heritage] with Kyle Creed, Audine Lineberry and Bobby Paterson DWIGHT DILLER - Waynesboro [HARVEST: W. VIRGINIA MOUNTAIN MUSIC/Yew Piney Mountain Music] The sweetest version of this old tune that I've ever heard. FRANK PROFFITT - Bonnie James Campbell [TRADITIONAL SONGS AND BALLADS OF APPALACHIA/Folk-Legacy] BRUCE MOLSKY - Wild Bill Jones [LOST BOY/Rounder] DIRK POWELL, TIM O'BRIEN & JOHN HERRMANN - Fair Margaret and Sweet William [SONGS FROM THE MOUNTAIN/Howdy Skies] JODY STECHER & KATE BRISLIN - Bear Creek Blues [SONGS OF THE CARTER FAMILY/Appleseed] RAFE STEFANINI - Jake's Got the Bellyache [HELL AND SCISSORS/County] An old Scots-Irish tune which made its way to Appalachia, in this version with Jerry O'Sullivan sitting in on uilleann pipes. A set from the musicians who performed at the fabulous "Celtic Journeys" show at the Hollywood Bowl last Sunday: DANÚ - Are You Ready Yet?/The Tailor's Thimble/Donoghue's Reel/ I'm Ready Now! [THINK BEFORE YOU THINK/Shanachie] Terrific young traditional band, winner at the 1999 Irish Music Awards. PAUL BRADY with DONAL LUNNY - Nothing But the Same Old Story [BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME/Hummingbird Records-BBC] This is a hair-raising performance, Paul on guitar and vocals and Donal on bouzouki, which they performed again as a duo at the Bowl. Brilliant, brilliant stuff. EILEEN IVERS - The Maid at the Spinning Wheel/Scatter the Mud/Jimmy Ward's (jigs) [WILD BLUE/Green Linnet] This is, to me, very much a New York band, with a New Yorker leading on fiddle (yet an 8-time All-Ireland fiddle champion), an uilleann piper from Yonkers, a Puerto Rican drummer-percussionist and a Brazilian bassist. They're solidly based in Irish music, but use sounds from many of the resident ethnicities and cultures of New York City and to the world beyond. DONAL LUNNY & COOLFIN - Lucky Lucky Day (jig) [COOLFIN/Metro Blue] Donal's new band, and an original composition. ALTAN - An Mhaighdean Mhara (The Mermaid) [ISLAND ANGEL/Green Linnet] Beautiful singing as always from Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh. With Donal Lunny on keyboards. ALTAN - Dark Haired Lass/Biddy from Muckross/Sean Maguire's (reels) [BLACKWATER/Virgin] A spirited set of tunes to finish this set of music, fired by Dermot's accordion and Mairéad and Ciarán's fiddles. DWIGHT DILLER - Cumberland Gap [JUST BANJO '99/Yew Piney Mountain Music] DAN GELLERT & BRAD LEFTWICH - Give the Fiddler a Dram [A MOMENT IN TIME/Marimac] BRAD, TOM AND ALICE - Shortening Bread [BEEN THERE STILL/Copper Creek] That's Leftwich, Sauber and Gerrard. Lyrics to this version were carefully reconstructed by Linda Higginbotham from a variety of researched sources.

 

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chuck taggart
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