h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A couple folks suggested I put some actual record recommendations in here. They are thus appended. Before you get to this list, though, a note on why I didn't include it in the entry. First, my recommendations for old-time reflect both my severe bias within the tradition and my lack of knowledge of recordings. As I said in the article, probably about two years' worth (as in 700+ days, non-stop) of old-time music has been recorded, and people who have seriously collected them own hundreds and hundreds of records. They will tell you about the differences between North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia fiddlers, and how they play a different set of tunes. They will tell you about different fiddling and picking styles within what I have described. They play old-time music with a very strong sense of its history, and they have decided that their playing should fall squarely into a specific tradition. If they found out about this little list I have posted here, they would harangue me for a very long time to include records until the list was four times the length of the entry--useful, informative, but I have to tell you, not really my bag.

My approach to old-time, from the beginning, has been more ahistorical. My collection of old-time music is really small and, by the standards of old-time, pretty eclectic. I have collected the albums I think are groovy and creepy, but honestly, I don't listen to it half as much as I play it. Studio recordings of old-time, by my count, are usually oddly lacking in energy, and the best recordings (such as the Bubba George album below) are live. The best way to hear old-time is to hear it live, to stand a foot away from musicians who are jamming. That said:

--Tommy Jarrel, et al. "June Apple" (County Sales, CD, tape, record)

This is something like ground zero for old-time music as it's played today. This fiddler--and in many ways, this record--defined old-time for the generation of hippies and folkies that started playing old-time in the 60s. On CD, it sounds really great.

--Tommy Jarrel and Fred Cockerham. "Fiddle and Banjo Duets" (County Sales, CD)

A really nice record if you want a more stripped-down sound. Also a ground-zero sort of record.

--Dock Boggs. Anything (Smithsonian Folkways, CD, record)

Dock Boggs is another seminal old-time musician. The songs are just him singing and a banjo. I recommend this because Boggs gets at what really drew me to old-time music to begin with: its dark, creepy groove. Songs like titles like "Oh, Death" (covered by Camper Van Beethoven, god bless them) and "Country Blues," which has lyrics like:

At the bottom of a whiskey glass, good people,
The lurking devil dwell.
It burn your breast to drink of it,
It send your soul to hell.

Go dig a hole in the earth, good people,
Go dig a hole in the ground.
And gather round good people,
To watch this old rounder go down.

In the hands of rock musicians like Eric Clapton, these lyrics would suck. But Dock Boggs means it for real, and when he sings it, you believe him.

--The Horseflies. "Human Fly," "Gravity Dance," "Two Traditions" (CD, tape)

The Horseflies are, to me, the coolest and funkiest purveyors of old-time who are still alive. They shred. "Human Fly" includes lots of drums and electronic percussion and noise, and has a new-wave edge to it. "Gravity Dance," to be fair, is really barely old-time. It sounds more like Talking Heads. But it has the old-time groove under it in a big way, if you know what to listen for. "Two Traditions" is a brand-spanking new album by them, and it's just fiddle tunes with a heavy dose of African percussion. Good stuff.

--Bob Carlin, et al. "Bangin' and Sawin'" (Rounder, CD, tape)

Recommended as an excellent, excellent sampler album. Bob Carlin is a neat banjo player, and he is joined here by a rotating chair of the best fiddlers of the generation preceding mine. Lots of good tunes played well.

--Bubba George "Live" (don't remember who the hell released it--they sort of did it on their own)

An excellent CD that captures well what old-time music live can sound like. The tunes are long--they average around 8 or 9 minutes apiece--and really groovy.

--The Young Fogies, vol. 1 and 2 (Rounder, CD, tape, record)

These albums are really great for people who are considering getting into old-time music and want a quick survey. Lots of tracks, all by different people, run the range of traditional old-time music as played by the hippie generation.

If your craving for old-time can't be satiated, the best thing to do is to order the catalogs for County Sales records and also Smithsonian Folkways. The Smithsonian is probably the only government institution I like, and this is because, starting in I believe the 30s, they sent people out into the world to record music before it vanished. The result is that their CDs are, in my opinion, really phenomenal. They record folk musicians who really are folk musicians, in that their music is so insular to their specific region that it sounds also alien to people who haven't been exposed to it yet. Both County Sales and Smithsonian Folkways are just crawling with recordings, and you can pretty much pick any old one that sounds interesting and it probably will be. If you prefer a more reasoned approach to collecting old-time, the best place to start is the liner notes of the above albums, and if they mention anyone else that intrigues you, seek those players out.

Happy listening!

Dr. F.

A friend, asked to keep record recommendations to just a handful, recommends:

Ace Weems and the Fat Meat Boys, eponymous. (LP only) A raw, rocking album recorded in the kitchen of a cabin.

Red Hots, "Ready to Roll" (CD) Another raw sort of recording, the Red Hots' energy isn't lost in the process of recording.

Anything by the Volo Bogtrotters.

And a note about the Bob Carlin album, "Bangin' and Sawin'": For the most bang for your buck, buy the CD version, as it has nine (!) cuts that the other versions lack.

Dr. F.