Old time music

[mattearoadie]

HI,

As a newbie can you recommend some old time mandolin music on cds for listening?

thanks

[John Flynn]

My faves:

The Buckhannon Brothers:
"Little River Stomp"
"Back Home Again"

The Ill-Mo Boys:
"Laugh and Grow Fat"

Skip Gorman:
"Mandolin in the Cow Camp"
"Old-Style Mandolin Vol. 1"

Clyde Curley and the Oxymorons
"Old-Time Mandolin Music"

I think Elderly has them all, but if not, PM me and I can find them for you.

[Mando Gil]

John Harford - Play of the Old Long Bow
Blind Ed Haley -Forked Deer
anything by The Double Decker String Band

Listen to old fiddle players. Most of the truly important ones were from West Virginia!! Biased. But seriously, Clark Kessinger, Blind Ed Haley, Art Stamper, Ralph Blizard and Edden Hammons are the gold standard for old-time. They might not have a mando on every track but they will give you ideas for how the tunes are supposed to sound.

[John Flynn]

Listen to old fiddle players. #Most of the truly important ones were from West Virginia!! Biased. #But seriously, Clark Kessinger, Blind Ed Haley, Art Stamper, Ralph Blizard and Edden Hammons are the gold standard for old-time. #They might not have a mando on every track but they will give you ideas for how the tunes are supposed to sound.
Well, that's one person's opinion. My opinion is that there are multiple traditions in old-time and Appalachia is just one. There is are seperate, but equal, traditions including Cape Breton, Missouri/Southern Illinois/Arkansas, Portland, Texas, Louisiana, just to name a few. Each have fiddlers who go back just as far, and were every bit as good as the Appalachian fiddlers mentioned above, but did not learn from primarily Appalachian fiddlers. The Appalachian area was fortunate enough to be the subject of a lot of the early recordings of OT music in the 20's and 30's. That's great and those recordings are a great reference, but it doesn's allow them to lay claim to being the "font of old-time tradition."

[Gary S]

A agree with all that has been said. My input would be to(once again)listen to the old recordings 1920s and 30s.
Most of it will have the fiddle out front rather than the mandolin. There is a treasure trove of vintage old time music available on cd today. Much of the modern players have learned there music from other players and much has been gleaned from the old masters recordings.

Have a great day...Gary

[Jim Garber]

Lots of old recordings of old time music (and other genres) here (http://www.juneberry78s.com/sounds/index.htm) for free download. Those are essentially the "commercial" recordings.

There is also quite a treasure trove of CDs to purchase from the Field Recorders' Collective (http://www.fieldrecorder.com/).

Unfortunately, the mandolin is a serious minority instrument in old time music. I played a lot of old time mandolin but generally it takes the back seat to the fiddle.

Jim

[mingusb1]

Norman and Nacy's (Blake)--"Natasha's Waltz"

Not standards, but great mandolin compositions and performances in the oldtime tradition.

If you can find the original record that a lot of this is from ("original underground music from the obscure south") then you've got something.

Z

[sgarrity]

Any of the John Hartford recordings. Fuzzy Mountain String Band, and there is even tab available to the whole cd.

[Mando Gil]

...after reading Mando Johns post I have to relent. There were actually gutitars and banjos, fiddles and mandolins before there was a West Virginia. But, thank god we showed up to show everyone how to use them... Just kidding, I agree with what he said, especially the cape bretton tunes. I am constantly on the prowl for old time tunes no matter what region they come from. One source that I never see mentioned here that I am curious about would be the older African American String Bands. I have one CD of Martin, Bogan and Armstrong. I am sure that I am missing some very good tunes for not knowing more about those guys. Not to hijack the post but if anyone has any suggestions in that arena I would really like some ideas. Mano John I am playing for real, I am an amateur's, amateur. Just an enthusiast.

[fatt-dad]

Somebody has to provide THIS (http://www.berea.edu/hutchinslibrary/specialcollections/kentuckymapsearch.asp) link. So, I'll do it. Check out the archive of fiddle tunes albeit Appalachian. . . .

f-d

[Jim Garber]

In a similar vein to Norman and Nancy Blake, there is mandolinist and fiddler Peter Ostroushko (http://www.peterostroushko.com/).

Jim

[mboucher]

King Records put out a CD called '20 Greatest Gospel Songs' from the Nashville Mandolins. The last time I looked it up you could get it for $5.00. It is an instrumental but very well done.

Mark

[John Flynn]

King Records put out a CD called '20 Greatest Gospel Songs' from the Nashville Mandolins. The last time I looked it up you could get it for $5.00. It is an instrumental but very well done.

Ditto King Records' "Nashville Mandolins - 30 Mandolin Classics." BTW, I emailed King once to find out who plays mandolin on the Gospel CD, since there are no credits on it. They replied they didn't know! Curtis Buckhannon says it sounds a lot like Butch Baldassari to him.

[MandoSquirrel]

I have that 30 Mandolin Classics CD, I've wondered who's on there, too. I'd classify it more as early country, though, stylistically, rather than old time. Still worth it, at only 5-6 bucks.

[allenhopkins]

Kenny Hall & The Sweets Mill String Band (http://cdbaby.com/cd/khatsmsb)

[makoto]

mando gil,
Look for "Early Mandolin Classics" on Rounder and "Rags, Breakdowns, Stomps, and Blues" on Document Records. Great music from the early black string-bands.

[Mando Gil]

makoto,

Thanks for the lead. I looked that up, it's definitely on my list.

[David M.]

select on the "78's from the 20's...". #this is a great site. #Fatt-daddyo, you beat me to it, posting that link. #I go to it regularly and was just getting some good old Snake Chapman stuff. #

Roots Music page (http://www.juneberry78s.com/sounds/index.htm)

This link has LOTS of great mp3's.

EDIT: forgot this Jay ungar link:
Dancing on the Air Radio (http://www.dancingontheair.com/)

[don richards]

6(+-)fiddlers ALL play'n Sally Good'n - at the same time - ol'timey style!?? ## - Now THAT really "sends" me... (OK.., so it IS just IMHO) - Moose. #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[earthsave]

JE Mainer

Skillet Lickers

[John Hill]

On his website, Mike Compton recommended listening to Owen "Snake" Chapman. I downloaded one of his CD's from iTunes, lots of good stuff there, can't go wrong with him. Most old-time isn't mando-centric and searching around the web for fiddle tunes will lead you to alot of info.

example: "googled" old-time fiddle tunes (http://www.google.com/search?q=old-time+fiddle+tunes&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a)

[Gary S]

Fiddlin Doc Roberts from Kentucky was a very talented and prolific musician in the 20s and 30s who played the mandolin as well. There are a few very nice Doc mando recordings that could probably be found on a "Document" box set I would imagine.