Newbie to old time

[trevor]

I saw the Freight Hoppers a few years back (10?) amazing, its taken until now for my curiosity to rise enough to ask those in the know what they would recommend I listen to, (not necessarliy in the Freight Hoppers vein).

You old time recommendations please.

[maj34]

For a hybrid of old time and folk, check out Reeltime Travelers. They are no longer together, but the two albums they put out are outstanding.

[Fred Keller]

There is so much variety under the heading "old time" that it's hard to keep the recommendations to a manageable number http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif .

Contemporary players of old time that definitely deserve a listen include:

Bruce Molsky
Rayna Gellert
Dan Gellert
Riley Baugus
Dirk Powell
Art Stamper (Wake Up Darlin Corey with Tim OBrien)
Kim and Jim Lansford

The above are more of the Appalachian style old time. The old jug bands like the Mississippi Sheiks and Cannon's Jug Stompers are old time. Blues, especially country blues (vs. electrified), is old time. The
Juneberry site (http://www.juneberry78s.com/otmsampler/index.html) has a lot of mp3s of all stripes available for listening and download. They have even more for sale. They have old string band stuff (blues, jazzy stuff, and Appalachian) from the '20's and '30's.

The Field Recorder's Collective (http://fieldrecorder.com/) is another great source for more obscure musician's work. I also recommend anything coming out of The August Heritage Center (http://www.augustaheritage.com/). They have produced recordings of some wonderful musicians like Ernie Carpenter and Melvin Wine, both considered giants of old time fiddling.

Oh yeah, you owe it to yourself to check out anything by Tommy Jarrell and/or Fred Cockerham. Tommy's playing may very well be the biggest reason why old time music has come back from the brink of obscurity. He's a bit like what Michael Coleman is to Irish fiddling--inspired countless fiddlers to take up the music.

[JEStanek]

Trevor,

The old timey stuff I listen too is some pure old time and some new old time;

Tom Brad and Alice
Reeltime Travelers
Uncle Earl (more new and old school old time)
Orpheus Supertones (Mudthumper.com (http://www.mudthumper.com/))
Hobart Smith
The Songs from the Mountain CD by Dirk Powell and Tim O'Brien

I'm not an OT aficionado. MandoJohnny will likely give good suggestions in addition to what others have said too...

Jamie

[lgc]

The Juneberry site is good. I'd look at
Gid Tanner and the skillet lickers,
Earl Johnson,
all of the Ozark stuff is cool,
Clarence Ashley, Uncle Dave,
Blue Sky Boys,
GUS CANNON is AMAZING,
Henry Thomas,
Blind Blake
Dallas String Band(Great mando content)
THere are a ton of great compliations-I like the Before the Blue series especially 1+2

There is some pretty cool contemporary stuff but it is all really trying to recreate something. Go to the source.

Some other good "newtime" is the Hunger Mt Boys, The Wilders, Foghorn Stringband, Holy Modal Rounders.

[JeffD]

For a more northern flavored Old Timey, check out Clyde Curley and the Oxymorons' CD entitled "Old Time Mandolin Music".

Just wonderful stuff, and very playable.

Clyde Curley is known as one of the collaborators on the Portland tune collections.

[Steve Cantrell]

Buy a couple of Tommy Jarrel CDs. This guy was the real deal, and his style of bowing the fiddle seems to make following with the mandolin much easier.

[JeffD]

Tommy Jarrel, good recommendation.

[Joe F]

For old-time with mandolin content, it's hard to go wrong with Foghorn Stringband (http://www.foghornstringband.com/index2.html).

[John Flynn]

Top OT mando CDs IMHO:
"Little River Stomp" by the Buckhannon Brothers (also anything else by them)
"Laugh and Grow Fat" by the Ill-Mo Boys
"Mandolin in the Cow Camp" by Skip Gorman
"Old-time Mandolin Music" by Clyde Curley and the Oxymorons

[Michael H Geimer]

The Roan Mountain Hilltoppers

[trevor]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will try some out.

[Ken Sager]

Mark Johnson and Emery Lester's albums are pretty fantastic, too.

[PhilGE]

Take a listen to


the Volo Bogtrotters (http://nailthatcatfish.tripod.com/volo.html)

Mark Simos (http://cdbaby.com/cd/simos3)

Dave Landreth (http://www.geocities.com/dave_landreth/)

Vigortone Records (http://www.vigortonerecords.com/catalog.html) including Rhys Jones and Chirps Smith (as well as the Ill-Mo boys mentioned by MandoJohnny).

[JeffD]

Another cool resource:

http://www.oldtimemusic.com/

[JGWoods]

Sometimes it's hard to appreciate Old Time Music when listening to "the source", the real old timers, Tommy Jarrel, Edden Hammons, etc. until you have spent a while with their more modern interpreters- the new generation folks like Bruce Molsky or Reyna Gellert. The new folks are better recorded, more in tune, yet have old time flavor. After you get the flavor you can dive down into the real old stuff and appreciate it better.
In particular I think the guitar work in real old recordings is not being replicated today. It's like we have a different sense of timing now and hit the beat a little differently.

[Griffis]

The Juneberry site is good. #I'd look at
Gid Tanner and the skillet lickers,
Earl Johnson,
all of the Ozark stuff is cool,
Clarence Ashley, Uncle Dave,
Blue Sky Boys,
GUS CANNON is AMAZING,
Henry Thomas,
Blind Blake
Dallas String Band(Great mando content)
THere are a ton of great compliations-I like the Before the Blue series especially 1+2 #

There is some pretty cool contemporary stuff but it is all really trying to recreate something. #Go to the source. #

Some other good "newtime" is the Hunger Mt Boys, The Wilders, #Foghorn Stringband, Holy Modal Rounders.
I completely agree with this post. Heck, when I first saw it I thought I had written it and forgotten about it.

I also go to the source. There are some great musicians around today that keep the OT flame going. In addition to those suggested by the person I'm quoting, the Carolina Chocolate Drops are also really great.

But ultimately, I enjoy listening to the "real deal" for inspiration. The vast majority of the music I play and listen to was recorded before 1940.

I recommend the Yazoo label for great reissues of old rural stringbands and rural blues, and even better, the Document label is very comprehensive.

Old Hat is another label that is pretty new on the scene but does great work.

[soapycows]

Bruce Greene, in my humble opinion, is one of the best modern fiddlers, and, for some reason, not as popular as a lot of other modern old time fiddlers and bands.

[allenhopkins]

Trevor -- aren't they broadcasting The Transatlantic Sessions on BBC-TV? #I think I got that information off Bruce Molsky's website. #The YouTube clips of this series that are available here are really wonderful music; mostly Irish singers/players on the one hand, and excellent American musicians like Molsky, Russ Barenberg, Jerry Douglas et. al., recorded in a "living room" setting. #There's a CD and a DVD, only available on your side of the "pond" as of now, I believe.

Concur with some of the above posts; "real" old-time music, if the adjective means anything, is much more raw, rootsy, and uninhibited than what skilled professionals produce now. #It has a vitality that is astonishing, and that transcends the unpolished nature of much of the singing and playing. #The string bands recorded in the 1920's and '30's had powerful, idiosyncratic regional and personal styles, developed before radio and recordings homogenized so much of "hillbilly" music, and weren't as practiced and eclectic as most of the later generation and "citybilly" bands recorded during the folk revival and thereafter. #Listening to a group like the Carter Brothers & Son from the Ozarks, can be a really transcendent experience.

One multi-CD reissue I can strongly recommend is Hank Sapoznik's "You Ain't Talkin' To Me": Charlie Poole and the Roots of Country Music (Columbia Records/Legacy Recordings). #Most of Poole's recorded output, plus other versions of the songs and tunes, from which he drew his inspiration. #Poole wasn't the typical old-time musician, but he was enormously influential, and the 35-page booklet is full of information, photos etc.