Cornbread, molasses & sassafras tea

Episodes

1. 6

   Peggy Seeger (with her family and Tom Paley)

   Here are two out-of-print albums featuring Peggy Seeger, another talented member of the Seeger family clan. The first one was recorded in 1957, before Peggy moved to England (she would spend most of her musical life there with her husband Ewan McColl). She’s accompanied with her two younger…

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   Jun 27, 2011
2. 5

   Versions and variants of Barbara Allen (Library of Congress lp)

   This lp, issued by The Library of Congress in their series “Folk Music of The United States”, compiled 30 different versions of the old ballad “Barbara Allen” as sung by american men and women in the 1930’s, in different Southern states but also in California. The recordings were made by Alan or...

   May 24, 2011
3. 4

   Morgan Sexton

   I recently discovered this great banjo player and old-time singer from Kentucky called Morgan Sexton. Born in 1911 in Eastern Kentucky, he lived the tough life many mountain people encountered during the 20th century, surviving through the Depression and hard times, working with the land and in…

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   Apr 28, 2011
4. 3

   Hobart Smith and Robert Pete Williams lps

   Here’s a double offer this month with two giants of traditional american music, Hobart Smith and Robert Pete Williams. Smith was one of the greatest old-timey musician to come out of the Appalachians, a mountain virtuoso on fiddle, banjo, guitar, piano, harmonica, etc…, playing all these in a...

   Mar 3, 2011
5. 2

   CD review: Norman Blake & John Renbourn

   With this new year starting, I was glad to see new records by two of my favourite musicians, Norman Blake and John Renbourn. One is american and the other is english, the two are masters of the acoustic guitar but represent two very different folk traditions. They both have been playing and...

   Feb 8, 2011
6. 1

   Brad Leftwich (with Dan Gellert, Linda Higginbotham…)

   Here are two out-of-print records featuring old-time fiddler Brad Leftwich, one with fiddle and banjo player Dan Gellert and the other with his wife and musical partner Linda Higginbotham. Brad is well-known as a musician and teacher of appalachian fiddle and banjo music. He learned directly from...

   Jan 30, 2011