Here’s a remarkable display of jawharp virtuosity by Obed Pickard, one of the early performers on WSM radio’s Grand Ole Opry. His earliest commercial recordings were in 1927. This is from 1929, cut for Banner and affiliated cut-price labels (Oriole, Regal, Conqueror, etc).

The tune is Sally Goodin (also spelled Gooden), an old warhorse of a fiddle tune first recorded by Eck Robertson. Pickard’s performance is charming — earnest, understated, and well-played.

Courtesy of Archive.org

By the way, there’s some hot jawharp, played by the author of this post, on the forthcoming Tangleweed CD, Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals.

This acoustical recording from 1922 is among the earliest examples of rural Southern vernacular fiddling we have on record. Alexander Campbell (’Eck’) Robertson was a skilled contest fiddler from Texas whose recording career extended into the folk revival of the 1960s. This was recoded in New York on July 1st, 1922, the second day of a 2-day session for Victor that yielded ten sides.

Courtesy of Archive.org

Our friend Brian has posted our recent show at Chicago’s Kinetic Playground on Archive.org.

The set list:

1. Listen to the Mockingbird
2. South Australia
3. Angeline the Baker -> Soldier’s Joy
4. California
5. Short Life of Trouble
6. The Logjam
7. Takeup Reel -> Cold Frosty Morning -> Grey Eagle
8. Trishanku’s Heaven
9. High On A Mountain
10. British Army
11. Little Sadie
12. With a Bottle in My Hand
13. Ginseng Blues
14. Dead Flowers
15. Orange Blossom Special

Download the show here:
http://www.archive.org/details/tweed2008-05-01.cemc6.flac16

It wasn’t a great show — we were plagued by a very bad stage mix and didn’t play or sing particularly well that night. Also, for reasons unknown to me, we wound up sitting around the venue for a few hours until the staff deigned to do a soundcheck, and I hit the stage more than a little annoyed and at a low energy ebb. That said, the venue has a decent sounding (almost acoustically dead) room, and it’s a good-sounding recording. The energy and performance quality started to pick up by the end of the set.

The Stradivarius of mandolins is this Stradivarius mandolin, one of two known examples. It’s in the collections of the University of South Dakota. With ten gut strings and what appear to be oud-like frets, it’s a markedly different instrument from the contemporary mandolin, which is largely based on the work of Orville Gibson.

It’s signed and dated Antonio Stradivario in Cremona 1680, which would place it twenty years into his career as an instrument maker, but still almost another two decades before his ‘golden age’ of 1698-1720.

In addition to mandolins, he apparently made some fiddles.

Banjos, at least decent quality closed-back banjos, are expensive. Even folks who take the initiative to buy the parts from Stewart MacDonald and build their own find that banjo construction is an expensive proposition. Virginia luthier John Calkin has been experimenting with non-conventional designs to make banjos from inexpensive, readily available materials. Like two by fours.

He’s documented his efforts in an interesting page on his website, called Banjo Craziness. He notes that his designs are more appropriate for old-timey frailing rather than bluegrass, and he makes this hilarious (though likely controversial) observation:

[B]luegrass sucks. Bill Monroe should have been a priest or a welder or a pimp, anything other than the father of the hideous noise called bluegrass. Bluegrass is a well-spring of Southern sentimentality, morbid lyricism, cornball humor, and poor writing. Hardcore ‘grassers lament that there are no good new bluegrass songs, but I maintain that there are no good old ones, either. The real irony is that some of the hottest pickers in folk music play bluegrass.

Read the full series here:

http://www.jcalkinguitars.com/banjo_craziness.htm

From our fine fiddler, Mr. Billy Oh:

I’m hosting a new bluegrass jam starting this Sunday, May 11 at the Wild Rover Pub with Ryan Fisher (eminent Tangleweed banjoist and Old Town School instructor). This will be every other Sunday and we’re having free chili and cornbread this week while it lasts. Any and all instruments and skill levels welcome, so come on down and have a hootenanny!

4-8pm

6001 N. Paulina (peterson/paulina)

Here’s a sample track from our forthcoming third CD, Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals, for your listening pleasure. It’s also available on our MySpace page.

The track is Sandy River Belle, a sporty little instrumental batting leadoff for us on MFHSOAC. Hope you enjoy it. We’re putting the finishing touches on the record, and shooting for a summer release.

See my previous post for more about the Blue Ridge Highballers. This is another side from their March 23, 1926, session for the Columbia label in New York. The personnel is the same as the previous track:

• Charlie La Prade, fiddle
• Arthur Wells, banjo
• Lonnie Griffith, guitar

Fourteen Days in Georgia (MP3)

Courtesy of Archive.org