The song John Hardy has long been a staple of the bluegrass canon. Tony Russell’s Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942; lists seven prewar recordings by five different performers:

• Eva Davis: April, 1924
• Ernest Stoneman: August, 1925, July, 1928
• Buell Kazee: April, 1927
• The Carter Family: May, 1928
• Clarence Ashley: April, 1930 (as ‘Old John Hardy’)
• Roy Harvey: June 1931

Here’s an MP3 of the second Stoneman Recording, recorded in Richmond, Indiana for the Gennett Label, on July 9th, 1928:

Postwar recordings by Bill Monroe helped cement the song’s place in the repertoire. Earl Scruggs helped make it an instrumental standard as well, with his excellent interpretation on the seminal Foggy Mountain Banjo album, now out of print and agonizingly expensive.

Though the usual lyrics sound include some commonplace elements, John Hardy was a real historical figure. Hardy, a West Virginia railroad worker, was found guilty of murder in the first degree in 1893, and hanged in 1894. WVCulture.org has links to original news stories. First, the trial:

WELCH, W. VA., October 12. - At 8 o’clock this morning the jury in the case of the State against John Hardy, colored, for the murder of Thomas Drews, colored, at Eckman, this county, in January last, brought in a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. The trouble arose over a game of craps and was a cold blooded crime. Motion has been made for a new trial with but small hopes of success on account of the Criminal Court Judge’s indisposition. A recess has been taken until Monday morning.

…And then the execution:

WILD E, W. VA., January 19. - John Hardy, for killing Thomas Drews, both colored, was hung at 2:09 p. m. to-day. Three thousand people witnessed his death. His neck was broken and he died in 17 1/2 minutes. He exhibited great nerve, attributed his downfall to whiskey, and said he had made peace with God. His body was cut down at 2:39, placed in a coffin, and given to the proper parties for interment. He was baptised in the river this morning.

Ten drunken and disorderly persons among the spectators were promptly arrested and jailed. Good order was preserved. Hardy killed Drews near Eckman last spring in a disagreement over a game of craps.

BOTH WERE ENAMORED

of the same woman, and the latter proving the more favored lover, incurred Hardy’s envy, who seized the pretext of falling out in the game to work vengeance on Drews, who had shown himself equally expert in dice as in love, having won money from Hardy. Hardy drew his pistol, remarking he would kill him unless he refunded the money. Drews paid back part of the money, when Hardy shot, killing him. Hardy was found guilty at the October term.

The MP3 comes from the excellent Juneberry 78s website. Please consider buying one of their old-time music samplers to support their work.

Hi folks. I just received the following from Stacey Earley. You can get tickets through TicketWeb.

Diane Izzo is a singer/songwriter with roots and many, many friends in Chicago.  Her debut CD, the Brad Wood-produced ONE, was released here to much acclaim at the tail end of the 90s “Chicago scene.”  She continued to write and perform her contemplative, evocative music here until she and her partner Marco decided to leave the big city behind and settle in sunswept Taos, NM, where they caretake a ranch sttlement that once housed Aldous Huxley and shipped paintings for Georgia O’Keefe.

Last year, a congenital condition caused Marco’s kidneys to fail and he had a transplant.  Two months ago, en route to his dialysis appointment, Diane suffered a grand mal seizure while driving their van.  An MRI revealed a mass on her left frontal lobe.

Diane had that tumor removed yesterday.  She is recovering well and they await biopsy results. In the meantime, Diane and Marco, like so many Americans, have no health insurance and would face sure financial catastrophe if not for help from their friends.

On Sunday, November 9 please join Robbie Fulks, Califone, the Waco Brothers w Sally Timms, Vernon Tonges and Beau O’Reilly and the Crooked Mouth String Band at the School of the Art Institute Ballroom for a benefit for Diane Izzo.

$20 buys you an evening of excellent muscianship and celebration.
Show at 7.
SAIC ballroom is located at 112 S Michigan.

Go to www.dianeizzo.com for more info and to buy tickets online through The Hideout/Ticketweb, and use the PAYPAL link to donate funds directly to Diane and Marco.

Produced by the Curious Theater Branch.

The Windy City Rollers. Click for ticket information

My friend (and former Kennett Brothers bandmate) Andy Leach and I will be accompanying Stacey Earley Saturday night (September 25), when she sings the national anthem before the Windy City Rollers bout at the UIC Pavillion. Stacey is a former member of said Rollers, and it should be blast.

Did I mention free beer?

Tangleweed will kick off a show with Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers  and Velcro Lewis  at The Double Door on Friday Nov. 21. 

This will be our first-ever Double Door appearance - another step in our never-ending quest to play every known venue in Chicago.

Some may recall that we played with Th’ Shack Shakers at the Abbey Pub a few years ago, at which we released our first cd, Just a Spoonful (and Other Folk Songs of Rural Cook County).  They put on a helluva show and are highly recommended for fans of blast-off rockabilly fire and brimstone.  

Big thanks once again to Amy Butterer and the Billions Corporation for inviting us onto this bill. 

We’ll go on at 9:00 pm sharp before racing over to the Charleston to play three more sets starting at 10:00, followed by our string of Balcony Pop-Up Sets at the Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Fest at the Congress Theatre on Sat. 11/22. 

Should be a helluva weekend!  We hope to see you somewhere amidst all the action.

This just in!

Tangleweed is confirmed to play two shows with the Jerry Douglas Band at Old Town School of Folk Music on Saturday, Jan 17!

We are very excited to return to the Old Town School stage, truly one of the finest rooms in town for live acoustic music.

And it will be our great honor to warm up the audience for the incredible Jerry Douglas, the world’s reigning king of hot dobro action. We hope to see you there!

Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals

You can download DRM-free MP3s of our new CD, Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals, from Amazon.com.

The scheduling is a bit of a mistake — we’ve set the release date for the CD on Amazon.com to be October 27th, but the MP3s go through a different distributor, and they’ve sort of jumped the gun. No big deal. They’re there if you want ‘em:

Buy Tangleweed MP3s

CDs, with the beautiful album art and spiffy liner notes, are available from our merch page, and CDBaby.com.

Also, if you live in Chicago, you can snag a copy just by bringing yourself to our CD Release show at the Hideout on Sunday, November 16th.

You could get yourself a ticket trying for a new land speed record on some godforsaken corn-lined back country road. Or you could get a bus ticket to Newark, New Jersey. Or maybe a parking ticket to help our cash-strapped metropolis cling to fiscal solvency.

But we’ve got tickets that are much better than that. They’re advance tickets to our record release show at The Hideout, and they’re on sale now at Ticket Web. Everyone at the show gets a copy of the new CD, Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals, plus sets from Tangleweed and Shotgun Party.

How much would this magical evening of entertainment set a person back? Five hundred dollars? A thousand dollars? Seven hundred billion dollars? Nope. Eight bucks. A measley eight bucks guarantees that you get you in the door and a copy of the new CD. Get `em while they last.

Well, we have some good news and some bad news. First, the bad:

Tangleweed did not make the Top 5 vote getters in the CBGB Fest contest. We were overtaken at the 11th hour by the Off The Wagon Bluegrass Band from Nashville. And the judges chose Donny Biggins from Chicago as the winner, so he’ll be playing the opening slot for the festival - Congrats to Donny!! And HUGE thanks to all of you who voted for us.

Now, the good news:

TANGLEWEED IS PLAYING AT THE FESTIVAL ANYWAY!

The festival organizers just offered us and The Giving Tree Band (#7 in the votes, and also from Chicago) the chance to play POP-UP sets from the balcony between mainstage sets. It’ll be an old-school single-mic/single-spotlight setup, allowing us to keep the hot tuneage flowing for the audience while the mainstage sets get turned over. This should result in four or five short sets from each band throughout the entire day’s festivities.

We are extremely happy with this arrangement, and would like to send our most sincere thanks to Michael Raspatello and the gang at CBGB Fest for giving us this opportunity.

We’ll get good and warmed up with three full sets at our monthly Charleston gig the night before, and we’ll hit the ground running when we get the call on Saturday!

Thanks again to all of you who pulled for us in the contest - your efforts did not go unpunished, and we can’t thank you enough for all the support!!

We’ll see you on 11/22 at The Congress Theatre!

Billy, Kip, Paul, Ryan and Scott
Tangleweed