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

Here’s some wonderful footage of Clarence Ashley playing his best-known tune, the Coo Coo Bird, some time in the 1960s. Ashley’s skills don’t seem have diminished a bit in the 30+ years since his landmark recording of the tune.

This 1927 recording, the flip side to Ashley’s Dark Holler Blues, is a wonderful example of a modal banjo melody. Ashley executes the descending line between the verses beautifully. The text is mostly a non-narrative assemblage of commonplace verses, but they’re made profound by Ashley’s delivery and the occasional wordless vocal interlude.

Ashley’s recording is included in Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music, which helped engender new interest in Ashley’s work in the 1960s folk revival. Folklorist Ralph Rinzler recorded Ashley for Folkways Records, and Ashley resumed a fairly active recording and performing career with his friend and neighbor Doc Watson. His recordings with Watson are uniformly excellent.

Watson’s 1967 LP, Ballads From Deep Gap, features a fairly faithful performance of Ashley’s arrangement.

The Coo Coo Bird (MP3)
Courtesy of Archive.org

Thomas C. (’Clarence’) Ashley recorded extensively in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and again in the postwar folk revival with his friend and neighbor Doc Watson. This side comes from his second session, in Johnson City, Tennessee, in October of 1929. Ashley accompanies his vocal with a very tasteful clawhammer banjo performance. The tune is a classic modal melody that appears frequently in the early country repertoire.

Variations of the lyrics appear in Sharp. While the song likely has roots in the British Isles, I’m not able to locate a variant in Child’s work.

Dark Holler Blues (MP3)
Courtesy of Archive.org

For a fairly comprehensive biography of Ashley, visit ClarenceAshley.com

Virginian Henry Whitter was one of the earliest country music performers to record extensively. While many of his solo recordings are unexceptional, his work with G.B. Grayson was often excellent. Rain Crow Bill was an old Minstrel harmonica solo that Whitter recorded at least twice: at his first recording session in December, 1923, as ‘Rain Crow Bill Blues’, and then in a later electrical recording in August, 1927.

Doc Watson recorded a very faithful interpretation of this recording on his great Home Again LP in 1967, and then an updated version on his Then and Now LP in 1973.

Rain Crow Bill (MP3)

Courtesy of Archive.org

This recoding from June 30, 1922, is one of the earliest examples of American Vernacular fiddling 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 recording was paired with Robertson’s seminal recording on Sallie Gooden on Victor 18956.

The recording is a duet with fiddler Henry Gilliland, and it is believed that Gilliland is playing the melody and Robertson the harmony. It lacks the extraordinary variations of Robertson’s Sallie Gooden, but it’s still an interesting performance.

Arkansaw Traveler (MP3)

Courtesy of Archive.org

More old-time goodness from the folks at Archive.org. This 1930 recording bears more than a passing resemblance to Sally Gooden, a simple pentatonic tune with some very skillful fiddle variations. As with Eck Robertson’s Sally Gooden, there is a nice minor variation in here.

Streak of Lean, Streak of Fat (MP3)
Courtesy of Archive.org