Old-Time
Mountain Ballads (County CO-CD-3504)
Balladry, in white comunities in the rural South, was
traditionally unaccompanied - and, largely separate from
the instrumental traditions that defined their dance musics.
Influenced, however, by black players - who did accompany
ballads - isolated geniuses across the region, sometime
in the nineteenth century, began to build modal banjo
styles which could naturally underpin the archaic ballads
that had been sung in the region for hundreds of years...
And the results are stunningly documented, on a scant
few handfuls of 78s, recorded in the 20s - back when a
plethora of labels, amidst a boom, had no real idea what’d
sell to such “hicks” and’d therefore issue
anything at all - even great, and patently uncommercial,
art.
We’re badly in need of a boxed set that’ll
properly document the range of this material in depth
but, until that day, this one cd’ll do a fine job
as an introduction - albeit, it’s purview is to demonstrate
the full range of recorded balladry of the 20s...and so,
it also touches (as will I) upon much more far-flung stylistic
territory than my introduction might suggest...
But...back to those banjos... Just listen - please -
to the immortal B.F. Shelton’s “Darling Cora”...and
admit that you had no idea any banjo could sound so unearthly
beautiful... I know I didn’t, until I lucked upon
this work in the mid-80s...and, it’s spell has never
left me since.
Many/most of the truly powerful songs in the tradition
are the so-called “murder ballads”. This is
not...indeed, it transcends same, by dwelling upon a (benign)
haunting of a surviving/loving husband by his deceased
wife. Expressed in disconnected fragments of memory...and
(heartbreakingly) resolved in truly prosaic and deeply
humane twin stanzas, this is an art that - simply - cannot
be bettered.
And, uncannily, the banjo style in such works is a transfiguation
of the kora styles of West Africa...as are no black American
recordings that we have. Such are the vagaries of time
- and history - that “Darling Cora” is doubly
that...
To finish...Uncle Dave Macon’s “Death of John
Henry” is definitely one of his greatest works, and
- perhaps, better than any other - proves just how much
he learnt off black banjo players in his youth. Subtly
(and freely) responsive, it is the very antithesis of
later band stylings...and it’s rippling climaxes
verily lift the spirit, affirming the continuity of life
amidst death (as does Shelton’s masterpiece) - a
fitting conclusion to a superb survey collection, drawn
from a marvellously diverse and far-too little known tradition.
John Henry Calvinist
