Various Artists – Smoky Mountain Ballads (1976)

FrontCover1Let´s take a look to the roots of American Music.

In 1941. Smoky Mountain Ballads, a set of 78s selected and annotated with autobiographical notes by John A. Lomax, is published by RCA Victor. The album includes the Carter Family, Uncle Dave Macon, and the Monroe Brothers singing such songs as “East Virginia Blues,” “Worried Man Blues,” “Down in the Willow Garden,” and “Darling Corey,” which later became staples of the folk revival repertoire.

And we will hear Ballads from the Smoky Mountains:

The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The range is sometimes called the Smoky Mountains and the name is commonly shortened to the Smokies. The Great Smokies are best known as the home of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which protects most of the range. The park was established in 1934, and, with over 9 million visits per year, it is the most-visited national park in the United States.

The Great Smokies are part of an International Biosphere Reserve. The range is home to an estimated 187,000 acres (76,000 ha) of old growth forest, constituting the largest such stand east of the Mississippi River. The cove hardwood forests in the range’s lower elevations are among the most diverse ecosystems in North America, and the Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forest that coats the range’s upper elevations is the largest of its kind. The Great Smokies are also home to the densest black bear population in the Eastern United States and the most diverse salamander population outside of the tropics.[

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Along with the Biosphere reserve, the Great Smokies have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The U.S. National Park Service preserves and maintains 78 structures within the national park that were once part of the numerous small Appalachian communities scattered throughout the range’s river valleys and coves. The park contains five historic districts and nine individual listings on the National Register of Historic Places.

The name “Smoky” comes from the natural fog that often hangs over the range and presents as large smoke plumes from a distance. This fog is caused by the vegetation exhaling volatile organic compounds, chemicals that have a high vapor pressure and easily form vapors at normal temperature and pressure.
As a result of the 2016 Great Smoky Mountains wildfires, the Great Smoky Mountains have received international media coverage. (by wikipedia)

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Ballads from Smoky Mountains means Country,  Folk and Bluesgrass.songs.

And I´m impressed by the music, because the Music still sounds fresh and vital.

Listen to Chittlin’ Cookin’ Time In Cheatham County  … this could be a Ray Davies tune from the Sixties !

This is a very nice little collection of old Hillbilly folk tunes. Sounds like they are just recordings of old 78’s, but sound quality is as good as can be expected. (SchizoMelodies)

 

These recordings were originally released by RCA Victor in 1964 und a few Songs from this LP were re-released by Pickwick Records in 1976 …

Let´s discover this old fashioned music …

UncleDaveMaconUncle Dave Macon

Tracklist:
01. Uncle Dave Macon:  Cumberland Mountain Deer Race (Harris) 2.49
02. Wade Mainer, Zeke Morris & Steve Ledford: Riding On That Train Fourty-Five (Morris) 2.33
03. Dixon Bros.: Down With The Old Canoe (D.Dixon/H.Dixon) 2.51
04. Arthur Smith Trio: Chittlin’ Cookin’ Time In Cheatham County  (Arthur Smith Trio) 2.32
05. Monroe Bros.:  Where Is My Sailor Boy? (C.Monroe) 2.43
06. Carter Family:  Worried Man Blues (A.P.Carter) 2.46
07. J.E. Mainer’s Mountaineers:  On A Cold Winter Night (Mainer) 3.00
08. Uncle Dave Macon:  Railroadin’ And Gamblin’ (Macon) 2.39
09. Gid Tanner And His Skillet Lickers: Ida Red (unknown) 2.51

 

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