Here's a bit of info, Barbara. I have a "custom cassette" of the album I produced of Hobart Smith (it was our 17th release). Hobart came from Saltville, Virginia, and learned a lot of his banjo repertoire from African-American workers on the railroad near his home. His sister was Texas Gladden, source of many great songs now in the Library of Congress Archive of Folklore collection. Several of these are included on the recent CD releases from the LoC, as are a few of Hobart's cuts. Ours was Hobart's only solo recording.

Some of the recordings of Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island singers that Alan Lomax included on his "Southern Journey" series include some "gourd banjo" played by Hobart, but that was a bit contrived. He had never played with them before, but Alan wanted a good banjo player and so he brought Hobart down from the Blue Ridge Mountains to play with them. Made some good music, but it was not something that had actually occurred within the tradition, so to speak. In fact, Hobart had never played a gourd banjo before, either.

There are several cuts of Texas Gladden's singing of the old ballads on the "Anglo-American Ballads," a two volume Library of Congress CD release from Rounder, also available through either Folk-Legacy or Camsco. We had them at our booth at Old Songs. Wish I'd known you were about to become fans of theirs. I would have pointed them out to you. I was so busy pushing the Stephen Wade compilation called "A Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings" which contains one magnificent traditional performance after another, that I may have neglected to hustle the others. Mea culpa!

Call us, if you'd like, and we can talk more about these great recordings.

Sandy