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15 Jan 06 - 10:08 PM (#1649241) Subject: Hobart Smith: Stories and Songs From: BK Lick Don't think there's been any mention on the 'Cat of a recent Smithsonian Folkways CD titled "In Sacred Trust: The 1963 Fleming Brown Tapes" produced and annotated by Stephen Wade late last year. There's a page about it here (click me) including a link to the 10/17/05 NPR Morning Edition story titled "Hobart Smith: Stories and Songs from a Banjo Great." —BK |
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16 Jan 06 - 12:17 AM (#1649327) Subject: RE: Hobart Smith: Stories and Songs From: open mike The first time i heard Hobart Smith's music was on Instrumental Music of Appalachia which has been re-released as a c.d. by Rykodisc: http://www.rykodisc.com/rykoindex/catalog/dump/rykoalbums_669.asp http://www.oldtimemusic.com/FHOFHobart.html more info here.. he sang and played for President and Mrs. Roosevelt and Alan Lomax recorded his music. Pete Seeger had the Vega company send him a banjo, which he enjoyed playing as he did not have one of his own at that time. |
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16 Jan 06 - 07:29 AM (#1649430) Subject: RE: Hobart Smith: Stories and Songs From: GUEST,Bob Coltman I met Hobart at his Saltville VA home in July 1955, sent there by Mrs. Texas Gladden who lived near Twelve o'Clock Mountain in the outlying districts of Salem. Mrs. Gladden would not sing for me -- she had promised Alan Lomax she would not sing for anyone else(!), a promise Lomax apparently exacted from a number of "his" prize roots singers. But after a bit of talk on her porch with her husband, she sent me on to her brother, Hobart Smith, and he was kind enough to spend the best part of an afternoon singing with and for me. As I recall his cottage was quite small, with, if memory serves, a battered white picket fence in front. Saltville was (is still?) a mining town, and the dust of the mine hung in the air, making the bright hot sun sparkle. Hobart was then agile and energetic, a small lean man with a quick smile. He got his guitar, and his banjo out from under the bed, and was amused but courteous about my picking and singing. Then he swung into his extraordinary music. Among a dozen great performances I remember particularly a great banjo piece, "Jinny a'Rollin," a version of Jenny Rowlands which I still play, and his bluesy, catchy version, the best I have ever heard, of "Slack Your Rope, Hangman," which I sing in preference to any other. He was a winning personality but a little shy, and not inclined to put himself forward. Had he pushed hard to make records and personal appearances, I think he would be celebrated now as one of Virginia's premier song stylists, and unquestionably one of the best instrumentalists. Like E.C. Ball of Rugby, another great singer-guitarist I was privileged to meet and hear, he was a musician who certainly had the talent to have broken out, like Doc Watson, into the wider musical world if he chose. I don't know when Pete Seeger got Vega to send him that banjo (what a nice idea, thanks Pete), but I imagine that was later. When I saw him he was playing a tiny no-name banjo with the blackest skin head I've ever seen -- proof positive of a banjo played constantly by a man who works with his hands. An altogether remarkable character and a unique musician, one of the main white men who thoroughly assimilated black styles and could play them with authority. Don't miss his Rounder CD, a good approximation of the sorts of music he loved. And maybe someday someone will reissue those Disc 78 rpm cuts he did with his sister Texas, their only commercial records. Bob |
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16 Jan 06 - 08:53 AM (#1649481) Subject: RE: Hobart Smith: Stories and Songs From: karen k Don't forget the Folk-Legacy recording of Hobart Smith - CD-17. The songs include: Black Annie Bonaparte's Retreat Chinaquapin Pie Cindy Columbus Stockade Blues Cuckoo Bird Devil and the Farmer's Wife, The Girl I Left Behind Me, The Great Titanic, The John Greer's Tune John Hardy Last Chance Meet Me in Rose Time, Rosie Peg and Awl Sally Ann Short Life in Trouble Sitting On Top of the World Soldier's Joy Soldier's Joy Stormy Rose the Ocean Uncloudy Day This is a great cd and comes with a booklet of song notes and words as do all Folk-Legacy recordings. |