Recording Review of Georgia Yellow Hammers & Associates

East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University

ETSU Faculty Works Faculty Works

11-6-2017 Recording Review of Georgia Yellow Hammers & Associates Ted Olson East Tennessee State University, [email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works Part of the Appalachian Studies Commons, and the Music Commons

Citation Information Olson, Ted. 2017. Recording Review of Georgia Yellow Hammers & Associates. The Old-Time Herald. Vol.1-4(6). 40-42. ISSN: 1040-3582

This Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Works at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in ETSU Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Recording Review of Georgia Yellow Hammers & Associates

This review is available at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University: https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/1170 Whiskey Will Do / Nothing Goes Hard Sterchi brothers, led the way to digging ously lachrymose, antiquated territory. With Me / Southern Moonlight Entertain into the variety of sounds coming from Much of this stuff simply has not aged ers: Then I'll Move to Town / How to in and around Knoxville. The musicians well. But regardless, it shows East Ten Make Love / Leola Manning: The Arcade featured here get well-researched stories nessee musicians flirting at the edges of Building / Satan is Busy in Knoxville as well, which include origins of their hardcore early country and more urban / Laying in the Graveyard / The Blues material, bios, and other facts that place pop. Yet from the vantage point of nearly is All Wrong / Bess Pennington: If You them in context. 100 years later, it's clear that Armstrong, Think I'm Not Worthy / Jack and May No doubt one thing that sets this col Manning, Bennett, the Perry County Mu I Uncle Jimmy Thompson : Lynchburg / lection apart from the sessions in Bristol sic Makers, Thompson, and a very few Uncle Jimmy's Favorite Fiddling Piece / and Johnson City, other than the fact that others stand tulip-poplar-tall next to the Etowah Quartet: Walking With My Lord the musicians didn't come from as wide likes of "Just for You," or "Where the / Back in the Years / Maynard Baird and an area, is the inclusion of more African Sweet Magnolias Bloom." His Orchestra: Postage Stomp / I Can't American musicians. Thanks to these BRUCE MILLER Stop Loving You / Alex Hood and His sessions, fiddler Howard Armstrong To order: bear-family.com Railroad Boys: L and N Rag / Corbin Slide and the Tennessee Chocolate Drops, / Lowe Stokes, Homer Miller, Walt McKin blues belter Leola Manning, and the Se Georgia Yellow Hammers & Associates ney, Heavy Martin, Roger Williams, and Bill nior Chapel Quartet found themselves The Georgia Yellow Hammers Brown: The Great Hatfield-McCoy Feud selling records. This collection also con and Ass(!cit11es Part 1 / The Great Hatfield-McCoy Feud tains the only two known sides cut by - Part 2 guitarist Will Bennett. One of them, the oft-recorded "Railroad Bill," has its first With this nothing-less-than-exhaustive commercial documentation by a musi collection finishing off the trio of crucial cian of color, which certainly helps put recording sessions in Tennessee-the the story of a black train robber who other two volumes come from Bristol and evaded capture while haunting train Johnson City- Knoxville is shown not yards into proper context. And the con Document 8067 - 8070 only as a city of historic and contempo trasts between their tracks and the rest rary importance, both musically and oth of this set are stark. Howard Armstrong Volume 1: erwise, but it also serves as an example of proves, even this early on, to be a virtu Fourth of July at a Country Fair just how diverse old-time music could get oso, driving fiddler capable of mastering Bill Chitwood & Bud Landress: Pa, Ma in this still bustling East Tennessee town. any style; Leola Manning, with help from and Me / Over the Sea / Hen Cackle / The book, co-written by Professor of piano and stinging single string guitar Fourth of July / Whoa Mule / Furniture Appalachian Studies Ted Olson and accompaniment, attacks her tunes with Man/ Jerusalem Mourn/ I Got Mine / early country music scholar Tony Rus a drive easily rivaling the better-known Howdy Bill / Johnny Get Your Gun / sell, is amazing. Anyone wanting to get Bessie Smith. Calhoun Sacred Quartet: Life's Railway to an understanding of Knoxville's place Nonetheless, this record is vastly domi Heaven / The Church in the Wildwood / in history will get a fantastic overview nated by white folks, some of whom came Phil Reeve & Ernest Moody/ Down Where here. The photographs of the city-from from elsewhere. Master Georgia fiddler the Water Melon Grows / Georgia Yellow across the Tennessee River, or the heart Lowe Stokes cut a number of sides, in Hammers: Pass Around the Bottle / Go of Gay Street and Market Square in the cluding playing backup on a four-part ing to Ride That Midnight Train / John late 19th and early 20th centuries-show skit detailing the Hatfield-McCoy feud. son's Old Grey Mule / Fourth of July at a thriving, well-swept commercial cen Kentucky banjo player Hayes Shepherd, a County Fair / Bill Chitwood & His Geor ter. There are also photos of early jazz recording under the alias "The Appala gia Mountaineers: How I Got My Wife / and string bands, temperance election chian Vagabond," recorded the oft-com Smiling Watermelon / Preacher Blues / I orchestras, an all-girl banjo group, col piled "Hard for to Love," in Knoxville as Had But Fifteen Cents/ It Won't Happen lege ensembles, and recordings artists in it turns out. Already-legendary fiddler Again For Months / Fourth of July at the their prime and later, scattered through Uncle Jimmy Thompson dropped by County Fair out its 156 pages. But it also tells the sto and sailed through a few tunes, "Leather ry of the town's post-Civil War rise, its Britches" among them. The mixed-gen Volume 2: rapid population growth, its brief tenure der Tennessee Ramblers also turned in Bill Wishes He Was Single Again as state capital, its role in technological six sides that range from straight-up Ha Georgia Yellow Hammers: Tennessee Coon innovation, as well as the types of people waiian to "The Garbage Man," a tune that / All Old Bachelors Are Hard to Please / it attracted. Russell gives a painstak shares melody with "The Weenie Man," Mary Don't You Weep / Going to Raise ing account of the Knoxville sessions' and features some sharp fiddling from a Rucus Tonight / I'm S-A-V-E-D / The background. In the late 1920s, with Jack Bill Sievers. But the sap here is as thick as Picture on the Wall / G Rag / My Caro Kapp head of Vocalion' s record division, the book itself. Sitting through the tracks lina Girl / Phil Reeve and Ernest Moody: the label began to compete with Victor, by the likes of the Southern Moonlight Rock All Our Babies to Sleep / Bees Are Okeh, and Columbia for attention to its Entertainers, the Gibbs Brothers, Lester Humming Around the Flowers / Sweet "hillbilly" and "race" records. The oth McFarland, or a dozen others takes either Evelina / Turkey Mountain Singers: I Am er labels had set up recording centers an unapologetic soft spot for corn, or an Bound For the Promised Land / He all over the South, yet Kapp, with help iron constitution. Frustratingly, the bulk Loves Me / Bill Chitwood & His Georgia from Gay Street record store owners the of this set leans heavily into some seri- Mountaineers: When Married Folks Are

40 THE OLD-TIME HERALD WWW.OLDTIMEHERALD.ORG VOLUME 14, NUMBER 6 copies) but also participated in one of those recordings mark the emergence of Out of Cash / Raise Rough House To night / Bill Wishes He Was Single Again the first racially integrated recording Charles E. "Ernest" Moody as a record / Kitty Hill / Uncle Bud Landress with the sessions in the history of commercial ing artist. Today primarily remembered country music (for a 1927 improvisa as a composer of hymns such as "Drift Georgia Yellow Hammers: Christmas Time at Moonshine Hollow / Candy Pulling tory instrumental piece with spoken ing Too Far From the Shore" and "Kneel interjections entitled "G Rag" recorded at the Cross," Moody became a key mem at Moonshine Hollow / Georgia Yellow Hammers: Song of the Doodle Bug / The with African American fiddler Andrew ber of the Georgia Yellow Hammers. Baxter). Local legends in and near their By the time of the Georgia Yellow Ham Moonshine Hollow Band / My Eyes Are home base of Gordon County, Georgia, mers' August 1927 sessions for Victor, Growing Dimmer Every Day the Georgia Yellow Hammers have for held in Charlotte, North Carolina, Chit years been overshadowed nationally by wood and Meadows had moved on to Volume 3: another North Georgia string band, the other musical endeavors, and Moody Warhorse Game Skillet Lickers. The classic sides by the (banjo-ukulele and harmony vocals) and Georgia Yellow Hammers: The Running latter band, showcasing the talents of Franklin Clyde Evans (guitar and har Blues / When the Birds Begin Their fiddler Cid Tanner and guitarist Riley mony vocals) had joined Landress and Singing in the Trees / The Old Rock Jail Behind the Old Iron Gate / Uncle Bud Puckett, have certainly merited multiple Reeve. Those August 1927 sessions-a Landress: Coon-Hunting in Moonshine reissues in digital form. (The County la highlight of which was the aforemen Hollow / Visiting Sal's House in bel initiated this trend in 1996 with the tioned "G Rag"-are found on Volume Moonshine Hollow / Charles Brothers release of a 16-track single-CD compila 2 of the Document series. (The album is (Philip & Ernest): Oh How I Love Jesus tion, followed by two deeper dives into subtitled Bill Wishes He Was Single Again / Looking This Way / North Georgia the Skillet Lickers' recorded oeuvre from after an October 1927 side recorded by Quartette: How Beautiful Heaven Must UK-based labels-in 2000 by Document Bill Chitwood and his own band after he Be / Each Day I'll Do a Good Deed / I Records and in 2012 by JSP Records.) had left the Georgia Yellow Hammers.) Can, I Do, I Will / Wandering Child Come While not possessing the "star" power Volume 3 (subtitled Warhorse Game in Home / Georgia Yellow Hammers: Big Ball that infused the music of the Skillet Lick reference to one of the band's more ex Over Memphis / Come Over and See Me ers, the Georgia Yellow Hammers boast citing 1928 sides) collects 1928 record Sometime / Sale of Simon Slick, Part 1 ed their own unique style and sound, ings from the Georgia Yellow Hammers / Sale of Simon Slick, Part 2 / Kiss Me but for years only a portion of the band's for Victor and other recordings made Quick / Black Annie / Warhorse Game recording legacy had been digitally re that year for two labels, Victor and Para / The Deacon's Calf / Turkey Mountain issued (on a 2003 compilation CD from mount, by various configurations of the Singers: Does the Pathway Lead Straight the B.A.C.M. [British Archive of Country Gordon County musicians. The final / He Will Never Leave Me / Precious Music] label). Perhaps now, with Docu album in the Document series, Volume Memories / Keep Marching All the Time ment Records' 2015 release of the Geor 4 (subtitled White Lightning to draw at gia Yellow Hammers' complete record tention to one of the band's frequent Volume 4: ings over four albums (including all the lyrical themes), contains 1929 sides for White Lightning band's recordings along with many sides Victor by the Georgia Yellow Hammers Moody Bible Sacred Harp Singers: Liberty / from band members' separate recording (by this time Chitwood had rejoined the In That Morning / Dixie Crackers: The Old sessions), this group of musicians will fi band, while guitarist/ vocalist Melvin Bell Cow / North Georgia Four: Bye-Bye nally receive its due. Dupree had replaced Evans); the album Mama / She Was a Lulu / Dixie Crackers: The lineup of the Georgia Yellow Ham also compiles fascinating side projects Bile Them Cabbage Down / Clyde Evans mers varied during the band's short lifes from 1929-1931 by Chitwood, Reeve, Band: How I Got My Gal / All Gone Now pan, as evidenced on the four volumes in Landress, and Moody (including a 1930 / Uncle Bud Landress with the Georgia Yel the Document series. Subtitled Fourth Of version of the latter's hymn "Kneel at the low Hammers: Rubber Dolly Rag / Rip Van July At A Country Fair after a humorous Cross" recorded for Vocalion). Winkle Blues / Uncle Bud Landress: The song recorded by the Gordon County Each of the four albums boasts its own Daddy Song, Part 1 / The Daddy Song, musicians three times in different permu insert booklet presenting detailed disco Part 2 / Georgia Yellow Hammers: Child tations (including by the Georgia Yellow graphical information prepared by series hood Days / No One to Welcome Me Hammers in Atlanta in February 1927), compiler Tony Russell, who also contrib Home / White Lightning / Peaches Down Volume 1 features 23 recordings made uted authoritative notes based on exten in Georgia / Moody Quartet: Kneel at the between 1924 and March 1927, and band sive research into the band's history. (The Cross / I Believe in God / Gordon County members during this period were Bud notes benefit considerably from Russell's Quartet: Walking in the King's Highway / Landress (banjo, lead vocals), Bill Chit decades-long archival research as well Beyond the Clouds is Light / Nichols Broth wood (fiddle, lead and harmony vocals), as from his many interviews with peo ers: She's Killing Me / Dear Old Tennessee Phil Reeve (guitar, harmony vocals), and ple who retained memories of the lives / I'm Lonely Since Mother's Gone Elias Meadows (guitar, harmony vocals). and musical affiliations of various band Volume 1 includes 10 acoustic-era tracks members.) Collectively, the four Georgia The Georgia Yellow Hammers, an old from 1924, recorded by Chitwood and Yellow Hammers albums from Docu time Appalachian string band from the Landress (as a duo) in a New York City ment Records persuasively introduce 1920s, not only recorded some popular studio for the Brunswick label. That al these local musicians from a bygone era 78s (one 1927 release for Victor Records, bum continues with two February 1927 to old-time music fans around the world "The Picture on the Wall" backed with gospel sides from the Calhoun Sacred in the twenty-first century. "My Carolina Girl," sold at least 115,000 Quartet cut in Atlanta for Victor Records; The four volumes in the Georgia Yellow

THE OLD-TIME HERALD WWW.OLDTIMEHERALD.ORG VOLUME 14, NUMBER 6 41 Hammers series feature recordings taken Mountain Brow / Joker Jess / The New was there. Most of the songs here have a from 78s generously loaned to the proj River Shore / Brother Green / Crossing the great deal in common with ancient bal ect by various collectors. Those record Rocky Mountains ladry - they are set to modal melodies ings, predictably, are uneven in terms of and engage the imagination without sound quality, but standards are main The latest release from the Field Record giving away too much. If you don't pay tained across the series sufficient to allow ers' Collective (FRC) is a collection of close attention, you might get lost. committed listeners to trace these musi songs and a few banjo tunes from Maggie Maggie was an expressive singer and cians' artistic development as well as to (Hammons) Parker, a member of the cel superb storyteller, and though her voice follow the rapid technological evolution ebrated Hammons family of musicians, had weakened by the time of these re during "hillbilly" music's first decade of storytellers, and backwoodsmen from cordings (she was in her seventies), she commercial recording. West Virginia. The seminal 1973 Library of was able to deliver some very good per In June 2016, Document Records an Congress box-set of the music and stories formances. If one mark of a good singer nounced that, due to the industry-wide of Maggie and her brothers Burl and Sher is the ability to be emotive and convinc decline in CD sales, the label would dis man was a musical and cultural guide for ing, then Maggie was superb. And its continue the issuing of CD releases and many who were discovering old-time good to remember that "correct" pitch instead offer its deep catalog of historical music at the time, and its re-release on CD is a relative thing. Maggie didn't always recordings as digital downloads. So while in 1997 introduced the family to a new sing notes that you would find on a pia the four volumes in this Georgia Yellow generation. The new FRC collection was no, but I suspect she sang the notes she Hammers series may become difficult to gleaned from field recordings made by intended to sing. locate on CD, digital downloads of this Wayne Howard between 1973 and 1980 She also plays solo banjo on fi ve of the series should still be available and will be at the Hammons' home, and contains 20 27 tracks here. Her gentle and skilled worth obtaining. But anyone download unreleased recordings of Maggie. touch on the banjo is lovely, especially on ing these delightful and varied record These songs might resonate with the lis "The Falling of the Leaves," a tune that ings should insist upon also obtaining tener the way a fairy tale would - an as is reminiscent of one her brother Burl downloads of Tony Russell's notes for the sortment of colorful characters in a range played called "Singing Birds." But the series, as it is difficult to imagine a future of predicaments. Little Tom Carter, Joker focus is on the songs. It is a well thought listener fully appreciating the Georgia Jess, Sam Gay from Indiana, Little Mary, out and dense collection that I suspect Yellow Hammers' legacy without learn Uncle Ned, Betty Baker, Billy Hughes, listeners will need to hear several times ing the contexts for the recordings from and others join swamp angels, mountain to absorb all that is going on. Russell's authoritative curation. maids, bums, rangers, wives, brothers, ROY A NDRADE TED OLSON millers, gamblers, and bumblebees in To order: fieldrecorder.org To order: document-records.com songs that can range from the eerie and tragic to the light-hearted and funny. In The Hellbenders these stories, September has 31 days, Maggie Parker Hammons Family Songs & Music wicked bodies are doomed for hell, and some go there on a hell-bound train. Nails turn blue, teeth begin to loosen, hair and clothes are soaked in sweat, and you can trip over mountains. The collection is nicely balanced be tween ballads, topical songs, and light hearted ditties, mostly sung a capella. Some have Old World roots. "Little Miss" Field Recorders' Collective FRC 700 follows the story of the 17th-century bal lad "The Daemon Lover" (also known Bruce Molsky and James Leva: fiddles; David Field Recorders' Collective FRC 713 as "The House Carpenter"), and "The Winston: banjo; Mary Winston: guitar; Dave Maggie Hammons Parker: voice, banjo Maid of the Mountain Brow" is a variant Grant: bass of a mid-19th-century Irish ballad "Maid I'll Tell You a Story, It Might Be a Sad One of the Sweet Brown Howe," in which a Altamont / Train on the Island / Chin / Sam Gay / The Roving Gamblers / prosperous and carousing young horse quapin / Tight Old Sally Gal / Red Little Tom Clark / Sam Gay or The Hell owner has his generosity challenged by Mountain Wine / Betty Baker / She Took Bound Train / Wicked Polly / I Wish I Was his love interest. There are also a number it Off / Indian War Whoop / Cider / a Single Girl Again / The Arkansas Bum of American ballads that Maggie learned Baby Waltz / Poor Little Mary (Sittin' in / The Black-Eyed Irish Girl / The Little from within her family about incidents the Corner) / Bravest Cowboy / Sambo Miss / The Texas Rangers / The Blessings and characters that were known to her / Whoop Reprise of Little Mary / Jack of Diamonds / The or her ancestors. According to Howard's Rabbit Skipped / Uncle Ned / Betty Baker account of his time spent the with family This is a reissue of a cassette tape (re / The Young Man Who Wouldn't Raise (0TH, spring 2010), Maggie was uninter member those?) from 1990, remixed and Com / First Come In Was A Bumblebee ested in the overseas origins of the songs remastered by Al Tharp (thanks!). As / The Railroad is Ended / The Blue-Eyed she sang. To her, the songs were alive such, you only get 37 minutes of music Gal (vocal) / The Blue-Eyed Gal (banjo) / with modern-day relevance, and she and the energy level is so high, and the The Falling of the Leaves / The Maid of the would speak about the stories as if she speed so fast, that the minutes go by very

42 THE OLD-TIME HERALD WWW.OLDTIMEHERALD.ORG VOLUME 14, NUMBER 6