Category Archives: History
Musical Meetings: Rocky Adamson
Rocky Adamson, town constable of Dayton NV, recorded at Sutro Saloon in 1967. Continue reading
Eck Robertson, Texas Fiddler, and “Sallie Gooden”
“He had a leather strap around his neck attached to the end pin of the instrument. He spoke of fiddling and occasionally, would raise the instrument to playing position and run his bow across the strings to make a point. His frailty vanished as soon as he laid that bow to the strings: there was the Eck I knew from his recordings! ” Continue reading
Bluegrass: Country Soul
1971 was a banner year for bluegrass music. It had come of age the decade before, following its invention as a musical style by Bill Monroe in the mid-1940s. Little known, except by country music fans for its first twenty … Continue reading
The Lilly Brothers and Don Stover: Little Annie
What got me excited was Don’s “tag” or ending of his banjo break. It’s four beats of pure delight, sort of going off sideways like a plot twist in an Alfred Hitchcock film! Continue reading
Earl Johnson, a Wild Georgia Fiddler
Earl was a Georgia, short-bow fiddler with a brisk attack, highlighted by upward slides in the melody that pushed his tunes forward impressively. Mississippi Sawyer (a descriptive term for a river snag, long-used by steamboat pilots) was very popular in … Continue reading