ScottK - Posted - 08/29/2013:  17:18:50

Hi All,

Vivian Williams recently announced over in FHO that she and Phil have posted recordings they made in 1975 of Tommy Jarrell and Blanton Owen playing tunes in their living room for a couple hours while on tour in the northwest.  You can find the recordings here.  (Scroll down to Tommy Jarrell).

Thanks Vivian!

Scott

J-Walk - Posted - 08/29/2013:  17:37:07

Thanks, Scott. I downloaded them all. Tomorrow's task will be to try to identify the tunes and add MP3 tags. If I'm able to do that, I'll post a zip file with all of those Tommy Jarrell tunes. 

J-Walk - Posted - 08/29/2013:  17:45:36

Too bad that entire page of excellent MP3s isn't available as a single zip file!

myfavefive - Posted - 08/29/2013:  17:56:23

Phil and Vivian Williams are  the real cornerstones of old time, folk and bluegrass from the earliest days here in western Washington.  They had the foresight to make great recordings like this one with Tommy Jarrell and had great connections that helped bring and host many top artists to the Seattle area.  

Just a reminder to BHO members that Phil and Vivian have a couple of great recordings they did with Harley Bray on banjo and his wife Shera. Harley still lives here near Seattle up in Edmonds, WA and his playing has always been a big inspiration to all us local banjo playing.  His recordings from the 60s with the Bray Brothers and Red Cravens stand as real classics.  Here's the link to the CDs he's on

voyagerrecords.com/catbluegrass.htm

Harley's been in several local bands over the past 25 years here and Friends of Sally Johnson was one of them w/Phil & Vivian.  Here's a sample of them in the 1980s:

youtube.com/watch?v=LsXht3AfTLQ

youtube.com/watch?v=EJ4q5qMGtq8

banjo_brad - Posted - 08/29/2013:  19:06:43

J-Walk - the first one is "John Brown's Dream" and the second is "John Henry" with Tommy playing fretless banjo. ;)

I have GOT to spend some more time on that site, the Williams's have done a tremendous job documenting the music.

Zischkale - Posted - 08/30/2013:  07:26:54

quote:

---

Originally posted by J-Walk

 

Thanks, Scott. I downloaded them all. Tomorrow's task will be to try to identify the tunes and add MP3 tags. If I'm able to do that, I'll post a zip file with all of those Tommy Jarrell tunes. 

---

That would be greatly appreciated! I'd love to hear more Tommy Jarrell fiddling--there is a video on Youtube of him playing Bonaparte's Retreat on solo fiddle that I can't get enough of.

Viper - Posted - 08/30/2013:  08:38:22

quote:

---

Originally posted by J-Walk

 

Thanks, Scott. I downloaded them all. Tomorrow's task will be to try to identify the tunes and add MP3 tags. If I'm able to do that, I'll post a zip file with all of those Tommy Jarrell tunes. 

---

Luckily, they're pretty identifiable, either by them announcing the tune or by the lyrics. I think I got them all.

1. John Brown's Dream / John Henry


2. Cripple Creek / As Time Draws Near (Blackest Crow)


3. Kitty Clyde / Cotton Eyed Joe


4. Cluck Old Hen / Old Bunch of Keys


5. John Hardy / When Sorrow's Encompass Me Round


6. Big Eyed Rabbit / Sweet Sunny South


7. Sweet Sunny South (w/ Mike Seeger) / Going Down the Road Feeling Bad


8. John Brown's Dream


9. Reuben's Train


10. Greasy String / Little Maggie


11. Let Me Fall / Cider


12. Molly Put the Kettle On / Fall on My Knees


13. Forky Deer / Jimmy Sutton

Let me know if anyone else got something different. 

Edited by - Viper on 08/30/2013 08:40:05

J-Walk - Posted - 08/30/2013:  08:56:09

Here's a zip file with the 13 tracks by Tommy Jarrell & Benton Owen:

j-walk.com/jarrell1975.zip

I renamed the files and added MP3 tags with the tune names. If you know the title of the second tune in track 01, please let me know.

aeroweenie - Posted - 08/30/2013:  10:12:33

Thanks everyone, these recordings are fantastic!  Phil & Vivian Williams are treasures.  Vivian is a fabulous fiddler, she has some recordings on youtube.

PeterRedwoods - Posted - 08/30/2013:  10:15:54

Cool stuff!

The tune after John Browns Dream is John Henry

as played here

youtube.com/watch?v=NiKFaGjzV_c

manomusic - Posted - 08/31/2013:  05:23:44

Thanks J-Walk,

that was helpful

wbelm - Posted - 08/31/2013:  08:00:25

Thanks Vivian and Phil everybody.......J-walk the zip is excellent. This is some of the best stuff I have heard......I love Tommy Jarrell. Thank you, Bill Anderson

cornfed - Posted - 08/31/2013:  18:20:15

Thanks for the zip, John. I saved it on my desktop (which is getting way too cluttered with tunes I NEED to learn).

In many ways this thread is a blast from the past for me. Long ago a banjo player/fiddler with the band I played with (Snakeroot) left the band to go study with Tommy Jarrel. She is Laura Sculman, a member of BHO, and occassional contributor.

Tom, I'm not quite old enough to have seen/ listened to the Bray Brothers, but Francis Bray played bass in the same band as me (Snakeroot) for several (many?) years. The family produced a number of fine musicians, Pat Bray, a younger brother, was a customer of mine for years until his health failed. There was another relative, (cousin maybe) Gene Bray who fronted a local country rock band for quite a while too. Thanks for the memories! I didn't realize that Harley was still alive and picking.
The area around Champaign/Urbana was a very fertile soil fo all kinds of music over the years. It still is, and I'll be retiring back to that area next summer. Lucky me!

OT Banjo - Posted - 08/31/2013:  20:05:20

Thanks J-Walk!

RWJones1970 - Posted - 09/04/2013:  07:24:43

Thank you J-Walk.

Zischkale - Posted - 10/17/2013:  07:31:23

Big thanks to John J-Walk for putting the whole package together! I listened to most of it last night on my drive, and loved every minute of it, even the tuning and chatter in between tunes.

It was awesome to hear "As Time Draws Near" (I think Tommy calls it "My Dearest Love"--but he comments on having trouble remembering verses, so I just figure he's got the wrong name my mistake)--it's the only old-time waltz I've heard so far that I really love. I was struck by how powerful Tommy's voice is on this recording. When he belts out those lyrics in "When Sorrows..." he had my full attention. I wish the fiddle was a bit higher in the mix (not that I mind hearing all that great banjo up close, since I'm learning fretless right now), but this recording is just about perfect.

Thanks again to Scott for posting, and to John for putting it all together!

Roosterick - Posted - 10/17/2013:  09:00:28

Thanks to Vivian and Phil for making these recordings available, Scott for the OP and J Walk for organizing them. Also thanks Zischkale for bumping this post back to the top, 'cause I missed it the first time around.

Edited by - Roosterick on 10/17/2013 09:01:27

oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 10/17/2013:  11:06:36

I apparently missed it too. Thanks for the repost, and thanks to everyone for getting the recordings into easily downloadable format, with titles etc..

Edited by - oldwoodchuckb on 10/17/2013 11:07:32

muzzlehatch - Posted - 10/17/2013:  12:26:00

Many thanks Vivian, Phil, Scott and John.

Ive just had a brief listen and it sounds great.

whyteman - Posted - 10/17/2013:  19:24:42

Blanton Owen's life was unacceptably too short.

Don

oldwoodchuckb - Posted - 10/17/2013:  20:04:28

Amen to that, whyteman.