cnd Says:
Thursday, April 8, 2021 @6:57:16 AM

Having not known Tommy personally, here's all I can offer:
From the liner notes of discogs.com/release/11486582
"LISTENING TO THE RAIN - The Border Mt. Boys from Olin, N. C., took this Osborne Bros. tune and revised it with the skillful fiddle addition of Tommy Malboeuf. A retired Navy boatswain's mate, Tommy has played professionally with Charlie Monroe. "

From the liner notes of discogs.com/release/13134140
"TOMMY MALBOEUEF - Fiddle player for the group [Border Mountain Boys] and sings tenor(?) and high tenor. Started playing fiddle at the age of 22. Writes many fiddle instrumentals. Hobby is "just playing music."

You wrote his wife was Bonnie Lamberth. Could she perhaps be related to *L. W. Lambert* [note spelling] of the Border Mountain Boys?

I'm also attempting to assemble a discography of Old Oblivion's music. I have OO-1 and OO-4 thru -6, as well as 4 releases I don't know the numbers for which are probably OO-2 and -3. If you think you can help, please feel free to let me know.

Brooklynbanjoboy Says:
Thursday, April 8, 2021 @9:09:40 AM

CND: Thanks for your reply. To answer your question, this material on Old Oblivion is from my book:

Lewis M. Stern.
Jim Scancarelli: Fiddler, Banjo Player and Gasoline Alley Cartoonist.
Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc., 2021 - forthcoming.

* * *

In the 1970s, Jim did the artwork, and engineer and design work, for seven LPs recorded on a label named "Old Oblivion," "headquartered" at 1320 South Church Street in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The first LP, "Chicken Hot Rod," recorded in 1971 and released in 1973 (OO-1), captured the music and humor of the bluegrass band Chicken Hot Rod. Jim did the engineering and design, and artwork, for this first and only album by that band.

Old Oblivion's second recording, "The Mole Hill Highlanders: Old Time String Band Music," (Old Oblivion OO-2), was recorded by Sam Rowe, and produced and designed by Jim; the cassette was digitally re-mastered at Audioworks in Charlotte, North Carolina, by Mike Robinson, and released as a home-made CD in 1993. The recording featured Clyde Williams on fiddle, Mark Wingate on harmony fiddle, Chuck Dunlop on guitar, Jim Whitley on bass - and playing Jew's harp on the cut of "Molly Hare" - and Jim Scancarelli on banjo. That recording was made in Chuck Dunlop's backyard in Huntersville, North Carolina.

The third recording released as a cassette on the Old Oblivion label was "The Mole Hill Highlanders: Old Time String Band Music, Volume 2" (Old Oblivion OO-3), with music by the same lineup. Jim wrote in the liner notes that in the spring of 1970, the band stopped in Statesville, North Carolina, at radio station WFMX where Odell Wood, the brother of banjo player A.L. Wood, broadcast a daily radio show of country and bluegrass music. When the analog tapes of those broadcasts were re-mastered to digital form for the CD released in 1993, Jim pointed out that the band "discovered things on them that were previously inaudible years ago. The thought struck that if we put the tapes back on the shelf another 20 years, with the inevitable future technological electronic advances, perhaps we would discover things that were never on them to begin with."

The fourth release under the "Old Oblivion" label was "Carl Joyner: Hot Tarheel Fiddlin'," recorded at a session in June 1974. Jim did the production and recording work, and the cassette design. Two of the musicians who played with Carl Joyner on the recording - Jim Whitley and Darrell Gray - had just gotten off the college circuit playing with the band Chicken Hot Rod. Jim Scancarelli wrote in the liner notes: "I set up my recording equipment outside in Mother Nature's own studio on Jack Reddick's farm and you can hear roosters crowing and bird chirping in the background. Thank goodness the cows were out on the south 40 that day." Jack Reddick played guitar on the "Hot Tarheel Fiddlin'" recording. He passed away several years after that cassette was made.

Number five released on the "Old Oblivion" label was "Bluegrass Sanitary Cafe," featuring Jim and Tommy Malboeuf. Don Wright played banjo on the recording, and Steve Kilby played guitar, mandolin, and mandola. Bill Williams played bass, and Pat Cocklin provided vocals. Tony Anaya played guitar and Angelica Anya played cabasa on one cut. The sound effects were recorded at the Philadelphia Deli in Charlotte, North Carolina, and prepared as cassette tapes from those original recordings in December 1991 by Mike Robinson at Audioworks, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The sixth "Old Oblivion" product number (OO-6) was assigned to a project originated by the musician Thom Case, but the recording work was never completed. Case's goal may have been to record his original compositions and songs in order to be able to send them to agencies and radio stations, but that effort never resulted in an Old Oblivion product. Jim recalled that a "demo" made by Thom Case in Nashville, Tennessee, featuring songs he wrote was assigned an Old Oblivion number (OO-6) but the project never came to fruition, and Jim never received a copy of what Case had intended to turn into a cassette. Interestingly, at some point, Tommy Malboeuf utilized the Old Oblivion label, and issued a home-made recording as 00-6. The product was called "Tommy Malboeuf: Orange Blossom Special." That recording featured the fiddling of Tommy Malboeuf who was joined by Hannah Vogel (guest fiddle), J.P. Van Hoy (bass, guitar, keyboard), Clay Lunsford (guitar, banjo), Mary Umbarger (autoharp), Gay Tatman (flute, penny whistle) and Stephanie Spranta (vocals). J.P. Vanhoy engineered the recording, and Tommy's son, Danny, designed the cover. Jim allowed the possibility that he had simply told Tommy Malboeuf to go ahead with his project, and to use the OO-6 number and Old Oblivion label but had forgotten the sequence of events that led to the release of the "Orange Blossom Special" cassette.

The seventh recording, "Twin Fiddles," (OO-7) - released as a CD - featured the music of Jim Scancarelli (lead fiddle), Tommy Malboeuf (harmony fiddle), and Jim Greene (guitar). The three met at Greene's home in Charlotte for a jam session in June 1996. "After a couple of tunes," Jim Scancarelli wrote in the brief liner notes for that recording, "Jim Greene reached over and turned the cassette player on and recorded the music for our enjoyment later. All tunes were done in one take and whatever clinkers and imperfections were left in as we kept the tape rolling. Tip, Tommy's dog, can be heard banging his tail against the microphone stand."

(From Lewis M. Stern, Jim Scancarelli: Fiddler, Banjo Player and Gasoline Alley Cartoonist. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc., 2021 - forthcoming. All rights reserved.)

cnd Says:
Thursday, April 8, 2021 @9:24:56 AM

Perfect, thanks for the help -- that fills in all my holes!
Perhaps unrelated, perhaps not, but Thom Case did release a song in 2008 titled "What Christmas Is About"

I've got a recording of Tommy from the first record I listed above. I'm not a fiddler but I'll see what some of my friends who do think and can tell you more about his styling.

cnd Says:
Thursday, April 8, 2021 @9:25:28 AM

Forgot to mention, Case's recording was released by Old Oblivion. You can hear it here: airplaydirect.com/music/LizardThomCase/

Brooklynbanjoboy Says:
Thursday, April 8, 2021 @9:33:58 AM

Thanks for the Thom Case link, CND!

cnd Says:
Thursday, April 8, 2021 @4:00:18 PM

I just updated Tommy's page on Discogs (discogs.com/artist/6335030-Tommy-Malboeuf) as part of some work I'm doing, I figured you'd also appreciate having the sources:
newspapers.com/image/3156710 - Statesville Landmark, Nov 20 1967, p. 3A
newspapers.com/image/3882129/ - Statesville Landmark, Apr 24 1968, p. 1A
Those give his playing with the Smokey Ridge Boys
The photo is from UNC's Fiddler's Grove site (exhibits.lib.unc.edu/exhibits/...item/1688) and the nickname "Red" comes from the Wiki page on his son.
Let me know when the book comes out!

Brooklynbanjoboy Says:
Friday, April 9, 2021 @1:54:16 AM

Thanks CND. I will say that there is indication Tommy started learning to play fiddle when he was in his early teens. And that the nickname "Red Tommy" came pretty early in his life, but was especially emblazoned as part of his story in the late 1950s/early 1960s, during his Union Grove-going years. Tommy's story unfolds in dribs and drabs, in small packages of memories that reveal themselves when the slices of the story come out of the recollections of old band mates, fiddles' convention friends, students from his fiddle teaching days. Keep up the good work. Take care, Lew

Brooklynbanjoboy Says:
Monday, December 13, 2021 @2:05:23 AM

The publisher's production proofs for the book on Jim Scancarelli are in my hands, and I have begun work on proofreading the text, and building an index for the book. The publisher, McFarland of North Carolina, has the book in its catalogue available for pre-order in 2022.

mcfarlandbooks.com/product/jim...ncarelli/

I owe them the finished work on the proofreading and indexing parts of the drill by the first week in January, leading me to guess that they might have the book done and ready for sale in early or mid-February.

There is a good deal in the book about Jim Scancarelli about Tommy Malbouef, especially their time together playing double fiddle in the band "Sanitary Cafe."

I'm guessing the book about Tommy Malboeuf will be published in mid-2022, but that's just a guess.

mcfarlandbooks.com/product/tommy-malboeuf/

Thanks for your interest.

I've been feeding a Facebook Group on the progress of the Jim Scancarelli book:

facebook.com/Book-on-Jim-Scanc...338401512

I've also been feeding a Facebook Group on the Tommy Malboeuf book:

facebook.com/Tommy-Malboeuf-No...701822467

Again, I appreciate your interest. Have a fine holiday,

Lew

rob341 Says:
Friday, March 29, 2024 @5:29:20 AM

As a student delving into the depths of Tommy Malboeuf's musical journey, this article is incredibly insightful and captivating. It's fascinating to see how the author's initial manuscript about Jim Scancarelli evolved into a deeper exploration of Tommy's life and legacy in music. I wonder what education was like at that time. So, at that time there were no such resources as essays.edubirdie.com/finance-assignments and all tasks had to be performed without the help of the Internet. He must have been very smart. The questions posed about Tommy's fiddling style and technique demonstrate a keen interest in understanding the nuances of his artistry. It's clear that Tommy's passion for music extended beyond mere performance, encompassing a deep appreciation for various genres and a talent for innovation, as evidenced by his creative fiddle backup work. Overall, I'm eagerly anticipating the author's forthcoming book on Tommy Malboeuf, which promises to be a compelling tribute to a remarkable musician whose legacy deserves to be celebrated and remembered.

Brooklynbanjoboy Says:
Saturday, March 30, 2024 @2:51:43 AM

Mr. Kimble.

Thanks for your comments on Tommy Malboeuf.

My book and a later article on Tommy are now published:

Tommy Malboeuf: The Life of a Carolinian Fiddler. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc., 2022.

“Tommy Malbouef: North Carolina’s Red-Haired Fiddler.” Fiddler Magazine. Summer 2023. Pp. 22-23. online.fliphtml5.com/mgulc/shpx/#p=22

Regarding Tommy’s education level: He did not go much further than high school, and his record in that small, old-styled educational system was – at best – mixed. He joined the US Navy right out of high school.

But he did have a smart sense about him, and he was able to navigate his way toward musical capability, and he did develop and demonstrate an uncanny ability to work well in a band, to double fiddle with folks like Jim Scancarelli – but his drinking and eventually his full blown alcoholism muted his possibilities for a career in music. He managed odd jobs, and kept himself fed and – for the most part – out of serious trouble, though he did have a local reputation with the law in parts of North Carolina and Virginia – largely because of the drinking, and sometimes drinking and driving.

As I note in the book, he did keep himself fed and housed through a series of odd jobs – and he did rumble through band memberships locally, in and around Statesville, NC – and he did appear on several notable LPs with some of those bands. Later in life, he did show a penchant for teaching fiddle – especially to young children. And he did have lifelong friends – like Jim Scancarelli - who worked hard to try and make sure Tommy did decently enough. [See my book: "Jim Scancarelli: Fiddler, Banjo Player and Gasoline Alley Cartoonist." Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc., 2022.]

In the end, Tommy was remembered as a massively talented fiddler with a capability to pull a band together, keep a tune going, and entertain audiences from the stage. His music is worth listening to. His teaching approach - especially in the fiddle instruction film that Jim Scancarelli cobbled together – in the early 2000s was a worthwhile venture but it was a privately made film that did not get much attention – though I found his way of teaching tunes to be accessible, helpful, and focused on getting the old tunes out to a small and devoted audience of young students.

I hope your project is a successful one.

V/R,

Lew