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I'm originally from Arkansas and have been looking for more old-time music from the Ozarks/Ouachita mtns. I've found a lot of great fiddle players from the Missouri side of the mountains, but haven't been able to find much in the way of traditional banjo players, or Arkansas fiddlers. I'm thinking of players like Violet Hensley, Bob Holt, Lonnie Robertson, basically old source recordings or musicians that learned the old way. Does anybody know of those kinds of musicians from the region, preferably people whose recordings are somewhere online?
I don’t know that there is one. R.D Lunceford would know. Maybe he’ll check in.
@R.D. Lunceford
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Originally posted by GabrielWVI'm originally from Arkansas and have been looking for more old-time music from the Ozarks/Ouachita mtns. I've found a lot of great fiddle players from the Missouri side of the mountains, but haven't been able to find much in the way of traditional banjo players, or Arkansas fiddlers. I'm thinking of players like Violet Hensley, Bob Holt, Lonnie Robertson, basically old source recordings or musicians that learned the old way. Does anybody know of those kinds of musicians from the region, preferably people whose recordings are somewhere online?
https://www.countysales.com/products/21538
https://www.countysales.com/products/22051
You can look up individual players, or groups, (listed in the above links) as some of the individual tunes on these albums can be found online.
You might try the Ozartk Folksong Collection at the University of Arkansas. It was put together by Mary Parlor (spouse of folklorist Vance Randolph. It contains mostly singing, but has somefield recordings of instrumental music, including banjo. These come from Arkansas and Missouri, but I think the bulk are from Arkansas. It is a bear to search through.
digitalcollections.uark.edu/di...kFolkSong
The Wolfe Collection at Lyon College (I think) had some recordings from the early days of the folk festival in Mountain View AR. I used to be able to access it, but it somehow disappeared from that college's website. These were published on a couple of CDs as well, but I don't know if they are still available.
I hope this is helpful.
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Originally posted by GabrielWVI'm originally from Arkansas and have been looking for more old-time music from the Ozarks/Ouachita mtns. I've found a lot of great fiddle players from the Missouri side of the mountains, but haven't been able to find much in the way of traditional banjo players, or Arkansas fiddlers. I'm thinking of players like Violet Hensley, Bob Holt, Lonnie Robertson, basically old source recordings or musicians that learned the old way. Does anybody know of those kinds of musicians from the region, preferably people whose recordings are somewhere online?
Hi Gabriel,
I've got this book which has a ton of great information, tunes in standard notation, history, and the like for the region -- including plenty of content from both states.
Beisswenger, Drew. Ozarks Fiddle Music. Mel Bay Publications, 2008.
https://www.melbay.com/AdvancedSearch/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=%22ozarks+fiddle+music%22
I have the .pdf version, and my search on the word "Arkansas" found 232 occurrences, so looks like there's some good content for you there. Also has a sound component with 37 tunes, really good indexes and bibliography/discography, and just generally a goldmine of information for the region. Check it out -- should give you a good start.
Randy
Thanks for the info, everybody! I did manage to find a few of recordings Lee Stoneking playing banjo at the Field Recorders' Collective website. Oddly enough, on one of the tunes #47, he does something pretty close to the Galax lick. Here's the link if anybody's curious fieldrecorder.bandcamp.com/alb...ollection
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Originally posted by GabrielWVThanks for the info, everybody! I did manage to find a few of recordings Lee Stoneking playing banjo at the Field Recorders' Collective website. Oddly enough, on one of the tunes #47, he does something pretty close to the Galax lick. Here's the link if anybody's curious fieldrecorder.bandcamp.com/alb...ollection
FYI, Lee Stoneking -- as well as his son, Fred -- are well-represented in the text of Beisswenger's Ozarks Fiddle Music book I mention above, as well as two cuts in the sound files. Lee's "Willot's Hornpipe" is the same one as on the Echoes of the Ozarks albums, but Fred's "Butter on the Other Side" seems to be only on a self-released cassette.
Howard Marshall’s just-published book might be relevant.
Check out Hugh Strawn's column, Old-time from the Ozarks, in back issues of BanjoNewsLetter.
Ozark Mountain Music and other styles by Ozark Banjo Players.
Clarke Buehling facebook.com/buehlingbanjo/
Billy Mathews banjobilly.net/
Carole Ann Rose theold78s.com/
Highballers theozarkhighballers.com/bio
Willi Carlisle willicarlisle.com/
Lucas Pool ozarkbanjo.com/
Mountain View Music Store may also have some good insights.
I lived in the Missouri Ozarks for several years in the early '90's. I met a few CHers there, but only one I'd consider an Ozark CHer- Bill Conley of Mountain Grove, MO. Bill learned from his father Bye Conley who was well known for his banjoing in that area in days gone by.
A couple features of the playing style was the use of what is widely referred to these days as the Galax Lick, though they didn't call it that, and had likely never heard of Galax. Limiting drop-thumbing to the 2nd string was another feature, as was utilizing only gDGBD and gCGBD and tuned up when needed for A and D.
There are tons of resources for Ozark/Missouri fiddling, but since you asked about Ozark CH banjo I'll limit myself to what little I can say about that.
My Dad came from Chariton County in north-central Missouri. One of his main banjo influences was his best-friend's grandfather, Morg Howard (1867-1933). That's up in"Little Dixie" though, not the Ozarks, and that's the basis of my own playing.
Sourwood Mountain - Conley Style - YouTube
Bill Conley Clawhammer Banjo - YouTube "Going Across the Sea"
Bill Conley Clawhammer Banjo #2 - YouTube "Soldier's Joy"
Thanks for the info! Lee Stoneking used the same lick in some recordings I found of his. Is frailing the main style among traditional players around there? I've heard banjo on Bob Holt recordings, but wasn't sure if it was a traditional 2 finger style or bluegrass influence. Also, I just did a bit of research and it turns out that Violet Hensley actually lives in Mt. Ida, in the Ouachita mountains, 20 minutes from where I grew up. I don't know how I got the idea she was an Ozark musician. The two regions are culturally similar, but I suspect the big river between the two areas might have insulated an even smaller and more localized regional style in central Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. Do you happen to know of any musicians, banjo or otherwise from the Ouachitas?
GabrielWV
I don't personally know of many if any Arkansas musicians.
I met Gordan McCann when I lived in the Ozarks. He was Art Galbraith's guitar player for many years.
Art was a famous Springfield, MO area fiddler. He passed just a few months after I got to Missouri so I never met him.
Gordan attended many, many jam sessions in the Ozarks through the years and made many recordings of them- literally thousands of hours. They include probably every Ozarks fiddler there's been within living memory, and some others as well.
Gordan's tape collection is on file and available at this link. You can listen to any of his 1400+ recordings from as far back as 1949. I'm even on a couple from 1993!
Click on the link and then on "Listen to the Field Recordings" on the right.
guides.library.missouristate.e...p=4980280
Two Stone County AR traditional banjo pickers were. Shade Craft and Bookmiller Shannon. I would need to listen to a couple CDs to say much about their styles, but my recollection is that they clawed and rarely did "modal" tunes. I met other banjo pickers in North Arkansas who either played oldtime 3-finger or clawed the banjo. Clawhammer was called "rapping" or "knocking" the banjo.
Here is one of Shannon's tunes.
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Originally posted by GabrielWVThanks for the info! Lee Stoneking used the same lick in some recordings I found of his. Is frailing the main style among traditional players around there? I've heard banjo on Bob Holt recordings, but wasn't sure if it was a traditional 2 finger style or bluegrass influence. Also, I just did a bit of research and it turns out that Violet Hensley actually lives in Mt. Ida, in the Ouachita mountains, 20 minutes from where I grew up. I don't know how I got the idea she was an Ozark musician. The two regions are culturally similar, but I suspect the big river between the two areas might have insulated an even smaller and more localized regional style in central Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. Do you happen to know of any musicians, banjo or otherwise from the Ouachitas?
What a great resource! I'm going to start combing through there.
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Originally posted by Lew HTwo Stone County AR traditional banjo pickers were. Shade Craft and Bookmiller Shannon. I would need to listen to a couple CDs to say much about their styles, but my recollection is that they clawed and rarely did "modal" tunes. I met other banjo pickers in North Arkansas who either played oldtime 3-finger or clawed the banjo. Clawhammer was called "rapping" or "knocking" the banjo.
Here is one of Shannon's tunes.
I just heard a guy talk about Bookmiller Shannon earlier today. It sounds there are a lot of similarities between Ozark and Galax banjo playing, this tune Bunker Hill sounds extremey similar to Hobart Smith's The Girl I Left Behind Me, and I don't know of any other sources for the tune among banjo players. Do you know if any CDs were made of Shannon or Craft?
GabrielWV I know of no CDs. The Wolfe Collection of folk music at Lyon College used to have a publicly accessible archive of Ozark songs and tunes. This has disappeared, and I don't know what happened to it. They put out a CD of an early Ozark Folk Festival performances at Mountain View AR. I think Shannon or Craft is on that. The Shannon tune I posted here is on a 45 RPM disc I bought from him about 50 years ago.
quote:Originally posted by Lew HGabrielWV I know of no CDs. The Wolfe Collection of folk music at Lyon College used to have a publicly accessible archive of Ozark songs and tunes. This has disappeared, and I don't know what happened to it. They put out a CD of an early Ozark Folk Festival performances at Mountain View AR. I think Shannon or Craft is on that. The Shannon tune I posted here is on a 45 RPM disc I bought from him about 50 years ago.
I just did a search. The CDs, Ozark Folk Festival volumesI and volume II are available for purchase at the Lyon College website, I mistakenly said one banjoist was Shade Craft, but it was Shade's father Joe Craft, who is on the volumn II CD with three tunes. There are two Shannon tunes on one, if I read correctly.
GabrielWV I meant to add: I don't know about the Hobart Smith connection. I haven't heard that tune. Bunker Hill to me sounds like Sugar Hill, but played in open G tuning.
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Originally posted by Lew HGabrielWV I meant to add: I don't know about the Hobart Smith connection. I haven't heard that tune. Bunker Hill to me sounds like Sugar Hill, but played in open G tuning.
I'll have to get a hold of those CDs! Here's Smith's tune https://youtu.be/RSVFEFE5-OU I think Bunker/Sugar Hill and this tune are likely related to a common ancestor, there's a Girl I Left Behind Me in the Irish tradition that makes for a strong candidate.
GabrielWV Yep. That Smith version of Girl I left behind me is quite similar to Shannon's Bunker Hill. Wow!
Keep in mind that the CDs only have 6 or 8 banjo tunes, with perhaps 5 by Shannon and Craft. There's lots of singing and fiddle playing. This all local people on the CDs, mostly nonprofessional.
There was also a National Geographic LP with people from Mt. View area performing. I can't remember what is on it though.
GabrielWV. I found the Nat. Geo. LP on YouTube.
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSd...XjlMUPzfv
Shannon leads off with Cripple Creek, in a not too exciting version.
Hi Gabriel, Go to the home page on the Slippery Hill site then Old Time finding by State. S.H. and the Milliner/Koken is a great resource. Hope this will help.
Fiddle is the main instrument in Missouri and Arkansas old time music. Bookmiller Shannon is a fine fiddler and a decent banjo player.
The piece, Bunker Hill, is familiar in picking style to Grampa Jones and other Opry "Hill Billys".
There are some elderly tunes (O' Lud Gals for one) that reference Ozark, Indian Nation, and Missouri place-names but I don't know if that means anything or not. The early settlers in the Ozarks (a corruption of the French Aux Arkansas by the way which means Of the Arkansas if my rusty French translates rightly) were from the Tennessee area and probably not real familiar with banjo music but very familiar with fiddle music. I am surprised that no one has mentioned Mountain View, Arkansas.
Tom Meisenheimer Go read the previous posts. I already had a conversation about Shannon and Mountain View with the OP. As you say, among the locally well known musicians, there seems to be more fiddlers than banjo pickers in the Ozarks. However I've met several people who play some banjo, but don't have large repertoires and are not known locally as musicians. Among these not-well-known musicians, I would hazard there are more guitar pickers than banjo pickers, and more banjo pickers than fiddlers.
GabrielWV Hey, I responded to your query by talking about traditional banjo pickers. You do mention fiddlers, and in the Mountain View CDs there are a bunch of fiddlers.
The thing about Mt. View is that the town owes its spark to music tourism. There is an Ozark Culture Center with music performances every day and bigger concerts on weekends. In the town on summer weekend evenings, there will be 5 or 6 jams going with oldtime fiddle and banjo, country, acoustic jazz on guitars, old country, gospel, etc. A school program trains youth who want to learn in string instruments at no charge. Kids who gain a degree of competence can perform at the OCC for a few bucks and much applause. This keeps the music flowing and the tourists coming. While some music remains "traditional" in flavor, there is also a move toward bluegrass styles.
Are you also interested in singers or just instrumental music?
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