—An Appalachian Songbook Singing and playing guitars, bouzouki, banjo, bass fiddle, bodhran, mandolin, tambourine, banjeurine (banjo with a half-sized neck), feet, shaker, water-filled jars, and “sack of junk,” Thompson and Brown (former member of Doc Butler’s Emporium of Magic and Mystery, a re-creation of a 1900s medicine show) perform traditional Anglo-Celtic ballads handed down through generations of music-loving Appalachian settlers. 15 songs ranging from the familiar “Jesse James,” “The Trees They Grow Green,” “God Moves on the Water,” “Banks of the Ohio,” “Lady Gay,” and “Wars of High Germany” to more obscure ones such as “Bruton Town,” “The Verdant Braes of Skreen,” and “The Pesky Sarpent.” The pair does gripping versions of two memento mori numbers, “Am I Born to Die” and “Oh, Death”; their style ranges from appropriately simple and austere to a more multilayered mix reminiscent of 60s folk-rock groups. “A real humdinger: fifteen great old Appalachian mountain ballads sung by two fellers who look and sound as though they stepped right out of the time when most of these songs were being written and sung in the hills and hollers. From the period-style photos of the singers to the antique artwork (with the handwritten proclamation that ‘This Programme Is Wholesomme & Goode’), you know you’re in good hands. The 28-page booklet contains notes on each song and all the lyrics, so you can sing along. (And you’ll want to!).”—Rambles: A Cultural Arts Magazine |