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FRC Store – 2008 CDs

As of June 2008 we have 56 CDs for sale (plus 2 video DVDs). You will find the most recent issues on this page. Please follow the links to our Special CD Sets, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and Young Musician Series CDs and our photograph store.

Ordering information

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For track listings and sample sound clips, click on the links below.

2008 CD Releases
 

FRC2008A The Master Musician 7-CD set $87.50.
FRC109 to FRC410, 7 CDs, see below for descriptions.

 

FRC2008B The Young Musician 8-CD set $100.00.
FRC602 to FRC609, 8 CDs, see below for descriptions.

 
Esker Hutchins

FRC109 – Round Peak Volume 1 (From the collection of Ray Alden)   $15 per disc
1968 changed my life when I heard Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham and Oscar Jenkins play at a house concert. The following summer, and for 15 consecutive summers, I traveled south to record, study and spend time with the many musicians of Round Peak. In these two CD volumes, I will try to give you some idea of the treasures I found among my 15 years of recordings. Volume 1 focuses on what may be viewed as the "big four" of Round Peak music: Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham, Earnest East and Kyle Creed, including a special appearance by Charlie Lowe on track 9. All of us who visited these mesmerizing musicians never thought this paradise would end, but Fred Cockerham was first to pass away in 1978 and by January 1985, all of the older generation musicians of Round Peak were gone. I still make the pilgrimage south every summer to Mt. Airy, NC to visit Mac and Nellie Snow. Listen to Volume 2 for more surprises. - Ray Alden   Track list   Sound clip
 
HJohn Ashb y FRC110 – Round Peak Volume 2 (From the collection of Ray Alden)   $15 per disc
Volume 2 surprises us with role reversals such as Fred Cockerham playing fiddle and Tommy Jarrell on banjo or Earnest East playing banjo and fiddle with Tommy. This volume includes many more of the musicians of Round Peak, including many of the Camp Creek Boys and another special appearance by Charlie Lowe. You will hear Tommy imitating his Uncle Charlie as well as my earliest recordings of Tommy, when he played several solo fiddle pieces for me at his home circa 1969. A year later, I recorded Earnest East and the Pine Ridge Boys playing at a furious pace at the Galax Fiddlerﾕs Convention (tracks 33-36). To cap off this CD, Kyle Creed plays his unique version of Roustabout, Mac Snow sings the Charlie Monroe classic Rosalie McFalls and Fred plays his own Logan County Blues. - Ray Alden   Track list   Sound clip   

   
Dewey Balfa FRC111– Balfa Brothers & Nathan Abshire - The 1970 NYC Cajun Concert
(From the recordings of Ray Alden & Dave Spilkia)   $15 per disc
In this special concert of music and talk, one hears both wonderful songs and clarifications of Cajun life. Only six years before this show, at Newport's 1964 folk festival and much to Dewey Balfaﾕs surprise, he found American audiences embracing traditional Cajun music as far more than a crude "chanky-chank." He decided to become ambassador for the Cajun culture. Nathan Abshire (1913-1981) had been influenced by accordionist Amédé Ardoin, his musical family and fiddler Lionel Leleux. Nathan first recorded in 1935 with the Rayne-Bo Ramblers and then in 1949 issued his best-known record, the "Pine Grove Blues". Dewey's connection to Nathan Abshire was as a one-time member of his "Pine Grove Boys." "Les Frères Balfas" began playing informally at local gatherings during the '40s with Dewey on fiddle, Will on "seconding" fiddle*, Rodney on guitar, Harry on accordion and Burkeman playing triangle and spoons. Later joined by neighbor Hadley Fontenot on accordion, they recorded "La Valse de Bon Baurche" and "Le Two Step de Ville Platte" as a 78-rpm single in 1951. Despite an extraordinary tragedy in February 1979, when Rodney and Will were killed in a car wreck, Dewey continued the music of the Balfa Brothers until his passing in 1992. - Ray Alden
* Also known as "bassing on the fiddle." Both Dewey and Will's fiddles would be "tuned to the accordion." With a C accordion, you would "tune down the fiddle" a whole step, so from low to high it would be F C G D. Unlike cross tunings, this preserves the original fingerings, allowing the player to finger as if he were in A or D, but matching the C accordion. - Kevin Wimmer    Track list   Sound clip     Additional Notes
   
Dixie Hummingbirds FRC309– Galax Gems - The Music of Galax in the 1960s
(From the collection of Andy Cahan)   $15 per disc
The front cover, showing the exuberance with which George Pegram entertained crowds at the Galax Fiddler's Convention, gives some idea of the liveliness and energy of Galax musicians in the 1960s. In those days Fred Cockerham often joined Pegram, and tracks 12-17 are as strong as anything Fred played with the Camp Creek Boys. In order to locate these recordings, Boyd Hawks told Andy Cahan "just look in the back of my TV repair shop." Only after hours of climbing over mountains of discarded electronic parts did Andy finally find the tapes. Tracks 1-9 were discovered deeply buried among Andy's Norman Edmonds tapes (FRC301-2). As luck would have it, you don't have to undergo any of these obstacles, you have but to put this CD in your player to unlock these treasures. - Ray Alden    Track list   Sound clip   

   
Ross County Farmers FRC310– John Summers (From the collection of John Cohen)   $15 per disc
From Judge Dan White's "O'Leary" Recordings
John Summers (1887-1976) was a farmer and master fiddler from Indiana. His music was respected in his local area and among friends. He played in scores of "Old Fiddling Contests" at fairs and events all over the Midwest, winning first places at almost every single event. You can hear the excellence of 19th Century music carried into his present. It still speaks to our ears today. Here's how his music got out to the rest of us: in the early 1960s The New Lost City Ramblers were performing at the Ash Grove in Los Angeles, and Mr. and Mrs. O'Leary heard us and later, at a dude ranch in Colorado, told their friend Judge Dan White about it. So when he returned to his home in Indiana he made these recordings of his friend John Summers for them, and they gave the tape to me in California the following year. I brought it to my home in New York City, and gave a copy to our neighbor Art Rosenbaum (originally from Indianapolis). On his next trip to Indiana he located and recorded John Summers. He issued some of these on Folkways' "Fine Times at Our House", and Mr. Summers' fame spread to a new, dispersed audience. What you are listening to is the tape Judge White gave the O'Learys, clearly a communication of shared pleasures, friendship and excellent music. - John Cohen    Track list   Sound clip     Additional Notes 1     Additional Notes 2
   
FRC409 – Texas Fiddle Bands (Researched by Marynell Young)   $15 per disc
WILLIAM A. OWENS (1905-1990) was a folklorist, author, and professor of English. Despite the fact that his Pin Hook, Texas school was open only 3 months a year, by 1933 Owens managed to get two degrees at Southern Methodist University. In the late 1930s, working partly on his own and partly for the University of Texas Extension Division, he recorded songs from East Texas to the Texas Coast's Cajun Country, recording on aluminum discs using cactus needles on a second-hand Vibromaster recorder. Owens wrote many books one of which, Slave Mutiny: The Revolt of the Schooner Amistad (1953), provided much of the material for Steven Spielberg's 1997 film, Amistad. In 1966 he became a professor of English at Columbia University in NY, and retired as professor emeritus in 1974. - Ray Alden   Track list   Sound clip    Additional Notes
   

FRC410 – P.T. Bell –(Researched by Dan & Christy Foster)   $15 per disc
The William Owens 1941 Carrizo Springs, Texas recordings
Peter Bell was a second generation Texan, born 1869 into a musical family on the frontier. His fiddling is among the best of very few representations of southern dance music as it may well have been played mid-to-late 19th century in the American southwest. Recorded at age 74 at his home in Carrizo Springs in 1941 by folklorist William A. Owens, the 29 selections here reflect the lifelong interest Peter Bell had in old time music as he learned it from his father and grandfather who came to Texas in 1853. These recordings are from The Center for American History, University of Texas (Austin) Folklore Center Archives. Special thanks to John R. Wheat, Coordinator for the Sound Archives. - Dan Foster    Track list   Sound clip    Additional Notes

   

FRC602– The Horse Flies –(From the recordings of Ray Alden)   $15 per disc
Since 1981 the Horse Flies have explored a meld of the traditional with the modern, creating a musical world that is sometimes haunting and beautiful, certainly always quirky, poetic, rooted, and free. This recording, partly made at their home in 1984 Ithaca, NY and completed later at a festival in 1988, reveals some of how their sound developed. The two traditional pieces of the opening tracks are examples of the early sound of the Horse Flies, whereas the third track illustrates their discovery of a style that became known as "bug music," a sound which culminated in their classic "Who Throwed Lye." Track 4 is an illustration of the band's explorations, recorded off the cuff as they sat at home improvising. The band's crystallized sound can be heard in the 1988 festival recordings, a combination of acoustic, percussion and electronic elements. The Horse Flies' sound continues to flourish, and can be heard on their current 2008 CD, "Until the Ocean." - Ray Alden    Track list   Sound clip    Additional Notes    Richie Stearns Bio
   
Wade Ward FRC603 – The Chicken Chokers (From the collection of Ray Alden)    $15 per disc
Chad Crumm, after playing 1-1/2 years with James Leva (FRC605) in Lexington, VA's Ace Weems and His Fat Meat Boys, went to Boston and founded the Chicken Chokers. As Jim Reidy recalls, "November 15, 1985 was our third trip from Cambridge to the Eagle Tavern, and we were excited to be bringing our new 'Chokers and Flies' LP to NYC to hawk at the gig. The night was a turning point — we kicked off a year of touring, Kevin Wimmer abandoned violin for fiddle and Ray Alden videotaped the effects of testosterone poisoning on a cocky string band. The blazing tempos and unlikely medleys were shocking to hear again after 20 years — let's do that rocking Glenn Echo Dance again!"   Track list   Sound Clip    Additional Notes

   
Heywood Blevins FRC604 – The Hurricane Ridgerunners –(From the collection of Jerry Gallaher, Paul Kotapish & Ray Alden)   $15 per disc
1977 was the first incarnation of the Hurricane Ridgerunners after Jerry Gallaher, Scott Nygaard and Jack Link met at the first Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend. This trio performed for a year until Scott and Jack left. Luckily, waiting in the wings to join with Jerry was Mark Graham, harmonica in hand. Although the banjo and the harmonica make scintillating music together; Jerry and Mark journeyed to enlist the stellar "guitarifying" and mandolin brio of Paul Kotapish. Paul packed up and moved his life to Seattle. Soon after, Armin Barnett, showing the value of the fiddle as a lead melody string band instrument, came blowing in from the East like retrograde tumbleweed and was quickly enlisted. They went along their merry way until Ronald Reagan's era struck the flimsy old-time music economy like an asteroid. Everyone put on clean clothes and went to school or got a job. Jerry and Mark still occasionally play together in Seattle, sometimes with Bill Meyer. Armin hangs with the Queen City Bulldogs. Paul plays in an actual successful band called Wake the Dead in Alameda, CA. They all have jobs and families. God bless us everyone. - The Hurricane Ridgerunners    Track list   Sound clip    Additional Notes

   
FRC605– The Renegades –(From the collection of James Leva)   $15 per disc
The Renegades were the masterpiece of the 1970s tradition of musical cross-pollination between two centers of Old Time Music; one found in Ithaca, NY and the other in Lexington, VA. The two locations are connected by a 12 hour drive on Interstate 81. In the Renegades, veterans of several notable old time string bands (Richie Stearns of the Horse Flies, June Drucker of the Heartbeats, Carol Elizabeth Jones of the Wildcats, and James Leva of the Fat Meat Boys and the Hellbenders) joined together to explore their common interest in making old time music that focused on both harmony singing and dance grooves. All four members of the band are song writers and the inclusion of a significant number of original compositions distinguished the Renegades. One might say they were the only group with an extensive background of old time music in the then nascent "Americana" wave. This CD is formed of The Renegades, recorded live to DAT and issued as a 1993 cassette, and I Need to Find, recorded at Al Tharp's studio in New Orleans in 1995. The Renegades played numerous festivals which included two tours to Alaska. - James Leva    Track list   Sound clip    Richie Stearns Bio

   
FRC606 – Plank Road String Band –(From the collection of Al Tharp)   $15 per disc
The actual life of Plank Road String Band was brief, but the level of intensity and single mindedness makes those couple of years resonate for me still. The four of us: Andy, Brad, Steve and I had sort of loose alliance with the Green Grass Cloggers in NC. As I recall, we were having a band rehearsal at the chicken farm, seriously discussing the need for a bass player. We'd begun to conceive of ourselves as a dance oriented outfit, and were really desperate for that bottom thump. At which point a strange car began to roll up first through one then the other of the cattle gates up to the house, whence emerged his very self Michael James by god Kott. Having heard of our scene from who knows where, he strode in with his cello and jammed a few. Man, I'm lookin at Brad, Brad's lookin at Andy, and I'm not sure who's lookin at Steve. But it was so utterly obvious we'd achieved our weird Socratic ideal of a band; that's when it became a solid thing. We became a musical entity that night just as the flakiest and most ephemeral of personalities became a kind of sine qua non of our music. - Al Tharp
Steve Gendron, guitarist for the original Plank Road string band, had passed away and his friends in Denmark proposed a tour for the remnants of Plank Road. Andy and Brad had moved on to other things. Michael James Kott and Al Tharp brought in fiddler James Leva to form a trio that would perform six week tours throughout Northern Europe during the summers of 1979, 1980, and 1981. The Europeans didn't know quite what to make of a trio that sang in three part harmonies using fiddle, clawhammer & tenor banjo with Michael's cello worn guitar-style around his neck and shoulder. This 1980 recording (tracks 15-24), made live in a Danish living room on a two-track reel-to-reel machine, gives an idea of the band's innovative approach to the traditional music they'd been playing in Virginia over the previous decade. - James Leva    Track list   Sound clip    Additional Notes

   
Heywood Blevins FRC607– Indian Creek Delta Boys–(From the collection of Ray Alden)   $15 per disc
Proclaimed the "Official Traditional Illinois Old-Time String Band" by the state's 82nd General Assembly, the Indian Creek Delta Boys of Charleston, Illinois were active from the 1970s through the 1990s. The band's backbone was formed by brothers Garry and Steve Harrison. Garry began fiddle at age 16 with instruction from his father Cliff while Terry, Garry's twin, started using brother Steve's banjo. Along with band mates Chirps Smith (FRC608) and John Bishop, they researched many obscure Illinois fiddle tunes from the senior players detailed below. Many of the original Illinois source tunes can be heard on Garry's 3-CD collection, and even more are annotated and available in his comprehensive book of the same name, Dear Old Illinois. - Ray Alden    Track list   Sound Clip    Additional Notes
   
FRC608– Chirps Smith –(From the home recordings of Chirps Smith)   $15 per disc
Lynn "Chirps" Smith was born and raised in downstate Illinois. As a young man, he played with the Indian Creek Delta Boys (FRC607) and learned fiddle tunes directly from old-timers, including Harvey "Pappy" Taylor and Noah Beavers. This homemade music was transported to the Midwest by homesteaders who, bringing their fiddle tunes with them, multiplied them by learning new ones from their neighbors. Chirps became a regular player at Chicago Barn Dance Company's dances after moving to Chicago in 1978. Since 1985, he has played lead fiddle in the Volo Bogtrotters string band and currently plays in the New Bad Habits. These recordings are selected from five CDs of Chirps' home recordings.    Track list   Sound clip    Additional Notes

   
Heywood Blevins FRC609– Berkeley in the 1960s–(From the collection of John Cohen)   $15 per disc
The musicians of Colby Street lived, performed and busked in Berkeley and Oakland California during the late 60's and 70's. Most are still in the San Francisco Bay area in 2008, all of them are still active in music. As Jody Stecher points out, this was, "an entity that never ever existed except when the New Lost City Ramblers came to town and there was a party at Colby Streetﾉeveryone played at once. The participants had differing aesthetics, different tune versions, and all of us were just starting to develop our personal musical voices. But this was not a collective voice either. It was just a bunch of disparate voices playing more or less the same tune at more or less the same time." It included members of Dr. Humbead's New Tranquility String Band and Medicine Show, Fat City, the Diesel Ducks, Yreka Bakery, and other temporary combinations. Thinking it was one band, John Cohen decided to record this unprecedented sound. The recordings were done at Peter Weston's Pacific High Studio, recorded in seven tracks over the 3-inch tape outtakes from the Grateful Dead's "Workingmans's Dead". Although never issued, these recordings offer a unique interpretation of old time music performed by great musicians totally immersed in their music and its atmosphere. They were in and out of each other's lives, and in retrospect, there was a great deal of experimentation, improvisation and love expressed here. It's dazzling and woozy music, done by dazzling and woozy musicians. - John Cohen    Track list   Sound Clip

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