(1969) New Deal String Band – Down In The Willow

Argo issue numbers: DA 104 (mono), ZDA 104 (stereo) re-released as ZFB 69 in 1971.
Recorded: in 1969 (see notes below)
Producer: John S Gilbert
Engineer: Kevin Daly
Sleeve Designer: Janet Kerr

Availability: long deleted, never issued on CD

Musicians
Tom Paley – vocals, banjo, guitar, autoharp
Joe Locker – vocals, banjo, guitar
Janet Kerr – fiddle, guitar, autoharp

Tracks

Side 1
1   Waiting For The Boatman
2   Hot Corn
3   Smokey Mokes
4   Hesitation Blues
5   Wreck Of The Virginian
6   I´ll Fly Away
7   Next Week Sometime

Side 2
1   Hungry Hash House
2   Green Grow The Lilacs
3   Ragtime Annie
4   Wreck On The Mountain Road
5   Deep Ellem Blues
6   Leatherwing Bat
7   Down In The Willow

Notes
A contemporary review of the album in the Gramophone magazine spoke of the album’s respect for its sources.

“This set was made shortly before Paley’s solo album “Sue Cow” (ZFB 3)…and it lacks something of that record’s warmth, but it makes good listening for the enthusiast of oldtime music. Fiddle, banjo, guitar and autoharp are heard on a wide-ranging selection.”

A more thorough and balanced appraisal as and when.

PS – not to be confused with the other (US) bluegrass/newgrass New Deal String Band of the late sixties and seventies, who were pretty bloody good too, as this clip – hippies in a car park playing Roanoke – demonstrates.

~ by folkcatalogue on June 11, 2009.