Search - Various Artists :: Nashville Early String Bands, Vol. 2

For better or worse, Nashville has always been perceived as the home of country music. And, by the sounds of the great old-time music heard on this disc, back in the 1920s and '30s things were no different. Why the wealth of talent in one town? Blame it on the Grand Ole Opry. Cashing in on the early-20th-century passion for "traditional" American music, the radio show featured a motley bunch of personalities who only had one thing in common: they could play the hell out of their fiddles, guitars, harmonicas, or banjos. Listening to Deford Bailey play "Ice Water Blues" and "Alcoholic Blues" on his harmonica, you realize that old-time music isn't as much a sound or genre (Bailey freely mixes elements of the blues with white string-band styles) as a state of mind--stripped-down musicians playing their hearts out. Uncle Jimmy Thompson's fiddle style is just as lyrical and intense as Bailey's harp blowing; it's another highlight here (especially his narration on "Uncle Jimmy's Favorite Fiddling Pieces"). Diverse tunes by Uncle Dave Macon and Theron Hale round out this set of important old-time music. Want to hear the roots of the Grand Ole Opry? Here they are, in all of their gnarly glory. --Jason Verlinde