Alan Lomax - Black Appalachia: String Bands, Songsters and Hoedowns (CD)

All Music Guide

Another sub-series in Rounder's Alan Lomax collection, these are field recordings documenting African-American life in the Appalachia chain, from the Blue Ridge mountains to the hill country of Northeast Mississippi. It's music that spans from string bands to blues solos and hoedowns to songsters. Performers aboard this collection (recordings made by Lomax between 1933 and 1946) include Leadbelly, Jimmie Strothers, Sid Hemphill, the Nashville Washboard Band and Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry. Highlights include "Cripple Creek," "Skillet Good and Greasy," "The Red Cross Store," "How Long" and a five-minute-plus rendition of "Arkansas Traveler." Like other volumes in the series, this sheds some serious light on a chunk of American history not often documented.

- Cub Koda, All Music Guide