Tell It To Me: The Johnson City Sessions 1928-1929

Bear Family Records – BCD17591

Format: CD, Compilation
Country: Germany
Released: 2019
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Country, Old Time
[Tracklist]
01 Tell It to Me: Grant Brothers & Their Music (02:5)
02 Home Town Blues: The Roane County Ramblers (03:10)
03 Johnson City Blues: Clarence Greene (02:58)
04 Louise: Proximity String Quartet (03:06)
05 The Battleship Maine: Richard Harold (03:02)
06 Roll on Buddy: Charlie Bowman & His Brothers (03:17)
07 Old Lady and the Devil: Bill & Belle Reed (03:04)
08 I'll Be Ready When the Bridegroom Comes: McVay & Johnson (03:02)
09 When the Roses Bloom for the Bootlegger: Roy Harper / Earl Shirkey (02:50)
10 I Ain't a Bit Drunk: George Roarke (02:55)
11 Just Over the River: Garland Brothers (02:48)
12 Green Valley Waltz: McCartt Brothers & Patterson (02:55)
13 Pride of the Ball: Blalock & Yates (02:44)
14 When We Go A-Courtin': Francum Braswell / George Wade (03:03)
15 I'm Just a Black Sheep: Jack Jackson (03:09)
16 Evalina: Wyatt & Brandon (02:5)
17 Just Pickin': Leonard Copeland / Roy Harvey (02:57)
18 God Will Take Care of You: The Spindale Quartet (02:49)
19 Moatsville Blues: Moatsville String Ticklers (02:53)
20 Three Men Went A-Hunting: Byrd Moore & His Hot Shots (02:37)
21 The Coo-Coo Bird: Clarence Ashley (02:55)
22 Down on Penny's Farm: The Bently Boys (02:4)
23 Old Lonesome Blues: Bowman Sisters (03:02)
24 The Last Gold Dollar: Ephraim Woodie & The Henpecked Husbands (02:57)
25 Powder and Paint: Eugene Yates / Ira Yates (03:11)
26 Buttermilk Blues: Ellis Williams (03:07)
[Credits]
Artwork: Mychael Gerstenberger, Mastering: Chris Zwarg
[Notes]
Featuring 26 recordings by 26 different musical acts that were active in the late 1920s, 'Tell It To Me' presents a diverse and dynamic overview of Appalachia's vernacular music at the cusp of the Great Depression. While representing a range of genres and styles and showcasing both secular and sacred material, this album is thematically unified by the fact that all of the tracks hail from commercial location recording sessions held by Columbia Records in Johnson City, Tennessee, during successive Octobers in 1928 and 1929. With 25% of the released sides from those two Johnson City recording forays, 'Tell It To Me' documents timeless performances from the 1928-1929 sessions and bolsters recent assertions by discerning aficionados of 78 RPM records that those sessions generated a particularly memorable canon of historical recordings.