High Lonesome Sound

Description

Eric Clapton himself called Roscoe his favorite country musician, and for good reason-that high lonesome sound never sounded higher or more lonesome than it did when this old-timer played. Here are 72 minutes worth of tracks taken from three Folkways albums released in 1961, 1965 and 1975, with notes and guests Mike Seeger and John Cohen.With a voice that could crack the same cement he worked all his adult life, Roscoe Holcomb, along with Dock Boggs, Wade Ward, and Banjo Bill Cornett, was one of the most searing singers and pickers of the Appalachian banjo style. He performed mostly in Holiness Church services and impromptu square dances, and his style was never polished by an extensive professional career. His banjo playing is distinguished by speedy, irregular meter, and seems to mimic his vocal approach (or vice versa). First released in 1965, this John Cohen edited collection includes the well-known traditional cuts "Moonshiner" and "House of the Rising Sun," and is fleshed out by the guitar playing of Mike Seeger. --Roy Francis Kasten