The title of the CD I am featuring today is "America's Most Colorful Hillbilly Band Vol.1". The lack of the 'u' in "colorful" rankles but that is how it is spelt on the cover and I place great importance on accuracy (or "accracy" as they presumably spell it in America).
Anyhoo, the CD is a compilation of the early recordings of The Maddox Brothers & Rose released by Arhoolie Records in 1993. It contains 27 tracks dating from 1946 to 1951 and pretty much every one is a winner.
The band comprised Rose and four of her brothers, originally Fred, Don, Cal and Cliff with Henry stepping in when Cliff sadly dies in 1949. They were augmented by Bud Duncan on pedal steel and the magnificently named Jimmy Winkle on guitar. Rose handled most of the lead vocals but Fred took a turn for some of the more raucous numbers.
Here is a fairly representative selection. The first track is dedicated to one of our regular readers. There are songs about mules and milk cows on the album but sadly none about goats.
"George's Playhouse Boogie" - The Maddox Brothers & Rose
"Alimony (Pay Me) " - The Maddox Brothers & Rose
"Time Nor Tide" - The Maddox Brothers & Rose
In sadder hillbilly news, on Sunday we lost Dave Cousins, the leader of bluegrass combo the Strawberry Hill Boys, or Strawbs as they became. Lay down, Dave, lay down.
Is Jimmy Winkle a euthanism?
ReplyDeleteDo you mean euphemism? I think euthanism is what you do to sick animals. Let us hope Jimmy was spared that fate.
DeleteAs far as I can tell that was Jimmy's real name. There is no evidence to prove he was descended from this gentleman but I would like to think he was:
https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/KH8K-DML/john-thomas-winkle-1880-1955
I like to think that those Maddoxes just turned up to the studio, had a couple of rehearsals then just played and sang, a track done and recorded in an hour or so. Unlike today's overproduced voice-modulated three months to "perfect" on song load of old bobbins.
ReplyDelete