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FRC 313 - Walter Raleigh Babson: Recordings from the collection of Andy Cahan

by Walter Raleigh Babson

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1.
Finger-Knocking Solo 00:38
2.
Cindy 01:39
3.
Recollections of learning the banjo & The Old Arm Chair 02:25
4.
Golden Slippers 02:53
5.
Share Around the Ladies 01:56
6.
Mockingbird 02:18
7.
Hesistation Blues 01:37
8.
Hello Coon 02:24
9.
Are You Washed in the Blood 01:55
10.
The Widow's Waltz 02:20
11.
Soldier's Joy (finger-knocking) 01:24
12.
Cindy (finger-knocking) 01:42
13.
When the Roll is Called Up Yonder 03:12
14.
Alabama Jubilee 01:47
15.
Crusoe Island Tune 01:00
16.
Peek-A-Boo Waltz 01:41
17.
Going to the Wedding Dolly-O 01:21
18.
I Don't Drink Your Whiskey 01:29
19.
Uncloudy Day 01:08
20.
Smile Awhile 01:59
21.
Little Brown Jug 01:11
22.
New River Train 01:37
23.
There Must Be Little Cupids in the Sea 02:59
24.
Casey Jones 01:11
25.
John Henry 01:56
26.
When He Sets Your Fields on Fire 02:12
27.
Shortening Bread 00:48
28.
'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus 01:29

about

From the collection of Andy Cahan

Walter Raleigh Babson (1900-1987) grew up in Ash, a settlement in Brunswick County, on the North Carolina coast. At an early age he began to develop a unique and eclectic musical personality on the banjo and fiddle, and also created a form of knuckle tapping in which he would knock out elaborate, syncopated rhythms that uncannily resembled the sound of a dancer. Stylistically, Walter’s banjo playing was unclassifiable. He finger picked in several styles, using two and three fingers, and he also frailed. Often, he would combine and vary the styles within a single tune. While Walter was a soft-spoken man with an unpretentious nature, his music was extroverted and entertaining. His banjo playing contained dramatic visual elements in which strings were plucked in unorthodox ways (which he referred to as “sleight of hand banjo playing”), graceful hand movements were used, and percussive taps on the banjo head accentuated the rhythm. Old-time dance tunes, hymns, waltzes, turn of the century popular songs, minstrel songs, blues, and any melody that interested him were included in a repertory that expanded throughout his life. – Andy Cahan

credits

released November 19, 2015

Walter Raleigh Babson: banjo (tracks 2-4,6-10,13-15,17-27), Finger- knocking (tracks 1,11-12), fiddle (tracks 5,16,28); Andy Cahan: guitar (tracks 2, 3, 5, 7-10, 13,14,16-21,24-26), banjo (tracks 6,22), fiddle (tracks 4,11-12); Luella Hilburn (Walter Babson’s daughter) vocal (track 23). Recording dates: 12/28/1985 (track 27); 11/11/1986 (tracks 11-12,15,21); 12/6/1986 (tracks 4,10,16,24,28); 3/26/1987 (tracks 1,5,25); 5/20/1987 (tracks 9,19); 10/16/1987 (tracks 2,6-8,11,13-14,17-18,20,22,23,26). Special thanks to Brett Riggs, without whom this project would not exist.

Visit www.fieldrecorder.org for more information!

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Field Recorders' Collective

The Field Recorders’ Collective is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and distribution of noncommercial recordings of traditional American music, material that is unavailable to the general public.

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