FRC 606 - The Plank Road String Band: Recordings from the collection of Al Tharp | Plank Road String Band

FRC 606 - The Plank Road String Band: Recordings from the collection of Al Tharp

by Plank Road String Band

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Full Digital Discography

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of FRC 750 - Luther Davis & Hus Caudill - Old-Time Galax-Style Twin Fiddling recorded by Tom Carter & Blanton Owen, FRC 747 - Hus Caudill - Old-Time Alleghany County Fiddling recorded by Tom Carter & Blanton Owen, FRC 745 - Luther Davis - Old-Time Galax Fiddling recorded by Tom Carter & Blanton Owen, FRC 742 - Yvon Mimeault - Reissue of Y'était temps!, FRC 734 - Bill Hensley - Wayne County, WV Banjo Player & Ballad Singer, FRC 800 - A Survey of Traditional Music from the North American Traditions Collection, FRC 738 - John Dee Kennedy of Pawnee, Oklahoma (From the collection of Brad Leftwich and Linda Higginbotham, FRC 737 - John Rector - Galax Fiddle & Banjo (Tom Carter & Blanton Owen recordings), and 107 more. , and , .

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	1.	Run Mountain 02:31
	2.	O My Little Darling 03:38
	3.	Johnson Gals 02:21
	4.	Peek-A-Boo Waltz 02:32
	5.	I Don't Love Nobody 03:01
	6.	Forked Deer 02:28
	7.	Indian Nation 02:01
	8.	Texas Gals 03:02
	9.	Cotton Eyed Joe 02:40
	10.	Going Down the River 02:30
	11.	Evening Shade 02:42
	12.	Big Eyed Rabbit 02:59
	13.	Soldier's Joy 02:29
	14.	Raise a Ruckus 03:13
	15.	Railroadin' and Ramblin' 02:26
	16.	Fighting Man 04:59
	17.	New Morning Blues 04:16
	18.	James Booker 01:51
	19.	Cajun Joe 04:59
	20.	Hell Broke Loose in Georgia 02:08
	21.	Sail Away Ladies 02:34
	22.	Reuben's Train 05:02
	23.	Rock and Roll Cindy 03:37
	24.	Fall On My Knees 03:38

about

The actual life of Plank Road String Band was brief, but the level of intensity and single mindedness makes those couple of years resonate for me still. The four of us: Andy, Brad, Steve and I had sort of loose alliance with the Green Grass Cloggers in NC. As I recall, we were having a band rehearsal at the chicken farm, seriously discussing the need for a bass player. We’d begun to conceive of ourselves as a dance oriented outfit, and were really desperate for that bottom thump. At which point a strange car began to roll up first through one then the other of the cattle gates up to the house, whence emerged his very self Michael James by god Kott. Having heard of our scene from who knows where, he strode in with his cello and jammed a few. Man, I’m lookin at Brad, Brad’s lookin at Andy, and I’m not sure who’s lookin at Steve. But it was so utterly obvious we’d achieved our weird Socratic ideal of a band; that’s when it became a solid thing. We became a musical entity that night just as the flakiest and most ephemeral of personalities became a kind of sine qua non of our music. – Al Tharp

Steve Gendron, guitarist for the original Plank Road string band, had passed away and his friends in Denmark proposed a tour for the remnants of Plank Road. Andy and Brad had moved on to other things. Michael James Kott and Al Tharp brought in fiddler James Leva to form a trio that would perform six week tours throughout Northern Europe during the summers of 1979, 1980, and 1981. The Europeans didn’t know quite what to make of a trio that sang in three part harmonies using fiddle, clawhammer & tenor banjo with Michael’s cello worn guitar-style around his neck and shoulder. This 1980 recording (tracks 15-24), made live in a Danish living room on a two-track reel-to-reel machine, gives an idea of the band’s innovative approach to the traditional music they’d been playing in Virginia over the previous decade. – James Leva

credits

released November 18, 2015

Tracks 1-14: Brad Leftwich (fiddle), Andy Williams (fiddle), Al Tharp (banjo), Steve Gendron (guitar), Michael James Kott (cello). Tracks 15-24: James Leva (fiddle), Al Tharp (banjo), Michael James Kott (cello).

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