1 O Day
2 Katy Went Fishing With Her Hook and Line
3 Walk in the Parlor
4 Mama's Gonna Buy
5 Wished I Was in Heaven Sitting Down
6 Po' Lazarus
7 The Lass of Loch Royale (If I Prove False to Thee)
8 Three Nights Drunk
9 Turkey in the Straw - Traditional
10 Pharoah
11 Interview/Cripple Creek
12 The Diver Boy
13 Pretty Polly - Ball, E.C. and Orna
14 Sweet Roseanne
15 Sink 'Em Low
16 Dollar Mamiee
17 I Wonder Will We Meet Again?
18 Poor Wayfaring Stranger
19 Testimony
20 Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah - Williams, William [
21 The Last Words of Copernicus - Lancaster, Sarah
22 The Gospel Train
23 Beulah Land
24 It Just Suits Me - Dorsey, T.A.

From Amazon.com

Up In The Southern Hills

 Album Rating: (4 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: I have spent a fair amount of time recently reviewing, individually and on various artist compilations, performers from the 1960's urban folk revival. You know Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Dave Van Ronk, Eric Von Schmidt and the like. I have also reviewed the earlier performers who influenced them on the more traditional folk side like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. There was another component of that search for roots that entailed heading south to the Mississippi Delta, the Georgia Sea Islands, and the hills and hollows of Southern Appalachia to get `religion' on the rural roots musical scene.

I mentioned in a review of the performers who influenced the 1960's urban folk scene that those efforts did not fall from the sky but had been transmitted by earlier performers. That, my friends, applies as well to the search for roots music. I also mentioned that we all, later when we understood things better, appreciated that John and Allan Lomax (here in this many-volumed series carrying on his father's work in the late 1950's) did yeomen's service to roots music by their travels into the hinterlands in the 1930's and 1940's (and had Pete Seeger tag along for a year and thus serve as a little transmission belt to the latter generation) to find blues, mountain music and other types of American traditional music. Most of us got our country blues infusion second-hand through our addiction to local coffeehouses and the performers who provided us entertainment. The performers we listened to, in turn, learned their material from the masters who populate this CD.

This CD contains a nice assortment of Georgia Sea Island tunes, wage work songs, prisoner work songs and some of the most interesting simple religious music I have heard in a while. I would note in regard to that last point the version of "Beulah Land" done by John Davis and Bessie Jones (who also stands out on other selections here); Sidney Carter's "Pharaoh" and, by far my favorite, The Thornton Old Regular Baptist Church Congregation's "Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah". A few centuries ago during the Protestant Reformation or a little later during the English Revolution in England I would have heartily joined in on this one.

Music from the heart

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: I've played this CD over and over and still love every minute of it. The music is so varied, so beautiful. I now want to get other albums recorded by Alan Lomax, a genius for recognizing and recording great music. Highly recommended for anyone who loves uncommercial melodies and pure voices.

Recognize the jazz, hiphop, rockabilly, and blues roots

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: Truth be told this disc is not for everyone and I hope that this description will help those interested in hearing the ancestors of many major music forms find a good listen. Alan Lomax made an attempt to record the provincial musical styles in their home and on the participants own terms. What you get are real individuals singing and playing instruments for reasons that no longer exist today; to pass the day at work, to pass along local stories and traditions, to pass the time in jail, to provide expression for small communities, and to praise their gods where the lived and breathed. There was not a dollar to be made for any performance on this disc, and though we pay to hear it now, it had an effect on the musicians and singers. This music is not polished but it is a fantastic cd based on its content and not its production value. You won't hear music like this often in your life.