I.D. Stamper (1976). Stamper, who grew up in Letcher County, Kentucky, was a powerful dulcimer player. That he was also a strong drop-thumb banjo picker is reflected in his driving style.

Bruce Green and Karen Collins (1977). Bruce learned this tune from the playing of legendary Magoffin County, Kentucky fiddler John Salyer, whose sons permitted Greene to listen to recordings they made of their father during the 1940s. Karen Collins studied banjo with the Reverend Buell Kazee, who, as a youngster in Magoffin County, played with John Salyer.

Ginny Hawker and Kay Justice (1989). These two contemporary West Virginia singers draw upon their Primitive Baptist musical tradition. Hawkins also performs with her husband, Tracy Schwarz.

Asa Martin and the Cumberland Rangers (1975). Martin dropped out of college in 1927 to join a vaudeville orchestra. Perhaps best known for his partnership with fiddling Doc Roberts, Asa Martin played in numerous settings over the years, including a stint in Gene Autrey's movie band. The Cumberland Rangers were his buddies in retirement--autoharpist Buzz Brezeale, fiddler Jim Gaskin (an emcee at Renfro Valley) and Gilbert Thomas on mandolin. Martin wrote Hot Corn.

The Last Waltz

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Mack Snodderly (1978). Doc Snodderly is a dental health professional in Haywood County, North Carolina, and a favorite at Asheville's Mountain Dance and Folk Festival.

Bradley Kincaid (1978). A Garrard County, Kentucky, native, Country Music Hall of Famer Bradley Kincaid began singing the old ballads on WLS, Chicago, in 1924, and soon became famous all over the country as the Kentucky Mountain Boy. He died in 1989.

Gem Sisters (1981). Carol Elizabeth Jones and Gay K. Kay (now Gingrich) sang together during the 1980s, before marriages and babies. The song is from South Carolina's Poplin Family.

Byard Ray and the Appalachian Folks (1976). Fiddler Ray teamed up here with some of his Madison County, North Carolina neighbors, including Betty Smith and Vivian Hartsoe. Ray died in the early eighties.

Cliff Carlisle (1978). Cliff Carlisle was interested in Hawaiian music and in black American blues styles, both of which are represented in his dobro playing. He recorded widely, beginning in 1930, often with his brother Bill as the Carlisle Brothers.

Jean Ritchie (1975). This Perry County, Kentucky traditional singer, graduate of the University of Kentucky and Fulbright scholar was at the vanguard of the folk revival of the 1960s. She remains one of the most traditional and influential resources in American folk music. This is her own composition.

The Phipps Family (1979). A family from southwest Virginia with a strong tradition in the Holiness faith and common musical background with the Carter family.

Roscoe Holcomb (1975). A retired coal miner from Perry County, Kentucky, Holcomb was renowned for his high lonesome wail and percussive two-finger banjo style. He died in 1978.

Virgil Anderson (1981). Anderson was from Wayne County, Kentucky, on the South Fork of the Cumberland River. He was a virtuoso banjo stylist, highly influenced by a neighboring black family, the Bertrams, from whom he learned "Trouble."

Lulu Belle (Wiseman) Stamey (1984). Myrtle Cooper joined the WLS National Barn Dance in 1932 as a singer and comedianne, singing first with Red Foley and later with Scotty Wiseman, whom she married in 1934. In 1936, Lulu Belle Wiseman was voted the most popular radio entertainer in America in a Radio Digest poll. She died in 1989.

Ralph Blizard, fiddle and vocal, with Phil Jameison, guitar, vocal (1988). Blizard is from the Tri-Cities area of East Tennessee.

Uncle Eef's Got the Coon and Gone

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Grandpa Jones (1978). Kentuckian Louis Marshall Jones was a country-music radio pioneer who joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1946. He was also a regular on television's Hee-Haw and a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. He died in 1998.

Betty Smith (1977). Originally from High Point, North Carolina, Betty Smith taught music in the Georgia public schools for many years. This accomplished musician and singer has performed at festivals all over the country. The instrument here is a psaltery.

Special thanks to Harry Rice, Sound Archivist at Berea College's Hutchins Library, Engineer Otto Helmuth at Spray Records, and Noah Arevalo, assistant to the CD project.