Mojo Magazine
Various ***** The Knoxville Sessions, 1929-1930: Knox County Stomp
BEAR FAMILY CD Flawlessly curated box set of landmark Brunswick, Vocation recordings from Knoxville, Tennessee. The third in a trilogy of Bear Family sets documenting the Appala-chian music scene at the end of the 1920s, this 4-CD collection, with a superb hardback book by Ted Olson and Tony Russell, show-cases the wide variety of talent captured during two extended sessions at Knoxville's St James Hotel. Hillbilly string band Ridgel's Fountain Citians sang fine barn-shakers like Baby Call Your Dog Off - complete with barking noises - while Leola Manning turned secular blues into a gospel number with He Fans M. Septuagenarian fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thomp-son, born before the Civil War, provided a direct link to 19th century styles, while Ballard Cross delivered that classic train song, The Wabash Can-non Ball. Yet there were also accomplished mainstream dance band tunes from May-nard Baird & His Orchestra, and the sanctified sounds of the Kentucky Holiness Singers. Genuinely historic stuff. Max Decharne
