Search - Carter Family :: Decca Sessions 2

More From the Shadow of Clinch Mountain

Philip Westwood | Lichfield, Staffordshire United Kingdom | 12/26/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album covers the second of the Carters' three sessions for Decca; being recorded in New York on June 17 and 18, 1937. It is a nice mix of material, typical of the Family's previous output. There are traditional songs, such as 'My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains', along with 'Never Let the Devil Get the Upper Hand of You'; a fragmentary reworking of an old British ballad known variously as 'The Knoxville Girl' and 'The Oxford Girl'. This track is a recording of astonishing clarity; a real credit to the Decca engineers of the time. As usual, the Family's religious beliefs are to the fore, notably with 'Lord, I'm in Your Care'. And then there are the expected tales of death and destruction on the railroad, here represented by 'The Broken Down Tramp' and 'Jim Blake's Message'. This latter ditty is a particularly tragic tale of an unfortunate boy who, in the space of one evening, loses his mother to an unidentified illness and his train driver father to a derailment caused by his haste to get home to his dying wife. Not many laughs here. But, thankfully, there are lighter moments, such as 'He Never Came Back' and 'Funny When You Feel that Way'.
Most Carter sessions produced at least one number that became a Country standard. From this set we get 'Hello Stranger', still popular today with Bluegrass musicians.
All in all, this is a fine album packed with good material which will appeal to the vast majority of serious Country fans. The original quality of the Decca recordings is excellent throughout, and Catfish has done a fine job of remastering. I look forward to the third, and, sadly, final volume of Decca reissues."