A Classic of Old-Time Music
Tribe | Toledo, Ohio United States | 05/13/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The Fuzzies arose out of 1960s jam sessions in the Durham area. What arose out of these influential sessions was not only the Fuzzy Mountain String Band, but also the Hollow Rock String Band. The Hollow Rock String Band went on to become legendary in old-time circles, what with Alan Jabbour, Bertram Levy and Tommy Thompson.But the Fuzzies were no slouches, as you can hear from this album, a collection of the contents of their 1971 album "The Fuzzy Mountain String Band" and "Summer Oaks & Porch" from 1972. From the soaring "West Fork Girls" to the almost poignant "Magpie" to the sheer exhiliration of "Quince Dillon's High D Tune", the FMSB exemplifies the the silly joy of the old-time jam session. The core of this collection is the group of tunes that Alan Jabbour brought to the Fuzzies from his field recordings of old-time fiddler Henry Reed. The original Reed tunes, which can be heard in their entirety on the Library of Congress website, have been fleshed out by the Fuzzies here. While they retain their original spirit, the FMSB shows how old fiddle tunes aren't frozen in time and space...but instead are vibrant things amenable to experimentation.Alas, today the Fuzzies are no more. This collection though will stand as an enduring inspiration to future generations of fiddlers and banjo pickers."
Once upon a time in North Carolina
BG Guy | SF Bay Area, California | 06/14/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I have owned this album for several years, and with each listening my sense of reverance and awe continues to grow. The Fuzzy Mountain repetoire was primarily based on the playing of Henry Reed, an 80-something-year-old fiddler whose tunes ranged back to the time of the Revolutionary War (and earlier). Reed was recorded by ethnographer Alan Jabbour in the late 60s (these recordings can be heard on-line from the Library of Congress). Jabbour, still an active musician, also founded the Hollow Rock String Band in the late 60s, some of whose members made their way into the Fuzzy Mountain String Band. Both bands were based in North Carolina's musical fertile crescent of Chapel Hill and Durham. Roughly speaking, Hollow Rock was to Fuzzy Mountain what Beatles was to Stone. Both bands were fantastic, but while "precise" and "professional" describes Hollow Rock, "loose" and even "boisterous" describes Fuzzy Mountain. (This is no dismissal of Hollow Rock, whose music is as beautiful and essential as Fuzzy Mountain.) The Fuzzy Mountain CD reissue of their work covers two different LPs, and the performances from the second set of sessions are a little cleaner. None the less, start to finish, this is an astonishingly broad cross-section of music that became the roots of blues, bluegrass, and country, played by clever and talented people who learned it from as close to the source as one can get."
A must have for old time fiddle jam sessions
P. Foster | 05/08/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This has been a great help to me as I begin my journey into old time fiddle music. Many of the tunes are played in the monthly jam session that I attend."
Track Listings (33) - Disc #1
