LP Includes 28-Page Booklet with Numberous Rare Photos of Early 20th Century Musicians, Detailed Liner Notes
In a Record Store Day exclusive, Brooklyn, New York–based folk, traditional, and vernacular music label Jalopy Records is releasing My Lost Soul: Unknown & Forgotten Rural American Musicians, a 16-track vinyl album featuring enthralling, little-known rural American musicians performing everything from instrumentals, blues, ragtime, and minstrel songs- take this out, would not describe that way. Produced by John Heneghan of acclaimed country-blues duo Eden & John’s East River String Band and Jalopy Records chief Eli Smith, the album’s rare recordings are culled from the 78 RPM collections of famed artist and underground comic book legend R. Crumb and My Lost Soul co-producer Heneghan.
Originally recorded in the 1920s and ’30s, the songs collected on My Soul Is Lost are a historical snapshot of a bygone era, pressed to shellac long before the concept of a mass-market “recording artist” existed. This mesmerizing music materialized just as radio began permeating American culture. Groups such as the West Virginia Ramblers (“O Dem Golden Slippers”)- would not emphasized this song, it has minstrel elements, Lonesome Cowgirl (“Livin’ in the Mountains”), and the Clover Leaf Old Time Fiddlin’ Team (“Come Be My Rainbow”), may have been well-known locally or regionally in their own states, but never saw the fanfare of latter-day touring musicians. Many were even just folks with blue-collar jobs, like farmers or coal miners. Their songs represent their life experiences, aesthetic sensibilities and the joy of music in the last days of the old, rural America – transitioning into the modern era.
Take the Lonesome Cowgirl and her “Livin’ in the Mountains,” whose accompanying instrument, a ukulele maybe, could use a tuning fork but whose sublime vocals and yodeling are pure sunshine and very funny. One of the more brilliant, prescient performances comes courtesy of the Crowder Brothers, whose tight, familial harmonies on “My Soul Is Lost” are precursors to the back-country twang of Sweetheart of the Rodeo–era Byrds or the vocal interplay between Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman in country-rock progenitors The Flying Burrito Brothers, some 40 or 50 years later.
“It’s a strong experience to hear music made by the people, for the people, from a time when big money was just getting involved in the music making process and hadn’t yet fully crushed or cast out the most unique and richest sounding performers of the time,” Heneghan says in the album’s liner notes. “As a result we are left with, in my opinion, recordings of some of the most beautiful music ever made.”
In addition to Heneghan’s lush liner notes, the album also includes track-by-track notes from acclaimed old-time and blues music historian Tony Russell, author of such books as Blacks, Whites and Blues (1970), The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray (1997) and Country Music Originals: The Legends and the Lost (2007); a multi-page booklet with photographs of early 20th-century musicians from Heneghan’s collection; as well as a menagerie of center labels from the shellac that captured these songs, from early sonic purveyors such as OKeh, Superior, and Melotone records. The album’s cover photo is from the collection of R. Crumb, with layout and hand-drawn text by R. Crumb.
The album is only available in independent record shops. Participating stores can be found at https://recordstoreday.com/
My Lost Soul: Unknown & Forgotten Rural American Musicians Track Listing:
SIDE A
1. W. A. Lindsey & Alvin Conder, “I Surely Am Living A Ragtime Life”
2. West Virginia Ramblers, “O Dem Golden Slippers”
3. Uncle Bud Walker, “Look Here Mama Blues”
4. Crowder Brothers, “My Soul Is Lost”
5. Lonesome Cowgirl, “Livin’ In The Mountains”
6. Mary Butler, “Bungalow Blues”
7. Paul [& Charles] Johnson, “Wild Cat Hollow”
8. Clover Leaf Old Time Fiddlin’ Team, “Come Be My Rainbow”
SIDE B
1. Homer Callahan, “My Good Gal Has Thrown Me Down”
2. Lester Smallwood, “Cotton Mill Girl”
3. Charlie Pickett, “Down The Highway”
4. The Grady Family, “Gold Diggers”
5. Hazel Scherf, “You Can’t Blame Me For That”
6. McKinney Brothers, “Old Uncle Joe”
7. Bradley Kincaid, “Some Little Bug Is Goin’ To Get You Some Day”
8. Charles Underwood acc. Hack’s String Band, “Black Snake Moan”
