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Across the Blue Ridge #121 - Women in Old-Time Music

by Paul Brown

The Coon Creek Girls were an early women’s country music ensemble who made a hit in Kentucky and beyond during the 1930s. We hear them, plus other women mountain musicians who went largely unnoticed, on this ATBR episode. Berea College, Southern Appalachian Archives, John Lair Collection

This week, in addition to some traditional bluegrass and country classics, we hear some great bluegrass and old time music from women both famous and nearly unknown. We'll also hear commentary from Alice Gerrard, a pioneering woman in bluegrass and country music, from her keynote at the Women! Mount Airy Old-Time Retreat event in Mount Airy, North Carolina in early March, 2018. Gerrard guides us through some of the social and historical conditions that kept many women musicians out of the public eye. But some did get significant public notice. This episode is another stop in our Blue Ridge Music Trails series, focusing both on venues and musicians  in and around the North Carolina mountains. 

Playlist

  1. Flint Hill Special
    The Earls of Leicester
    Rattle And Roar
     
  2. Dusty Miller
    Paul Warren
    America's Greatest Breakdown Fiddle Player
     
  3. The Rout
    Bert Edwards
    Bert's Bombaree
     
  4. Medley For The President
    Coon Creek Girls
    Early Radio Favorites
     
  5. Blue Moon Of Kentucky
    Patsy Cline
    The Ultimate Collection
     
  6. Blue Moon Of Kentucky
    Elvis Presley
    Elvis at Sun (Remastered)
     
  7. Blue Moon Of Kentucky
    Bill Monroe And His Blue Grass Boys
    In The Pines
     
  8. Break 1 - Faded Love
    Kenny Baker & Bobby Hicks
    Darkness On The Delta
     
  9. Tell Me Their Story
    Alice Gerrard
    Bittersweet
     
  10. True Blue Bill
    Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys
    Lonesome And Blue
     
  11. Boll Weevil
    Tommy Jarrell
    Tommy Jarrell Vol. 2
     
  12. One Morning In May
    Texas Gladden
    Alan Lomax Collection: Portraits: Ballad Legacy
     
  13. Bertie Mae Dickens
    Cleveland Marching  To the White House
    field recording
     
  14. Sin City
    The Pine Ridge Boys & Patsy
    Stringband Music From Mount Airy
     
  15. Break 2 - Pretty Little Girl
    Stella and Taylor Kimble
    The North Carolina Banjo Collection
     
  16. Devil's Waiting For You At The Old Still
    Nell Smith
    field recording
     
  17. Going To  Right Me A Letter
    Ola Belle Reed
    The North Carolina Banjo Collection
     
  18. Freight Train
    Elizabeth Cotten
    Live!

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