The Ebony Hillbillies 5 Miles From Town

The Ebony Hillbillies
5 Miles From Town
EH Music

One of several African-American string bands to emerge over the past few years, The Ebony Hillbillies have gone from Manhattan street corners to the stages of Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and TV appearances on the BBC and ABC's Good Morning America. This colorful ensemble is comprised of Henrique Prince - violin and vocals; Norris Washington Bennett - banjo, mountain dulcimer, guitar and vocals, Gloria Thomas Gassaway - Bones (percussion) & vocals; William (Salty Bill) Salter - acoustic bass; Allanah Salter - shaker (percussion) & vocals; Newman Taylor Baker - washboard percussion; and A.R. (Ali Rahman) -(Cowboy) percussion. The best-known member of this group is William Salter who is a co-writer of such legendary pop hits as "Where is the Love" and "Just the Two of Us."

The music on this CD varies from the lively opening fiddle tune "Hog Eyed Man," a lively skittle band cover of "Wang Dang Doodle," an old-timey styled "Darling Corey," and a heartfelt, intimate reworking of "I Can't Make You Love Me." "Carroll County Blues" is an instrumental blues with some outstanding violin from Prince with the percussion enlivening the performance. "Another Man Done Gone/ Hands Up Don't Shoot" updates a traditional blues in light of contemporary police shootings of black men. There is "Fork in the Road," which comes off a string band adaptation of a doo-wop styled ballad, and the old-time gospel of "Where He Leads Me (I Will Follow)."

The album closes with the spirited title track that evokes a square dance performance. It concludes a lively, engaging mix of pop, blues, folk, old-timey country, and jazz that has entertained the streets of Manhattan and concert halls around the world.

I received my review copy from a publicist. This review originally appeared in the January-February 2019 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 382). I was not regularly posting at the time this review was written and published. I just found out that Norris Bennett has just passed away. Here The Ebony Hillbillies perform "Liza Jane."

 

Carolina Chocolate Drops & Joe Thompson

One of the real delightful surprises in the past few years has been the emergence of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, an African-American string band that embraced a dying tradition. African-Americans have been playing banjo and fiddle since slavery times well into the 20th Century. The Chocolate Drops were mentored by Joe Thompson, of North Carolina, the oldest and last known black traditional; fiddler, and have recorded several albums of old time string band music with many songs that would be at home with a revivalist, old-time string band. Their music led them to appear not only as blues events of the Music Heritage Foundation but on the Grand Ole Opry. The Music Maker Foundation has just issued their most recent recording, “Carolina Chocolate Drops & Joe Thompson” that was recorded in April 2008 at MerleFest. While its a short recording, its spirited fun as they open with a bit of a jug band flavor on “Memphis Shakedown,” before their rendition of “Cornbread And Butter Beans,” an old timey number and then they bring up Joe who leads off on the fiery“Dona Got A Ramblin' Mind” which was the title track on the Chocolate Drops first album. The addition of bones here gives it a nice feel, followed by a lively “John Henry,” with Thompson handling the vocal. A white banjo player who has been visiting Thompson for nearly four decades, Bob Carlin joins the group for the last five numbers, including “Old Joe Clark,” and “Georgie (sic?) Buck” and the hymn “I Shall Not Be Moved.” They close with a lively rendition of the traditional “Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad.” The value of this live recording is enhanced by making available a sample of Joe Thompson performing, with friends, doing tunes he has performed for decades before a highly appreciative audience. This is available from the Music Maker Foundation’s website, www.musicmaker.org.