07 December 2021

'Old Joe Clark' from the Bluegrass Babies!

The BIB editor writes:

Thanks to Paul Castle of The Rosinators band (GB) and Caroline Roberts of Little Pie Productions for this press release (above) on the latest music video from the Bluegrass Babies, a very pleasing version of 'Old Joe Clark'. We couldn't find out how to reproduce Caroline's illustrations separately from the text and didn't want to retype the text without the illustrations, so the best course was to show the whole release.

The video can be seen on YouTube, on the Bluegrass Babies' Facebook, and on John Lawless's feature on Bluegrass Today, where all the artists taking part are listed by name. The lead singing (and some neat dancing) is by Big Bru Brewster; the picking is solid and satisfying, with no superficial hot licks; and the choreography of the whole ensemble is both precise and exciting.

Discographers will note that both the words sung here and the general arrangement closely follow the 'Old Joe Clark' recorded twelve years ago by the Stripey Boys (zebra brothers 'Bucking' Bill Stripes (bass) and 'Howling' Sid Stripes (banjo), with cousin 'Little Bo' Stripes on first fiddle, plus Walt Catkin (lead vocals, guitar), Mini Catkin (second fiddle), and 'Jumping' Jim Crow and Art Quackman (percussion).

This may be due to the fact that both soundtracks are credited to the Rosinators (Paul Castle, vocals, acoustic guitar, banjo, bass; Will Sneyd, fiddle; Fliss Premru, fiddle). The Rosinators' website can be warmly recommended for including such bonus features as song texts, song histories ('Old Joe Clark' is one such), and tablature or notation of tunes.

© Richard Hawkins

Labels: ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home