Clarence Ashley

here's an old one for you. clarence ashley, a guitar and banjo player from the 20's-30's. he lived into the 60's and played with doc watson in the folk revival, but this is a compilation of his older recordings called "greenback dollar. the versions on this comp of the songs "house carpenter" and "coo coo bird" were included on harry smith's "anthology of american folk music." he played old traditionals with some alternate lyrics that made em more graphic than the originals, like a man gettin overtook in jericho for blowin down his girl with a .44 in "little sadie" and john louise kickin, chokin and drownin naomi in "naomi wise." they were some desperate times back then and clarence ashley makes em sound that much more brutal. it's some gritty old folk and one of the classic artists from way back then.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/nry49d