1. Hard For To Love is one of two discovered solo banjo/vocal recordings of Hayes Shepherd "The Appalachia Vagabond" (b. circa 1890's).  Shepard played the banjo in the two-finger style; and with his brothers - Bill on the fiddle and Hence also a banjo player - recorded ten 78 rpm records (8 of which were unissued) in various instrumental configurations between them in 1932.  The Shepard brothers lived in the Jenkins area of eastern Kentucky, near the Kentucky/Virginia border in Letcher County.

2. Bob-Tailed Mule is from a 1943 filed recording of K.C. Kartchner of Snowflake in northeastern Arizona.  We are grateful to Jeff Miller of St. Louis, MO who joins us on banjo.

3. No Letter in the Mail is among the earliest recordings of Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys made for RCA in 1940.  Reminiscent of the earlier duet recordings (1936-1938) made with his brother Charlie, Bill Monroe sand the song with the Bluegrass Boys as a duet with guitarist Clyde Moody.  Bill Carisle  EMI Mills Music, Inc.

4. Claude Allen  Actual events concerning Claude Allen and his father Floyd, of Carroll County, Virginia are obscured by an abundance of local legends.  Evidently, the two were executed in 1913, for shootings which took place during the "courthouse massacre" in Hillsville, Virginia in which the court judge, prosecutor, one juror and one witness were killed in the county courtroom during sentencing proceedings for Floyd Allen and his role in an altercation between himself and a young nephew, other men in the neighborhood, and the local sherrif in 1911.  Longstanding disputes between the Allen family and local politicians led to the massacre that brought about Claude Allen and his father's demise.  One source for the song is the great singer and multi-instumentalist Hobart Smith who lived his life in Saltville, in southern Virginia, and who claims to have written the ballad.  A very similar version of Claude Allen was recorded by Clarence Ashley, who claimed to have taught the song to his friend Hobart Smith in 1918.

5. My Mama Always Talked to Me  John Hammond whose specific Kentucky origins are unknown, recorded this song between 1927-1937.

6. Miss Dare  Fiddler Jim Bowles of Monroe County, in south-central Kentucky played a charming version of "Miss Dare" on his 1994 recording "Railroad Across the Rocky Mountains."  A very similar version called "Ella Dare" was collected by Vance Randolph in 1940 from a source who was from Galena (our home town) in Stone County in the Missouri Ozarks.  Known also as "Charlie Brooks" and "The Two Letters," versions of the song were also recorded by Vernon Dalhard and the Carter Family.

7. Callahan  A typical mid-Missouri version of this tune.  Here we accompany Jim's fiddle with Kim on piano, and Jim Nelson of St. Louis on guitar.  The three of us often play together for dances throughout the Midwest using this combination of instruments.

8. Do You Call That Religion was performed by many black gospel musicians before our source, the Monroe Brothers, recorded it in 1936.

9. Rambler's Blues  Once we got a clear, remixed copy of the Stanley Brothers Rich-R-Tone recordings of the 1940's, it was comforting to find out what we had been singing for the longest time as "I do my sleeping in an old feed sack" because our old and muddy vinyl record was actually "I do my sleeping in a old haystack."  That rambler rests easier now.

10. The Dying Soldier  From one of our favorite old-timey banjo players, Buell Kazee from Magoffin County, in eastern Kentucky.

11. Last Gold Dollar was one of only a total of two sides recorded by Ephraim Woodie and the Henpecked Husbands who were from Furches, near Ashe County in North Carolina.  The "Husbands" one and only record was made for Columbia in 1929.

13. The Jealous Lover apparently is widely sung as far as ballads go, with some variants of the song being related to American ballad "Pearl Bryan" - which tells the tragic story of an Indiana girl who was murdered by her lover near Fort Thomas, Kentucky in 1896.  Vance Rudolph collected several versions of "the Jealous Lover" in the Ozarks beginning in 1929.  "The Jewish Lover" collected by Randolph from Maudeva McCord, who was originally from Galena, Missouri (our home town) is quite similar to Ralph and Carter Stanley's "Jealous Lover,"  which we sing here.  Another well-known commercial recording of "Pearl Bryan" was made by Dick Burnett and Leonard Rutherford of Monticello, Kentucky, on Columbia Records in 1926.

14. The Time Draws Near  Fleecy and Benson Fox of Leslie, in the Arkansas Ozarks, sang this song which they called "The Blackest Crow" for Springfield Missouri song collector and traveling salesman Max Hunter in 1972.  Though Fleecy Fox claimed to have learned the song from her grandfather who lived in the Appalachian Mountains, variants of the song ("My Dearest Dear," "I Love You Well," etc.) were also sung throughout the Ozarks and collected by Hunter, Vance Randolph, and others.  Versions of the song were said to be popular in Stone County, Missouri since the 1890's.

15. Look On and Cry  Recorded by Wade Mainer and the Sons of the Mountaineers in 1939.

16. The Cuckoo Bird   The ballad singer, Texas Gladden and her brother Hobart Smith of Saltville, Virginia; as well as Clarence Ashley from near Johnson City, Tennessee (who was a friend to Hobart) all have very powerful recordings of "The Cuckoo Bird."  Their recordings remain among our all-time favorites.  Our rendering of the song reflects the turbulent and unfettered banjo playing and singing of Hobart Smith, with the addition of some of Texas Gladden's verses sung in "Old Kimball."  The song itself has several intertwined sources ranging from: vestiges of African- American call-and-response work songs, to fragments of the English folksong "Old Kimball" about Skew Ball the race horse, to remnants of songs about the famous horse race in Louisville, KY on the "forth day of July" 1878, when a California mare called Miss Molly McCarty lost to Ten Broeck, a Kentucky thoroughbred.  The cuckoo is a bird who leaves its eggs in another's nest, and this dim reference to faithless love casts a mournful shadow over the song.

17. Waverly/Uncle Pink "Waverly" is a tune commonly heard in the Ozarks, but is often called "Hell Against the Barn Door."  Our source of the tune is Art Galbraith (1909-1993).  Art grew up on the farm on the James River near Springfield, Missouri, that his great-grandfather Andrew, also a fiddler, homesteaded in 1841.  He learned this version of "Waverly" from his Uncle Tobe (b. 1853) grandson of Andrew.  "Uncle Pink" comes from a home recording of Lyman Enlow (1906-1997) who was from Eldon, in Cole County in central Missouri.  Apparently, Enloe learned this tune, from his uncle, Pinky Enlow.  Jeff Miller plays banjo.

18. Long Journey Home  Among the first songs recorded by the Monroe Brothers in 1936.  Arr. Charles Monroe Berwick Music Corp.

19. Call Your Dogs and Let's Go Hunting  Another tune from Lyman Enloe who learned it from his father Elijah.

Notes by Kim Lansford.  All selections in the public domain unless otherwise noted.

Jim sings, plays fiddle, lead guitar, banjo and mandolin
Kim sings, plays back-up guitar and piano
Instruments on this CD:
Guitars: 1927 Martin OO-18, 1935 Martin O-18; 1943 Martin D-18; 1996 Collings OM2H
Mandolins: 1921 Gibson A-4; 1923 Gibson F-4; 1995 Gibson A5-L
Banjo: 2000 Enoch #3
Fiddles: ca. 1870's Guadagnini copy; ca. 1920's Maggini copy
Recorded by: Rick Davidson at The Sound Farm in Nixa, MO
Contact Rick at soundfarm@msn.com
Cover Photo: "Frank and His Dog" (taken near Protem, Taney County, MO)
Design and Layout: Melanie Betts, Springfield MO
"Call Your Dogs", Jim and Kim Lansford Spring, 2003