Vinyl Hunter 15: The Forgotten Four From 2020

Collecting records has been one of the ways I've coped with the pandemic. Whether at local shops or through online vendors, I bought a lot of — my wife might say too many — albums in 2020. 

You saw some of my banjo-related purchases in my posts from June last year. However, as I mentioned in my 2020 recap, there were a few others that for whatever reason I didn't share on this blog. 

Perhaps I feared you were sick of seeing my vinyl collection. Whatever the reason was, we'll make up for lost time with this post. The following are the four other LPs featuring our five-stringed friend that I picked up last year that you didn't see. 

Dock Boggs

In July 2020, I took a drive out to Blackbird Records in downtown Wooster, Ohio. This cozy little shop is about an hour away from me. Among the six albums I picked up that day was The Legendary Dock Boggs on the Verve Folkways label. This is a 1966 reissue of the 1964 album that was originally released on Folkways Records. Smithsonian Folkways reissued this album on vinyl in 2018, which you can purchase online. 

As many of you likely know, Boggs recorded a handful of sides for Brunswick Records, Lonesome Ace and others between 1926 and 1931, during the 78-rpm era. Those recordings have been collected on various compilations over the years, and Harry Smith included his Boggs' version of "Sugar Baby" and "Country Blues" on the Anthology of American Folk Music in 1952. 

Mike Seeger "rediscovered" Boggs in 1963 and arranged a series of performances, festival appearances and recording sessions during the Folk Revival period of the 1960s. The tracks on this LP were recorded during this time. Folkways compiled a second volume a few years later.

Robert Byrd

In August 2020, my family and I visited a local thrift store in Akron, and I found two albums, including this copy of former U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd's Mountain Fiddler, released in 1978 on County Records. Byrd was a Democrat from West Virginia and served in the Senate from 1959 until his death in 2010. 

Byrd learned to play the fiddle as a teenager and played for regional square dances before embarking on his political career. The tunes presented on this album are old chestnuts from the old-time repertoire. However, the band backing him skews more toward bluegrass and includes Doyle Lawson on guitar, James Bailey on banjo and Spider Gilliam on bass. 

The music is decent, and the album is interesting from a historical perspective. Alan Jabbour wrote the liner notes to the album and highlighted Byrd's role in preserving the musical culture of West Virginia. I'd also like to note Byrd's evolving views on race relations in the United States. He famously was a member of the Ku Klux Klan during the 1940s and participated in filibustering the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, later in life he renounced the KKK and admitted regret for his role in trying to stymy the Civil Rights Act. 

In the latter part of his career, Byrd's voting record was aligned with the NAACP agenda to such a degree that the organization hailed him as a "champion for civil rights and liberties" when he died. While his views on other social justice issues would be considered regressive today, it's worth noting that people's opinions can change for the better. 

Grandpa Jones

The other album I picked up at that thrift store was Grandpa Jones, 16 Greatest Hits. Jones became famous for his role on the hit TV show Hee Haw from 1968 to 1971, as well as for his appearances at the Grand Ole Opry starting in late 1940s. However, I was interested to find out he has an Ohio connection, including my home city. 

It turns out, Jones spent his teenage years in Akron, Ohio, and got his start playing country music on the radio for WJW in Cleveland. He would record some of his first solo records at King Records in Cincinnati. He had a minor hit on King with "It's Raining Here This Morning," which appears on this compilation. After World War II, he moved to Nashville and really made a name for himself. 

Denny Jones and Paul Kovac

Speaking of local connections, one of the other albums I purchased at Blackbird Records, along with the aforementioned Dock Boggs LP, was Memories to the Future by Denny Jones and Paul Kovac. Jones and Kovac are from Northeast Ohio, and Kovac is a mainstay at local festivals where he performs in various bands and often teaches banjo workshops. Released in 1986, this collection of bluegrass tunes was recorded at Woodsy's Music in my hometown of Kent, Ohio.

Well, there you have it. I'm always excited when I find old-time music and banjo-related albums at local shops. I already have a 2021 Vinyl Hunter post in mind, which might be in the form of an album review. I'm also hoping to track down a couple records that have long been on my want list.