A Family Gathering
Acie Cargill
Cobwebs Recordings
2000
14 tracks
Since I started this site, I've received a few home-made recordings burned by the artist and with graphics also self-printed. Most are not very good, but every once in a while one of these discs surprises me. Acie Cargill's release of A Family Gathering comes as just such a wonderful surprise. More than just home-made, this release qualifies as home-grown and is, in my opinion, an important archival record.
Acie Cargill and I are about the same age. When I was a child, my parents exposed my sisters and me to a very broad range of music. Prime among that music was folk, country, and hillbilly music. My father was a country singer and square dance caller and I remember hearing live music at barn dances that was much the same as the music Acie Cargill has preserved for us here. What a joy to hear this music again as it was back then!
It's very fitting that Cargill has treated this release as a limited edition, assigning each copy its own unique number. In future years, this release is sure to attract the attention of collectors and the fact they are numbered can only enhance the desirability of the discs. The real upside of this is that, in owning and preserving A Family Gathering, collectors will save this music for future generations.
Most, but not all, of the songs recorded here are very familiar to me, heard in my childhood. They are songs that will trigger fond memories in those of my generation and older, but are not played or recorded often by younger musicians. If it gets some exposure, perhaps this release may influence some of today's artists to discover an important piece of their musical heritage.
In his liner notes, Cargill writes that A Family Gathering was recorded, "at an outdoor family gathering in Kentucky around 1960. It was made on a primitive tape recorder, but the material has been digitally reprocessed to bring the quality up to modern standards." The quality of this recording is certainly remarkable. What impresses me, though, is that Cargill did not go overboard with the digital fix, so that the music still has that full analogue sound of the original tape recording.
Featuring musicians from both Cargill's parents' families (including Cargill himself playing banjo at twelve years of age), this music has the full, lively sound heard at dances across North America a half-century ago. Crank it up loud and just try to keep your feet still. It won't happen.
Cargill points out that, "These musicians were not professionals. They were miners, workers, and small farmers, family people who loved their homes and traditions. The music has historical value because these tunes are rarely heard anymore and they were played in the old primitive styles that are now gone. The Tylers [Cargill's mother's family] were known for preserving the traditional music that had been passed through generations."
I find myself wondering if someone, perhaps Folkways, might undertake to preserve the original tapes of this event for future generations.
For information on A Family Gathering and other recordings of American traditional music, visit Cobwebs Recordings.
Read my new review of Acie Cargill's Folk-Legacy release The Songs and Ballads of Hattie Mae Tyler Cargill at Sound Bytes. You'll also find my review of Acie Cargill's Old Time Music For A New Millenium in the Sound Bytes Archives.
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