Here’s the Liner Notes t0 our CD………..
1. GEORGIA BLUES: This song comes from the playing and singing of Aunt Samantha Bumgarner. Much has been written about her achievements including that she was an award winning banjo and fiddle player, the first woman in country music to be recorded commercially, the first five-string banjo player to be recorded, she played for Franklin Roosevelt, and inspired Pete Seeger to play the banjo when he heard her at the 1936 North Carolina Folk Festival. She also played on pirate radio station XERA in Mexico owned by Dr. John Brinkley, known as the “Goat Gland King.” In our version, Karen adds a high harmony
that I think Aunt Samantha would be proud of.
Martha: lead vocals, guitar
Karen: harmony vocals, fiddle GDAE
Bill: banjo gCGCD
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2. SHIPPING PORT (Shippingport, or Shippinport) was a town in the state of Kentucky at the site of what is now called Louisville. Falls were once present on the Ohio River at that location, requiring in former times the removal of goods from river craft that then had to portage the falls. The town of Shippingport grew up around the falls. Eventually a dam was built with locks for river traffic, and all that remains of the town today is in the name of nearby Shippingport Island. The tune is said to have come from Eastern Kentucky, and unrecorded versions were sourced from Cuje Bertram and Jim Booker, both African American fiddlers.
Karen first heard it played by famous Santa Cruz, CA fiddler Adam Rose, and then went to the recording of Johnny (alternately listed as Jimmy) Johnson’s String Band, featuring fiddler Andy Palmer, born in 1881, Anderson County, Kentucky. Karen did something she actually is “against”, which is to straighten out a tune. In order to play it for dances, we got used to playing it as a 32 bar tune, and just left our version that way. Our buddy Brendan Doyle helps us sail our ship into port with his masterful banjo playing.
Karen: fiddle GDAE
Brendan Doyle: banjo gDGBD
Martha: guitar
Bill: mandolin
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3. LITTLE BLACK TRAIN: Karen was inspired to create an arrangement of this traditional song after hearing Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston sing it. Its homespun moral reminds us that we all eventually have to leave this world, whether we are rich and famous, or are Old Time musicians.
Karen: lead vocals, guitar
Martha: harmony vocals, banjo
Bill: mandolin (thanks to Steve Swan for the loan of a 1926 Gibson A-4 mandolin on this track)
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4. STACKER LEE: A classic American murder ballad based on a true story of “Stag” Lee Shelton who shot Billy Lyons on Christmas night, 1895 in St. Louis as they argued over a hat. Although the song has been done by many others and books have been written about it, Bill was swept away by Ed Haley’s fiddle driven version when he first heard it. Haley, who was blind, was a professional fiddle player from West Virginia who was often accompanied by his wife Martha on the mandolin who was also blind. Karen’s playing captures the exuberant spirit of Haley’s fiddling. Martha adds a tenor harmony to Bill’s lead throughout the song in their effort to sound like the classic brother duets of country music such as the Monroe Brothers, the Delmore Brothers or the Blue Sky Boys.
Bill: lead vocals, mandolin
Martha: harmony vocals, guitar
Karen: fiddle GDAE
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5. CYCLONE OF RYE COVE: (or our alternate name, the Psycho of Rye Cove). The body count for our recording mounts up with this tale of extreme weather that occurred on May 2, 1929. We learned this song from the 12 CD, encyclopedic Bear Family collection of Carter Family music. Charles Wolfe wrote in the liner notes that the cyclone destroyed a high school just a few miles from where the Carters lived in Maces Spring, Virginia. Students with the last name of Carter, who were relatives of A. P. Carter, died in the disaster. Bill tries to imitate the sound of Sara’s autoharp with his sweeping mandolin chords.
Martha: lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Karen: tenor harmony vocals, lead guitar
Bill: baritone vocals, mandolin
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6. CHRISTMAS TIME IN THE MORNING: From the playing of Stephen B. Tucker, in 1939, as found on “Great Big Yam Potatoes: Anglo‑American Fiddle Music from Mississippi” (1985) Mississippi Department of Archives and History AH‑002.
Karen: fiddle GDAE
Bredan Doyle: banjo aEAC#E
Martha: guitar
Bill: mandolin
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7. SOLDIER GIRL: An original song written by Martha. she’ll tell you the story as soon as she gets to it….
Martha: lead vocals
Karen: harmony vocals, guitar
Bill: banjo AND mandolin!! (the ONE place in the entire recording where we uberdubbed)
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8. CAN’T FEEL @ HOME: A Traditional Folk Hymn and Spiritual, dated back as far as 1919. The Carters recorded it in 1931.
Karen uses the old time boom chuck chuck chuck on the guitar part. You should try it! Especially if your name is Chuck.
Karen, lead vocals, guitar
Martha, harmony vocals
Bill: harmony vocal, mandolin
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9. STEP IN A HOLE, or Stepina for short, is a fiddle tune made by Karen; who says, “Can’t say I wrote it, as I never wrote it down”. What the tune refers to is the following event…
Karen was at the Mt. Airy fiddle convention in 2008, and, post-jam one night close to 4 AM, went to check out the action up on the hill. She was bounding down that hill on the far side towards the meadow when she suddenly and accurately nailed the drainage ditch hole where the road takes a turn. That hole then created another hole in her leg, blood and gore ensued, and the dawn was met with friends with medical supplies and good cheer.
Thanks to Brendan Doyle who assisted Karen when working out the B part.
Karen: fiddle, ADAE
Bill: Mandolin
Martha: Guitar
Brendan: Banjo
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10. IN THE PINES: Not the usual In the Pines that is more common in the Bluegrass repertoire. We first heard the Rhythm Rats sing this unusual variant and they told us their source was a Library of Congress recording of a singer named C. Dee Hicks from Kentucky. We have searched for this recording or other information on Hicks but have found nothing. If you have any information on C. Dee Hicks please email us at knuckleknockers@gmail.com.
Bill: lead vocals, mandolin
Martha: harmony vocals, guitar
Karen: fiddle, GDAE
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11. WILDCAT RAG: Learned from a recording of Roy Hobbs (mandolin) and Asa Martin (guitar) that was included in the album “Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of,” a compilation of rare 78s from the Yazoo label.
Bill: mandolin
Karen: guitar
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12. DINAH: We learned this song via the folk process: We first heard our friend Dan Kluger sing it, he got it from a tape of Dwight Diller who learned it from Aunt Jennie Wilson, of West Virginia. and FLASH! We all were just sitting playing tunes on Sheila Kay Adam’s porch last Friday when she told us that she wrote one of the verses Martha sings here!!
Martha: lead vocals, banjo
Karen: guitar, harmony vocals
Bill: mandolin
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13. CANNONBALL BLUES: We learned this from the Carter Family
(A. P., Sara and Maybelle) and they learned it from the African-American guitar and mandolin player Lesley Riddle. Sara is quoted as saying, “He taught us to pick that way.” Sara is referring to the beautiful finger picking style of guitar that Maybelle learned from Riddle and that Karen channels so well in our version. The Carters recorded the song at least twice, first as a vocal solo by A. P., and later as a vocal trio. We try to copy their trio version which gives us a chance to sing the three part harmonies we love so much.
Karen: lead vocals, lead guitar
Martha: tenor harmony vocals, rhythm guitar
Bill: baritone vocals, mandolin
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14. BRUSHY FORK OF JOHN’S CREEK & LITTLE BOBBY: These tunes are a favorite Knuckle Knocker square dance medley. They are from the Eastern Kentucky fiddler John Salyer.
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we’ll finish up soon, there’s 2 more cuts!!!!!!