Hobart Smith, "Traditional Appalachian Songs and Tunes"

I like this record and I will tell you why. Theese days, musicians are experts at what they're doing in a narrow field, real musicians, that is, not the crap that doinates the pop charts.

Take a real, good, modern band like Zac Brown Band, they are a perfect combo and they are all experts at what they're doing. The fiddler is a mean fiddler, the guitarist is an expert guitarist, etc.

Things were different in the old days, you didn't make much money as a musician and most of the times, you couldn't make a living out of it. If you were a musician, you had to play a number of instruments, be able to sing decently and have a repetoire full of dance numbers, as well as entertainment numbers, blues numbers, social commentary and sacred songs.

Hobart Smith was active as a musician back in those days and he sings, as well fiddles decently and is okayish at the guitars, but his real strength lies in his banjo-picking. His banjo dance numbers are played with an intensity and energy you normally find only with very skilled punk rock guitarists. You simply get lost in the banjo-only tunes, the rythms and melodies are simply amazing!

As I said, you get dance tunes, as well as social comments like The Great Titanic and entertainment numbers like The Devil and the Farmer's Wife. A few numbers are a bit bluesy and I don't like those. I have nothing against blues in general, though it's certainly not one of my favourite styles, it's just that mr Smith's blues numbers are a bit dull.

On a few numbers, you get some inspiration from the southern gospel tradition too. They're all related to each other, the different branches of American music, black and white, sacred and secular, cos America is such a great melting pot.

I'd recommend this record to fans of American Folk with a particular interest. If you are new to the genré and want to discover the greats of the genré, I'd rather go for Earl Scruggs or Dock Boggs, as they're, simply, better. It's not that mr Smith is bad, it's just that the greats are even greater. His banjo skills are excellent though and a record consisting of his banjo tunes alone would give him a friendlier ear in me.

A good, though far from perfect, record like this gets 82,3% in rate of satisfaction!