The Simmons family occupied a unique role in the thousands of country/folk albums that were being produced to meet the folk music craze of the 1950s through the 1970s. While most of those albums were being recorded by city dwellers who happened to know about and play old-time tunes, the Simmons family was living in rural Stone County, Missouri, just as they had for generations. This gave them an edge that city folk artists (especially before the Internet) could not compete with, since the family learned truly obscure folk songs from other nearby musicians that almost no one else would be familiar with (for example, when was the last time anyone in the past four decades recorded "Lord Lovelle?")
The other aspect of the family that made them so special is that besides being a family act, they made their living by owning a music shop. Most of the country/folk music family acts were remnants of the early 1900s through the Great Depression (they certainly were not common in the 1970s!), and even those musical families of the past tended to be composed of day laborers who performed music at night and during social gatherings. In other words, music was their pastime, not their career. The Simmons family was one of just a handful of family acts who made music their career, and that is certainly reflected in the high quality of their playing and their creative arrangements on this LP.
Considering that my last post featuring mountain dulcimer was by city dweller Neal Hellman, I wanted to post this album to give listeners an understanding of how different rural artists can sound compared to the more widely-recognized city artists, even when performing the same kind of music! In my opinion, the Simmons family style of playing sounds a lot like that of Fiddlin' Powers & Family, a country musical group popular in the 1920s whose sound was characterized by a laid-back feel, but with much gusto underneath it and a high degree of overall musical skill.
The Simmons family released several albums during their time with Dancing Doll Records, but this album appears to have been their best-seller. While there are some classic folk songs on it that virtually every country music fan knows ("Ragtime Annie", "Wildwood Flower", etc.), they are still just as delightful to listen to as the more obscure tunes ("Come thy Fount", "Lord Lovelle", etc.)
Check out this clip from YouTube to hear it for yourself!
The songs on this album are as follows:
1. "The Arkansas Traveler"
2. "Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow"
3. "Green Corn"
4. "Buffalo Girls"
5. "The Carol of the Birds"
6. "Wildwood Flower"
7. "Greensleeves"
8. "Come thy Fount"
9. "Ragtime Annie"
10. "Red Wing"
11. "Down on the Banks of the Old Ohio"
12. "Turkey in the Straw"
13. "The Rosewood Casket"
14. "Un-Cloudy Day"
15. "The Eighth of January"
16. "Lord Lovelle"
17. "Pretty Mary"
18. "The World is Not My Home (I'm Just Passing Through)"
Download (28.3 MB, 128 kbps)
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