Gid Tanner - And The Skillet Lickers (CD)

Gid Tanner and The Skillet Lickers was probably old time country music's best-known string band of the 1920s - they almost certainly had the biggest sales in the '20s and '30s. Their first visit to the recording studios was in April 1926. Two regular members of the band were Gid Tanner himself and guitarist/vocalist Riley Puckett who had already made records together. The success of those discs encouraged Columbia to form the Skillet Lickers as a studio band. A real innovation was the inclusion of three fiddle players in the line-up - prior to this twin fiddles had been the maximum. The three-fiddle format would become a regular feature on Skillet Lickers' records - adding to their distinctive sound. Their first issued sides by the group were released in June 1926 and sold over 207,000 copies. At this time, sales of 30,000 were considered a success. The Skillet Lickers (and Old Timey music in general) were on the map. The band would evolve to feature rustic comedy sketches which developed into series and exploited the imagined characteristics of country folk. Several of those sides are included here. Here's Old Timey music in it's leaping, laughing, lively youth featuring some of it's most expert exponents. If you want to know more about country music's origins it's essential.

Track List:

Disc: 1

1. Soldiers Joy
2. Rock That Cradle Lucy
3. Bonaparte's Retreat
4. Cripple Creek
5. Hell' Broke Loose in Georgia
6. There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight
7. Rocky Pallet
8. A Corn Licker Still in Georgia, Pt. 1
9. A Corn Licker Still in Georgia, Pt. 2
10. Pass Around the Bottle and We'll All Take a Drink
11. Hand Me Down My Walking Cane
12. Alabama Jubilee
13. Bully of the Town
14. Where Did You Get That Hat
15. Goodbye Booze
16. Mississippi Sawyer
17. Georgia Waggoner
18. Rufus
19. Cumberland Gap on a Buckin' Mule
20. Hawkins Rag
21. Skillet Licker Breakdown
22. Devilish Mary
23. Old Dan Tucker
24. Nancy Rollin'
25. Soldier Will You Marry Me

Disc: 2

1. Sal's Gone to the Cider Mill
2. New Arkansas Traveller
3. Leather Breeches
4. Sugar in the Gourd
5. Georgia Wagner
6. Watermelon on the Vine
7. Don't You Heart Jerusalem Moan
8. A Fiddler's Convention in Georgia, Pt. 1
9. A Fiddler's Convention in Georgia, Pt. 2
10. Settin' in the Chimney Jamb
11. Prettiest Little Girl in the County
12. Black Eyed Susie
13. Cotton-Eyed Joe
14. Tanner's Boarding House
15. On Tanner's Farm
16. Down Yonder
17. Back Up and Push
18. Git Along
19. Whoa, Mule, Whoa
20. Shortening Bread
21. Dance All Night with a Bottle in Your Hand
22. She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain
23. I Don't Love Nobody
24. I Got Mine
25. Old Joe Clark

Disc: 3

1. The Darktown Strutter's Ball
2. Drink 'Er Down
3. Dixie
4. The Girl I Left Behind Me
5. The Old Gray Mare
6. John Henry (The Steel Drivin' Man)
7. Johnson' Old Gray Mule
8. Possum Hunt on Stump House Mountain, Pt. 1
9. Possum Hunt on Stump House Mountain, Pt. 2
10. Bile Them Cabbage Down
11. It's a Long Way to Tipperary
12. Old McDonald Had a Farm
13. Big Ball in Town
14. I'm Satisfied
15. Three Nights Drunk
16. Buckin' Mule
17. Sleeping Lulu
18. McMichen's Breakdown
19. Molly Put the Kettle on
20. Whistlin' Rufus
21. Miss McCleod's Reel
22. Four Cent Cotton
23. Cacklin' Hen and Rooster Too
24. Rickett's Hornpipe
25. Ride Old Buck to Water

Disc: 4

1. Show Me the Way to Go Home
2. Cotton Baggin'
3. The Rovin' Gambler
4. It Ain't Gonna Rain No More
5. Going on Down Town
6. Mississippi Sawyer
7. Flatwoods
8. Never Seen the Likes Since Gettin' Upstairs
9. A Night in a Blind Tiger, Pt. 1
10. A Night in a Blind Tiger, Pt. 2
11. Ya Gotta Quit Kicki'n My Dog Around
12. Turkey in the Straw
13. Polly Wolly Doo
14. Uncle Bud
15. Liberty
16. Sal Let Me Chaw Your Rosin
17. Slow Buck
18. Cumberland Gap
19. Hen Cackle
20. Tra-Le-La-La
21. Hinkey-Dinkey-Dee
22. Keep Your Gal at Home
23. Cotton Patch
24. Flop-Eared Mule
25. Soldier's Joy