NMAS 012: Upon My Word and Honor

by John Haywood

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Tal Glezer the sap from the root.

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Comes with liner notes written by John Haywood and George Gibson.

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1.	Cold Icy Mountain (G) 03:42	buy track
2.	Hey John D (G) 01:25	buy track
3.	Jenny Git Around (G) 01:53	buy track
4.	Jack Monroe (G) 03:06	buy track
5.	Little Sparrow (f#DABD) 03:56	buy track
6.	Banker's Hill (G) 01:25	buy track
7.	Red Rockin Chair (eEABD) 02:24	buy track
8.	Snow White Shirt (fDGCD) 02:58	buy track
9.	Cumberland Gap (fDGCD) 02:20	buy track
10.	Buck Creek Girls (fDGCD) 01:44	buy track
11.	Southern Texas (dDGAD) 03:16	buy track
12.	Coal Creek March (f#DF#AD) 02:08	buy track
13.	Jay Gould's Daughter (f#DF#AD) 03:09	buy track
14.	Bloom of Her Youth (fDFAD) 07:19	buy track
15.	Rocky Road Up Doubles (gDGCD) 02:53	buy track
16.	Tom Cat's Kittens (gDGCD) 02:05	buy track
17.	Uncle Henry's Tune (gCGCD) 01:38	buy track
18.	Never Get Drunk Anymore (gCGCD) 03:36	buy track
19.	Ball n Chain (gCGCD) 04:12	buy track
20.	Take Me Back to East Kentucky (gCGCD) 04:23	buy track
21.	Coy Morton's Fox Chase. (gCGCD) 01:00	buy track

about

Kentucky mountain music was described by Pete Seeger in 1987: "I have no proof, but I suspect that the Kentucky mountain style (of singing a short verse in a high intense voice, and then playing for 20 or 30 seconds some lightning quick notes on the banjo) is descended from the West African style in some way." The music Seeger described came to east Kentucky from Virginia with the enslaved, mixed-race people (some known as Melungeon), and white musicians whose ancestors socialized with African Americans beginning in east Virginia. Banjo songsters, once common in the Kentucky mountains, are now scarce.

John Haywood is one of the last of the Kentucky mountain banjo songsters. When listening to Haywood's recording, "Upon My Word and Honor," one can hear echoes of West African music through his high, intense singing and his outstanding banjo playing. Haywood's selection of tunes are a tribute to songsters who are no longer with us: the Couch family of Harlan County, Lee Sexton, Dewey Shepherd, Morgan Sexton, Willy Chapman, Gran Hudson, Roscoe Holcomb, Reverend Buell Kazee, WL Gregory and Clyde Davenport, Jack and Henry Bunch, Rufus Crisp, Banjo Bill Cornett, and Coy Morton.

-- George Gibson, Knott County, Kentucky, Winter 2023

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released April 28, 2023

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John Haywood Whitesburg, Kentucky

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