Folk Songs From the Southern Mountains by The Lilly Brothers and Don Stover, released on Folkways in 1962, is one of the landmark documents of bluegrass in the context of the folk revival. Everett and Bea Lilly, with banjo player Don Stover, had relocated from West Virginia to Boston in the early 1950s, where they became a crucial link between the southern mountains and the northern urban folk audience. Recorded with Folkways' characteristic fidelity to acoustic presence over commercial gloss, this album presents ancient ballads, gospel pieces, and traditional songs with spare, unadorned sincerity. Its importance extends beyond musicology: it helped convince a generation of folk revivalists that bluegrass was a legitimate roots music worthy of serious attention.
Tracklist
- 1 In My Dear Old Southern Home alt version
- 2 Midnight on the Stormy Deep alt version 4:04
- 3 Forgotten soldier boy
- 4 Banks of the Ohio alt version 4:12
- 5 Where Is My Sailor Boy alt version
- 6 Sinner you better get ready
- 7 What Would You Give in Exchange For Your Soul alt version 3:09
- 8 Oh, hide you in the blood
- 9 Old Joe Clark alt version 2:34
- 10 Little Annie alt version
- 11 Neath that cold grey tomb of stone
- 12 Barbara Allen
- 13 John Hardy alt version 3:29
- 14 Cornbread and 'lasses and sassafras tea
- 15 The Waves on the Sea alt version
- 16 Saints go marching in
- 17 Down on the Banks of the Ohio alt version