Legends & Tall Tales (Rural Rhythm RRHB 183) is one of several LPs Hylo Brown made for Rural Rhythm in 1966–68, and it appeared in 1967. Lee Sutton produced it, and all twenty tracks were cut in Akron, Ohio, with Brown singing and playing rhythm guitar. The band was Laura Adkins on banjo, Roy Ross on mandolin, Danny Milhon on Dobro, Gerald Evans on fiddle and Charles Ross on bass, and the arrangements are credited to Uncle Jim O’Neal.
The songs include “Mole in the Ground,” “Sweet Betsy from Pike,” “Little Brown Jug,” “Black Eyed Susie,” “Wagoner’s Lad,” “Single Girl,” “Pretty Fair Maiden” and “Hallelujah I’m a Bum,” along with “Escape of Jennie Wiley” and “Legend of Robin Red Breast.” Several pieces run barely a minute, and only “Pretty Fair Maiden” goes past three and a half.
Brown was born Frank Brown in River, Johnson County, Kentucky, in 1922, and got his nickname on radio in Ohio. He cut his first Capitol session in Nashville on 7 November 1954, with “Lost to a Stranger” among the four sides. In 1957 he joined Flatt & Scruggs on their Martha White shows, and in August 1958 he recorded for Capitol with his Timberliners: Jim Smoak on banjo, Red Rector on mandolin, Tater Tate on fiddle and Jack Phillips on bass. After Capitol he moved to Starday, where one of his albums was Hylo Brown Meets the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers (1963), before the Rural Rhythm years.
Tracklist
- 1 Mole in the Ground alt version 2:24
- 2 Escape Of Jennie Wiley 3:13
- 3 Ain’t We Crazy 1:45
- 4 Pretty Fair Maiden alt version 2:27
- 5 Clouds Gonna Roll Away 1:20
- 6 Sweet Betsy From Pike 1:51
- 7 Little Brown Jug 1:45
- 8 He Never Came Back 2:34
- 9 Black Eyed Susie alt version 2:03
- 10 Hang Out The Front Door Key 2:38
- 11 The Little Shirt Mother Made For Me 2:00
- 12 Wagoner's Lad 1:51
- 13 Crossed-Eyed Nancy Jane 1:52
- 14 The Old Arm Chair 3:43
- 15 Home Sweet Home alt version 3:30
- 16 Crazy Fool 2:47
- 17 Single Girl alt version 2:23
- 18 Maggie 1:07
- 19 Legend Of Robin Red Breast 2:01
- 20 Hallelujah I'm A Bum 1:58
