Way Back in the Hills of Old Kentucky cover

Way Back in the Hills of Old Kentucky

Stringbean

Album · 1964 · Starday SLP 260

Way Back in the Hills of Old Kentucky (Starday SLP 260) came out in January 1964. It was Stringbean’s fourth Starday album, following two LPs of old-time banjo songs in 1961 and 1962 and A Salute to Uncle Dave Macon in January 1963. David Akeman recorded all fourteen songs at a single session around August 1963 at Starday Sound Studio, 3557 Dickerson Road, Nashville, singing and playing banjo with Tommy Vaden on fiddle. Starday also paired “Big Ball in Nashville” with “Little Pink” on a 1964 single (Starday 664).

Akeman came from Annville, Kentucky. He played banjo in Bill Monroe’s band from 1943 to 1945 and was on Monroe’s Columbia session in Chicago in February 1945, and Earl Scruggs took his place in the band. He went on to the Grand Ole Opry as a comedian and banjo player and became a protégé of Uncle Dave Macon. He was known for clawhammer (“frailing”) banjo, though he also often played two-finger style, and for mixing comedy with his songs. In 1969 he joined the cast of Hee Haw.

The fourteen songs include “Poor Ellen Smith,” “Old Cumberland Gap,” “The Roving Gambler,” “Black Eyed Susy,” “Little Sally Goodin’,” “Rye Whiskey,” “Short Life and Trouble,” “My Rose of Old Kentucky,” “Banjo Pickin’ Girl,” “Honey Babe, I’m Bound to Ride” and “Little Adobe Shack,” and the album closes with “Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand.”

Tracklist

  1. 1 Little Pink 1:52
  2. 2 Big Ball in Nashville alt version 1:56
  3. 3 Poor Ellen Smith alt version 2:16
  4. 4 Old Cumberland Gap 2:11
  5. 5 Little Adobe Shack 2:04
  6. 6 Roving Gambler alt version 3:10
  7. 7 Black Eyed Susy 2:03
  8. 8 Short Life And Trouble 2:36
  9. 9 Little Sally Goodin' 1:56
  10. 10 Banjo Pickin’ Girl alt version 2:24
  11. 11 Rye Whiskey alt version 3:39
  12. 12 Honey Babe I'm Bound To Ride 1:56

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