Art Stamper - Goodbye Girls, I'm Going To Boston

(County CO-CD-2729) 2000.

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This is a splendid CD of old-time tunes recorded in a single day in John Herrman's & Meredith McIntosh's home, with the musicians sitting in a circle, and the recording engineer in an adjacent room.

The booklet liner notes, explain that John first met Art Stamper at the Merle Watson festival in 1995, when he was playing with Ralph Stanley. (I suspect however that this would have been 1994, as Ralph wasn't advertised on the 1995 festival, but definitely played there the previous year.) John gave him a recording that he and Dirk Powell had made of The Brushy Fork Of John's Creek, having learnt it from a field recording of the tune by Art's father, Hiram Stamper. At the time, Art was unaware of the thriving old-time music scene, and the contact led to him to attend the 1997 'Festival of American Fiddle Tunes' in Port Townend, and in 1998 performing with John at Merlefest.

These recordings, released in 2000, are mainly drawn from tunes learnt from Art's father, other relatives and local musicians who Art heard when growing up. His playing is also more archaic than on the other earlier albums I've heard, with more cross-tuning and fiddling style closer to Hiram's.

Art and the accompanying musicians sound like they were having a blast recording the album, and it makes for fine listening too, with a total playing time of 57:43 mins.

All of the 16 tracks are instrumental, except for East Virginia (Blues) which has a vocal / meter similar to Roscoe Holcomb's style.

The album also includes Old Horse And Buggy, a tune which Art often used to play in live shows with Ralph Stanley in the early '90s.

The CD comes with an informative 12-page booklet, which includes an interview with Art talking about growing up and learning music, and the individual tunes included on the album.

Art had previously recorded versions of Goodbye Girls, I'm Going To Boston and Brushy Fork Of John's Creek (as The Long Fork Of Buckhorn) on The Lost Fiddler.

• Art Stamper: fiddle
• John Herrmann: banjo
• Dirk Powell: guitar
• Meredith McIntosh: bass

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