About this item

What happens when a 78 collector marries a collector of antique photographs? Lead Kindly Light. Recordings of Rural Southern Music: Old Time, String Band Music from Appalachia, extremely rare Country Blues and African American gospel singing from 1924-1939.

159 Photographs from the Collection of Sarah Bryan reproduced in full color. 46 Audio Recordings from the 78RPM Record Collection of Peter Honig. 176-page hardcover book with 2 CDs. 8.5 inches x 6.5 inches. A portrait of the rural American South between the dawn of the twentieth century and World War II, Lead Kindly Light brings together two CDs of traditional music from early phonograph records and a fine hardcover book of never-before-published vernacular photography.

North Carolina collectors Peter Honig and Sarah Bryan have spent years combing backroads, from deep in the Appalachian mountains to the cotton and tobacco lowlands, in search of the evocative music and images of the pre-War South. The music of Lead Kindly Light presents outstanding lesser-known recordings by early stars of recorded country music, as well as rarely- and never-reissued treasures by obscure country, blues, and gospel artists. The photographs, mainly images of the rural and small-town South, are richly textured depictions of family life, work, and fun, and the often accidental beauty of the vernacular snapshot.

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1
1. Buster Carter And Preston Young – “I’ll Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms”
2. Georgia Yellow Hammers – “Mary Don’t You Weep”
3. Narmour & Smith – “Jake Leg Rag”
4. Prince Moore – “Church Bells”
5. Roane County Ramblers – “Callahan Rag”
6. Banjo Joe – “Engineer Joe”
7. Ernest Phipps And His Holiness Quartet – “I Want To Go Where Jesus Is”
8. Amos Baker – “I Wish I Were A Mole In The Ground”
9. Lewis Brothers – “When Summer Comes Again”
10. Dykes’ Magic City Trio – “Frankie”
11. Leake County Revelers – “Johnson Gal”
12. Gid Tanner, Clayton McMichen, Riley Puckett, Lowe Stokes, Fate Norris – “Possum Hunt On Stump House Mountain, Part 1”
13. Gid Tanner, Clayton McMichen, Riley Puckett, Lowe Stokes, Fate Norris – “Possum Hunt On Stump House Mountain, Part 2”
14. Mississippi Bracey– “Stered Gal”
15. Jilson Setters – “Little Boy Working On The Road”
16. Loveless Twins Quartet – “Lead Kindly Light”
17. Al Hopkins And His Buckle Busters – “Roll On The Ground”
18. J. E. Mainer’s Mountaineers – “Concord Rag”
19. Uncle Eck Dunford And Ernest Stoneman – “Barney McCoy”
20. Blue Ridge Highballers – “Round Town Girls”
21. Carter Family – “Motherless Children”
22. Rev. W. M. Mosley And His Congregation – “Labor For The Lord”
23. Home Folk Fiddlers – “Arkansas Hoedown”

Disc 2
1. Allen Brothers – “Skipping And Flying”
2. Fiddlin’ Sam Long Of The Ozarks – “Sandy Land”
3. Rev. J. C. Burnett – “True Friendship”
4. Narmour And Smith – “Tequila Hop Blues”
5. Orville Reed – “The Telephone Girl”
6. Burnett And Ruttledge – “Blackberry Blossoms”
7. Kid Williams And Bill Morgan – “When He Died He Got A Home In Hell”
8. Buster Carter And Preston Young – “It’s Hard To Love And Can’t Be Loved”
9. Carter Family – “Kitty Waltz”
10. Birmingham Entertainers – “Johnny Bring The Jug ‘Round The Hill”
11. Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers – “Old Time Corn Shuckin’, Part 1”
12. Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers – “Old Time Corn Shuckin’, Part 2”
13. Mainer’s Mountaineers – “Train Carry My Girl Back Home”
14. Miller’s Merrymakers – “Old Time Breakdown”
15. Riley Puckett – “Railroad Bill”
16. Leake County Revelers – “Been To The East, Been To The West”
17. Charlie Bowman And His Brothers – “Gonna Raise The Ruckus Tonight” 18. Charlie Parker And Mack Woolbright – “Man Who Wrote The Home Sweet Home Never Was A Married Man”
19. Dykes’ Magic City Trio – “Cotton Eyed Joe”
20. Joe Smith – “Kidnapping Is A Terrible Crime”
21. Rev. W. M. Mosley – “The Comforter Has Come”
22. Roane County Ramblers – “Johnson City Rag”
23. Jilson Setters – “Way Up On Clinch Mountain”