CD: “Texas Hoedown Revisited.” Get it here.

This CD is a reissue of recordings released in the 1960s and ’70s on County Records and Voyager. Texas fiddling means Benny Thomasson, and “Texas Hoedown Revisited” is doubly important because it contains the obscure recordings made by Texas fiddlers Lewis Thomasson (Benny Thomasson’s brother), Vernon Solomon and Bartow Riley.

Any talk of fiddling always wends its way back to West Virginia. In this case, the early recordings of Kanawha Valley legend Clark Kessinger were highly influential on Texas fiddling, and is the template on which that highly developed Texas contest style is built. This is richly ornamented music, featuring complicated, sometimes six- and seven-part tunes with cascades of notes pulled from with a long bow. That pretty much describes Kessinger’s style. Those Texas boys learned their lessons well. Highly recommended.

County Records, P.O. Box 7405 Charlottesville, Va. 22906

– By Paul Gartner

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