tonyelder - Posted - 01/25/2025:  08:51:35

Highwoods Stringband Bloomington 1974



...for your listening pleasure, via Slippery Hill - and Highwoods Stringband.

Enjoyed the "listen" Doug Dorschug. Thanks.

ChickenMan - Posted - 01/25/2025:  13:44:00

Same source 

Highwoods 1976

Old Scratch - Posted - 01/25/2025:  16:51:10

Those guys rock!! (as the kids say).

DougD - Posted - 01/26/2025:  03:56:08

Tony, I hadn't heard that show - thanks for posting it. That was 50 years ago, but I still remember some things about that show. It was in the auditorium of the Bloomington Public Library, a nice space, and was organized by Dillon Bustin, which was the first time we met him. It was also the first time I saw Bose speakers, and I liked the way they filled the hall with natural sound, while having a wide enough pattern that we could hear some too (we didn't typically have monitors in those days). I used a pair of Bose 802's for many years, in a lot of different settings. Also Miles Krassen came out to that show, which people told us was unusual for him, which was a nice compliment.
I don't mean to complain, but that YouTube plays at Eb, which I'm sure is high and too fast. I'm starting to feel like GroundhogPeggy - all this fast music makes me nervous.
Billy - Another good one - thanks. There are quite a few recordings of Brandywine events on Slippery Hill and now YouTube, featuring a lot of great players, not just us. Those were wonderful festivals, because they presented musicians like Tommy Jarrell and Dewey Balfa in a setting where the audience (and other performers like us, who were much like the audience) could hear, meet, and often play with them. Somewhere I have a photo of me with Lowe Stokes - its hard to say which of us looks in worse shape!
I might mention that these recordings show that we knew and performed much, much more music than we recorded on the Rounder albums. Also, we made a unique set for every show. Usually towards the end of the trip we'd focus in on the show and make a set containing tunes we currently liked, were working on, plus a few old favorites. We made a copy to take onstage, and one went in a little book we kept in the glovebox. That way, on the few occasions when we ran out of time, we could pick an old set. But we had a policy of "no repeats," so during a weekend at a festival each set was different, and no tune was played more than once, except on the rare occasions when a good friend showed up and wanted to hear something we'd already played, but that was very unusual. Also we played some venues yearly and we could look in our book and see what we'd played the year before and try and come up with something different, which kept us and our audiences on our toes.
So those three sets at Brandywine were spread over the weekend, and were made at a picnic table or in the van if we needed to concentrate.
Old Scratch - Just for historical accuracy, if you look closely I think you'll see that one of the "guys" was almost certainly actually a "girl." She was definitely a "rocker" too though. Here's another photo from that time period, although she might be wearing one of my shirts.

Highwoods at Old Dominion University

 

NCnotes - Posted - 01/26/2025:  07:30:03

She’s barefoot, and plays the bass - Gotta love that!

Great to hear all the details, background about the band. :-)

Edited by - NCnotes on 01/26/2025 07:31:19

wrench13 - Posted - 01/26/2025:  08:27:10

I remember back then when the Highwoods came to New Paltz, NY, in that time frame. You guys did a show at a WAY out of the way club in the Shawangunk Mtns, Smittys. My OT band opened, such as it were, for the HW's. For me, life changing. Was a fan back then, still a big fan now. Thanks Doug!

Old Scratch - Posted - 01/26/2025:  10:05:07

quote:

---

Originally posted by DougD

Old Scratch - Just for historical accuracy, if you look closely I think you'll see that one of the "guys" was almost certainly actually a "girl." She was definitely a "rocker" too though. Here's another photo from that time period, although she might be wearing one of my shirts.

---

Oh, yeah, I forgot:  back then, "guys" meant, like, "guys".  Let me retro-date it:  "Those guys and that gal rock!"  Hmmm ... doesn't have quite the same punch, does it?  Let me get back to you ........

DougD - Posted - 01/27/2025:  03:31:02

Jenny Cleland was certainly a free spirit in those days. She didn't habitually go barefoot (we lived in upstate NY) but she still had "that sand all over her feet," as Carl Perkins famously said: youtu.be/C6Jxsynmuco?feature=shared
I might add that Jenny picked up the bass because a friend had left one in our living room while he built a yurt on another friends nearby property. At that time she already played piano and guitar. I have a couple well recorded Highwoods shows I listen to sometimes and I'm always impressed how steady and precise her bass playing was. She could be a bit more acrobatic if the music suggested it, but that wasn't usually what we needed. June Drucker's commentary in the Highwoods documentary is right on.
During that time she also learned the fiddle and later the Irish flute and harp. For a time she played harp music for people in their final hours of life.
She also has a PhD in, I think, Romance studies, and has published a couple books.
So, Old Scratch, maybe it could be "those guys and Doctor Cleland" although she was on hiatus from college at that time. Bud Reed, Ola Belle's husband, used to call us "Jenny and the Muleskinners."

wrench13 - Posted - 01/27/2025:  05:28:03

I've always had the opinion that bass players really are driving the truck so to speak, and not just because I started playing bass so long ago. A good bass player is worth their weight! Jenny's well above good! Give a listen to these 2 live recordings closely. She is definitely holding the reins.

Erockin - Posted - 01/27/2025:  06:05:28

Highwoods was my first "Old Time" "Fiddle Music" "String Band" CD I was gifted. Their Stache game is also high!

DougD - Posted - 01/28/2025:  14:18:34

Since you mentioned a CD, I thought I'd say to anyone who's listened to those recordings that they were all made direct to two track stereo (with one exception) with no effects, overdubbing, or editing. Here's one of my favorites that features Jenny playing bass, singing and yodeling (sort of). This recording was made with three microphones, with the vocals, banjo, guitar and bass picked up by an RCA 44BX ribbon microphone, through a field production mixer I built from a kit, to an Ampex model 300 mastering recorder with tube electronics. So Walt and Jenny were singing into both sides of the microphone, face to face about two feet apart.
youtu.be/zkSyrPx4-PA?feature=shared
I just came across an old review that said it was a "Sons of the Pioneers song brought into old time style." In fact we were only vaguely aware of the Pioneers, and learned this song from a J E Mainer recording, who'd already modified it.
Hope you enjoy it. Think I'll give Highwoods a rest for now.

ChickenMan - Posted - 01/28/2025:  14:26:04

Bluegrass Cardinals do that version of "Way out There."
Walt and Jenny sure sound sweet.

DougD - Posted - 01/28/2025:  15:48:52

Billy - I had to find it, but the Cardinals were doing the Sons of the Pioneers version. Here's a little clip of them, just jamming around the campfire:
youtu.be/ZFM5x3J_dFo?feature=shared
They had the advantage of the Farr brothers, and Roy's 45 series Martin guitar, plus the fact that Bob Nolan wrote the song.
I don't listen to our old recordings much, but this is one of my favorites. Its easy to hear why that RCA ribbon mic is still so highly regarded for vocals.

DougD - Posted - 02/18/2025:  17:31:10

I said I'd give this topic a rest, but I recently found that someone has posted the entire third Highwoods album to YouTube. Thought it might be interesting if you want to hear how those numbers were originally presented.
youtu.be/4WE7fwwoQgE?feature=shared
More important (to me) is that the same person also posted both volumes of "Old Originals," with some great "later" field recordings from Virginia and North Carolina, both seminal Hollow Rock string band records, which introduced a lot of people to the music of Henry Reed, and "Summer Oaks and Porch" by the Fuzzy Mountain String Band. A free trip back to the 1970's!

DougD - Posted - 02/18/2025:  17:35:48

PS - They also posted "Shaking Down the Acorns," the Rounder album of the Hammons family and others.
PPS - Looks like the link I provided for the Highwoods album might be just to side A for some reason. The whole record is there - you just might have to poke around for it.

Edited by - DougD on 02/18/2025 17:46:44

NCnotes - Posted - 02/18/2025:  18:29:57

Jenny sounds like such an interesting person, and a gifted musician!

Doug, you guys don’t flag copyright when somebody posts your albums to YouTube? (I mean, I know nothing about that kind of stuff, was just wondering)

DougD - Posted - 02/19/2025:  15:21:38

Jenny Cleland was, and is a very interesting person, and a lifelong close friend. From some flirting and dancing at a party we formed some kind of molecule that lasted a long time.
All the members of that band had other talents that were utlized afterwards. If this link works, it will take you to the incredible kinetic sculptures that Bob Potts created later in life:
google.com/search?q=Bob%20Pott...fox-b-1-m
No, we don't flag copyright infringement because we don't own those Rounder recordings, and have never posted anything to YouTube. If you look at one of the tracks from the compilation CD or the "Fire on the Mountain" album you'll see it was "Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group" - same as the Beatles, Elton John or The Band. Its a huge music conglomerate that now owns the rights to those recordings. The live festival recordings were made by the Brandywine Friends and are now on the Slippery Hill website, which I think is fine with us. Years ago a couple fans posted a couple tracks, but that was all that was out there until Universal, for reasons of their own decided to post the CD tracks. We've never seen a penny from it, but in general streaming services are a very poor deal for artists, even those who might reasonably expect a better return.
You have to remember that those records were made 50 years ago, long before CDs, YouTube, Spotify or Bandcamp, etc. If you wanted to get your music out there, you really needed a record label to handle mastering, manufacturing, warehousing and distribution. You couldn't just record something in your bedroom and make CDs or post it online. Some of us had known some of the Rounders since before the band or label existed, and it was a pretty good fit. We all were trying hard, and learning as we went along. Also, terms like "Americana" or "Roots Music" didn't exist, and there was very little infrastructure available in terms of artist management or booking agents for this kind of music. All in all, we did pretty well, and at this point in our lives I don't think any of us care much what's on YouTube.

wrench13 - Posted - 02/19/2025:  20:13:57

I cant even imagine what its like for current day commercial artists. Back in the 80's I was in a band Jumbo String Band, we had 3 albums out on Old Homestead Records. With the last one, they wanted us to go on tour for 38 weeks (!) to push the last one, which we did not do and they kinda forgot about the album. Hey if anyone wants one I have 3 cases of LP's still in my garage somewheres! I can remember dragging those cases all over the UK when we did do a 3 week tour there in '89.

GeorgeH - Posted - 02/20/2025:  06:25:09

I remember Walt saying on stage, "When rounder records are made Rounder Records will make them." :-)

Erockin - Posted - 02/20/2025:  07:03:02

Wish I had some HWSB in vinyl collection!

DougD - Posted - 02/20/2025:  07:08:51

The LPs are often for sale on ebay. Prices vary.

wrench13 - Posted - 02/20/2025:  11:53:57

I have 2 LPs! Of course you can see thru them by now, they been played so much.