Waking Up Tillie: Groundhog Day

WAKING UP TILLIE Groundhog Day Chubby Dragon 1010

THE CAROLINA JUG STOMPERS Rooster on a Limb Old 97 Wrecords 005

Vocal, ragtime and jugband music have been making a comeback in old-time sessions over the past decade or so. During the revival in the '60s and '70s many musicians were so interested in learning North Carolina and north Georgia fiddle and banjo tunes that they ignored the influence of jazz and ragtime on the music. Waking Up Tillie and to a greater extent The Carolina Jug Stompers have integrated this wild and wooly sound into their respective styles.

Kellie Allen and Pete Peterson have fronted a number of bands including the now defunct Even Tempered String Band and presently are one half of the Orpheus Supertones with Clair Milliner and Walt Koken. Their new band Waking Up Tillie includes fiddler Randy Johnson who is also a member of the Carolina Jug Stompers.

Groundhog Day opens with "G Rag" from the playing of Earl Johnson and his Clodhoppers. It is a rollicking tune featuring Pete's fingerstyle banjo and Randy's slinky fiddle. "I Know My Name is There" follows, from the playing and singing of Charlie Poole and Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters. Pete and Kellie's vocals have just the right ragged quality necessary for authenticity. "Georgia Wagoner" and "Hell Among the Yearlings" are great fiddle workouts for Randy.

"Forgiveness," a new song from Sarah Hawker of the Lonesome Sisters, is transformed into a hillbilly waltz with Kellie's plaintive vocals and Dobroist Peter Szego's Bashful Brother Oswald-style weepy steel. Holiness music is also represented with "When the Moon Drips Away Into Blood." Waking Up Tillie has done a fine job of reestablishing styles of music just being rediscovered by old-time players.

The Carolina Jug Stompers feature Ron Cole, fiddle, guitar and kazoo; Luke Faust, harmonica and jug; WB Reid, banjo-guitar and guitar; and Randy Johnson, mandolin and guitar. All tour members sing. Rooster on a Limb is a throwback to the early days of Cannon's Jug Stompers and the Even Dozen and Kweskin jug bands of the '60s.

The CD opens with Cannon's "Money Never Runs Out." The first thing that hits you about the Carolina Jug Stompers is they actually have a jug, and Luke Faust actually knows how to play! His jug lines really do simulate bass lines. "Going to Germany" is another Cannon classic and features Faust's virtuosic jug, Randy Johnson's percussive mandolin, and the duet fiddling from Ron Cole and guest fiddler Bonnie Zahnow.

"New Orleans Wiggle" an old Dixieland dance with the addition of "Somebody Stole My Gal" has been transformed into a great vocal number. Best known by the Double Decker String Band, the Stompers use the original Louisville Jug Band version of "Under the Chicken Tree" complete with full vocal back-up, what a gas! Just when you think you have this band figured out along comes the country standard "Busted" that really works in the Stompers' able hands. The Carolina Jug Stompers are a quartet of players completely immersed in the jug band tradition and Rooster on a Limb is a rousing success.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Sing Out Corporation
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group