Bill Hensley, Wayne County Banjo Player & Ballad Singer – FRC734

$15.00

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Description

Bill Hensley (1923-1984) was a remarkable banjo player and ballad singer from Wayne County, West Virginia. He grew up in a musical family, listening as his dad sat on their front porch playing banjo and entertaining passersby on the road across the river. Bill’s hard-driving banjo style employs flurries of pull-offs and a wide range of unusual tunings. He put his own stamp on song lyrics, too, often adding a surprise twist to a ballad’s ending. (His House Carpenter’s ship collides with an iceberg, and his Pretty Polly concludes with the original verse: ‘Polly, pretty Polly, has gone to her rest, poor little Willie is in hell now I guess.’) In 1973, Bill moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he met and mentored Southwest folklorist and banjo player Big Jim Griffith. This release provides a window into Bill’s unique artistry and musicianship through a diverse selection of ballads, songs and instrumentals recorded by Jim Griffith between 1981 and 1984. — Roman Barten-Sherman

Track List

Bill Hensley, Wayne County Banjo Player & Ballad Singer – FRC734

  1. Wayne County Girl (4:49)
  2. Sugar Hill (1:28)
  3. Wild Bill Jones (3:20)
  4. Cumberland Gap (1:33)
  5. Fox Chase (3:02)
  6. John Henry (4:07)
  7. Shortening Bread (inst.) (1:11)
  8. Pocahontas Mine (1:48)
  9. Old Ruben (2:13)
  10. Little Birdie (2:41)
  11. Pretty Polly (3:17)
  12. Talk about Bobo/Shout Lu (2:24)
  13. Charming Betsy (2:18)
  14. Going ‘Round This World Baby Mine (2:10)
  15. Shady Grove (inst.) (1:10)
  16. Free Little Bird (1:54)
  17. Sailor’s Prayer (3:57)
  18. Soldier’s Joy (inst.) (1:08)
  19. Single Girl (2:20)
  20. Short Life and Trouble (2:56)
  21. Sleeping in the Shade (inst.) (1:21)
  22. House Carpenter (4:48)
  23. Nobody’s Business (1:14)
  24. John Declared He Saw the Train A-Coming (0:36)
  25. I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground (2:09)
  26. If I Had Known Before I Courted (2:11)
  27. Knoxville Girl (2:11)
  28. Roving Gambler (3:02)
  29. Old Ruben (jaw harp) (0:33)
  30. Old Joe Clark (bow harp) (0:46)
  31. Silver Chain (1:15)
  32. John Henry (Bill Jr. sings) (3:30)