Singer/guitarist, Bill Clifton, had organized a bluegrass band, The Dixie Mountain Boys, while he was in college studying business administration. The band recorded for a variety of labels, including Starday, Blue Ridge, Mercury, and Kapp, with mostly regional success.
While The Dixie Mountain Boys recorded and performed, Clifton became involved in organizing and promoting concerts. The concert he presented on July 4, 1961 at Oak Leaf Park in Luray, Virginia was a landmark for him and for bluegrass.
Billed as "Bluegrass Day," the concert boasted a reunion of Bill Monroe with the original Blue Grass Boys, as well as performances by The Stanley Brothers, Jim & Jesse, and The Country Gentlemen. This one-day event is considered by many to be the first bluegrass festival in history.
Composing and Collecting Songs for Bluegrass Posterity
Bill Clifton was a gifted composer of bluegrass music, contributing songs like "Little Whitewashed Chimney" and "Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" to the bluegrass canon.
Clifton was also a diligent collector of folk songs and old-time country music. So committed was he to preserving the music of the mountains that, in 1955, he published a volume of the songs that he had collected, entitled "150 Old-Time Folk and Gospel Songs." The collection became a bible of sorts for bluegrass musicians.
Songs From the Bluegrass Tradition
As a performer, Clifton's efforts to preserve the sounds of the mountains were just as diligent. The Bluegrass Sound of Bill Clifton (review copy provided by Gusto Records) proves a worthy example. This release collected Clifton recordings from the Starday, Mercury, and Kapp labels, with various, uncredited configurations of The Dixie Mountain Boys.
"Springhill Disaster," recorded elsewhere as "Springhill Mining Disaster," recounts the all-too-common tragedy of coal miners trapped deep in the ground, singing and praying to keep up their spirits while their would-be rescuers race against time.
"Corey," more popularly known as "Darling Corey," moves along with subtle urgency, driven by twin fiddles and nimble banjo picking. "Corey" tells the story of bootleggers facing a final confrontation with armed and dangerous revenuers.
The traditional tune "All the Good Times are Passed and Gone" has the singer wishing "I'd never been born, or died when I was young" as he remembers a traitorous love. Clifton is more of a crooner than a shouter, but the yearning so essential to bluegrass vocals is just as evident here.
The outlaw-on-the-run tale, "Bed on the Floor," comes from the Woody Guthrie songbook, and sparkles with textbook bluegrass banjo and Clifton's immaculate guitar playing. Clifton's guitar work shines just as brightly on "Gathering Flowers From the Hillside," a murder ballad originally collected by A.P. Carter.
"The Girl I Left in Sunny Tennessee" is another bluegrass standard invigorated by superior fiddle and banjo, and the musicians' passion for the music. As evergreen as the song is, the band sounds as though they're playing it for the first time, so refreshing are the trio harmonies and the driving rhythm.
"Cedar Grove" is not a traditional instrumental, but it might as well be, with the breathtaking pace of the banjo kickoff, the crystalline mandolin break, and Clifton's solid rhythm work.
Bill Clifton, Bluegrass Pioneer
The Bluegrass Sound of Bill Clifton showcases just one facet of this low-profile member of the first generation of bluegrass. As a singer, songwriter, guitarist, song collector, festival organizer, and promoter, Bill Clifton paved the way for the many bluegrass musicians and promoters who came after him.
CD Insert for The Bluegrass Sound of Bill Clifton by Bill Clifton and the Dixie Mountain Boys. Nashville, TN. Gusto Records, Inc. 2009.
Willis, Barry R.. America's Music: Bluegrass. Franktown, Colorado. Pine Valley Music, 1992.
Bill Clifton. 2009. All Music. January 28, 2010. http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:kifqxq95ldse~T1
Diane Amov - Bluegrass singer/songwriter and classically-trained flautist who has written on bluegrass and American roots music since 2005.
Join the Conversation