I’ll be performing at
Folk Arts Rare Records a set of tunes associated with the legendary Kentuckian, Roscoe Holcomb on occasion of the release of a never-before heard live recording from the 1972 San Diego Folk Festival. Holcomb was invited to the West Coast by Folk Arts’ original owner, Lou Curtiss, who also engineered the recording and stored it for over four decades. Now, Tompkins Square will be releasing the performance on vinyl and as a digital download, and hosting a
release party on December 5th at 2pm. Official release notes below:
Tompkins Square label is proud to announce the release of the first commercially available full live concert recording of old-time legend Roscoe Holcomb. The vinyl LP will be released in limited quantity on Black Friday via independent record stores. The CD and digital versions will be available widely on December 4th.
Discovered by folklorist John Cohen in 1959 in East Kentucky, Roscoe Holcomb is among the most revered traditional musicians to emerge during the folk boom of the 60’s. A favorite of Bob Dylan (who name-checked him in his 2014 MusiCares speech), Eric Clapton, and many others, Holcomb’s high lonesome singing and driving banjo style can be heard on several classic Folkways recordings.
San Diego State Folk Festival 1972 was recorded at the annual event produced by Lou Curtiss, who provides insightful notes on how the concert came together. John Cohen, author of ‘The High Lonesome Sound’ (Steidl) also contributes new notes to the set. Previously unseen photographs from the event were shot by Virginia Curtiss. Jean Ritchie duets with Holcomb on a beautiful eight-minute version of ‘Wandering Boy’.