FRED COCKERHAM CD

A RE-POST (WITH MORE INFO)

from countysales.com:

FRED COCKERHAM “Sunny Home In Dixie” (FC-2014, $ 13.50)

A fine old-time fiddler and fretless banjo player

in his day, Cockerham taught and encouraged many

younger musicians who have helped popularize the

Round Peak style of old time music.

Although Cockerham was past his prime when these recordings

were made, there is enough of interest in the 24 songs

and tunes to make this a welcome release for Fred’s many

friends. The tunes included make up a good part of his

repertoire, with such Round Peak favorites as TEMPY, CHILLY

WINDS, LEE COUNTY BLUES, JACK OF DIAMONDS, OLD

JIMMY SUTTON, and 8th OF JANUARY.

Cockerham was most likely in his prime in the 1940s, and

interestingly picked up some songs and tunes that were not of the

Round Peak variety, such as NATURAL BRIDGE BLUES (most

likely learned from Tommy Magness, fiddler for the very popular

Roy Hall’s band).

And, as was common among local musicians, he

borrowed from the popular Bluegrass bands of the day,

in this case HEAD OVER HEELS IN LOVE, which he

called “I’M GOING ACROSS THE OCEAN”.

The material on this disc ranges from somewhat rough and

choppy (MOLLY PUT THE KETTLE ON) to a smooth

and solid rendering of JOHN BROWN’S DREAM.

Some of the pieces were taken from live recordings.

Various musicians are heard here adding their accom-

paniment: these include Clay Buckner, Doug Hill, Mike

Fishback and Nowell Creadick.

New Fred Cockerham CD

 

from www.countysales.com:

FRED COCKERHAM ‘Sunny Home in Dixie’

Price: $13.50 (excluding tax)

SKU: FC-2015-CD

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TRACK LISTING:

• NATURAL BRIDGE BLUES
• EIGHTH OF JANUARY
• DEFORD BAILEY BLUES
• OLD JIMMY SUTTON
• JACK OF DIAMONDS
• NOBODY LIVING IN IT
• LEE COUNTY BLUES
• CYNTHIA
• PAYDAY IN THE ARMY
• I’M GOING ACROSS THE OCEAN
• LOGAN COUNTY BLUES
• SUNNY HOME IN DIXIE
• BROWN’S DREAM
• UNDER THE DOUBLE EAGLE
• TEMPY
• MOLLY PUT THE KETTLE ON
• WESTERN COUNTRY
• CHILLY WINDS
• BACKSTEP
• TRAIN FORTY-FIVE
• ARKANSAS TRAVELER
• WILLY, MY DARLING
• TWO LITTLE CHILDREN
• BLACK MOUNTAIN BLUES

ARTISTS:

• FRED COCKERHAM
• CLAY BUCKNER
• HENRY BUCKNER
• NOWELL CREADICK
• MIKE FISHBACK
• DOUG HILL
• DAVE HOLT

Fred Cockerham

Fred Cockerham and Kyle Creed

Thanks to Lane Ryan for sharing this recording with oldtimeparty:  Fred Cockerham (fiddle) and Kyle Creed (banjo) play “Sally Ann” at Brandywine (1974) :

by Ray Alden (www.fieldrecorder.com):

Fred Cockerham, one of the seven children of Elias and Betty Jane Cockerham, was born on November 3, 1905. He was the only one from the Round Peak community to attempt the difficult life of a professional rural musician. The way that Fred began playing the fiddle is similar to the way many country musicians began. Basically, this story can be heard on FRC101, but here the story is amplified somewhat so as to compliment the spoken word. Fred remembered this story from the time he was 8 years old:

“My older brother Pate fiddled, but not too well. Just about every time he’d set down to play he’d get disgusted before long and throw the fiddle on the bed and walk out. Well, I thought to myself, I’m going to learn to play that, but he was high tempered and didn’t want me messin’ with it. So I’d sneak his fiddle over into the hog range and go over the bank into the hollow and saw the hell out of it. I didn’t worry cause I knew he couldn’t catch me when I was barefoot like I was when I was caring for the hogs, back then I could outrun a haint.

Before very long I got so I could play a few tunes pretty well, and I just couldn’t keep it to myself any longer. So I asked my mother if she’d like to hear a tune and played “Sally Ann” for her. Now that tickled her the best of anything you ever saw, and that evening when Pate threw the fiddle down as usual, she said to him, “Sit down and let your brother play a tune.” He never touched the fiddle again and I just kept right on playing it.”

Tommy and Fred

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by Ray Alden (from http://www.fieldrecorder.com)

The fiddle and fretless banjo duets played by Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham distill the music down to its very essence.  For those hearing these two great rural country musicians for the first time, this stark approach to music may be a revelation and yet, at the same time, you may find that it has an unrelenting intensity that takes time to become accustomed to.

As you listen more and more, you will find that layers will unravel revealing the richness of their music and the cunning way in which it was devised.

Much of this old time way of playing music originated from growing up in the South in the early 1900s, when entertainment had to come from within the community .  There was time to savour life’ s great joys and to be keenly aware of its immense difficulties.  Uppermost Surry County, the area of North Carolina where Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham grew up, is located at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains on the beginning of the Piedmont, a plain which extends far into North Carolina.  On one side you would see Fisher’s Peak looming far above you and, as you turn your head, you would see the land flatten out except for an occasional hill like Round Peak, after which the immediate area is named.  Growing up in the Round Peak area just after the turn of the century, only 36 years after the end of the Civil War, meant isolation from all but the most nearby communities.  During rainy periods, the roads, made mostly of red clay with no gravel, became so muddy that wagon wheels would sink in up to their axles.  This made travel during parts of the year either difficult or impossible.  New tunes only slowly made their way into the area, often by visitors or because a community member made a trip outside of his locality.

Music was used in the community in many ways.  It would be played at house ‘frolics’ where young people would go to someone s s house, roll up the rug, and have a dance.  Or it might be used to conclude a ‘working’, an event in which people came over to help a neighbour with a major chore such as land clearing, with a rousing dance after supper.  During the holidays, people would go from house to house playing music and dancing for days, ‘breaking up Christmas’ as they went along.  Sometimes the music was a distraction at a time when all else was futile.  Tommy remembered such a time when he was 15, recalling this story about his cousin Julie Jarrell in 1916:

She was fourteen years old and just as pretty and nice as she could be.  she was helping her mother cook dinner and the fire in the wood stove went down pretty low.  So she picked up a gallon can of kerosene and began to pour it on the wood and just as soon as she did the fire run right up to the can and exploded it and covered her with burning kerosene.  I was coming from the mill on horseback carrying a sack of cornmeal when I saw the smoke and heard the young-uns crying.  When I reached the door I saw Aunt Susan kneeling above Julie, weeping, her hands all blistered from beating out the fire on her with a quilt.  They put Julie to bed right away, her whole body was burned up to her chin, and at first she cried in pain but after a while she didn’t feel anything at all.  As she was a-laying there she asked me to get my banjo and sing Little Maggie for her.  I expect I played it the best I ever have in my life, with the most feeling anyway.  It seemed to comfort her and pick up her spirits a little, but by the following morning she was dead.