Iron Mountain String Band
If I Go Ten Thousand Miles
© 2001 Iron Mountain String Band (634479714009)
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With fiddle, claw-hammer banjo, and flat picked guitar, this band has been playing traditional old-time Appalachian since 1965.
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The Iron Mountain String Band plays old-time mountain music from the days after the Civil War up to the Bluegrass era. Typical of Appalachian string bands before the 1930's, the Iron Mountain String Band consists of only five-string banjo, fiddle and guitar. This music, though regional, has a wide and deep influence throughout America.
Starting in the 1950's, Eric Davidson, subsequently accompanied by Caleb Finch and others, visited Grayson and Carroll Counties in Southwest Virginia to learn the music in that heartland of Appalachia. The band's name refers to a favorite camping site used in early days of collecting.
Over the next thirty years, they and others who joined in their effort listened to, taped dozens of people whose families had carried the musical tradition for generations. Among the most important of these musicians were the legendary Wade Ward and Tommy Jarrel, masters of claw-hammer banjo and fiddle respectively, Glen Smith, noted for fiddle and fretless banjo, and Ruby Vass and Glen Neaves, ballad singers. A series of eleven albums from these field recordings were issued by Folkways/Asch Records. These albums are available through the Smithsonian Folkways on CD, vinyl, or tape (www.si.edu/folkways/).
The Band began in New York City in 1963. With Davidson on the banjo and Finch fiddling, they were joined by Peggy Haine on guitar and played widely throughout the 1960s to make the first Iron Mountain String Band record in 1972, published by Folkways. Davidson and Finch relocated to Southern California at about this time and the Iron Mountain String Band was re-formed with Brooke Moyer taking over the female lead and guitar. The three have played together for 35 years and made two more albums with Folkways, which are now available through Smithsonian Folkways (F2473, F3836, F2477). Recedntly, Smithsonian Folkways has reissued several of these songs in sampler albums: "Sugar Hill", in Classic Old Time Music, SWF40093; "New River Train", in Classic Railroad Songs, SFW40192; and "Johnson Boys", in Classic Old Time Fiddle, SWF 40193. Two more albums produced by the private lable Peachbottom Records are available as CDs through Amazon, “Songs of Old Time America (1998) and “If I go Ten Thousand Miles (2001). The lables name honors Uncle Wade Ward whose farm on Peachbottom Creek in Southwestern Virginia was the site of many field recordings.
Throughout, the Band has kept to the old mountain flavor of the music. While the original musical material of the Southern mountains has been much expanded in innovative ways by many other groups, the Iron Mountain String Band has remained strictly traditional. Their goal is to represent the roots of music that has now branched into Bluegrass, Newgrass, Pop/Folk, and Country, among others.
Much is known about the British Isles origins of this music: the oral ballads perpetuating tragic tales and telling the news, usually bad. In the New World, hard lives, more violence and news of war were incorporated into the music. The banditry of the Border Reivers, the interminable wars between Britain and the Continent, and love betrayed, usually violently, all contribute to the mournful, exciting music people never tire of hearing. Besides the songs and ballads of these by-gone days, the Band also features banjo/fiddle breakdowns.
The Band has given numerous concerts at clubs, museums, dances, and festivals in Southern California and has often played on KPFK. We were featured in the soundtrack of Jane Fonda's "Dollmaker", a major TV network movie (1984) and were listed in the Touring Artists Directory of the California Arts Council, 1992-4. Recent concerts include July 15, 2007 at the Boston Court Theater in Pasadena and a house concert Jan 17, 2008 hosted by Don Breyer, in Clairmont.
contact: Caleb Finch, 2144 Crescent Drive, Altadena; daytime 626 797 6172;.
Music of of the Iron Mountain String Band
1973: The Iron Mountain String Band (Smithsonian Folkways F2473)
1975: Walkin’ in the Parlor (Smithsonian Folkways F3836)
1981: Someday We’ll Meet Again (Smithsonian Folkways, F2477)
1998: Songs of Old Time America (Peachbottom Records, available on Amazon.com)
2001: If I go Ten Thousand Miles (Peachbottom Records, available on Amazon.com)
2003: Classic Old Time Music ("Sugar Hill")(Smithsonian Folkways, SFW 40093)
2006: Classic Railroad Songs, "New River Train" (Smithsonian Folkways, SFW 40192). 2007: Classic Old Time Fiddle, "Johnson Boys", (Smithsonian Folkways, SWF 40193).