This addition to Rounder’s “Alan Lomax Collection” Portraits series is a short course on Appalachian ballads, courtesy of Lomax and this Virginia singer named Texas Gladden. Most of these recordings were made by Lomax at Gladden’s home in the 1940s, although some were made by Moses Asch, others were made at folk festivals in the 1930s, and a couple by Lomax in the late 1950s.
Gladden, who died in 1967 at the age of 72, has a strong and sometimes piercing vocal style with no trace of country twang, but a lot of flatted notes typical of Appalachian singing. She sings almost entirely unaccompanied, except for a couple of tracks, including the opener, an utterly charming rendition of “The Devil and the Farmer’s Wife” accompanied by her brother Hobart Smith on guitar.
The songs include many Child ballads like “Farmer’s Wife,” and a virtual library of traditional American folksongs, largely from the Anglo-Celtic tradition: “Barbara Allen,” “The Three Babes,” “Lord Thomas,” “I’m Never to Marry,” “Gypsy Davy.” There are also some early country songs like “The Wreck of the Old 97.”
The disc is sprinkled with Lomax’s interviews with Gladden in which she talks about how she learned to sing, the role singing played in her childhood and family life, etc. It’s obvious the two had a lively rapport.
In the manner of many ballad singers, Gladden does not sing with a lot of emotion, but she invests a lot of musical creativity in each song in the form of vocal embellishments, grace notes, etc. Although she was able to memorize a song on one hearing, she reportedly never sang a song the same way twice, and she addresses this in one of the interviews with Lomax.
The accompanying booklet is so thick it barely fits in the CD case, and it has lyrics to many of the songs and transcripts to the interview snippets in addition to a profile of Gladden. This package is a real treasure for students and fans of unadorned folk song.
(Rounder, 2001)
