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Little Boy Working On The Road

  • Little Boy Working On The Road

    Almost nothing seems to be known about Blind Bill Day beyond the bogus biography cooked up by folk promoter Jean Thomas when she hired him to play the part of "Jilson Setters, The Singing Fiddler Of Lost Hope Hollow" in her rather theatrical folk festivals in Ashland, Kentucky in the 20's, When she took him to New York to record, the Victor guys decided he needed some accompaniment. He was luckier than most of the musicians saddled with studio backup; Robison, though a Tin Pan Alley hillbilly songwriter, was the son of a Kansas old Time fiddler, and pretty quick to pick up an unfamiliar tune. From his pictures, Day looks old enough to. have been playing by the time of the Civil War. He really was from Morehead, Kentucky, where Thomas found him, not up some hollow as she claimed, but playing for change on the courthouse square,

    James William Day, fiddle; Carson Robison, guitar.

    New York NY 2/27/28 Victor V-40025

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