Blue Ridge Mountain Entertainers

about

Clarence Ashley (September 29, 1895 – June 2, 1967) was an American clawhammer banjo player, guitarist and singer. He began performing at medicine shows in the Southern Appalachian region as early as 1911, and gained initial fame during the late 1920s as both a solo recording artist and as a member of various string bands. Ashley made his first recordings for Gennett Records during February 1928 with the Blue Ridge Mountain Entertainers, which then consisted of Ashley on banjo or guitar, Garley Foster on harmonica, and Clarence Horton Greene on fiddle. Later that year, with the help of Victor producer Ralph Peer, Ashley made several recordings with the Carolina Tar Heels, which consisted of Tom on guitar and vocals, his friend Dock Walsh on banjo, and Gwen or Garley Foster on harmonica. In 1929, Frank Walker of Columbia Records auditioned Ashley to make his first solo recordings, as well as to record with a trio called "Byrd Moore and His Hot Shots" at the Johnson City Sessions. During the early 1930s, Ashley again recorded with the Blue Ridge Entertainers, this time for the American Record Corporation. The final recordings from his early era were a series of duets with harmonica player Gwen Foster in 1933 After his "rediscovery" during the folk revival of the 1960s, Ashley spent the last years of his life playing at folk music concerts, including appearances at Carnegie Hall in New York and at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island. Clarence Ashley was born Clarence Ear

top songs

albums

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Good For What Ails You: Music Of The Medicine Shows 1926–1937

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Good for What Ails You: Music of the Medicine Shows, 1926-1937, #1

Good For What Ails You: Music Of The Medicine Shows 1926-1937

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Greenback Dollar - The Music Of Clarence Ashley 1929-1933

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Serenade The Mountains: Early Old Time Music On Record, CD B

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In The Pines - Tar Heel Folk Songs And Fiddle Tunes - Old-Time Music Of North Carolina 1926-1936

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Good For What Ails You: Music of the Medicine Shows 1926-37 CD1

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Roots Of Bluegrass

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Greenback Dollar: 1929-1933

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Greenback Dollar (1929-1933)

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Good for What Ails You: Music of the Medicine Shows, 1926-1937

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Good For What Ails You

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