dock walsh

Found an lp copy of Old-Time Classics: A Collection of Mountain Banjo Songs & Tunes at a thrift store last weekend. It contains songs taken from recordings made 1925-1933. It was released on Country Records in 1968, with liner notes by John Burke.

The whole record is good, but the standout track for me is Dock Walsh's "Going Back to Jericho". The song was recorded on April 17, 1926 and issued on Columbia in September 1926.

I'm not sure if I should trust my ears or not, but I think that he uses the "N" word at in the last verse. But "N" or no "N", Walsh gives the sort of fall-off-your chair solo performance that's imbued with so much raw energy that you go away convinced that any and all rock bands should have hung up their strings and sticks and shot out their speakers before the whole mess of their music began. All that seems like pretense in the shadow of Mr. Walsh.

Walsh was born July 23, 1901, Lewis Fork, Wilkes County, North Carolina. He died May 28, 1967. In the liner notes to the collection, Burke writes of Walsh:

Walsh was a professional and played for urban as well as rural audiences. In addition to the claw hammer style he used for "Going Back to Jericho", he had a highly developed minstrel finger picking style which he used for band playing with such groups and the Carolina Tar Heels.

A touch of research reveals that this song has been issued on CD. You can hear it on at least two collections: Old Time Mountain Banjo or Serenade In The Mountains.

Download: Dock Walsh - Going Back to Jericho (mp3)