FTX-931-BOLAMKIN

FRANK PROFFITT -1-

6 unaccompanied and 16 songs accompanied by guitar, dulcimer or 5-string banjo. In addition to what he calls a "store" banjo, Frank plays his own "home-made" fretless 5-string with a groundhog skin stretched over a metal hoop. His dulcimer, also home-made, is the old-style 3-string Appalachian, one melody and 2 drones. TOM DOOLEY, the version that won worldwide popularity, was recorded from Proffitt by Frank & Anne Warner. Here are the original recordings of the Proffitt songs included in their book TRADITIONAL AMERICAN FOLK SONGS (Syracuse University 1984).

2. BOLAMKIN (Song continued) with banjo (1961) - 1'39"

3. DAN DOO [#103] (THE WIFE WRAPT IN WETHER'S SKIN) guitar (1959) (talk bef) - 2'29"

4. THE LOWLAND LOW [#104] (THE GOLDEN VANITY) unaccomp (1961) - 3'58"

5. HANG MAN [#105] (THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS) with guitar (1959) (talk: learnt from aunt, Nancy Prather) - 2'44"

6. BONNY JAMES CAMPBELL [#106] unacc (1961) - 1'08"

7. LORD RANDALL [#107] with banjo (1961) - 3'29"

8. THE LOST HUNTER [#109] (YOUNG HUNTING) unacc. (1961) - 4'25"

9. DOWN BY THE WILLOW GARDEN (ROSE CONNELLY) [#110] with guitar & others (1941) (title bef) - 1'10"

10. THE COURT HOUSE SONG [#111] 2v unacc (1941) - 0'33"

11. DON KELLY'S GIRL [#112] (ZEB TURNEY) with guitar (1961) - 2'29"

12. SIDNEY ALLEN [#113] with guitar (1959) (talk about song bef) - 4'25"

13. THE LAWSON FAMILY MURDER [#114] 3v with guitar (1941) (talk bef) - 0'54"

14. THE PRETTY FAIR WIDOW (LILLIE SHAW) [#115] unacc (1960) (talk bef gives date & location & story of song) - 4'48"

15. OMIE (NAOMI) WISE [#116] with guitar (1959) - 2'26"

16. POOR MAN IN THIS WORLD [#117] with dulcimer (1959) - 2'49"

17. TOM DOOLEY (DULA) [#118] with banjo (1959) (talk bef) - 2'14"

18. BEAVER DAM ROAD (HARD TIMES) [#119] with guitar (1959) (talk bef about making song, illicit drinking & story of revenue informer) - 4'32"

19. CLUCK OLD HEN [#120] with fretless banjo (1962) - 2'24"

20. GOIN' ACROSS THE MOUNTAIN [#121] with fretless banjo (1959) (song/ descr of dance/ song) - 3'01"

21. GONNA KEEP MY SKILLET GREASY [#122] unacc (1941) (title bef) - 0'27"

22. GROUNDHOG [#123] with guitar (1941) (title bef) - 1'32"

Recorded 1941-1968. Edited by Peter Kennedy and first published on Folktrax cassettes 1987.

FRANK PROFFITT (1913-1965) was born at Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee, then the family moved across the border to Beaver Dam, Watauga County, North Carolina. He learned songs from his father, Wiley, his aunt and uncle, Nancy and Noah Prather, and from men working at the local lumber camps at Shulls Mills (see #33). During the Second World War he worked on the TVA Project and a spark-plug factory in Toledo, Ohio, but most of his life he worked on his own and helped other farmers, yet always maintaining a keen interest in reading books and papers and in the outside world.

He had a hard life. He fed his 6 children on potatoes 3 times a day, but, after the success of TOM DOOLEY, he was soon talking and singing to college audiences and making records and broadcasts. His son, Frank Junior, is carrying on the music tradition, teaching in local schools and making the famous Proffitt home made 5-string banjos.