MP3 Ted Lundy - Ted Lundy and The Southern Mountain Boys

18 tracks of great classic blue grass music by TED LUNDY and his Southern Mountain Boys. This CD, recorded between 1961 and 1971, is ample evidence that Ted and his band were major contributors to the GALAX SOUND.

18 MP3 Songs in this album (47:45) !
Related styles: Country: Traditional Bluegrass, Country: Old-Timey, Mood: Virtuoso

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Details:
These early recordings (1962-1963) of Ted Lundy and the Southern Mountain Boys offer a rare glimpse into a time when traditional musicians along the Virginia-Carolina border were evolving a new band style that featured long-bow fiddle, three-finger banjo, driving rhythms, and close vocal harmonies. At first these new bands reflected unique contributions of distinct musical communities. However, the appearance of Bill Monroeâs Bluegrass Boys on clear channel radio in 1946 changed all of that. Monroe had assembled a band composed of the best musicians he could find, plucked from vastly different musical communities. And the effect of hearing this âsuper bandâ is undeniable. Local bands eager to copy the vocal and instrumental prowess of this elite set of musicians changed, geographically distinct styles were lost, and bluegrass was born.

Ted Lundy stood in stark contrast to this trend to conform to a single musical formula. Lundy had inherited the rich musical traditions of the Lundy and Edwards families of Galax, Virginia. His father, Charlie Lundy, played fretless clawhammer banjo and his mother, Rena Edwards Lundy, played guitar and sang the old songs to a growing family of talented young musicians. Ted initially played guitar and mandolin, but when he was 14, he heard local banjo prodigy Raymond Swinney playing three-finger banjo with fiddler Glen Neaves and the dye was cast. Swinney had developed his unique playing style on an isolated farm on the side of Iron Mountain prior to 1940 and was now using three-finger banjo to accompany his brothers and the spectacular Fries fiddler Glen Neaves on the Grayson-Carroll Hoedown, a popular Galax radio show. With the encouragement of his father, Ted sought Swinney out, copied his unique banjo style, and blended it with the new sounds he heard from Monroeâs band on the radio and the old tunes he heard his father play at home. Within a year, Tedâs unique banjo style had emerged. He was now being featured with Glen Neaves and the Grayson County Boys on the Grayson-Carroll Hoedown.


In 1959, Ted formed his own band, the Southern Mountain Boys, which included Sonny Miller on fiddle, Fred Hannah on mandolin, Lew Childers on guitar, and Don Baer on bass. The Southern Mountain Boys immediately had a distinctive sound that resonated with Tedâs musical upbringing and the rich musical traditions of his home. The Galax Sound would become the enduring trademark of Tedâs band. To make ends meet, the Southern Mountain Boys also traveled with Alex Campbell and Ola Belle Reed as the New River Boys. In 1962, Alex and Ola Belle recorded two Starday LPs and, after that session, the New River Boys stayed to record some of their own material. Two of the cuts on this CD are from that Starday session with Sonny Miller on fiddle, vocal trios by Ted Lundy, Fred Hannah, Don Baer, and John Jackson, and dobro by Deacon Brumfield who was a regular member on Alex Campbellâs shows.

By 1964, Ted Lundy and the Southern Mountain Boys had garnered a regular weekend job playing at the Eagles Club in Oxford, Pennsylvania. At one of those weekend shows, Ted met Bob Paisley. Paisley had grown up in a musical family in Ashe County North Carolina and an impromptu session between sets at the Eagles Club proved him to be an exceptional lead singer and rhythm guitarist. The vocal trios took on new life, flowing guitar runs perfectly complemented Tedâs banjo and the fiddling of Sonny Miller, and Paisley soon became a regular member of the Southern Mountain Boys. It was this band that made Ted's first appearance on LPs. County Records LP-705 had four tracks, including Grey Eagle, a quintessential Galax style fiddle-banjo duet.

In 1970, East German country music aficionado Gerd Hadeler heard Ted Lundyâs band at the Galax Fiddlerâs Convention as they swept every contest they entered. By then Sonny Miller left the band. He was first replaced by Joe Edd King, a friend of Tedâs from home, and then Jerry Lundy, one of Tedâs cousins who had also relocated to Delaware. Jerry had learned to play from his father, Fiddling Buck Lundy, and his grandfather, the legendary Galax fiddler Emmett Lundy, and his fiddling further cemented the Galax Sound. Gerd arranged 1971 recording sessions which resulted into Ted's band first LP. It is not surprising that two of the fiddle tunes on the LP, Dusty Miller and Ryestraw, had been by Jerry Lundy from his grandfather, Emmett Lundy.