High Lonesome Sound
With a voice that could crack the same cement he worked all his adult life, Roscoe Holcomb, along with Dock Boggs, Wade Ward, and Banjo Bill Cornett, was one of the most searing singers and pickers of the Appalachian banjo style.  He performed mostly in Holiness Church services and impromptu square dances, and his style was never polished by an extensive professional career. His banjo playing is distinguished by speedy, irregular meter, and seems to mimic his vocal approach (or vice versa). First released in 1965, this John Cohen edited collection includes the well-known traditional cuts "Moonshiner" and "House of the Rising Sun," and is fleshed out by the guitar playing of Mike Seeger. --Roy Francis Kasten