Fiddler Taylor Kimble (1892-1979) raised two children who are recorded here with his first wife and then remarried at 76, to banjo player Stella Wagoner, also heard here. Ray Alden began recording them in 1972. This release is derived from a double cassette Ray released from those tapes. The set contains far more singing than the other two sets but is more important is what it tells us about the roles of family, place, and time in traditional music. For example, we find the Oak Ridge Boys' hit "The Baptism of Jesse Taylor" and "Silver Threads and Golden Needles" from Wanda Jackson and Linda Ronstadt in among "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" and "Georgia Buck." Other titles have morphed such as "Duncan and Brady" becoming "Brady Why Didn't You Run" and taking on some aspects of "Otto Wood the Bandit."
Marcus Taylor Kimble (1892-1979) was a unique fiddler who, with his first wife Jumille (1894-1966), had four musical children, two of whom (Doris and Ivery) appear on this recording. Taylor married banjo player Stella Wagoner in 1968; three years later Dave Spilkia and I met and spent many subsequent years visiting this wonderful couple in Laurel Fork, Virginia. Stella's family, the Wagoners, were also musical and, with her younger sister Pearl Wagoner Richardson (born 1896), they perform some songs they learned as youngsters.
