Mike Seeger is almost totally responsible for this excellent 38-tune anthology that is devoted to the auto-harp. In the history of recorded country music this instrument was rarely featured, but it was included in the works of a few important & influential old-time groups, especially the Carter Family and the Stoneman Family (it was also used to good effect by the Chumbler Family and Dykes' Magic City Trio --curiously all of the groups were from southwestern Virginia). The package that Seeger has assembled here (all of which he recorded himself back in the 1950s and early 60s) is devoted to just three artists: Kenneth & Neriah Benfield, the great Kilby Snow, and Ernest V. Stoneman, the same player who had recorded back in the 1920s. A very nice 32-page booklet is included here, with photos, notes on the tunes by the late Charles Wolfe, and an excellent discussion of the auto-harp's history by Seeger. There is over 70 minutes worth of music here, and no less than 14 of the tunes were never before issued. For anyone interested in this instrument, this is one of two essential keystone records --the other being the 3-CD "Autoharp Legacy" assembled by Ron Wall some years ago (see AUTOHARP LEGACY, CR-0236).
