Kentuckian Frank "Hylo" Brown was a well-traveled singer who performed both in a Bluegrass and a country setting. His best work was done for the Capitol label, most of it with full Bluegrass backing: the nine sessions presented here (his complete Capitol works) featured such noted musicians as Red Rector (mand.), Jim Smoak and Joe Drumright (banjo) and Tater Tate, Tommy Jackson, and Dale Potter (fiddle). A young Norman Blake is heard on dobro in a 1960 session and Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs (!) both sing on Brown's STONE WALL. Apart from a number of good singles that Hylo made such as PRISONER'S SONG, LOST TO A STRANGER, LOVESICK & SORROW, JOHN HENRY, & IN THE CLAY BENEATH THE TOMB, Hylo Brown cut one beautiful album (with Red Rector, Tater Tate, & Jim Smoak) that was one of the very first Bluegrass LPs, and certainly one of the best. A very influential album, it included gems like LOVE & WEALTH, GATHERING FLOWERS FROM THE HILLSIDE, BLUE EYED DARLING, LITTLE JOE, DARLING NELLIE ACROSS THE SEA and THE OLD HOME TOWN. This is a very worthwhile & enjoyable tribute to one of the peripheral but important journeymen figures of early Bluegrass music.
