Album Review: Ozark Highballers – “Going Down to ‘Leven Point” – Jalopy Records

It’s said everything makes a comeback, and that is especially true when you’re talking about music. The average gap for a stylistic turnaround tends to be a couple of decades, e.g. ‘60s garage rock influencing many artists the late ‘80s/early ‘90s. And of course, there’s music that seems to just stick around regardless. Beethoven anyone?

In recent years, it’s been the turn of more traditional forms of music to quietly make a comeback. This is not music from the ‘60s, ‘70s or ‘80s but from the early part of the 20th century – old-time Americana with fiddles, banjos, harmonicas, parlor guitars and of course voice. Music of the everyday people of the time, stories and songs unique to their geographical location.

The Jalopy Records label has been part of this revival for a number of years, nurturing, teaching, showcasing and releasing traditional folk music in conjunction with its performance venue, the Jalopy Theatre. This includes the new album from the Ozark Highballers, “Going Down to ‘Leven Point,” whose release coincides with the annual Brooklyn Folk Festival (April 5th through 7th).

Hailing from the Ozark Mountains in western Arkansas, the Ozark Highballers are a four-piece, multi-generational “old-time” string band. Made up of Roy Pilgrim (fiddle, vocals), Aviva Steigmeyer (guitar, vocals), Clarke Buehling (banjo) and Seth Shumate (harmonica, vocals) the Highballers make a concerted effort to honor the methodology and traditions of the music’s origins. For this album Pete Howard also lends additional fiddle on several tracks.

As the band’s bio explains: “Old-time is the music of square dances and school houses, church picnics and farm potlucks. It is the music heard on front porches while your hands are busy threshing beans or shelling corn. It is the music of the country, before country music was commercial… We are passionate about playing an Ozark music repertoire not just because it’s a local tradition that deserves to be carried on, but also because it’s a vibrant part of an ever-growing community in the Ozarks. Our rich tradition of music goes far beyond the “hillbilly” stereotypes and cultural tourism that often mask our region.”

And passionate they are. “Going Down to ‘Leven Point” contains no less than 22 songs and comes with extensive liner notes and historical photos about the region where the music was born. Over the last several years the Highballers (a name for a fast type of freight train) have researched the music of old-time Ozark string bands via university archives, dusty 78rpm records and of course the old-timers themselves who have passed down the tunes to each generation. The album proves to be both entertainment and an educational experience.

Recorded in Arkansas and mixed at an old farmhouse in Virginia, the album captures the live energy of this traditional music as it would have sounded back in the day with the benefits of modern technology, but without sacrificing authenticity. It seems that most of the songs covered here come from the 1920s, although many were not originally recorded until the 1950s or later, instead being passed along by word-of-mouth. Gunfights, picking corn, poor lost children and the plight of being a “single lady” all figure lyrically via raucous jigs, waltzes and ballads. The album is split between instrumentals and some great lead vocal cuts shared by Roy Pilgrim and Aviva Steigmeyer.

“Going Down to ‘Leven Point” is a fine and important release for old-time music and worth checking out for your next porch session. Maybe just don’t call it a comeback!