Excerpt: On July 21, 1956, Pasadena, California-based scholar Joseph Sargent Hall visited the Williams house in Haywood County, North Carolina’s Upper White Oak community, located just outside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park boundary, to make some documentary field recordings of local music.

Excerpt: In an interview published in the February 1992 issue of The Banjo Newsletter and conducted by bluegrass historian Neil Rosenberg and banjo player and instruction book author Tony Trischka, Carroll Best conveyed the depth of his connections to the instrument he had mastered: “When I was old enough to pick up a banjo I wanted to play.”

[Compilation CD featuring 1950s-era field recordings] Recently recovered recordings of Haywood County, N.C., musicians made nearly 60 years ago – which an Appalachian music expert describes as “the missing link between old-time string music and bluegrass” – are once again seeing the light of day and finding a new audience thanks to Great Smoky Mountains Association. Four years after the release of their Grammy-nominated “Old-Time Smoky Mountain Music,” GSMA producers follow up now with “Carroll Best and the White Oak String Band: Old-time Bluegrass from the Great Smoky Mountains, 1956 and 1959.” The new collection features more than 30 tracks, including such old-time favorites as “Tennessee Wagoner,” “Arkansas Traveler,” “Old Joe Clark,” “Soldier’s Joy,” as well as such modern tunes as “Banjo Boogie” and “Smoky Mountain Melody.” / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1169/thumbnail.jpg