The Red Fox Chasers

I'm Going Down to North Carolina: The Complete Recordings of The Red Fox Chasers [1928-31]

(Tompkins Square)

Record Review by Adam McKibbin

When listening to contemporary bands that take musical inspiration wholly from bygone eras or far-off cultures, there’s almost always an air of artifice or play-acting.  That’s not to say that the songs can’t be great or that the passion is a pose, but the music just isn’t in their blood the same way.  When O Brother, Where Art Thou? helped ignite a resurgence of bluegrass and old-timey string music in the mainstream, a good number of the acts felt no more “real” than The Soggy Bottom Boys.  Suffice to say that there are a lot of folks singing about moonshine who wouldn’t know the taste.

The Red Fox Chasers were the real deal.  Take fiddler Guy Brooks, my hero of the day.  As Kinney Rorrer’s liner notes point out, Brooks entered 56 fiddling contests in his day – and won 54.  He was a Baptist preacher, but when his band fell in love with bootlegging songs and skits, he borrowed a gospel melody for a song about whisky.  This got him kicked him out of his own church.  With his extra free time, he presumably engaged in one of favorite pastimes:  actually hunting red foxes.  Yes, rather than being creatively kitschy, the name “Red Fox Chasers” was actually boringly literal.

I’m Going Down to North Carolina is anything but boring.  Presenting 40 tracks over two discs, it is a lot of old-time Appalachia for the average listener to digest.  But while there is some overlap between track – pretty much inevitable when dealing with the Complete Recordings of anyone – there’s also a good deal of variety on display.  There are traditional minstrel tunes, Tin Pan Alley sing-alongs, morbid murder ballads and playful love songs.  Heck, decades and decades before the ascension of hip-hop, there are even skits!  (And, like most would-be comedians of rap, The Red Fox Chasers weren’t very funny, either.)

The highlights are numerous; listeners looking to dip a toe into the 40 tracks would be advised to start with “Honeysuckle Time,” “Katy Cline” or either of the disc’s opening fiddle tracks, “Arkansas Traveler” and “Turkey in the Straw.”