Walker's Corbin Ramblers

If the name Walker's Corbin Ramblers sounds more like some kind of a country militia than an old-time music string band, it can hardly be blamed on the plural noun "ramblers," which is of such common currency as a band name in the Appalachian scene that it is hardly like having a name at all. It always requires some kind of identifying city or county name to come before it. In this case it is Corbin, as in Corbin, KY, a tiny town that looms large in old-time music history. Consider that as far back as 1927, a well-known barber from the town named Frank Shelton stopped trimming hair long enough to cut two of them new fangled records, none other than the tunes "Pretty Polly" and "Darlin Cory." Old-time music preachers have decreed that these recordings represent something along the lines of the old-time music Dead Sea Scrolls; at the very least they establish that if the town of Corbin was about anything, it was old-time music. Shuffling back to the very start of the band name we have Walker, as in John Walker, who apparently had every right to use the possessive for Corbin as well as the "ramblers"; he was the mayor of Corbin as well as the leader of the Walker's Corbin Ramblers band, making him perhaps the most powerful elected government official in the history of Appalachian music, that is until Ralph Stanley gets elected president. He is also of no relation to John Walker Lindh, the bizarre "American Taliban." Speaking of power, the recording made by this group during the so-called golden age of recording, when traditional styles were at their most intense power and emotion, represents some of the best acoustic string music to have come out of the mountains. Walker's Corbin Ramblers is also considered one of the finest bands of the '20s and '30s, in any style. Some of the popularity might be attributed to the leader's position in the community; after all, when the mayor comes around to remind you of an upcoming gig and suggests you stop by, it is a harder command to ignore than an invitation from just a typical musical shreeve. The group's most famous member, who achieved much more in music than his sidekick Walker did in politics, was Larry Hensley, who played mandolin and guitar in several different groups and did some recording on his own. A great deal of detail about Hensley came forward when longtime mountain record collector Ed Ward became involved in organizing a traveling exhibition entitled "The Awfulest Gang of Records You've Ever Seen: Ed Ward and the Golden Era in Country Music," produced by the spring 2000 American Music program at Southeast Community College. Hensley, who came from Monarck, VA, was one of Ward's all-time favorite local musicians as well as a close personal friend. Hensley joined Walker's band in 1933 following several years of working with the band the Yellow Jackets, an old-time string band and not an early version of the jazz fusion band of the same name. Others in Walker's Corbin Ramblers included the leader's brother Albert Walker, and the mandolinist Mack Taylor, who later wrote some numbers recorded by Western swing bands, played some of the style himself, and was eventually reported to be living in Aliquippa, PA, a name that sounds like it was made up by W.C. Fields on a vodka binge. Walker's Corbin Ramblers cut sides for Vocalion in 1934, all of which are quite marvelous. Often discussed by musicologists is the epic "E Rag," which supposedly mystifies some listeners by appearing to be in the key of B. Differences between lathes and master speeds over the years no doubt account for this, despite claims on some reissues that these "classics have been painstakingly remastered from ultra-rare original recordings using state-of-the-art digital techniques." Some folks would be happy just to have the original scratched up records. As for Ward, he still isn't satisfied. He gets the final word, when asked if he has "ever heard anybody that has those four Walker's Corbin Ramblers unissued sides?" Ward says, "No I wished I did, I'd give anything if I did." ~ Eugene Chadbourne