Walt Davis

Walt Davis and Jay C McCool: Sharp had visited the area around the town of Black Mountain, just outside Asheville in 1916 and I was interested to see what sort of music could be found there.  In fact, most of the older musicians had been involved in making records in the 1930s and ‘40s and had forsaken the ballads and ‘love-songs’ in favour of a more modern ‘old-timey’ type of music.  Walt Davis had made records for ARC in 1931 and during the 1940s and 50s was an active radio performer, often in company with his neighbour Jay C McCool.  (There is a splendid 1949 photograph of them both in the Winter, 1971, issue of the John Edward’s Memorial Foundation Quarterly).

Part of the booklet notes, written by Mike Yates, to the Musical Traditions Records CDs Far in the Mountains (MTCD321-4)