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The Home Tapes (Vol​.​1)

by Chris Turpin

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1.
Grey Eagle 01:55
2.
Cacklin Hen 04:00
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9.
Miss Brown 02:21
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11.
12.
Sally Brown 03:01
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14.
15.
Little Sadie 02:44

about

This album is the beginning of something I always hoped to accomplish: to edify and collect all of the possible music of the area my ancestors and I come from. Because I'm a bit hard on myself, I imagine I won't ever fully accomplish this task, but enjoy the constant adventure that lies in the pursuit of it. Towns County, Georgia isn't close to any place. Two hours from Atlanta, Chattanooga, and Asheville, it remains a secret regional treasure, both geographically and culturally to those who have experienced it. Having made up my mind at a young age to learn all that I could about our music, I've spent most of my life collecting, archiving and writing about the characters, scenes, and culture of this beautiful place. This album is the beginning of two decades of work and research.
To my mind, field recordings were always the most natural way to listen to and learn this music; I always appreciated the relaxed and unaffected nature of them, full of mistakes, laughter, and stories. From my college and early adult years spent in the Asheville area, I always shied away from the refined, polished studio music that was so abundant in the music stores and merch tables of shows and festivals. I wanted to relive the barn parties, kitchen jams, and living room gatherings of my childhood where the masters of their craft worked their magic. I wondered if other people felt the same way . . .
After twenty years of residential and commercial construction work, I feared that I might be losing the use of my hands and worried that playing music might not be an option any more. I immediately decided, with encouragement from my friend Joseph Decosimo, to start recording whatever it was I wanted to archive. With the Covid-19 pandemic on the rise, I spent my evenings at home recording one or two tunes into my paw-paw's old GE tape recorder when my hands felt up to the task, saving my music for whatever generation-to-come would want it, but mainly for my family. My friends Conner Vlietstra and Trevor Holder visited a few times and contributed accompaniment to some of the tunes, as well. When I found out that my friend Nokosee Fields was recording on cassette tape and digitizing the tunes to share, he inspired and gave me the confidence I needed to finally do it.
In closing, I would like to thank God for letting me keep my hands long enough to get this far, to Nokosee, Joseph, Conner, Travis Stuart, Rob Fong, Jerry Taylor, Tommy Flanagan, all the haters out there, my ghosts: Uncle Joe Swanson, Ross Brown, Lawrence, Vaughn, and Laethe Eller, Zip Silvey, Jessie Gibson, Ralph Noblett, Arthur Young, Marcus Martin, John and Manco Sneed, Ernest and Osey Helton, Fiddlin' Bill Hensley, and last but not least my loving family, without who none of this life would have been possible.

credits

released January 15, 2021

All solo instruments played by Chris Turpin. Accompaniment played by Conner Vlietstra (banjo) and Trevor Holder (guitar).

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Chris Turpin Rising Fawn, Georgia

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