Jack Bunch – Not A Flower on Dogwood Flats Album Review

Founded in 2010, the label’s mission statement affirms its aim “to document the current situation of wonderful community-based music in the United States.” This laudable goal is even more remarkable given that Dan and his label are Tokyo-based.

Legendary artists recorded by Dan include R.L. Boyce, Duwayne Burnside, Clyde Davenport, George Gibson, Jimmy ‘Duck’ Holmes, David Kimbrough Jr., Robert Kimbrough Sr., Lee Sexton, and Betty Smith. American choral music has also been a focus of interest, with Amish and Shaker music, Sacred Harp, Lined-out Hymns, and Ephrata Cloister Chorus recordings also having been made.

Two of the label’s highly-rated releases have also featured in KLOF, an album of spirituals from the Gee’s Bend Quilters, a review of which can be found here, and Just Behind the Creek: Field Recording at Kickin’ It On The Creek, reviewed here, both released in 2019.

For this latest release, the album captures the rich musical tradition of Laurel County, Kentucky, made famous through the legendary playing of the likes of Pete Steele, B.F. Shelton, Big Andy Whittaker and Henry Bunch, as performed by the late Jack Bunch, described by musical historian and banjo player  George Gibson as “the most talented multi-instrumentalist of his time in East Kentucky” and “the best all-around mountain musician I ever knew”.

Jack was a talented musician, born in urban Cincinnati in 1951 to parents whose family roots were in Laurel County. His father taught him banjo tunes when he was 10, and he played the guitar and fiddle by age 15. Jack’s uncle, Henry Bunch, was a well-respected banjo player in Laurel County, not only performing the tunes of Pete Steele, who lived in London, Laurel County, before moving to Hamilton, Ohio, where he was recorded by Alan Lomax in 1938. His own compositions were also held in high regard. When Henry also moved to Hamilton, Jack was taken by his father to learn banjo from him. Wishing to preserve his uncle’s distinctive music, Jack made some primitive recordings on a reel-to-reel machine, although it is believed that these recordings are not available commercially.

Jack returned to Laurel County, where he died in 2019, after having ensured that he had passed on his music to a new generation of younger musician friends in the area.

The 15 tracks on Not A Flower On Dogwood Tracks are stunning analog field recordings made by Don. They were taken from three sessions recorded in London, Kentucky, over three separate visits, using an iconic vintage Ampex 601 reel-to-reel tape recorder and RCA 77DX poly-directional ribbon microphone (the same equipment as utilised by Alan Lomax). The recordings capture every detail and nuance of the performances.

The first six tunes were recorded on August 13^th, 2017, and feature Jack playing solo on banjo. Jack pays homage to his Uncle Henry by reinterpreting two of the latter’s show-piece tunes. The first of these, Shortenin’ Bread, incorporates trademark string bends, and following a short, spoken introduction to the album’s title track, Not A Flower On Dogwood Flats, his playing merely underlines what a talented composer his uncle was.

Two traditional tunes follow, the classic Old Reuben and the fiddle tune Billy In The Lowground, guitar versions of which have been recorded by the likes of Doc Watson and Blair Dunlop, but here sounding uniquely different played on the banjo.

Jack’s own tune-writing skills are in evidence on the remaining two tracks from this session, the wistful Little Dog Branch, and, at 3 minutes, the longest tune in this section, his much more upbeat Cowboy Special, replete with humorous introductory anecdote.

There is a change of focus and emphasis on the three tracks taken from the March 3^rd 2018 session. Here, Jack plays fiddle, with Russ Childers picking up the banjo. On Sweeping the Town, a traditional Contra or Old-time reel, the duo trade licks and play off each other perfectly, as they do on Sadie At The Backdoor. Originally written by Seattle old-time musician Jere Canote as a banjo tune, Sadie was a cat whose habit was invariably to go out by the front door but only return through the back. The rendition offered here is four and a half minute’s worth of uplifting, joyous sound.  The third track gleaned from this long jam session sees the two joined by other local musicians, Lonnie Osborne, fiddle, Garrett Hedrick, mandolin and Jerry Chandler, guitar. Cherokee Shuffle, originally possibly an Irish hornpipe, also known as Lonesome Indian or Lost Indian, most usually played in bluegrass circles as a reel, is presented here as a frenetic double beat, and the sheer joy of the musicians over its five minutes is palpable.

The remaining six cuts, recorded on September 18, 2019, again feature Jack on banjo and have a rustic, homely feel. Recorded on the porch, careful listening will reveal the background chirping of crickets, friends chatting and Jack’s dog padding around.

The second, much longer, takes of Jack’s own Cowboy Special and Little Dog Branch seem to have much more immediacy and impact than the previous versions on the disc. This is perhaps due to the background chatting and chirping, as well as Jack’s spoken comments.

Each of the remaining tracks, all from the traditional canon, are absolute gems. Mississippi Sawyer, one of the great fiddle tunes of America, refers to a sawyer, a boatsman’s term for an uprooted tree torn from the banks during floods which would be partially anchored to the riverbed with the currents causing the trunk to bob up and down, often breaking the surface unexpectedly and present a real hazard to boats attempting to navigate. It has been suggested that the rocking motion of the fiddle bow required to play this tune replicated the bobbing along in a Mississippi river flood. (As an additional historical note, Mark Twain, in addition to being a writer, was also a licensed Mississippi riverboat pilot and would be aware of the potential dangers caused by sawyers, even using the term for the name of his literary hero Tom Sawyer)

Bonaparte’s Retreat, a title shared by many different but related songs and fiddle tunes, is given an airing here, and Jack’s interpretation, the American old-time version, is probably the most popular; it was the one played in Kentucky by William Hamilton Stepp and recorded in 1937 by Alan Lomax, which is in the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry.

There is no diminishment of the quality of Jack’s playing with the penultimate tune, Boyne Water. Originally an air commemorating the 1690 Battle Of The Boyne, it has been absorbed and often heard in American music circles as the tune to Barbara Allan. It has also recently been performed by Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves.

Once again, the chatter behind the tune, along with the anecdotal musings of Jack at the end of the track, create a homespun authenticity as the album closes with a rip-roaring version of Cumberland Gap, an Appalachian folk song, probably dating from the latter half of the 19^th Century, referring to a mountain pass at the juncture of the states of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. It received a new lease of life in the 1950s and has been a staple in the US folk and bluegrass circles ever since, and a skiffle version by Lonnie Donegan reached Number 1 in the UK charts in 1957.

Not A Flower On The Dogwood Flats is not only a fitting tribute to Jack Bunch and the enduring music of his Uncle Henry that he has so lovingly preserved, but it also serves to bring to a wider audience the raw, authentic sounds that have, for generations, reverberated around the Laurel County hills. As Jack’s bandmate of latter years, Garrett Hedrick, attests, “This album embodies everything Jack lived for – to tell stories and play traditional Kentucky music for those who wanted to listen.”

Not A Flower on Dogwood Flats: The Music of Jack Bunch & Laurel County (30th August 2024) Dolceola Recordings

Pre-Order via Bandcamp: https://dolceolarecordings.bandcamp.com/album/not-a-flower-on-dogwood-flats-the-music-of-jack-bunch-laurel-county