For the Clover Valley Boys, rooting around in country music’s past has never been an exercise in preservation or imitation. The New Orleans trio has forged its authenticity busking on Crescent City streets, where old-time Appalachian music, classic C&W and archival obscurities served as the raw material for their lived-in sound. Their version of the Carter Family’s “Pretty Raindrops” was inspired by a January 1952 recording session for a Kentucky radio station.
“Sara and A.P. were joined by their daughter Janette and son Joe on this track, on which they both play guitar and sing,” says the Clover Valley Boys’ Coleman Akin. “By the time they returned to make these recordings, Sara and A.P. had been divorced for more than a decade, giving this song a different context.”
For Akin, the Carter Family connection is also geographical. He grew up in Johnson City, Tenn., less than 50 miles from the Carter homestead in Maces Spring, Va. Fellow Clover City Boys George Aschmann and Mo Kinney have also spent significant time in the Appalachian foothills region. Available August 21 via Jalopy, the trio’s self-titled debut follows a well-received appearance at last fall’s Brooklyn Folk Festival. Album highlights include the Rouse Brothers’ “Bum Bum Blues,” Jimmie Rodgers’ “Treasures Untold” and the Delmore Brothers’ “In The Blue Hills Of Virginia.”
And, of course, there’s the Carter Family track, with Akin and Aschmann settling into an earthy low/high vocal groove that makes this update sound both intimately connected to its source and entirely here in the present.
“The music of the Carters is still alive and well, and we hope to honor them with this record,” Akin says.
We’re proud to premiere the Clover Valley Boys’ “Pretty Raindrops.”
—Hobart Rowland
See the Clover Valley Boys live.