Ed Haley: Forked Deer (Rounder)
Compiled primarily from home recordings made in the mid-1940s, this double CD at times suffers from poor sound quality and surface noise, but the fiddling is first-rate. Haley, born in 1883 in Logan County, W.V., was an innovative and often unorthodox fiddler whose influence on old-time Appalachian music was enormous despite the fact that he never recorded commercially. (Blind since childhood, the musician reportedly feared that folklorists and record companies would take advantage of him because of his visual disability.) “Forked Deer” showcases Haley’s idiosyncratic timing and syncopation, fostered in large part by his technique of rocking the fiddle underneath the bow as he played. This collection of three dozen mostly traditional tunes, including jigs, reels and ballads such as “Stacker Lee” and “Man of Constant Sorrow” is the first double-CD set of Haley’s recordings Rounder plans to release. A second, “Grey Eagle,” is due out in 1998.
