Two historic recordings of Darkey's Dream

[Jody Stecher]

I've posted two recordings of Darkey's Dream. John Pidoux excels in the slow section, the fast part is played well but the accompanist is dragging and has no sense of time. The fast section by Ossman has better support. The recording is pretty noisy though. Being able to share audio recordings is a benefit of the audio player feature of the $500 version of the ning package.

[Carl Anderton]

Thanks for sharing that Jody. I was afraid that hearing these would make me regret my recording of it, but aside from not playing the intro at the proper slow speed, there's not much I would change. I mean, I couldn't touch the Vess Ossman stuff with a 100-foot pole, and the John Pidoux version is pretty straight-ahead and not, I flatter myself, too unlike what I did.

I'm glad we have this new capability of audio recordings, and I hope people put up more like this.

[Jody Stecher]

I thought your rendition was very musical and spirited, and cleanly rendered as well. I put up these two recordings because they support all the points of view that have been presented. And of course they are interesting and enjoyable.

[Trapdoor2]

Wow, that Pidoux version is almost unlistenable (Pidoux was a great player). Sounds like me trying to back him on piano...and after several healthy doses of Gin. ;-)

This was a very popular piece at the time, recorded by lots of folks...and is probably the one piece of vintage banjo sheet music that I have seen most often. I've been listening to one of those "Phil's Junk Shop" CDs lately that has both "Darkies Dream" and "Darkies Awakening" on a single cut...they sound good together.