The Volo Bogtrotters is an old time string band based in the Chicago area.   I have their three cassettes on Marimac which are the source for most of this double CD, Hell Broke Loose in Volo; there are a few previously unreleased cuts, too, and a few tunes not included, such as Steve Rosen’s “Nail That Catfish to the Tree,” which was on the first cassette.

I’m pretty sure that I first encountered Chirps Smith and perhaps Jim Nelson, whose Vigortone label released this recording, on the bgrass-l discussion group in the early 1990s. Both were also active on the old-time newsgroup I started in those days: rec.music.country.old-time. It still exists on Google groups, though it is not very active. The bgrass-l group, founded by Frank Godbey of Lexington, Kentucky out of an IBMA meeting, still exists, too. I was member number 12. There was quite a bit of old-time music discussion there at the beginning.

I’ve had numerous interactions with the folks in the band over the years and  reviewed the first Volos CD, issued by Marimac, for Bluegrass Unlimited.  At the Folk Alliance Conference in Cleveland, OH, Chirps and Paul Tyler, who replaced Jim Nelson on guitar, were jamming with the late Michigan fiddler Les Raber and invited me to join them on banjo. Les played very crooked tunes, and my sleep-deprived brain struggled to chase them. Chirps and I, along with DJ John Lupton,  developed a database of old-time recordings, which kept us busy for a few years until we gave up because of the exponential growth in the number of CDs of old-time music.

This recording includes a generous 52 tracks; there are two medleys so there are 54 tunes and songs. Members of the band and their friend, Garry Harrison, were active in collecting tunes from older fiddlers in Illinois, and that collecting was an important source for the tunes they played. They also have a love for silly songs from the early era of commercial recordings, and there are some of those here. Click here to buy the collection, either as CDs or digital downloads. There are extensive liner notes that come with the collection.

Disc 1 opens with a driving version of “Money Creek,” written by Fred and named for a creek in Bloomington, Illinois. . Some of the tunes, such as “Cotton Eye Joe” and “Salty Dog” have no single source. “Riley the Furniture Man” is a song of African-American origin recorded by the Georgia Crackers. “Johnson Gals” is from the  Leake County Revelers of Mississippi. “Cuttin’ at the Point” is from Kentucky’s Charlie Wilson and his Hayloft Boys. They got “Bully of the Town” from Howard, Fine, and Howard. “How Long” is from the Cofer Brothers, who also recorded as the Georgia Crackers. “Litchfield” is from southern Illinois. In the first medley, “How Long Oh My Darling” is from Mike Seeger who got it from Thaddeus C. Willingham of Gulfport, Mississippi, and “Grey Eagle” comes via Mark Gunther. “Fancy Creek” is another tune by Fred; this creek runs north of Springfield, Illinois. “Creal Springs Breakdown” was collected by the late Garry Harrison. “San Antonio” is from Charlie Poole. This previously unreleased version of “Cumberland Gap” is from Harvey “Pappy” Taylor. “Backside of Buncombe” was written by Chirps; the name comes from a time when he and Jim were driving through Buncombe, Illinois. “Hell Bound Train” is from Frank Hutchinson and Sherman Lawson. “Don’t Mind the Weather When the Wind Don’t Blow” was collected by Garry Harrison from Howard Sims, near Springfield, Illinois. “Walk Old Shoe, Heel Come A-Draggin” was collected from Pauline McGinnis from the town of Crossroads in Johnson County. Pauline played the fiddle, but she played this one on piano. “Bloody War” is from Rutherford and Foster. Another previously unreleased tune, “Weller’s Reel,” is from Lotus Dickey. “I Lost My Gal (New Cut Road)” was recorded in 1929 by Earl Johnson and His Dixie Entertainers. “Duncan and Brady” is from Paul Clayton. “Dickey’s Discovery” is a tune that popped into the head of Indiana fiddler Lotus Dickey, who could not recall its name. Pete Sutherland came up with this title. “Work Don’t Bother Me,” the Volo theme song, is from Gid Tanner, Melvin Dupree, and Fate Norris (1930). “Illinois Rickett’s Hornpipe” is from Dick Reid of Clayville, Illinois.

Disc 2 opens with “Tell It to Me” from the Tenneva Ramblers (the band Jimmie Rodgers left the night before the famous Bristol sessions). “Remus” is another tune by Fred. “The Old Ark’s A-Moving” is from Seven-Foot Dilly (he was actually 6 foot 7 inches and liked to talk during fiddle tunes) and A. A. Gray. “Old Mother Flanagan,” the third unreleased tune, is from Pappy Taylor and is also known as “The Route” or “Jenny on the Railroad.” The second medley features “Home, Happy Home” which was collected by Garry Harrison and “Coal Harbor Bend,” collected in Kentucky by Bruce Greene. “McDonald’s Farm” is from Caplinger’s Cumberland Mountain Entertainers (1928). “Paddy on the Pike” is from Wilson Douglas of Clay County, West Virginia. “Otto Wood the Bandit” is from the Carolina Buddies (1931). “Little Princess Footsteps” is a C tune from the Newton County Hillbillies. “Tough Luck,” the title cut from the third cassette, is from Tom Ashley and Doc Watson. “Seven and a Half” was recorded in 1936 by J. E. Mainer’s Mountaineers. “When I Had But Fifty Cents” is from the Binkley Brothers Dixie Clodhoppers. “Bye Bye My Honey, I’m Gone” was played by Lotus Dickey but also recorded by the Pickard Family. “He’s a Beaut” is from Earl Johnson. “Hell Broke Loose in Georgia” is a Skilletlickers tune. “Elkhorn Ridge” is from West Virginia banjo player, Oscar Wright. “Hog Skin” is from Earl White. “Croquet Habit” is from Freeny’s Barn Dance Band (Mississippi) but was called “Cocaine Habit” by the Memphis Jug Band. “I’m Nine Hundred Miles from Home” is mainly from the 1924 recording by Fiddlin’ John Carson with touches of Grayson and Whitter’s “Train 45” and Tommy Jarrell’s “Reuben.” “Georgia Hobo” is also from the Cofer Brothers. “Fine Times at Our House” comes from West Virginia fiddler Edden Hammons. “Going Across the Sea” mainly comes from Art Rosenbaum with a verse added from Frank Blevins and his Tar Heel Rattlers “Don’t Get Trouble in Mind.” “White River Stomp” is from Jack Cawley’s Oklahoma Ridge Runners. “Quit That Ticklin’ Me” is another from Fiddlin’ John Carson and his Virginia Reelers. “Arrington’s Breakdown” was learned from North Carolina fiddler Clyde Williams, who probably heard it played by Charlie Arrington of Paul Warmack’s Gully Jumpers on the Grand Ol’ Opry.

The Volos were a happy and exciting band, and this collection demonstrates that well.