Old-Time: Martin and Johnson, "Birdie"

Old-Time | Martin and Johnson, "Birdie" ****

The early decades of the 1900s were the golden age of old-time music, spawning bands and recordings that laid the foundation for bluegrass and later forms of Southern song. While the acoustic simplicity of old-time music gave way to honky-tonk after World War II, younger generations have kept the music vibrant with a passion that would surely have pleased the pioneers.

"Birdie" (5-String Productions), the debut CD by Raleighites Wayne and Margaret Martin and Craig Johnson, is a brilliant update of the old Southern sound. Beautifully recorded and cleverly sequenced, the 16 tracks play like a diverse sampler of old-time music artfully performed by three modern masters. With varying combinations of fiddles, banjos, guitars and harmonicas, the trio entertains with ballads and blues, novelty tunes, instrumentals, and gospel devotionals.

The singers share lead and harmony vocals. Johnson's lonesome wail projects the haunting desolation of "K.C. Railroad Blues." Margaret Martin gives a sprightly lilt to Fields Ward's "Birdie." Wayne and Margaret conjure the ghosts of Binkley Brothers' Dixie Clodhoppers and other old-timers with their relaxed rendering of "Rise When the Rooster Crows." And the gospel trio, "Feed My Sheep," is as soulful and sanctified as any recorded by the trios of yore.

In the liner notes, the musicians pay homage to their sources, which include such old masters as A.C. Overton ("Wait Mr. Judge"), Lauchlin Shaw ("Fisher's Hornpipe"), and Clyde Davenport ("Going Across the Sea"). They draw from 78 RPM recordings for Charlie Poole's "When the Whippoorwill is Whispering Goodnight," Narmour and Smith's "Mississippi Breakdown," and Virginia's famous Stoneman Family ("There's a Light Lit Up in Galilee").

Jack Bernhardt