Ray Alden - Songcatcher

This Saturday night, March 12, 2011, at 7:30 pm The Homegrown String Band will be returning to the Croton Free Library in Croton-on-Hudson, NY. The last time we played there, in 2007, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Ray Alden. After I played "When the Apples Bloom in NY," a song I wrote that mentions old-time fiddler Tommy Jarrell, I made an announcement that I would give a free CD to anyone who knew who Tommy Jarrell was. Little did I know that Ray was in the audience. Of course Ray knew exactly who Tommy was. Not only did he know who he was, he had known Tommy personally. Ray Alden, a great old-time musician in his own right, had spent a lot of time visiting, recording, and photographing Tommy and many other old-time music legends. After the show Ray introduced himself and we had a long talk about banjos and old-timey music. I gave Ray a copy of our "Ragged but Right" CD and let him know what a pleasure it was to meet the man who had recorded one of my all time favorite albums: "Tommy and Fred," banjo/fiddle duets by Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham. A few days later I received a package in the mail with an 8X10 copy of a B&W photo of Tommy and Fred standing on Tommy's porch, along with a CD of his old-time band The Southern Schoolhouse Rascals. We were sad to hear in the late fall of 2009 that Ray had passed on in September. Though Ray is gone he has left an indelible mark on the old-time music community, with his stellar banjo playing and also by making his great field recordings available to the public through his Field Recorders' Collective. Ray started the collective in 2004; since then they have released dozens of priceless recordings of traditional American musicians that will go a long way toward keeping the music we love so much alive. Thanks Ray.

Ray Alden

July 2, 1942 − September 19, 2009