GASTONIA GALLOP
Cotton Mill Songs & Hillbilly Blues
Piedmont Textile Workers on Record
Gaston County, North Carolina  1927 - 1931
OLD HAT CD 1007 

Gastonia Gallop provides a vivid portrait of the evolving music traditions heard in the mill villages of Gaston County, North Carolina, during a period of swift social and cultural change. Amid this emerging modern world, with its factory whistles, clattering machines, and low-wage labor, local textile workers created a vibrant working-class music that provided the foundations for today’s country music. Here are 24 tracks celebrating these largely unsung musicians and the enduring musical artistry they inscribed in wax for phonograph companies between 1927 and 1931. You’ll hear David McCarn’s biting satires of cotton mill life, the virtuoso harmonica-and-guitar duets of Gwin Foster and Dave Fletcher; the upbeat novelties of the Three ’Baccer Tags, the heartfelt ballads of Wilmer Watts & The Lonely Eagles, and more. Gastonia Gallop has been carefully crafted by Old Hat’s team of experts, and all tracks are digitally remastered from original 78 rpm records. The handsomely designed CD package includes a 24-page, full-color booklet with rare vintage photographs, complete discography, and a detailed historical essay by Patrick Huber, author of Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South.

“Here are musicians who mastered instruments like the harmonica and banjo and took them to heights of virtuosity. Cotton mill life was no picnic, so many of the songs from this era speak of hard work, unfair treatment and poverty. Having grown up in Gastonia and having many relatives who worked in the mills, I feel a unique connection to the voice and spirit of this music.”
         — Justin Robinson, Carolina Chocolate Drops

“The massive brick hulks of many of the old textile mills now stand silent, boarded up and abandoned, but echoes of the distinctive hillbilly music that millhands in Gaston County and all across the Piedmont South forged on radio and records during the 1920s and 1930s continue to reverberate throughout the United States and, indeed, the world."
        — Patrick Huber, author, Linthead Stomp, The Creation of Country Music
             in the Piedmont South

SONG LIST AND SOUND SAMPLES
1. GASTONIA GALLOP David McCarn	LISTEN	LISTEN
2. GET YOUR HEAD IN HERE Three 'Baccer Tags	LISTEN	LISTEN
3. GAL OF MINE TOOK MY LICKER FROM ME Carolina Twins	LISTEN	LISTEN
4. COTTON MILL COLIC David McCarn   HEAR THE COMPLETE SONG!	LISTEN	LISTEN
5. BEEN ON THE JOB TOO LONG Wilmer Watts & The Lonely Eagles   HEAR THE COMPLETE SONG!	LISTEN	LISTEN
6. SOUTHERN JACK Carolina Twins	LISTEN	LISTEN
7. EVERYDAY DIRT David McCarn	LISTEN	LISTEN
8. BONNIE BESS Wilmer Watts & The Lonely Eagles	LISTEN	LISTEN
9. THINK A LITTLE George Wade & Francum Braswell	LISTEN	LISTEN
10. BAY RUM BLUES Dave & Howard	LISTEN	LISTEN
11. WALK RIGHT IN BELMONT Watts & Wilson	LISTEN	LISTEN
12. RED ROSE RAG Fletcher & Foster	LISTEN	LISTEN
13. POOR MAN, RICH MAN (Cotton Mill Colic No. 2) David McCarn	LISTEN	LISTEN
14. SHE'S A HARD BOILED ROSE Wilmer Watts & The Lonely Eagles	LISTEN	LISTEN
15. I WANT MY BLACK BABY BACK Carolina Twins	LISTEN	LISTEN
16. AIN'T GONNA DO IT NO MORE Three 'Baccer Tags	LISTEN	LISTEN
17. SLEEPY DESERT Wilmer Watts & The Lonely Eagles	LISTEN	LISTEN
18. TAKE THEM FOR A RIDE David McCarn	LISTEN	LISTEN
19. CHARLOTTE HOT STEP Fletcher & Foster	LISTEN	LISTEN
20. COTTON MILL BLUES Wilmer Watts & The Lonely Eagles	LISTEN	LISTEN
21. WHEN YOU GO A COURTIN' George Wade & Francum Brasswell	LISTEN	LISTEN
22. A CHANGE IN BUSINESS ALL AROUND Carolina Twins	LISTEN	LISTEN
23. WORKING FOR MY SALLY Wilmer Watts & The Lonely Eagles	LISTEN	LISTEN
24. SERVES 'EM FINE Dave & Howard	LISTEN	LISTEN