Jimmie Driftwood (the recording and performing name of Arkansas school teacher, folklorist, and multi-instrumentalist James Corbitt Morris) began writing songs as a way to help his students learn about American history, and by the time all was said and done, he had written or adapted and recomposed over 6,000 folk songs, and his catalog is as rich as any in Americana, perhaps surpassed only by Woody Guthrie.
UK twofer combines 'Sings American Folk Songs' & 'Hand-Clapping Songs' (both originally released in 1963), the country legends fifth & sixth albums for the Hickory label. Features 24 beautifully remastered tracks from original first-generation Hickory Records master tapes, making their CD debut. Includes 12-page booklet with extensive liner notes, photos & memorabilia. Two of Roy Acuff's 1963 albums, Sings American Folk Songs and Hand-Clapping Gospel Songs, are combined onto one disc on this CD reissue. Sings American Folk Songs was the third album that he recorded in the early '60s for his own Hickory label, and might be less essential than some of his other work from the era, simply because most of the songs are folk tunes rather than his own compositions. That doesn't automatically mean they're not of interest. But Acuff is simply a more distinctive talent when working with the country compositions of his own and others than he is as an interpreter of folk songs.