Biography
During the Great Depression Preston Young belonged to a circle of recording musicians who earned scant financial return from their discs and consequently remained far less celebrated than certain numbers they preserved, among them “Rollin’ in My Sweet Baby’s Arms.” He first absorbed music from his banjo-playing father and, while still a boy, carved rudimentary replicas of the instrument with a pocketknife. As a teenager he acquired the autoharp from his uncle Walter Spencer; soon afterward he took up guitar and encountered the veteran musician Charlie Poole, whose counsel prompted Young to resume playing banjo. Following that advice, Young organized a trio that included banjoist Buster Carter and fiddler Posey Rorer. In July 1931 the group journeyed to New York and cut ten titles for Columbia, several of which stayed unissued. A few days later they attempted to duplicate much of the same material for Victor but were refused. The ensemble worked in the idiom they had absorbed from Poole, who died only weeks before the sessions took place. “Rollin’ in My Sweet Baby’s Arms,” which Young remembered having heard “somewhere or other,” received enough additional verses from him that he regarded it as his own at the time of recording. Their treatment of the piece anticipated the vocal and instrumental approach that would later define bluegrass, with instruments remaining subdued behind the singing and then erupting into overlapping variations during the instrumental breaks. Other memorable sides by the trio include the comic dialogue song “It Won't Hurt No More,” whose scenario involves a dentist and his patient. Certain of their recordings later appeared on Folkways anthologies and were revived by groups such as the New Lost City Ramblers. Although Poole had urged Young toward the banjo, he occasionally played guitar in the ensemble, believing Carter the stronger banjoist. Contemporary listeners admired Young chiefly for his singing, whether of grave or humorous material. After 1931 the meager income from music caused him to lose interest, yet he continued to play informally with Odell Smith and Edgar Rogers, another multi-instrumentalist equally at home on banjo, fiddle, and guitar. Together the three formed the Midnight Ramblers, performing chiefly in the North Carolina towns of High Point and Greensboro. Young secured steady work as a sheet-metal fabricator while still managing an early-morning radio program sponsored by the Dr Pepper company. By then he had disposed of his own instruments and had to borrow equipment for the broadcasts; injuries sustained on the job further limited his hands, leading to his total withdrawal from music. In a 1971 interview with Tony Russell for Old Time Music he observed, “You've got to either make music or work...you can't do both.” He spent his remaining years in quiet retirement, his neighbors unaware that the first recorder of one of bluegrass’s most enduring standards lived nearby.
Singles
