Hartford & Hartford is a 1991 album by Grammy Award winning composer, fiddle, and banjo player John Hartford and his son, mandolin player, Jamie Hartford.
From my reading online folk, country, and bluegrass musician John Hartford had a major influential on contemporary roots music before and after his death in 2001. Among the musicians he inspired his was his son Jamie Hartford. What little I could find online suggests that while Jamie has gone on to emulate his father in musicianship they do have some distinctive differences in style. It seems both have significant music catalogues I'll need to dive into.
This album features three songs composed by Jamie and one by John as well as covers of "When the Roses Bloom in Dixieland" A. P. Carter, "Love Grown Cold" by Johnny Bond, "Run Little Rabbit" by David Akeman and "Killing Floor" by Howlin' Wolf. There is also an arrangement by John of the traditional "Sweet Sunny South".
Highlights include the irreverent "She's Still Gonna Break Your Heart" by Jamie Hartford complete with the lines:
It's a dangerous world we live in, So you'd better keep up your guard. You can have all the safe sex you want to, But she's still gonna break your heart.Musically the stand out is "Painful Memories" also by Jamie and "New Love" by John.
My ear is perhaps not as finely tunes as others to picking out (no pun intended) the quality of the musicianship on banjo and mandolin from one album to the next but this seems very fine to me. While I generally favour the bluegrass over the countryesque tunes there is nothing on this album I feel compelled to skip.
It seems the album is not available on Spoitify but is in the iTunes store so get it there or hope you get lucky like me at your local thrift shop.
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