Artist: Ed Young & Hobart Smith

The fife isn't exactly the most noble of instruments. It's used by Orangemen on their annual anti-Catholic marches and by American military enthusiasts and re-enacters. It's an instrument for people who like following orders, a shrill little flute whose principle merit is that it can fit in a pocket. Bizarrely, it also has a double life as the lead instrument in a particular blues tradition of the American south. One of its few practitioners was Ed Young, who is recorded here with the Appalachian banjo player Hobart Smith. This version of the blues tune [...]

• Ed Young & Hobart Smith - Joe Turner