Album Notes

"Three Forks of Ivy" is a collection of twenty-two banjo solos by Steve Harvey, a regular columnist for Banjo Newsletter. On this CD, as in his articles, Harvey is interested in opening up new possibilities for the solo player, but not at the expense of the old clawhammer sound.
Half of the songs come from the traditional mountain repertoire, songs such as “Liza Jane,” “Mulberry Gap,” and “Shaking Down the Acorns” to name a few . Harvey lives in the Georgia mountains at the southern tip of the Appalachian chain and knows this world. He has written about the area in his books, particularly in "Bound for Shady Grove," a collection of personal essays about his experience learning the music of his adopted home. His love of mountain music is obvious here.
He uses a variety of tunings that lend themselves in many instances to modal tunes that are particularly haunting. Each tuning creates a chord thatâ€"resonating softly through the entire songâ€"provides a backdrop to the melody line which colors the tune and adds to the variety and depth of the emotional experience.
But he is also interested in expanding the repertoire to other tunes that are congenial to the banjo. The CD includes tunes from the country dancing of Elizabethan England, the European folk song tradition, and the sentimental music of nineteenth century America with a tune from Transylvania thrown in for good measure. If the mountain repertoire consists largely of songs from the Scotch-Irish tradition of those who settled the mountain region, then the aim of this CD is to showcase those tunes as well as songs which, as Alec Slater once wrote, “missed the boat.”
Harvey cares as much about the quality of the sound of his instrument as he does about virtuosity and authenticity, and the result is banjo playing that has emotional depth. The playing may not be not flashy, but it is sure, and the sound is rich and mellow.