QUOTES

“The Down Hill Strugglers are, to my ears, the very best interpreters of traditional material presently going.”

- Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker

"Many string bands have the tunes but not the chops. Some have chops and tunes, but can't achieve lift-off, marching along politely like so many historical reenactors. But the Down Hill Strugglers hit the trifecta, pulling their bows deftly across the best numbers in the old-time songbook with more grit and style than just about any group fiddling away today." 

- Nathan Salsburg, Curator, Alan Lomax Archive.

 “The Down Hill Strugglers bring back the true spirit of Old Time Music, where every singer invented his own performance. Besides being excellent musicians on fiddle, banjo and guitar, pump organ, harmonica, etc., they sing with the high voices that echo the sounds of young artists heard on the old 78s, evoking the spirit of the “Golden Era” of recording, and the mystery of their own identity.

They have built their repertoire from some of the best music of the past and they keep it alive and lively. They have found resonance with the intensity of rural music, while delighting in the nuances that preserve the individual uniqueness of the genre. This is music that will keep your mind dancing.

The Down Hill Strugglers are reaching for new musical highs, and they play the kind of music I want to hear.”

- John Cohen, New Lost City Ramblers.

"These guys are a first rate string band! Walker, Jackson and Eli have absorbed the old tradition, and the songs and tunes they wrote for this album are outstanding."

- Tony Garnier

(Bob Dylan, Asleep at the Wheel)

"If it’s possible to be at the forefront of something old, The Down Hill Strugglers are right there with this new recording! Imaginative arrangements of interesting tunes played with soul, all while reaching back to the best of the old mountain sounds."

- Bruce Molsky

"Throughout the record, the musical texture of Old Juniper shifts and blooms. Eli, Jackson, and Walker exchange roles freely— the banjo, fiddle, and guitar change hands almost every track. No matter their instrument, the three fall into place with the tune their guide. As these dynamics build and transform, a sound raw and beautifully sincere appears.

This album of new old-time tunes and songs will surely be a welcome addition to the well loved canon of American traditional music."

- Nora Brown

"How wonderful is it that The Down Hill Strugglers are releasing a new album? I’ve been a fan of theirs from the beginning and will happily spend time with anything they put out! 

I see The Down Hill Strugglers as the primary successors of the great and longstanding tradition of urban interpreter-performers of American vernacular string band music - They pick up where the NLCR left off, with Cohen’s considerable creative guidance ever in their hearts and minds. “Old Juniper” is a testament to the vibrancy of this legacy."

- Jake Xerxes Fussell

"From the first track “I’m Gettin’ Ready to Go” to the last “Let the Rich Go Bust", this is a wonderful collection of original songs and tunes by The Down Hill Strugglers (Walker Shepard, Jackson Lynch and Eli Smith). 

Based in NYC they have been playing and recording together for 15+ years—this is their first in seven years and it’s a doozy. Old and new, evocative, current—all original. And I, as one who’s always had one foot in “old weird America” and the other in new weird America, love this recording. 

The Down Hill Strugglers have, as Nathan Salsburg put it in his notes, 'an exquisite sensitivity to [the] seam where collective tradition and individual artistry meet….' I couldn’t agree more." 

- Alice Gerrard