In the 1920s and '30s, banjo player and singer Tom Clarence Ashley worked as an itinerant folk musician, traveling the South and playing with medicine shows and with such groups as Byrd Moore & His Hotshots and the Carolina Tar Heels. His recordings on Harry Smith's influential ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC sparked interest in Ashley in the early '60s; Ashley, who hadn't recorded since 1933, was coaxed out of retirement and enjoyed a second phase of performing and recording before he died in 1967.