(alternate title: Can't You Remember When Your Heart Was Mine; The Daemon Lover; The Demon Lover; James Harris)

Clarence "Tom" Ashley (1895-1967), from Shouns in East Tennessee, recorded alternately as Clarence or Tom for different record companies. Early in his professional career, he traveled with medicine shows. During the 1920s and 1930s, Ashley acted as front man in many of the groups he played with, mixing humor with music. Ashley played with the Carolina Tar Heels (tracks 12, 27), The Blue Ridge Mountain Entertainers, Byrd Moore and the Hot Shots, and Ashley's Melody Men. After his initial recording career ended, he made a living sawmilling and farming while supplementing his income with what he called "busting" (passing the hat for money as he played) (Ralph Rinzler, notes to SF 40029).

By the mid-1940s, Ashley stopped playing banjo after injuring his hand in a work-related accident. Folklorist and musician Ralph Rinzler, one of the many younger musicians influenced by Smith's Anthology, ran into Ashley in North Carolina at the 1960 Union Grove Fiddler's Convention. Rinzler remembered Ashley from the Anthology and, hoping to encourage him to resume his banjo playing, asked if he could record him. This subsequent recording session also brought the brilliant guitarist Arthel "Doc" Watson to the Rinzler's attention. One of the chief talent scouts for the Newport Folk Festival, Rinzler saw to it that Ashley and Watson were presented to folk revival audiences via appearances at festivals and nightclubs. Ashley, like some of the other musicians on the Anthology, lived long enough to have a second career in music.


FOR ADDITIONAL RECORDINGS BY ASHLEY: 
see Look Who's Coming: The Original Carolina Tar Heels (OH 113a); The Original Folkways Recordings of Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley (SFW CD 40029c); Tom Ashley and Tex Isley (SFW CD 2350c); and on the collections Before the Blues, V. 3 (YZ 2017c); White Country Blues, 1926-1938 (COL 47466c); Collection of Mountain Ballads (CTY 502a); Collection of Mountain Fiddle Music (CTY 503a); Collection of Mountain Songs (CTY 504a); Fiddler's Convention in Mountain City, Tennessee (CTY 525a); Friends of Old Time Music (SFW CD 2390c); Galax, Virginia OId Time Fiddlers Convention (SFW CD 2435c); Going Down the Valley (NW 236a); Harmonica Blues (YZ 1053c); Old Time Mountain Ballads (CTY 3505c); Old Time Southern Dance Music: The String Bands (OT 101a); Old Time Music at Newport (VG 121/2c); Ragtime #2: The Country (SFW CD RBF18c); The Railroad in Folk Song (RCA 532a) and Tennessee Strings (RND 1033a).

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT ASHLEY:
see Rinzler's notes to Original Folkways Recordings of Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley, 1960-1962 (SFW CD 40029).

OTHER RECORDED VERSIONS INCLUDE:
Traditional American Folk: as House Carpenter: Lena Armstrong (FL 22a); Texas Gladden (LC L1a); Sarah Ogan Gunning (RND 0051a); Audrey McGuire (TFS 103a); Doug  and Jack Wallin (SFW CD 40013c); The Watson Family (SFW CD 40012c); as Well Met, Well Met: Pearl Jacobs Borusky (LC AFSL58a); as The Ship Carpenter: Clay Walters (LC AFS58a).

Folksong revival: as House Carpenter: Joan Baez (VG 41/42c, VG 79/80c, VG 2122c; VG 79113c); Sheila Clark (SFW CD 31110c); Bob Dylan (COL 47382c); The Handsome Family (Carrot Top 011c); The Harvesters (SFW CD 2406c); Mark Humphrey (Frequency Glide 0022c); Pete Seeger (AFJ 101a); Buffy Sainte-Marie (VG 79211c); Dave Van Ronk (FTY 24710c); as House Carpenter's Wife: Joan O'Bryant (SFW CD 2338c).

Country/String band: as The House Carpenter: The Carolina Tar Heels (Victor 40219b)).

Bluegrass: as House Carpenter: David Grisman (Cymekob 803c); Tony Rice (SGH 3732c).

British: as House Carpenter: Pentangle (REP 6372a; SH 79078c); as the Demon Lover: Steeleye Span (CHR 1136a, CHR 1071a). French: as the Demon Lover: Kornog (GL 1055c). Irish: as House Carpenter: Daithi Sproule (GL 1123c).