With this blog, i want to use the Folkways Anthology as a roadmap to explore american folk music and maybe other countries traditions along the way. I’ ll use texts, images, music and videos gathered from my personal collection and from the net to make this work-in-progress enjoyable and educationnal the best i can. Any suggestions, additional informations, comments and critics are welcome…
I’ll use Harry Smith’s numerical order starting from the number one performance in the Anthology, “Henry Lee” by Dick Justice and end (someday…) with “Fishing Blues” by Henry Thomas. Each time, i’ll try to collect interesting links on the artist and on the song performed. There will be other performances by the artist and different versions of the selected song that i have access to. You’re invited to download and enjoy the selections but please, as much as you can, try to support the efforts of the small records companies and the artists by buying their records.
Charley (or Charlie) Patton is considered by many the most important bluesman of all times, the father of the “Delta Blues”, which is a genre that most people see as the “real, deep Blues”. Raised near the famous Dockery Plantation, a big cotton and sawmill plantation and the “mythical” birthplace of the Blues, Patton learned his skills with Henry Sloan, an older Bluesman born in 1870. His powerful guitar playing and vocals influenced all the other musicians around him, including Willie Brown, Tommy Johnson, Son House and the younger Robert Johnson would learn to play the Blues from them. Patton was very popular in all the South and he was a real showman on stage, making tricks like playing the guitar behind his head or his back, interspreading different vocal comments during his songs. His erratic life, his inclinations toward booze and women and his short life also contributed to make him a “Blues” icon.
Like for Robert Johnson, the label “Delta Blues” is quite limiting the range of their music. The repertoire of Patton (and Johnson) included a broader range of popular music, religious songs and pieces that came from the white tradition and they could includes them along with their “Blues” to please different audiences. The fact is that we see them today as genuine folk musicians rather than “entertainers” is due in part to the romantized and almost mystical way they were described by white Blues lovers and writers. He recorded more than 60 sides during his rather short career, some with other musicians, some with a female vocalist, but a large part of his recordings he plays alone with his guitar. His unique spontaneous style and incredible timing combined with percussive effects on the guitar, vocal eccenticities made some of this sides, the most passionate pieces of music ever recorded.
-Go to this wikipedia page for a more complete biography and a list of his recordings
-Music writer and musician Elijah Wald, who wrote a very interesting book about Robert Johnson (”Escaping the Delta”), wrote also a superb essay about Patton, where he tries to picture the musician in “context”, escaping the romanced and mythical proses so common about Blues icons.
-There are two books dedicated entirely to the life and music of Charley patton:one by guitar player John Fahey and the other by Stephen Calt and Gayle Wardlow.There are both out-of-print but you can maybe find them by doing a research on the net.
-Those with a low budget can nevertheless have Patton’s complete recordings with this JSP box-set or with excellent compilations issued by Yazoo records
-From my part, i offer you the 14 sides Patton recorded for his first session in Richmond in 1929:
-When Paramount released “Mississippi Boweavil Blues” in 1929, instead of the artist’s name, they wrote “The Masked Marvel” and organized a contest for the customers to guess the real identity of the artist. The winner would win a free record of his choice… In 1952, on the Anthology, Harry Smith choosed to keep the “Masked Marvel” name on the record…
The Boll Weevil Variations
The Boll weevil, a little insect that feeds on cotton buds and flowers, originated in Mexico and migrated to the U.S in the late 19th century.First in the Texas area and then all across the South, it destroyed the cottonfields and plantations and caused the migration of thousands of farmers and field workers toward the northern big cities. It became the subject of many songs in the 20th century but the most famous of this “Boll weevil” songs present a rather humourous dialogue between a farmer and the little bug and the chorus most of the time, repeats the phrase “Looking for a home”. Folklorists think the song originated with black people and one of the older version is the one Charley Patton sang in his 1929 recording “Mississippi Bollweavil Blues”. It was sometimes sung in a manner of a “field holler” by blacks but Leadbelly’s version, which has the “looking for a home” chorus became the most famous, the one many folksingers sang during the Folk revival.
-For more informations about the boll weevil and the damages he made in the South go to this wikipedia page and on this page, wou’ll find many interesting articles.
-Like i said above, the boll weevil was widely sung during the 20th century and you can find versions in many genres of american popular music: Blues, Jazz, Country, Folk, Rock n’roll, etc… I’ve selected 60 performances that i liked, staying mostly in the folk/blues tradition, with numerous wonderful field recordings made by Alan Lomax and other across the South. I’ve included some versions from the pop/rock world (Fats Domino, Eddie Cochran) but didn’t include the Brook Benton version, which was a huge hit in the 1960’s (you can listen to it on Youtube).
(The title is always “Boll Weevil” “Boll Weavil” or “Boll Weevil Blues” unless where indicated)
“FIELD RECORDINGS, SONGSTERS, BLUESMEN…”
Part 1
Richard Amerson from Boll Weevil Here, Boll Weevil Everywhere – Field Recordings
Ma Raineyfrom Countin’ the Blues
Oscar Woods from Texas Blues: Early Blues Masters From The Lone Star State
Otis Webster from Country Negro Jam Session
Blind Jesse Harris from Field Recordings Vol. 4: Mississippi & Alabama (1934-1942)
“Renters caught by poverty on George Penny’s farm picture landlord as miser, thief, and liar” Harry Smith’s notes from the Anthology
The Bently Boys, from which we know nothing except that they were from North Carolina, recorded “Down on Penny’s Farm” in 1929 for Columbia Records. It featured banjo and guitar and the flip side track “Henhouse Blues” feaured also a fiddle player. Apparently they didn’t record anything else but their version of “Penny’s farm”, thanks to the Anthology, inspired the young Bob Dylan for one of the first song he wrote when he came to New York City, “Hard times in New York Town”. It would also inspire him to write his “Maggie’s Farm” a few years after. Harry Smith said that “Penny’s farm” was “a regionalized recasting of an earlier song called “Hard times”. On this page of “Mudcat cafe”, there’s an interesting discussion about the song and its origin and it feaures the lyrics of the Bently Boys version as well.
-”Penny’s Farm” was done quite often in the recent years by folk musicians and old-time string bands,including a very unusual version on an album called “Wayne Horvitz:Joe Hill:16 Actions for Orchestra, Voices and Soloist”, a parody version called ” Down on the funny farm” by the Good Rockin’ Daddies…In the 1930’s, Gid Tanner (with Riley Puckett) did his version and called it “Tanner’s farm. During the folk revival, Pete Seeger recorded the song and a variant called “Hard times in the mines”. His brother Mike did as well with “Hard times in these mines”.
Enjoy!
TRACK LIST
Down On Penny’s Farm, The Bently Boys, from TheAnthology Of American Folk Music
Down On Penny’s Farm,Jeff Warner and Jeff Davis, fromOld Time Songs for Kids
Down On the Funny Farm,Good Rockin’ Daddies, fromBorn to Boogie
Penny’s Farm,Lost Mountain String Band, fromWaiting for the Boogerboo
Penny’s Farm,The Holy Modal Rounders, fromToo Much Fun!
Hard Times in These Mines,Mike Seeger, fromTipple, Loom & Rail
Penny’s Farm,Tom Akstens and Neil Rossi,All Around the Mountain
Joe Hill: Action 11 – Hard Time in the Country,Danny Barnes, Northwest Sinfonia, Bill Frisell, Rinde Eckert, Robin Holcomb, fromWayne Horvitz: Joe Hill: 16 Actions for Orchestra, Voices, and Soloist
Penny’s Farm,Pete Seeger,from Darling Corey/Goofing-Off Suite
Penny’s Farm ,Pete Constantini, fromWe Won’t Move: Songs of the Tenants’ Movement
Penny’s Farm,Olav Undeland, fromRiding The Blind
Hard Times in the Mill,Pete Seeger, from American Industrial Ballads
Down on Pennys Farm,Natalie Merchant, fromThe House Carpenters Daughter
Hard Times In New York Town,Bob Dylan, from The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 : Rare And Unreleased, 1961-1991
-Here’s an interesting and funny clip of a 1960’s documentary about “young beatnicks” in England. In the beginning, a young Wizz Jones (british folk/Blues singer and guitar player) is doing a parody song using “Down on Penny’s Farm”
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Down On Penny’s FarmBently BoysAnthology Of American Folk Music
Down On Penny’s FarmJeff Warner and Jeff DavisOld Time Songs for Kids
Down On the Funny FarmGood Rockin’ DaddiesBorn to Boogie
Penny’s FarmLost Mountain String BandWaiting for the Boogerboo
Penny’s FarmThe Holy Modal RoundersToo Much Fun!
Hard Times in These MinesMike SeegerTipple, Loom & Rail: Songs of the Industrialization of the S
Penny’s FarmTom Akstens and Neil RossiAll Around the Mountain
On Tanner’s FarmGid Tanner & Riley PuckettEarly Country, Vol. 1
Joe Hill: Action 11 – Hard Time in the Country – Danny BarneDanny BarnesWayne Horvitz: Joe Hill: 16 Actions for Orchestra, Voices, a
Penny’s FarmPete SeegerDarling Corey/Goofing-Off Suite
Penny’s Farm – Pete ConstantiniPete ConstantiniWe Won’t Move: Songs of the Tenants’ Movement
Penny”S FarmOlav UndelandRiding The Blind
Hard Times in the MillPete SeegerAmerican Industrial Ballads
Down on Pennys FarmNatalie MerchantThe House Carpenters Daughter
Hard Times In New York TownBob DylanThe Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 : Rare And Unreleased, 1961-1991 [Disc 1]Down On Penny’s FarmBently BoysAnthology Of American Folk Music
Down On Penny’s FarmJeff Warner and Jeff DavisOld Time Songs for Kids
Down On the Funny FarmGood Rockin’ DaddiesBorn to Boogie
Penny’s FarmLost Mountain String BandWaiting for the Boogerboo
Penny’s FarmThe Holy Modal RoundersToo Much Fun!
Hard Times in These MinesMike SeegerTipple, Loom & Rail: Songs of the Industrialization of the S
Penny’s FarmTom Akstens and Neil RossiAll Around the Mountain
On Tanner’s FarmGid Tanner & Riley PuckettEarly Country, Vol. 1
Joe Hill: Action 11 – Hard Time in the Country – Danny BarneDanny BarnesWayne Horvitz: Joe Hill: 16 Actions for Orchestra, Voices, a
Penny’s FarmPete SeegerDarling Corey/Goofing-Off Suite
Penny’s Farm – Pete ConstantiniPete ConstantiniWe Won’t Move: Songs of the Tenants’ Movement
Penny”S FarmOlav UndelandRiding The Blind
Hard Times in the MillPete SeegerAmerican Industrial Ballads
Down on Pennys FarmNatalie MerchantThe House Carpenters Daughter
Hard Times In New York TownBob DylanThe Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 : Rare And Unreleased, 1961-1991 [Disc 1]Down On Penny’s FarmBently BoysAnthology Of American Folk Music
Down On Penny’s FarmJeff Warner and Jeff DavisOld Time Songs for Kids
Down On the Funny FarmGood Rockin’ DaddiesBorn to Boogie
Penny’s FarmLost Mountain String BandWaiting for the Boogerboo
Penny’s FarmThe Holy Modal RoundersToo Much Fun!
Hard Times in These MinesMike SeegerTipple, Loom & Rail: Songs of the Industrialization of the S
Penny’s FarmTom Akstens and Neil RossiAll Around the Mountain
On Tanner’s FarmGid Tanner & Riley PuckettEarly Country, Vol. 1
Joe Hill: Action 11 – Hard Time in the Country – Danny BarneDanny BarnesWayne Horvitz: Joe Hill: 16 Actions for Orchestra, Voices, a
Penny’s FarmPete SeegerDarling Corey/Goofing-Off Suite
Penny’s Farm – Pete ConstantiniPete ConstantiniWe Won’t Move: Songs of the Tenants’ Movement
Penny”S FarmOlav UndelandRiding The Blind
Hard Times in the MillPete SeegerAmerican Industrial Ballads
Down on Pennys FarmNatalie MerchantThe House Carpenters Daughter
Hard Times In New York TownBob DylanThe Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 : Rare And Unreleased, 1961-1991 [Disc 1]
Walter “Furry” Lewis, born in Greenwood, Mississippi in 1893 was a superb country blues singer and a versatile guitar player with a relaxed and sponatenous style. He spent most of his life in the city of Memphis, Tennessee, which was a rich musical center for african-americans in the first decades of the 20th century. He learned his skills on the road with medecine shows, on mississippi riverboats, streets and clubs, playing music with W.C Handy’s orchestra, but settled down in Memphis after loosing one leg as he was hopping a train. On Beale street he would meet and play with many fine Memphis musicians like Gus Cannon,members of the Memphis Jug Band, Jim Jackson etc…He recorded more than 20 sides between 1927 and 1929 but as the Depression put a stop to record sales, he returned to work as a street sweeper around Beale Street. Like Mississippi John Hurt, he had a “second career” in the sixties, thanks to the “Anthology” and the Folk/Blues revival. It was Samuel Charters, the great music researcher and writer, that found him and record him first a the end of the Fifties.When Charters first met with Furry, he hadn’t play music for more than 20 years and dind’t even own a guitar. But when the “Blues” is in you, it stays forever and when he returned to play, his natural talent for playing and singing the Blues was unchanged, maybe he was a little bit slower on the guitar but his music gained in emotion and power with age. He would fingerpick or play with a bottleneck, depending on his mood and the song, the music flowing from him, in a natural and almost improvisationnal way.He became a prominent figure on the Blues and Folk festivals, made numerous new recordings,opened shows for the Rolling Stones and other rock stars and was the only country blues singer of his generation gaining popular attention, without changing his repertoire, deeply rooted in the african-american tradition of rags and blues. He died in 1981, at the age of 88.
-For more details on his biography, go here or here
-To read a fine article (in pdf format) Playboy magazine made on Furry in 1970, click here
-Here are the 25 sides he recorded at the end of the 1920’s for the Vocalion and Victor record companies. Be sure to check the other recordings Furry made in the 60’s and 70’s for various labels. (Many are available on cd format)
-Let’s see the man in action with this beautiful footage clips found on Youtube:
First, here’s Furry doing his version of “Kassie Jones”
A little bit of “Brownsville Blues…
And let’s end with this masterpiece performance of “When I lay my burden down”. See how he’s relaxed with the guitar and make his wonderful tricks, reminescences maybe of the medecine shows of his youth
The Casey Jones Variations
“FATAL WRECK – Engineer Casey Jones, of This City, Killed Near Canton, Miss. – DENSE FOG THE DIRECT CAUSE – Of a Rear End Collision on the Illinois Central. – Fireman and Messenger Injured – Passenger Train Crashed Into a Local Freight Partly on the Siding-Several Cars Demolished.” Jackson, Tennessee Sun newspaper, april 30, 1900.
Soon after the fatal train collision that killed engineer John Luther Jones (he was nicknamed “Casey” because he was from the town of “Cayce”, Kentucky) on april 30, 1900, heroic tales of his death started to be told across the South. When he was living, Jones already had a growing reputation among railroad folks for his trademark whistle (every engineer at this time could make his own whistle) and for his aptitude at being always on time. After his death, he became a real heroic figure and the song about him helped to carry his memory over the years.Like “Frankie and Albert” , the story of the Casey Jones ballad goes back and forth between the folk and popular music worlds. It originally started with Wallace Saunders, a black engine wiper who worked on a railroad shop in Canton. Saunders was known for his ability to make songs about people and singing or whistling them as he was working. The song he made up about Casey Jones, derived from an older african-american “Blues ballad” called “Jimmy Jones”. It had a very catchy tune and people along the railroad line started to sing it. Illinois Central Engineer William Leighton loved the song so much that he told about it to his two brothers Frank and Bert, who were vaudeville performers. The Leighton brothers re-arranged the song with a chorus they added and sang it in theatres around the country. Finally two other vaudeville performers Lawrence Seibert, singer and Eddie Newton, composer, took the credit for the song and published it in 1909 under the title “Casey Jones , the brave engineer”. From then it became a very popular piece and althought it described a tragedy, the song had a humorous feel and a catchy melody that pleased everyone. Recordings were made of the “vaudeville” Casey Jones” and this version enterred as well the oral folk tradition where it could be mixed with older songs. Many parodies and other songs were also made, using the “Casey Jones” melody.
-For a complete study of the Casey Jones ballad i recommend once again the wonderful book by Norm Cohen called “The Long Steel rail”. Cohen discuss the origins of the song and study the different lyrics of each version.
-Lyrics for the Furry Lewis’s version, as well as the Mississippi John Hurt’s version can be found on this page
-I compiled 50 different versions of “Casey Jones”, from the hundreds that were recorded since 1912. Like the John Henry, Frankie or Stagolee ballads, the song found his place in the major genres of americana music:Pop, Folk, Blues, Jazz, Cajun (wonderful version by The Balfa Brothers) and i tried to represent the best versions in each one.(I didn’t include The Grateful Dead’s rock version because it’s a complete rewriting, both words and melody, of the song) I included also parodies (The Union Scab) and songs that are related to the Casey Jones ballad (Milwaukee Blues, Jay Gould’s Daughter, On the road again, Ben Dewberry’s final run, Freight train Boogie, J.C Holmes Blues).
(The song title is always “Casey Jones” unless where indicated
Legend says that when A.P. Carter first met Sara, she was singing with the autoharp “Engine 143″. He was coming around her home selling fruits and she was just 16 years old then. Soon A.P Carter would marry her and make her sing the songs from her family’s tradition and the ones he collected around the hills of Virginia.
-This is my second compilation of recordings by The Carter Family. Here you have all the recordings they made on February 1929, from which came “Engine 143″ and “Little Moses” which were featured on the Anthology
TRACK LIST
1.Sweet Fern
2.My Clinch Mountain Home
3.God Gave Noah The Rainbow Sign
4.I’m Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes
5.Little Moses
6.Lulu Wall
7.Grave On The Green Hillside
8.Don’t Forget This Song (My Home In Old Virginia)
“The report reached the city this morning that train No. 4, (the vestibuled) had been derailed a short distance east of Hinton, and the investigation by the ADVERTISER shows that there was an accident to this train, but not so bad as at first rumored.
At about 5 o’clock this morning the train ran into a rock, which had rolled on the track from the mountain above, two miles east of Hinton. The train was running at good speed, and the collision caused the engine and express and postal cars to be derailed. The engine was badly damaged, and in overturning caught the engineer, George Alley, of Clifton Forge, well known here, in some of the machinery, breaking his right arm and scalding him so severely that he died six hours after the accident occurred.
Two firemen, who were on the engine were also scalded but sustained no other injuries. No one else, either of the crew or passengers, was injured, though all of them had a shaking up and a bad scare. No particular damage was done to the passenger cars and at 9:30 the track was cleared and the train started east.”
Since the end of the 19th century, the themes of railroads and trains became a important part of american folk songs, particulary songs about train wrecks. The most famous of them all would be “The wreck of the old 97″, thanks to his numerous recordings by popular and hillbilly musicians in the 1920’s and 1930’s. “Engine 143″ (also called “The Wreck on the C & O” or “The FFV”) was also a popular “train wreck” song, one that was part of the oral tradition and continued to live through recordings, particulary the one by The Carter Family, which became the most well-known version of the song until today. It seems that this ballad, that carried the memory of the tragic death of engineer George Alley, was full of little details that were not true at all to the real story. In his study of american railroad songs, “Long Steel Rail”, Norm Cohen enumerates them: “George Alley’s mother did not come to him with a basket on her arm, as she had died years before; George’s hair was straight and black, not golden or curly; Jack Dickenson was not on the engine at the time (and it has not been explained who he was and how he became implicated in the ballad; the engine was numbered 134, not 143; George’s fireman did not have time to wave goodbye to him, nor did he jumped into the river…; George’s mother did not come to his side as he was dying; his last words were very likely “Are they coming?” rather than “Nearer my God to Thee”. The Carter Family’s version, in fact did not carry all the details of the longer ballad but focused more on the heroic death of the engineer.
-For a complete study of the song, see “Long Steel Rail” by Norm Cohen
-On this page, you’ll find the lyrics of all The Carter Family songs
-As i’ve said above, most of the recording versions of the songs since the 1940’s are “covers” of the Carter Family’s version, so you’ll hear Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Judee Still, The Kossoy Sisters, Townes Van Zandt among others doing “their” version of the Carter Family recording. For slightly different versions of the ballad, you’ll hear recordings by Ernst Stoneman, Roy Harvey, Austin Harmon, Doc Watson (and also his mother Annie singing a beautiful acapella version). Of interest also is Dave Von Rank doing a “parody” of the song and Robin Holcomb for a more contemporary reworking of the Carter’s version. And finally there are txo alternate version by the Carters themselves, one by A.P and Sara from the 1950’s and one with the young June Carter singing.
TRACK LIST
Fate Of George Allen On Engine 143,The Carter Family, from “The Acme Sessions 1952/56″
The Brave Engineer,Roy Harvey & The North Carolina Ramblers, from“Charlie Poole with The North Carolina Ramblers”
Engine 143, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, from ”I Stand Alone”
Engine 143, Barter Theatre, from“Keep On the Sunny Side: The Songs and Story of the Original Carter Family”
George Allen, Austin Harmon,from “Railroad songs & ballads:Library of congress recordings”
Engine 143, Johnny Cash,from “Complete Live At San Quentin / Orange Blossom Special”
Engine 143 (The Wreck On the C&O),Neil Woodward, from “Michigan’s Troubadour, Way of the Rail”
F.F.V, Doc Watson, from “Home Again!”
The Wreck of the FFV, Fast Flying Vestibule, Judee Sill, from “Dreams Come True – Hi – I Love You Right Heartily Here “
Engine 143,The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience, from “DGBX”
The Wreck On The C&O,Ernest V. Stoneman, from “The Unsung Father Of Country Music”
Engine 143,The Carter Family, from “On Border Radio – 1939″
Engine 143,The Shivers, from “Across the Blue Ridge”
The FFV, Annie Watson,from “Classic Railroad Songs from Smithsonian Folkways”
Engine 143,The Kossoy Sisters With Erik Darling, from “Bowling Green”
Engine 143, Joan Baez, from“Joan Baez, Vol. 2″
Engine 143,Robin Holcomb, from “The Big Time”
F.F.V., Townes Van Zandt, from“Delta Momma Blues”
Georgie on the IRT, Dave Van Ronk, from “Folkways Years, 1959-1961″
George Alley’s FFV, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs and The Foggy Mountain Boys, from “Folk Songs Of Our Land”
William Smith and his wife recorded four songs for Paramount in 1927. They were either from Texas or the Carolinas. William Smith was a kind of “guitar evangelist” with a percussive guitar style and a growling voice, much like Blind Willie Johnson and other singers from this period. Judging by the songs they recorded, they mixed topical songs with religious overtones with purely religious repertoire, but they could have been singing many other styles of music, like black street singers often do. The counterpoint voice of his wife who plays also with a sort of washboard all kind of percussive effects over William’s singing and repetitive guitar riffs give the Smiths a unique and raw sound unheard since then on records.
-I’ve compiled the four tracks the Smiths recorded with some performances by other “sanctified couples” or related style of music.
Enjoy and feel the Spirit!
TRACK LIST
“When That Great Ship Went Down” byWilliam & Versey Smith
“I Believe I’ll Go Back Home” byWilliam & Versey Smith
“Everybody Help The Boys Come Home” byWilliam & Versey Smith
“Sinner You’ll Need King Jesus” byWilliam & Versey Smith
“The ‘Titanic sank on Sunday, April 14, 1912. The following Sunday I saw on a train a blind preacher selling a ballad he had composed on the disaster. The title was “Didn’t that ship go down?”
The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 was an event that made a big impression on people’s collective mind as it was one of the first in a serie of disasters in the modern world that showed the vulnerability of Man’s creation against God’s Creation, nature. Soon after the event, songs began to circulate and some were put in print on broadside papers. For many singers, the disaster was a kind of modern “tower of Babel”, God punishing man’s arrogance, especially among black singers who saw in the disaster God’s punishement for the segregational policies of the boat’s company (Black were not allowed on board). The most famous folk song about the Titanic was a song usually known as “When that great ship went down”. Despite his chorus “Wasn’t it sad when that great ship went down” the song was usually sang with an upbeat and joyous feeling, the ironic twist gave by the creators of the song, african-americans who were mocking white folks supremacy. Like in other folk ballads, there are key verses that helped memorize the song, for example: “…The rich would not ride with the poor..” “… the band was playing “Nearer my God to Thee”. It became with time a famous song to sing with children at camp-fires.
-For a more detailed article about the song, go to this page
-I’ve tried to include here all the best performances of “Titanic songs” that i know, restricting myself to music that is “folk related” (Blues,country and old-time music, yiddish song) and didn’t include any classical pieces or songs related to the popular James Cameron’s movie “Titanic”. For once i decided not to classified the performances into genres but mixed everything, so you can jump from a blues to an old-timey version, from an old recording to a contemporary performance, etc…I hope you’ll enjoy this as much as i did when putting all this tracks together…
TRACK LIST
PART ONE
The Titanic,Ernest Stoneman, from “People Take Warning”
The Great Ship Went Down, Cofer Brothers, from ”Georgia Stringbands Vol. 1″
Titanic Blues, Hi Henry Brown & Charlie Jordan, from “People Take Warning”
The Last Scene Of The Titanic,Frank Hutchison, from ”Complete Works Volume One”
The Great Titanic, Roy Acuff, from ”The Best Of…”
Titanic Blues, Virginia Liston, from “Virginia Liston Vol. 2 (1924-1926)”
The Titanic,Pete Seeger, from ”American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 3″
The Titanic,The Carter Family, from ”The Acme Sessions 1952/56″
The Great Titanic,A.L. Phipps and the Phipps Family, from “Phipps Family – Faith, Love and Tragedy”
The Great Titanic,Tom, Brad & Alice, from ”Been There Still”
Titanic Man Blues,Ma Rainey, from “Ma Rainey Vol. 3 (1925-1926)”
Titanic,Rolf Cahn, from “California Concert with Rolf Cahn”
Titanic,Bright Newton, from The Max Hunter Folksong Collection
Titanic,Bob Gibson, from ”The Riverside / Folklore Series Volume 1″
Titanic,Hans Theessink , from “Titanic”
Titanic,Dan Zanes, from ”Parades And Panoramas”
When That Great Ship Went Down,The Dixiaires, from ”The Greatest Spirituals, Vol. 2 (1946-1951)”
Titanic (When That Great Ship Went Down),Rory Block, from “Confessions of a Blues Singer”
Titanic,Spider John Koerner, from “Raised By Humans”
From all the Anthology artists, only a few were rediscovered during the Folk revival. Some were dead, some were unable to play music anymore, but some had a second career, thanks to the Anthology and the work of folk and blues entusiasts who looked after them and gave them a chance to perform and record again. Furry Lewis, Clarence Ashley and Dock Boggs notably, were took out of their hometowns and working life to make public performances all over the country and make new records. To all of them, their musical career had stopped during the Depression and couldn’t believe people had any interest about records they have made some 30 years ago. The most surprised of them all was Mississippi John Hurt, who by chance had recorded a few 78 rpm records at the end of the 1920’s in Memphis and New York, but apart from that, spent all his life working in the farms and fields around his hometown of Avalon, Mississippi. He was a kind of “back porch” musician, playing the guitar and singing mostly to entertain his family and neighbours, or maybe for a square dance he would accompany a fiddle player but had no ambition to make a career or something like that and it reflects in his music and the songs of his repertoire. Most of it was pre-blues black folk ballads and spirituals, all played with a ragtime feel, thanks to his alternating bass and gentle and melodic picking on the guitar. He was not a “Blues” singer in the usual sense but more of a “songster”, and his music reflects a time and style of country black music that precedes the “Blues” craze of the 1920’s, when most of the recorded black guitar singers were supposed to sing “Blues” mostly because that was what the record companies wanted to sell to the public.
We’re lucky that on his recording session in New York in the 1920’s, John Hurt sang a song he made about “Avalon, my hometown…” that reflect his longing for home as he was away for the first time, finding himself so displaced and lonely in the big city. Thanks to this song, Tom Hoskins, a young Blues enthousiast who discovered Hurt’s music like many others on the Anthology in the 1960’s, could manage to find him in 1963 in Avalon, still farming and working hard to feed his many children and grand-children. From then until his death in 1967, he became a much-loved figure of the Blues and Folk scene, charming everyone with his gentle manners and his delicate songs. He was the perfect “grandfather” of the Folk Revival, the “patriarch of the hippies” as someone called him. During these 4 years, he made numerous public performances at festivals and coffee shops, recorded many new albums and influenced many youngsters to pick the guitar in his style, a legacy that is still alive today, more than 40 years after his death (just take a look on Youtube and see how many acoustic guitarists try to recreate his arrangements).
-There are numerous places on the web where you can read about him but this page is a good place to start, giving a discography and a list of good links.
-I offer you now the 13 tracks John Hurt recorded in the 1920’s and will later make a compilation of my personnal favorite performances from the 1960’s that i’ll post when we get to his “Spike Driver Blues” at the end of the Anthology.
(This download will be available only for a short period of time, as MJH records are easily available elsewhere, so try to support the small record companies like Yazoo and Rounder records by buying their reissues, with great liner notes and photographs)
Here’s a short one shot during the Newport Folk Festival
You really have to see him play and talk to realize what a sweet human being he was…
-MJH was the first Anthology artist that i listened, long before i discovered the Anthology itself and like many others, was captivated by his guitar playing and did my best to learn it. Stefan Grossman was a precious help during those years i learned to pick the “Country Blues” on the guitar with his instructional books and later on videos (most of it is available on dvd now). Have a visit to his Guitar Worshop’s website.
The Frankie Variations
“NEGRO SHOT BY WOMAN“
Allen Britt, colored, was shot and badly wounded shortly after 2 o’clock yesterday morning by Frankie Baker, also colored. The shooting occurred in Britt’s room at 212 Targee Street, and was the culmination of a quarrel. The woman claimed that Britt had been paying attentions to another woman. The bullet entered Britt’s abdomen, penetrating the intestines. The woman escaped after the shooting.”
- St Louis Globe-Democrat, October 16, 1899.
With “Frankie and Johnny” (the most usual name of the song) we have a fine example of a folk song that entered the world of popular music via writers and composers of Tin Pan Alley (and later via Hollywood movies) who reshaped the old song and made a new version that became “the” version that everybody sang, included folksingers. How old and from which event came the original “Frankie and Albert” (The change to Johnny as the man’s name was made by Tin Pan Alley writers. Johnny sounded more good for them than Albert) was well debated over the years between scholars and folk music writers. Some said it goes back as far as the Civil War but the first printed versions were all from the early 20th century. The original ballad was of course inspired by the story of Frankie Baker, a young black girl who killed her lover Allen “Al” Britt in St-Louis in 1899 because he was flirting with another girl, Alice Pryor (it’s easy to see how “Al Britt” became ”Albert”, less for the girl’s name, who becomes Nellie Blye or Alice Frye, etc…) But an older version could have derived from a 1832 famous murder case, the murdering of Charles Silver by her wife Frances. Murder ballads sometimes are being changed in the course of time to fit a new event, to something people could relate more easily. It is said that soon after Frankie Baker got arrested for the murder of her lover, people started to “sing the news” in the streets, selling printed ballads about the affair. The first version of the song was called simply “Frankie killed Allen” and was composed by Bill Dooley a St.Louis pianist. Like the 5 dollar Stetson hat in the “Stackolee” ballad, the song displays some little details, real or invented, that hit the imagination of the listeners. Almost every version tells about a “hundred dollar suit of clothes” that Frankie bought to her man, her 44 gun hidden in her clothes, how many bullets she shot at him, the sound of the shot gun (Root toot toot) and so on…And of course, the leitmotiv phrase of the song “He was her man but he done her wrong”. Like in the traditionnal english ballads, it’s the sum of all this little details that makes the story memorized by the singers,and keep the old story alive, as if every singer who sing them can live the events once again. In the beginning it was popular mostly with afro-americans in the South but whites learned it soon from recordings of the popular Tin Pan Alley’s versions, except maybe for appalachian musicians who all heard black folk music and sang their own version of the song which is a bit different in the melody, usually under the name “Frankie Baker” (Listen to Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham,Louise Foreacre and the Virginia Mountain Boys on my compilation, their versions are quite similar). The popularity of the song never decreased and became the subject of theater plays, movies, books. The universal themes of love, betrayal and murder coupled with a simple Blues structure, catchy words and melody made it the most common folk song played by american musicians and singers in the 20th century. Over the years it was shared by jazz players, rock n’roll teenage bands, folk singers, country and hilbilly musicians, Bluesmen, lounge singers. If there ever was a song that is public domain, this is it…
-First of all, you have to read the excellent essay by Paul Slade, which tells us in details about the life of Frankie Baker and how the popularity of the song followed her all her life. He gives us also a detailed filmography of all the movies inspired by the song.(Read also his “Stackolee” essay)
-You can go to this Wikipedia page to read more in detail about the song and also here for a discography and 10 different lyrics versions.
-I compiled for you 60 variations, presenting all the different musical genres that used the song. I restricted myself to versions i really loved or thought as important, of course there are many more and i maybe forgot to include “your” favorite version. If so, tell me about it in the comments… (The different categories are just guidelines and many tracks could have fit in more than one genre)
Part 1:Blues
1.Frankie And Albert – First Half, Lead Belly, from “Leadbelly Vol. 1 1939-1940″
2.Frankie And Albert – Completion, Lead Belly, from “Leadbelly Vol. 1 1939-1940″
3.Frankie & Albert, Charley Patton, from “Complete Recordings: 1929-1934″
4.Frankie And Albert (Cooney And Delia),Booker T. Sapps & Roger Matthews, from “Field Recordings Vol. 7: Florida (1935-1936)”
5.Frankie And Johnny (The Courtroom Scene), Whistlin’ Alex Moore, from “Whistlin’ Alex Moore (1929-1951)”
6.Frankie And Johnny (The Shooting Scene), Whistlin’ Alex Moore, from “Whistlin’ Alex Moore (1929-1951)”
7.Frankie And Johnny, J. Wilson, from “Field Recordings Vol. 1: Virginia (1936-1941)”
8.Frankie And Albert, Jewell Long, from “Rural Blues Vol. 2 (1951-1962)”
9.Frankie and Albert, Mance Lipscomb, from “Captain, Captain!”
10.Frankie And Albert, Joe Callicot, from “Ain’t A Gonna Lie To You”
11.Frankie and Johnny, John Jackson, from “The Harry Smith Connection: A Live Tribute to the Anthology”
12.Frankie and Johnny, Big Bill Broonzy, from “Classic African American Ballads”
13.Frankie And Johnnie, Furry Lewis, from “Shake ‘Em On Down”
14.Frankie & Johnny, Patent Medicine, from “Songbook, Vol. 4″
15.Frankie and Johnny, Toby Walker, from “Just Rolled In”
16.Frankie and Albert, Mississippi John Hurt, from “Friends Of Old Time Music”
From all the pionneer “hilbilly” musicians and singers whose recordings in the twenties and thirties established the roots of American country and folk music, Charlie Poole is the most well remembered and his legacy on further developements of the music is important. With his band, The North carolina Ramblers, they took the best of the country and the city popular music of their time and blend it together in an unique style that influenced many others back then and ever since. in their recordings, you can hear echoes of rural string band music, Tin Pan Alley popular songs, “coon songs” of the ministrel shows, Irish accents, melted in a tight combination of fiddle-guitar-banjo with Poole’s strong vocals over it. That plus his dexterity on the banjo, played in a pre-Earl Scruggs three-finger style, made their music very unique. Certainly, Poole’s reputation as a hard-living, hard-drinking man and his prematury death at age 39 helped also to forge his “legend”.
-The best way to enter “Charlie Poole’s world” is by buying the excellent box-set “You ain’t talkin to me-Charlie Poole and the roots of country music” issued by Columbia-Legacy a few years ago. In addition to Charlie Poole’s best recordings, are featured many other recordings who influenced his music and other versions of Poole’s records by other string bands. The liner notes by Henry Sapoznik are excellent and the packaging is very cool. (Robert Crumb did the artwork). You can have a glimpse of it here.
-And here, you’ll have the lyrics for many Poole’s songs.
-I compiled 25 tracks that i love selected from the JSP box-set reissue of Poole’s complete recordings that i own. But i plan to buy also the box-set descibed above because from what i heard, the sound is much better than on the JSP reissue and it offers also many rare records not available anywhere.
After “Charles Giteau” here’s another folk ballad that deals with the assassination of a president, this time, William McKinley, 25th president of the United States, killed by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, in 1901. For the details of this event, go here. It seems that the ballad originated with afro-americans “songsters” and, like “Stackalee”, was a kind of proto-Blues with a melody and a verse structure very alike another murder Blues ballad, “Delia’s gone”. In fact, all this songs, Delia, White House Blues, The Cannon Ball, Railroad Bill, even Stackalee and Frankie had very similar melodies in their primary forms, as they entered the oral tradition at the same time, the turn of the century and were all associated with black singers. Later, white musicians began to take those songs in their repertoire, like White House Blues, who became, thanks to Bill Monroe, a bluegrass standard.
-You can go here, to read more about the sources of this song.
-in his book “Long Steel Rail”, Norm Cohen tells about the writer D.H Lawrence, who used to sing a version of “White House Blues”. A friend of Lawrence recalled that in 1915, as he was singing several Negro Spirituals, he also “…set our brains jingling with an american ballad on the murder of president McKinley with words of brutal jocularity sung to an air of of lilting sweetness…”
-A few words on my selected tracks: “Zolgotz” is the title that Bascom Lamar Lunsford gave to his version of “White House Blues”, refering to the name of the murderer. He recorded this track for the Library of Congress in 1949. The New Lost City Ramblers’s version is in fact a parody that was written during the Depression and mock President Hoover. Ernest Stoneman’s version is titled “Road to Whashington” and sounds a lot like the Charlie Poole’s version. He recorded the song twice, the first version being called “Unlucky road to Whashington”. The Greenbriar Boys’s version was learned from a Riley Puckett record. Peter Stampfel of The Holy Modal Rounders does a unique performance in his unique weird string-band style. On the wonderful website “Digital Library of Appalachia” i was happy to find two afro-american versions of the song, bringing it to his roots. One is by banjo player Big Sweet Lewis Hairston with Leonard Bowles on fiddle ( this is really black string-band music at his best), the other one by Howard Twine on the electric guitar. British guitarist John Renbourn made a really nice version of the song, turning it into an introspective ballad with nice minor chords on the guitar. I’ve included also two versions of “Cannon Ball Blues” by The Carter Family, as the melody and the verses are strongly related. The first one was sung by A.P Carter and the other was sung by Maybelle during a “Friends of old-time music” concert in the sixties.
-TRACK LIST:
1.Zolgotz,Bascom Lamar Lunford, from “Songs and Ballads of American History and of the Assassination of Presidents”
2.White House Blues,Big Sweet Lewis Hairston & Leonard Bowles, fromDigital Library of Appalachia
3.The Road To Washington,Ernest V. Stoneman, from“The Unsung Father Of Country Music”
4.The Cannon Ball,The Carter Family, from a Jsp box set
5.White House Blues,Tom, Brad & Alice, from“Carve That Possum”
6.White House Blues,Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys, from“Live Recordings 1956-1969: Off the Record Volume 1″
7.McKinley ,The Greenbriar Boys, from“Best of the Vanguard Years”
8.White House Blues,John Renbourn, from“Faro Annie”
9.White House Blues,New Lost City Ramblers, from“Songs From The Depression”
10.White House Blues,Janice Trail, from“Digital Library of Appalachia”
11.New White House Blues,Peter Stampfel, from “The Jig Is Up”
12.White House Blues,Howard Twine, from“Digital Library of Appalachia”
13.He’s Solid Gone,Maybelle Carter, from“Friends Of Old Time Music “
14.White House Blues,Haywood Blevins, fromDigital Library of Appalachia
“Frank Hutchison was born 1897 in Raleigh County, West Virginia; some sources quote 20th March 1897 as his date of birth. Soon after 1897 the Hutchison family moved to Logan County, West Virginia, a location commemorated by Hutchison’s classic guitar solo Logan County Blues. Prior to his musical and recording career Frank Hutchison had worked as a miner and according to a fellow Logan County musician, had a limp – one assumes this may have been due to an accident while working in the mines. He also worked at times as a cook, carpenter and general handyman. Photos show a serious looking man but by all accounts he was very friendly and an outgoing character. According to Ernest Stoneman, Hutchison was ”a big red-headed Irishman”, one who evidently had plenty of fun in him.
With regard to Hutchison’s contributions to the field of early country music (or if you prefer the term otm), it has to be said he was not only an innovative while country blues man but also someone who had a few ‘extra cards up his sleeve’ as compared to some of his contemporaries. Apart from his distinctive voice, albeit a trifle rough one, Frank Hutchison’s guitar playing was innovative, particularly in his use of the slide guitar on some of his recordings.
In September 1926 he travelled to New York to make his first recordings for the Okeh company with whom he would remain for his three-year recording career. The two sides he cut were made using the acoustic method of recording, as distinct from the electrical process that would eventually consign the earlier method to the history books. In fact it appears that when Hutchison re-recorded these two numbers they may have been the first Okeh issues to use the then new electrical recording system.
It seems obvious that the label must have been satisfied with the sales of his initial recordings because Frank Hutchison was called back for a 1927 date that provided nine fine performances. A two-day session in April produced five numbers, including the re-makes of Hutchison’s first two sides. Apart from them, two items are worthy of mention; The Last Scene of The Titanic is, as a song, a unique version about the Titanic disaster; an event that had occured fifteen years earlier but was still very much in the mind of the general public and record buyers. Hutchison’s version difters from all the many other ‘Titanic’ songs recorded by both black and white performers. The other piece of interest is Logan County Blues, a variation on the tune Spanish Fandango; it is played in open tuning and is a Hutchison ‘piece-de-resistance’. His picking makes the listener think it is a simple guitar solo – any would-be guitar player will tell you otherwise!
Having cut so many sides in 1927 it is perhaps not surprising that nearly eighteen months would elapse before he returned to the Okeh studios, once again for a two-day stint. On the first day Hutchison was in the company of fiddler Sherman Lawson; according to Lawson, Okeh had asked Hutchinson to bring along a fiddler player as they thought he was running low on material. The presence of Lawson is unusual as normally Frank Hutchison was a solo performer and reportedly not very good as an accompanist. While the sides cut on the first day, with fiddle player Sherman Lawson are excellent, the results of the second day’s work produced three superb Hutchison vocal /guitar solos plus the instrumental Hutchinson’s Rag. This last-named number being very akin to Riley Puckett’s 1927 recording, Fuzzy Rag. Disc B commences with the conclusion of Frank Hutchison’s final solo recording session for Okeh. (He did record for the label again, in September 1929, as a part of the Okeh Medicine Show, a six-sided set that was a showcase for a selection of Okeh’s otm artists). Once again everything made at the July date can be described as either first-rate or outstanding. Some pundits consider these last recordings to be less original than earlier performances; even if this is true to an extent one cannot dismiss Hutchison’s ‘parting shots’ in the commercial recording world. Debatably, his final session proved he had more to offer. Cannonball Blues and K.C. Blues may well be re-works of earlier recordings but what a stunning exit for the end of a solo career. Hutchison may not have had a particularly attractive voice (some have even described it, perhaps unfairly, as ‘leather-throated’), but there can be no doubt as to its rough charm. Additionally, his grand guitar playing overrides any doubts about his vocal abillities. But, it may well have been simply, as mentioned in the notes to disc A, that Okeh had been correct and Hutchinson had just run out of new material.
After the Okeh Medicine Show recordings, Hutchison and his family moved briefly to Chesapeake, Ohio but soon ended up back in West Virginia. Here they ran a store from 1934 until 1942 when the premises burnt down, forcing the family to move to first Columbia, Ohio and then to Dayton. Frank Hutchison died on 9th November 1945, leaving behind a fine music legacy, a bequest that might have been enhanced with new material to give an extension to his recording career.” (Pat Harrison’s liner notes to “Worried Blues”, a JSP box-set that re-issued all Frank Hutchison and Kelly Harrell’s 78rpm records)
-I have compiled 22 tracks by Frank Hutchison here, so to complete all his recording output, you have 6 other tracks that i already posted in my Dick Justice compilation, the instrumental version of “Stackalee” is on the first part of “The Stackalee Variations” and his song about the Titanic will be featured in a future post. (I didn’t included some re-recordings he made of “Worried Blues” and “The train that carried my girl from town”)
-Frank Hutchison was originally a miner in West Virginia and i found this clip on YouTube that reminds us of the violent conflicts and strong social injustices that happened in 1920-1921, known as “The West Virginia Mine Wars”.
“William Lyons, 25, a levee hand, was shot in the abdomen yesterday evening at 10 o’clock in the saloon of Bill Curtis, at Eleventh and Morgan Streets, by Lee Shelton, a carriage driver. Lyons and Shelton were friends and were talking together. Both parties, it seems, had been drinking and were feeling in exuberant spirits. The discussion drifted to politics, and an argument was started, the conclusion of which was that Lyons snatched Shelton’s hat from his head. The latter indignantly demanded its return. Lyons refused, and Shelton withdrew his revolver and shot Lyons in the abdomen. When his victim fell to the floor Shelton took his hat from the hand of the wounded man and coolly walked away. He was subsequently arrested and locked up at the Chestnut Street Station. Lyons was taken to the Dispensary, where his wounds were pronounced serious. Lee Shelton is also known as ‘Stagger’ Lee. ” (St.Louis, Misouri, Globe-Democrat article from 1895)
Lee Shelton (also known as Stagger Lee, Stagolee, Stackerlee, Stack O’Lee, Stack-a-Lee and by several other spelling variants) was a black cab driver and a pimp convicted of murdering William “Billy” Lyons on Christmas Eve, 1895 in St. Louis, Missouri. The crime was immortalized in a blues folk song that has been recorded in hundreds of different versions. Lee Shelton was not just a common pimp, but as described by Cecil Brown, “Lee Shelton belonged to a group of pimps known in St. Louis as the ‘Macks’. The macks were not just ‘urban strollers’; they presented themselves as objects to be observed.”
Shelton died in prison in 1912, of tuberculosis.
-Stackalee is, along with John Henry, the most important figure in afro-american oral traditions, one of the most persistent too, his legend being present in almost every new stage of developement of afro-american music in the 20th century. In a way he is the opposite of John Henry, his negative side, surely a “bad” man, with all the clichés of violence, gambling, booze and women surrounding him, but nevertheless became a “hero” for the black community, a symbol of resistance against white supremacy and racism.
-I found some really great articles on the net about Stagger Lee: The Stagger Lee Files is a great place to start exploring the myth and the legend, Stagger Lee.com has a very complet historical page and also a list of 421 recordings!, from Early Blues.com, there’s a superb essay by Max haymes and here, another brillant essay by Angela Nelson who analyse the figure of Stagger Lee in rap music.
-Go there to read the long essay by writer Paul Slade “De Lyons Sleeps Tonight:Stagger Lee”
-I’ve selected 60 performances, trying to represent all the musical traditions that shared the song and his legend. Once again, like “The John Henry Variations”, i’ve classed the tracks according to musical thematics but once you have download them all, it’s good to mix them, to make your own list of favorites,etc…
Afro-american musical traditions
(Hollers, Jazz, Blues, Rock, Soul, Funk, Rap, etc…)
-Part 1:
1.Stackerlee, Bama, from “Prison Songs Vol.1;Alan Lomax recordings”
2.Stack O’ Lee Blues, Ma Rainey, from “Black Bottom”
3.Stackolee, Mississippi John Hurt, from “Avalon Blues”
4.Stack O’Lee Blues, Cab Calloway, from “Complete Jazz Series 1931 – 1932″
5.Original Stack O’ Lee Blues, Long “Cleve” Reed & Little Harvey Hull, from “The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of: Super Rarities & Unissued Gems Of The 1920s & 30s”
6.Stack O’Lee Blues, Johnny Dodds, from “Complete Jazz Series 1928 – 1940″
7.Billy Lyons and Stack O’Lee, Furry Lewis, from “First Recordings”
8.Stack O’Lee Blues, Duke Ellington, from “Complete Jazz Series 1927 – 1928″
9.Stagolee, David “Honeyboy” Edwards, from “Big Joe Williams and the Stars of Mississippi Blues “
10.Old Stack O’Lee Blues, Sidney Bechet, from “Shake It And Break It”
11.Staggerlee , John Cephas and Phil Wiggins, from “Classic African American Ballads”
12.Stagolee, Hogman Maxey, from “Angola Prisoners’ Blues”
13.Stack O’ Dollars Blues, James “Yank” Rachell, from “Legendary Country Blues Artists”
14.Stack O’ Dollars, Big Joe Williams, from “Big Joe Williams and the Stars of Mississippi Blues”
15.Stackolee, Dom Flemons,from “Dance tunes, Ballads and Blues”
“What doesthe song say exactly? It says no man gains immortality thru public acclaim. truth is shadowy. in the pre-postindustrial age, victims of violence were allowed (in fact it was their duty) to be judge over their offenders- parents were punished for their children’s crimes (we’ve come a long wy since then) the song says that a man’s hat is his crown. futurologists would insist it’s a matter of taste. they say “let’s sleep on it” but they’re already living in the sanatorium. No Rights Whithout Duty is the name of the game & fame is a trick. playing for time is is only horsing around. Stack’s in the cell, no wall phone. he is not some egotistical degraded existentialist dionysian idiot, neither does he represent any alternative lifestyle scam (give me a thousand acres of tractable land & you’ll see the Authentic alternative lifestyle, the Agrarian one) Billy didn’t have an insurance plan, didn’t get airsick yet his ghost is more real & genuine than all the dead souls on the boob tube- a monumental epic of blunder & misunderstanding. a romance tale whithout the cupidity.” (Bob Dylan’s liner notes to “Stack a lee” on his album “World Gone Wrong”)
I changed the design theme of the site to see how it looks and if it makes the reading more easy… Tell me if you prefer this or the older one…Right now, i’m working on the Stackalee Variations and it’s gonna be a fun listening, for sure, so see you soon…
Arnold (fiddle) and Irving (guitar) Williamson were from Logan County, West Virginia, like two other Anthology artists Frank Hutchinson and close neighbour Dick Justice. They recorded a few sides in the twenties for Okeh with a banjo player named Curry (I’m pretty sure he didn’t played a five-string on this records but something like a uke-banjo or tenor). Judging by the six sides we know, they were an old-timey dance act and it’s too bad they didn’t record more because they were on of the best ever recorded in this genre. Their version of “John Henry” is, in my opinion, one of the greatest version of the song too. One can feel a strong influence of black music on all this West-Virginian musicians, in a very obvious way with Hutchinson and Justice who sang many Blues songs but also with the wild square-dance music of The Williamson Brothers.
”John Henry” is the most famous american folksong of all time , one of the most recorded too by musicians of all kind and it took me a long time to select my favorite versions among the hundreds recorded. After a closer look at my personnal collection of cds and lps in search of “john Henry” tracks, i completed with things found on Emusic and on the folk collections available on the internet (Max Hunter’s collection, Digital Library of Appalachia). I ended up with 100 performancescoming from all the important folk and vernacular genres of 20th century America; From work songs to Blues, Old-time string band to Bluegrass, folk to jazz, etc… Black and white traditionnal music are equally represented, as the figure of John Henry and his impact on the american mind knows no boundaries of race. I think the popularity of “John Henry” is not only due to the story it tells but most important how it tells it, which melody carries the tale of this heroic man. This tune is the quintessential american melody, full of pulse and rhythm, going back and forth between the high and low notes, from a scream to a whisper… Among the many different instruments used for singing “John Henry”, the guitar used with a bottleneck to slide on the strings is the most appropriate (and one of the most widespread among blues guitarist) to render the “blue” notes and the whailing quality of the melody. The root of its pentatonic scale and syncopated rhythm is obviously an african one and was carried here by the vocal and instrumental genius of the african-american slaves that built the land. An important part of the “vitality” of american vernacular music is in fact due to known and unknown african-american musicians, who influenced white folk musicians, most strongly in the South, and left their mark on all popular music ever since.
-Lots of things have been written about John Henry and the song about him, so much that it would be too long for me and above my capacities to write down for you all this informations here. Instead i’ll give a few links that will help you explore the John Henry’s myth.
- First, there’s this great website dedicated entirely to the subject that summarize every aspect of the legend and gives a bibliography, a short discography and some different lyrics versions.
-I also recommand a book about the railroad in american folksongs written by Norm Cohen called “The long,steel rail”. The chapter about “John Henry” is really excellent.
-I classified the 100 tracks under a few categories but i recommand that once you’ve downloaded the entire set to mix them as you want, make your personnal favorite list and most important have a fun and enjoyable listening experience
Photos: Leadbelly (everytime i try to picture John Henry i think of him), drawing of John Henry, statue of John Henry in West Virginia, “The Big Bend Tunnel” sign, a children’s book about John Henry
-Well, now to relax yourself, just watch Disney’s short animated movie about John Henry
-Let’s end with Mississippi Fred Mac Dowell
-Toward the end of the Anthology, we’ll come back to John Henry, this time with the work song variant sang by Mississippi John Hurt “Spike Driver’s Blues”….
With this blog, i want to use the Folkways Anthology as a roadmap to explore american folk music and maybe other countries traditions along the way. I’ ll use texts, images, music and videos gathered from my personal collection and from the net to make this work-in-progress enjoyable and educationnal the best i can. Any suggestions, additional informations, comments and critics are welcome…
The Boll weevil, a little insect that feeds on cotton buds and flowers, originated in Mexico and migrated to the U.S in the late 19th century.First in the Texas area and then all across the South, it destroyed the cottonfields and plantations and caused the migration of thousands of farmers and field workers toward the northern big cities. It became the subject of many songs in the 20th century but the most famous of this “Boll weevil” songs present a rather humourous dialogue between a farmer and the little bug and the chorus most of the time, repeats the phrase “Looking for a home”. Folklorists think the song originated with black people and one of the older version is the one Charley Patton sang in his 1929 recording “Mississippi Bollweavil Blues”. It was sometimes sung in a manner of a “field holler” by blacks but Leadbelly’s version, which has the “looking for a home” chorus became the most famous, the one many folksingers sang during the Folk revival.
Walter “Furry” Lewis, born in Greenwood, Mississippi in 1893 was a superb country blues singer and a versatile guitar player with a relaxed and sponatenous style. He spent most of his life in the city of Memphis, Tennessee, which was a rich musical center for african-americans in the first decades of the 20th century. He learned his skills on the road with medecine shows, on mississippi riverboats, streets and clubs, playing music with W.C Handy’s orchestra, but settled down in Memphis after loosing one leg as he was hopping a train. On Beale street he would meet and play with many fine Memphis musicians like Gus Cannon,members of the Memphis Jug Band, Jim Jackson etc…He recorded more than 20 sides between 1927 and 1929 but as the Depression put a stop to record sales, he returned to work as a street sweeper around Beale Street. Like Mississippi John Hurt, he had a “second career” in the sixties, thanks to the “Anthology” and the Folk/Blues revival. It was Samuel Charters, the great music researcher and writer, that found him and record him first a the end of the Fifties.When Charters first met with Furry, he hadn’t play music for more than 20 years and dind’t even own a guitar. But when the “Blues” is in you, it stays forever and when he returned to play, his natural talent for playing and singing the Blues was unchanged, maybe he was a little bit slower on the guitar but his music gained in emotion and power with age. He would fingerpick or play with a bottleneck, depending on his mood and the song, the music flowing from him, in a natural and almost improvisationnal way.He became a prominent figure on the Blues and Folk festivals, made numerous new recordings,opened shows for the Rolling Stones and other rock stars and was the only country blues singer of his generation gaining popular attention, without changing his repertoire, deeply rooted in the african-american tradition of rags and blues. He died in 1981, at the age of 88.
Soon after the fatal train collision that killed engineer John Luther Jones (he was nicknamed “Casey” because he was from the town of “Cayce”, Kentucky) on april 30, 1900, heroic tales of his death started to be told across the South. When he was living, Jones already had a growing reputation among railroad folks for his trademark whistle (every engineer at this time could make his own whistle) and for his aptitude at being always on time. After his death, he became a real heroic figure and the song about him helped to carry his memory over the years.
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