-I reposted two songs from “The Drunkard’s Special Variations” that were protected files from my ITUNES library
-I also updated the zip file for “The Old Lady and The Devil Variations” because many tracks were also protected
Enjoy
7 “The Wagoner’s Lad” by Buell Kazee
The Wagoner’s Lad Variations
“Hard is the fortune of all woman kind…” The second performance by Buell Kazee on the Anthology continues to tell us of the misfortunes of women betrayed by men, not so much in the ballad style of “The Butcher’s Boy” but in a form called “folk-lyric song”. There’s many examples on the Anthology of this songs with “floating verses”, complete stanzas that seems to wander from song to song and the common theme of them all is usually love and its misfortunes.
-Most of the variations of the “Wagoner’s Lad” that i heard have very similar melodies in 3/4 time, and comes from a big family of songs who shares the same tunes as well as somes verses. (for example: “The Drunken Hiccups”, “Rye Whiskey”, “Jack O Diamonds”, “The Cuckoo”, “On Top Of Old Smoky”,etc…)
-You can go here to read the lyrics and hear another fine rendition of the song by Roger McGuinn
-As usual, i selected performances that i like the best from the ones i know of and mixed old and new, vocal and instrumental, famous and unknown.
TRACK LIST
1.The Wagoner’s Lad, Buell Kazee, from ”Anthology Of American Folk Music, Vol. 1A: Ballads”
2.My Horses Ain’t Hungry, Kelly Harrell, from ”Kelly Harrell Vol. 1 (1925-1926)”
3.Wagoner’s Lad, Joan Baez, from ”Joan Baez, Vol. 2″
4.Your Horses Ain’t Hungry, Bobby Harrison & Cullen Galyean, from “Let Me Fall – Old Time Bluegrass from the Virginia-North Carolina Border”
5.Hard is the fortune, Berry Sutterfield, from ”Ozark Folksongs”
6.The Waggoner’s Lad, Acie Cargill, Debra Cowan, Kristina Olsen, Susan Ruth Brown, from ”Folk Legacy Songs and Ballads of Hattie Mae Tyler Cargill”
7.Wagoner’s Lad, Tim O’Brien, from “The Crossing”
8.Wagoner’s Lad, John Sebastian & Brian Keane, from ”Song Of The Hills: Appalachian Classics”
9.Wagoner’s Lad, Pete Seeger, from ”American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 1″
10.The Wagoner’s Lad, Anonymous 4, from ”Gloryland”
11.The Waggoner’s Lad, Bert Jansch & John Renbourn, from ”Bert And John”
12.The Wagoner’s Lad ,Peggy Seeger, from “The Prestige / Folklore Years Volume 1 All Kinds Of Folks”
13.Loving Nancy, Dock Boggs, from ”His Folkways Years 1963-1968 (Disc 2)”
14.The Waggoner’s Lad, The Kossoy Sisters With Erik Darling, from ”Bowling Green”
15.Wagoner’s Lad, Mr. and Mrs. Sams, from ”Mountain Music of Kentucky (Disc 2)”
16.Wagoner’s Lad, Alicia Jo Rabins, from ”Sugar Shack”
17.Wagoner’s Lad, Big Hoedown & Bruce Molsky, from ”Bruce Molsky & Big Hoedown”
18.The Wagoner’s Lad, Grumpy Bear, from “Tribute To The Anthology Of American Folk Music By Harry Smith (Hinah.com)”
19.First Time Away/The Wagoner’s Lad, Cian Nugent, from ”Childhood, Christian Lies & Slaughter”
Merry Christmas, Hannouka sameakh,Happy Holydays to all…
6 “The Butcher’s Boy” by Buell Kazee
Buell Kazee’s World
And here’s Brother Kazee, “part-time banjo picker, full time servant of Christ”, singing his traditionnal mountain songs, with his “trained” voice and accompanying himself on his rippling banjo. The music on his instrument goes twice as fast as his voice, which is not the usual rough and untraid one of his fellow mountaineers, but an “educated” one. His style of banjo picking is a very tight clawhammer sound, matching perfectly his precise diction of the words. At the end of the 1920’s, in the studio recording, he was told to “countrify” his voice when he sang his mountain songs… Buell H.Kazee, born in 1900 in Kentucky, was a baptist minister who loved to sing the old songs and play the banjo. He recorded 52 sides between 1926 and 1929, some, like “Little Mohee”, were pretty succesful but the depression put a stop to his recording career and he went back to preach and to teach the Bible in Kentucky. Thanks to the Anthology, he was rediscovered by the folk revival in the 60’s and cut an lp for Folkways and another one for June Apple (re-issued last year by Appalshop) before his death in 1976.
-For a more complete biography, go here.
-On “Root hog or die” an excellent radio program as well as a blog, you can read this article, which gives good insights also on the Harry Smith Anthology.
-I’ve compiled 15 sides which focus on his clawhammer banjo style. Some of his recordings features also guitar or banjo played in a different style and apart from mountain ballads he sang a lot of sentimental songs. Some are very good but i tend to prefer the ones i picked for you (The three sides that appears on the Anthology will be featured elsewhere).
Track list:
1.John Hardy
2.Roll On John
3.Old Whisker Bill, The Moonshiner
4.Rock Island
5.Darling Cora
6.The Roving Cowboy
7.The Sporting Bachelors
8.Lady Gay
9.The Orphan Girl
10.Poor Boy Long Ways From Home
11.Little Bessie
12.The Dying Soldier (Brother Green)
13.Short Life Of Trouble
14.The Cowboy Trail
15.The Blind Man
-I’ve uploaded a clip of Buell Kazee where he explains his banjo playing. It’s from a dvd issued by Shanachie called “Traditionnal music classics” that features also Doc Watson, Roscoe Holcomb and Kilby Snow. Highly recommended!
The Butcher’s Boy Variations
The Bucher’s boy (or “The Railroad Boy” as it’s often called in America) is a british folk song that derived from an amalgam of a couple of Broadside ballads. This ballads were printed on paper and sold and distibuted in the cities from the 16th up to the early 20th century. They were recasting the news of the day in song form and were very popular in the cities as well as in the country where many became folk songs. A lot of them were telling sad tales of murder and betrayed love, much like the traditionnal folk ballads, and this one ,”the butcher’s boy” is a particulary sad one. It tells of a poor girl that hang herself because of her lover who betrayed her with a whealthier girl. The girl’s father finds a note next to her dead body where she asks to be buried in a grave with a dove placed on it to “tell the world that i died for love”.
-You can go here to read more about Broadside ballads
-The lyrics of “The Railroad Boy” can be seen here
-The variations of the song i picked for you includes a couple of english versions (Martin Carthy,Jasper Smith,Geoff Ling), an irish one (Tommy Makem),and lots of american versions: from the 78rpm aera (Buell Kazee, Kelly Harrell, Ephraim Woodie, The Blue Sky Boys), the folk revival (Joan Baez, Bob Dylan,Shirley Collins,etc…), bluegrass (Lilly Brothers), appalachian (Roscoe Holcomb, Almeda Riddle, Jean Ritchie with Doc Watson) and contemporary versions (Tom Carter, Furnace Mountain, Damien Jurado).
-The painting below is from Daryl Waller and was part of an exhibition dedicated to the Harry Smith Anthology. In 2007, the alt.gallery in England asked 84 artists and musicians to give a visual response to each selection from the Anthology. Go and visit their website to see and read more about it.
Track list:
1.The Butcher’s Boy ,Buell Kazee, from “Anthology Of American Folk Music, Vol. 1A: Ballads”
2.Died For Love ,Shirley Collins, from “False True Lovers”
3.Go Dig My Grave (Railroad Boy), Tom Carter , “From the Great American Songbook”
4.Died For Love, Jasper Smith, from “Hidden English”
5.Butcher’s Boy, Kelly Harrell, from “Kelly Harrell Vol. 1 (1925-1926)”
6.Railroad Boy, Furnace Mountain, from “Fly The River”
7.Died for Love, Geoff Ling, from “Voice of the People 10: Who’s That at My Bed Window?”
8.Butcher Boy, Lilly Brothers, from “The Prestige / Folklore Years Volume 5 Have A Feast Here Tonight”
9.Butcher’s Boy, Damien Jurado, from “Holding His Breath”
10.The Butcher Boy ,Dave Van Ronk, from “The Mayor Of MacDougal Street: Rarities 1957-1969″
11.The Butcher Boy, The Clancy Brothers And Tommy Makem And Their Families, from “Irish Folk Songs And Airs”
12.Butcher Boy, Hank Schwartz, from “Notes Along The Way”
13.Butcher Boy, Steve Camacho, from “Folk and Other Songs”
14.Butcher Boy, Ginny Hawker, from “The Harry Smith Connection: A Live Tribute to the Anthology”
15.Railroad Boy , Bob Dylan, from “the Minnesota Tapes 1″
16.Go Dig My Grave, Jean Ritchie, from “Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City”
17.The Butcher’s Boy,The Blue Sky Boys, from “Classic Country Remastered: Atlanta, GA – New York City 1940-1947″
18.Railroad Boy, Joan Baez, from “Joan Baez, Vol. 2″
19.Died for Love, Martin Carthy, from “Prince Heathen”
20.In London City, Roscoe Holcomb , from “Close To Home”
21.The Fatal Courtship, Ephraim Woodie, from “Music from the Lost Provinces”
22.Butcher Boy, Almeda Riddle, from “Ozark Folksongs”
-Here’s two other versions of the song that are worth hearing and seeing:
Bob Dylan and Joan Baez during the “Rolling Thunder Revue Tour” in 1976
The Mammals live at the Colony Cafe in Woodstock N.Y in 2006 (first time i heard a banjo player sounds like Jimi Hendrix!)
5 “Old lady & the devil” by Bill & Belle Reed
Bill & Belle Reed’s world
The 17th of October 1928, in Johnston City, Tennessee, Mr and Mrs Reed recorded one session for Columbia. They were probably coming from the nearby regions of Virginia or Kentucky along with other people coming to record this day. Like many before and after them, they would go back to their regulary life, after having fixed their home-made folk music on disc for posterity…
-Apart from their version of “The old lady and the devil” that was included on the Anthology, i know of only one other side from them. It’s called “You shall be free” , which will become “We shall be free” interpreted by Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly and “I shall be free” with Bob Dylan’s version… 
So, here they are:
1.You Shall be free by Bill & Belle Reed MP3
2.We shall be free by Woody Guthrie & Leadbelly (from ”The Original Vision” on Folkways) MP3
3.I shall be free by Bob Dylan (from “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan) MP3
Listening to this three tracks side by side , it revealed before me the great picture of american folk music on record, the three generations that shaped its tradition. First, you have the “real folks”, people that were recorded in the twenties and thirties, but carried with them a long oral tradition that predates the recording industry. Then came Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly, the two greatest figures of the folk movement of the forties, that was more involved with social issues and politics, already on the marge of the recording industry and “popular music”. And finally, you have Bob Dylan and the “folk revival” of the fifties and sixties, that reflects the heritage of what came before him and represented the new conscience of young people in America and all over the world in search of an alternative to the mass-entertainement culture and an authentic tradition to hang on to.
Hoping that one day, You, We, I shall be free…
The old lady and the devil Variations
After “The Drunkard’s Special”,and to stay in the comic register, Harry Smith put another americanized verison of a “Child Ballad” called “The Farmer’s Curst Wife”. Here, a bad lady is taken to hell by the devil but she’s so mean that the devil take her back to her husband. Child noticed that you can find similar songs all over the world… All the versions seems to share a nonsense refrain or a whistling part.
-Go here for the lyrics of Bill & Belle Reed’s version
-My compilation of twenty variations includes lots of traditionnal american and english versions but i managed to find unusual ones like the psychadelic folk of Gryphon and the punk-rock of The Mules. My personnal favorites are Terry Callier’s ,Texas Gladden with her brother Hobart Smith on guitar and as usual, the John Jacob Niles version is terrific…
-The drawing below is from artist Daniel Dutton. Check out his website where you’ll find other drawings inspired by traditionnal ballads and also music he performs.
Track listing:
1.Old Lady & The Devil, Bill & Belle Reed, from “Anthology Of American Folk Music, Vol. 1A: Ballads”
2.O Daddy Be Gay ,Judy Collins, from “A Maid Of Constant Sorrow/ Golden Apples Of The Sun”
3.Little Devils, Jean Ritchie, from “British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains”
4.The Devil out of hell, George Vinton Graham , from “California Gold: Library of Congress collection”
5.The Farmer’s Curst Wife, Horton Barker, from “Archive of Folk Culture – Anglo-American Ballads, Volume 1″
6.Johnny Be Gay If You Can Be, Terry Callier, from “New Folk Sound of Terry Callier”
7.The Farmer’s Curst Wife, Pete Seeger, from “American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 2″
8.Ole Lady & the Devil, David Krussel, from “Max Hunter Folksong Collection”
9.Devil and the farmer’s wife, Otis Williams, from “Max Hunter Folksong Collection”
10.The Farmer’s Curst Wife, Common Ground, from “Live At The Emu Farm”
11.The Devil and the Farmer’s Wife, Richard Dyer-Bennet, from “Stories and Songs for Children and Their Parents, Volume 13″
12.The Devil and the Farmer’s Wife ,Gryphon, from “Crossing the Styles – The Transatlantic Anthology”
13.The Devil and the Farmer’s Wife, Texas Gladden, from “The Alan Lomax Collection: Portraits – Ballad Legacy”
14.The Devil And The Ploughman, A.L. Lloyd, from “England & Her Traditional Songs”
15.The Devil & the Ploughman, The Mules, from “Here To Help”
16.The Farmer’s Curst Wife, Joe Hubbard, from “Virginia Traditions: Ballads from British Traditions”
17.The Farmer’s Curst Wife, Paul Clayton, from “Folksongs and Ballads of Virginia”
18.The Farmer’s Curst Wife, Spider John Koerner, from “Raised By Humans”
19.The Farmer’s Curst Wife, Jeff Warner and Jeff Davis, from “Two Little Boys: More Old Time Songs for Kids”
20.The Old Woman And The Devil, John Jacob Niles, from “The Ballads”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE OLD LADY AND THE DEVIL VARIATIONS (UPDATED LINK)
How could i miss this great version? Here’s Martin Carthy in 1971 on his album “Out of the cut”:The Devil and the feathery wife-mp3
4 “The Drunkard’s Special” by Coley Jones
Coley Jones’s World
One of the interesting aspect of Harry Smith’s Anthology is that it didn’t classified the perfomers in terms of race or ethnic groups. Before that, the recording industry always made really distinct catalogues, each one destinate to a particular ethnic group. You had “race records” for african-americans, “hilbilly” for whites of the southern mountains, italian, jewish, irish catalogues, etc… In their efforts to sell records to every american citizen, they documented for posterity really diverse ethnic musical traditions that were sometimes dying out in their own countries (Ireland,for example, where the revival of irish music was strongly influenced by the recordings of irish musicians in the 20’s and 30’s in America).
So, in 1952, when the Anthology came out, there was no information in the handbook to tell the listener if the musicians were black or white (apart from the cajun tracks, Harry Smith didn’t include any other ethnic groups). And then, for many years, as Smith pointed out, people were conviced that Mississippi John Hurt was a hillbilly! I admit myself that it took me a while to realise that Coley Jones was a black musician… When we look at his repertoire, we can see he was more of a songster than a bluesman. He performed songs and tunes from the ministrel show tradition, and his band, the Dallas String Band, played many popular tunes of the day.
-You can go here for more informations about Coley Jones and The Dallas String Band.
-I’ve compiled all the tracks that i have by Coley Jones, his duets with Bobbie Cadillac and the superb ones by the Dallas String Band.
COLEY JONES
1.Drunkard’s Special
2.Army man in no man’s land
3.Travelling Man
4.Drunkard’s Special
5.The Elder is my man
BOBBIE CADILLAC & COLEY JONES
6.Listen Everybody
7.Easin’in
8.I can’t stand that
9.He throws that thing
DALLAS STRING BAND
10.Dallas Rag
11.Sweet mama Blues
12.So Tired
13.Hokum Blues
14.Chasin’ Rainbows
15.I used to call her baby
16.Shine
17.Sugar Blues
The Drunkard’s Special Variations
Regarding what i said above about racial separations, it’s interesting to note that this song or one his variants is sung equally by whites or blacks. Apparently, the subject of the drunken fool is an universal one… You can find these song under many names: Four nights drunk, Three nights drunk, (The Irish version is called “Seven Drunken Nights”!!!), Cabbage head, etc…and they all comes from the English “Child Ballad” called “Our Goodman”.
Here’s the original story: “A man returns home to find evidence that his wife has a lover there: a horse, a sword, a wig, etc, up to finding the lover. His wife makes absurd claims: the horse is a sow, the sword is a porridge-spurtle, the wig is a clocken-hen, the lover is a milk-maid. Her husband says that he never saw a sow with a saddle, a porridge-spurtle with silver handles, a clocken-hen with powder, or a milk-maid with a beard.” Or, in Harry Smith’s newspaper style from the handbook: “”Wife’s Logic Fails to Explain Strange Bedfellow to Drunkard”
-I’ve tried to make a fun-to-listen compilation and included string band, traditionnal, rythm-and-blues, Irish pub and contemporary versions and ended with Wendy Grossman’s up-to-date version where she explain what’s called “the folk process”…
Track listing:
1.Cabbagehead, Jim Krause, from “Going Up the Missouri: Songs & Dance Tunes from Old Fort Osa”
2.Intoxicated Rat, Doc Watson, from ”Doc Watson first album”
3.Cabbage Head – Part 1, Tom Archia, from ”1947-1948 recordings”
4.Cabbage Head – Part 2,Tom Archia
5.Our Goodman -Child 274, Ewan MacColl, from ”The English and Scottish Popular Ballads: Vol. 1″
6.Three nights Experience, Earl Johnson, from ”Earl Johnson Vol. 1 1927″
7.Three Nights Drunk, Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett, from ”Serenade The Mountains: Early Old Time Music On Record, CD C”
8.Cabbage head song, Bill Livers, from the ”Digital Library of Appalachia”
9.Wake Up Baby, Sonny Boy Williamson, from ”A Ray Of Sonny, Vol. 2″
10.Four nights drunk, Sheila K. Adams, from the ”Digital Library of Appalachia”
11.Four nights drunk, Jenes Cottrell, from the ”Digital Library of Appalachia”
12.Our Goodman or Old Cuckold , John Jacob Niles, from ”My Precarious Life In The Public Domain”
13.The Goodman, Kate Rusby, from ”Underneath the Stars”
14.Seven Drunken Nights, The Dubliners, from ”The Dubliners”
15.Cabbage Head,, Ruth Brown, from ”A Good Day for the Blues”
16.Four Nights Drunk, Steeleye Span, from ”Ten Man Mop Or Mr. Resevoir Butler Rides Again”
17.Four Nights Drunk, Wendy Grossman, from her Website
ENJOY (in moderation)
DOWNLOAD “THE DRUNKARD’S SPECIAL VARIATIONS”
-UPDATE LINKS: I re-post two of the songs from the above compilation because they were protected files from my ITUNES library
-I’ll end up with this great performance of “The Drunkard’s Special” by The Wiyos live at Caffe Lena
3 “The House Carpenter” by Clarence Ashley
Clarence Ashley’s World
Clarence “Tom” Ashley was one of the few performers on the Anthology that were rediscovered by the Folk revival. Thirty years after his debut recordings activities of the 1920’s, solo or with various string bands (The Carolina Tar Heels, Byrd Moore and his Hot Shots), and his life on the road travelling with medecine shows, he gained a new audience of young people from the cities discovering his “old-time music”, a mixture of old modal banjo ballads and tunes from the appalachians mountains, comic songs from the medecine shows and white-hillbilly Blues. When Ralph Rinzler met Ashley in a fiddler’s convention in the early 60’s, he was also introduced to Doc Watson, who was making a living at that time playing electric guitar with a country and western swing band. Doc would soon become one of the most loved musician of american folk music, continuing and expanding the tradition of people like Clarence Ashley.
-You can read about his life and his rediscovery by Ralph Rinzler on a website dedicated to his memory and see also lots of great pictures of him with his family and friends.
-I’ve made a compilation of 14 tracks, focusing exclusively on Ashley’s solo performances with his banjo and an extraordinary unaccompanied version of “Wayfaring Pilgrim”. There will be other occasions on this blog to present the music he made with other peoples as well.
1.Little Sadie
2.Coo Coo Bird
3.House Carpenter
4.Old John Hardy
5.Naomi Wise
6.Dark Holler
From the compilation issued by County Records “Greenback Dollar 1929-1933″
7.Whoa Mule
8.Shout Little Lulu
9.Wild Bill Jones
10.Cluck Old Hen
11.Little Hillside
From the Folkways lp “Clarence Ashley and Tex Isley”
12.Shady Grove
13.Walking Boss
14.Wayfaring Pilgrim
From “Original Folkways Recordings Of Doc Watson And Clarence Ashley, 1960-1962″
DOWNLOAD “CLARENCE ASHLEY’S WORLD”
The House Carpenter Variations
Perhaps one of the most famous of the Child Ballads and one of the most sung too. Originally titled “The Demon Lover” and also known as “James Harris”, it’s the tale of a woman who leaves his husband and children to follow an old lover on his ship and then regrets before the ship sinks in the sea. In the original english version, the lover is the devil himself but it’s common that this kind of ballads loose their supernatural aspects in american versions.
-You can go here for the lyrics of Clarence Ashley’s version
-I made a selection of 17 versions among the many available for this song. i’ve choose to include the most famous ( Joan Baez, young Bob Dylan, Nathalie Merchant), the most traditionnals (A.L Lloyd, Texas Gladden, Dillard Chandler, the Walin Brothers) with contemporary versions that i like (Kelly Joe Phelps, The Handsome Family, Jolie Holland). There’s also a french-cajun variant called “J’ai marié un ouvrier” interpreted beautifully by guitarist and singer David Doucet.
1,The Demon Lover, A.L. Lloyd, from ”English & Scottish Folk Ballads”
2.The House Carpenter, Mrs. Texas Gladden, from ”Archive of Folk Culture – Anglo-American Ballads, Volume 1″
3.Little Farmer Boy, Dillard Chandler, from ”Dark Holler: Old Love Songs And Ballads”
4.The House Carpenter, Annie Watson and Gaither Carlton, from “The Doc Watson Family”
5.The House Carpenter, Doc Watson, from “Live at Gerdes Folk City”
6.House Carpenter, Bob Dylan, from ”The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 : Rare And Unreleased, 1961-1991″
7.The House Carpenter, Joan Baez, from “In Concert”
8.House Carpenter, Doug and Jack Wallin, from ”Family Songs and Stories from the North Carolina Mountains”
9.The House Carpenter, Pete Steele and his wife, from ”Banjo Tunes And Songs”
10.House Carpenter, Jean Ritchie, from “Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City”
11.House Carpenter, Pentangle, from ”Early Classics”
12.The House Carpenter, Nathalie Merchant, from “The House Carpenter’s Daughter”
13.The House Carpenter, Kelly Joe Phelps, from ”Shine Eyed Mister Zen”
14.J’ Ai Marie Un Ouvrier, David Doucet, from ”1957″
15.The House Carpenter, The Handsome Family, from ”Milk & Scissors”
16.Daemon Lover Variations, Janet Smith & Steve Mann, from ”Imaginational Anthem Vols. 1-3″
17.Demon Lover Improv, Jolie Holland, from ”Catalpa”
DOWNLOAD “THE HOUSE CARPENTER VARIATIONS”
