“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
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.
