Dear followers of The Old Weird America,
As I’m preparing to embark on my first trip to the USA (remember, I’m in France…) I wanted to announce that there won’t be any new post here until the fall season. I’m going to be in West Virginia in August to attend the Clifftop festival and The Augusta Heritage Center workshops. If any of you will be at this places, I’d be more than happy to meet you to talk and share some tunes…
I want to thank everyone who made a donation here and support this work-in-progress exploration of Harry Smith’s Anthology (Three years already…).
I have now all the “Songs” volume to occupy me for the year to come. So, see you in the Fall with some great “Cuckoo” variations…
Happy summer to all,
Gadaya
“All Negro-made church music is dance -possible… The service is really drama with music. And since music without motion is unnatural among Negroes there is alwayas something that approaches dancing-in fact, IS dancing-in such a ceremony. So the congregation is restored to its primitive altars under the new name of Christ.” Zora Neale Hurston. The Sanctified Church. Turtle Island, Berkeley, 1983
Once again, I’ll use Paul Oliver’s “Songsters and Saints” book to tell about Reverend D.C. Rice, the last preacher to appear on Harry Smith’s Anthology and the one concluding the “Social” set, singing the joyful “I’m In The Battlefield For My Lord”, along with his Congregation and Jazz band.
“Rice was born around 1888 in Barbour County, Alabama and attended his father’s Baptist church there. During the war he moved to Chicago and was “saved” when he joined Bishop Hill’s Church of The Living God, Pentecostal on the East Side. After Hill’s death in 1920 he took over a small Sanctified church which expanded through the appeal of his leadership, and the attraction of the eight or nine piece bands which he often used. In 1928, having heard recordings by Reverend McGee and Reverend Gates, he sought a recording session with Jack Kapp of Vocalion Records, who told him “to preach like you’re preaching to the whole world out there”. Though scared, “I just let myself go and preached like the Lord told me to save all the sinners in the world”. His sermon, based on Luke 24:2, “and they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre”, was a forceful but very condensed summary of the Resurrection.
“The Angels Rolled The Stone Away”
It was more for his singing and music than for his preaching that Rice’s records are notable. A large proportion of his recordings were songs without sermons, including Who Do You Call That Wonderful Counsellor, Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?, and a version of the same song, Sin Is To Blame, that Rev. McGee has recorded earlier. When he preached, his sermons were brief, as on I Will Arise And Go To My Father, stating a text and describing it before leading his congregation into song. He was a firm, clear preacher with a full voice, but he did not match this with an interpretative skill; his sermons pointed no morals, drew no conclusions. Clearly he was aware of other preachers, particularly Rev. McGee, and recorded a version of Shall Not A Dog Move His Tongue, quoting Exodus 11:7. “When I use the word “dog”, I do not mean the natural dog, but you that have a dog-like spirit. You bark at the pastors, you snap at the deacons…”, he explained. But he did not develop the theme, undoubtedly derived from McGee, nor did he fefer to it again in his short sermon, which continued the story of Moses before Pharaoh.
“Who Do You Call That Wonderful Counsellor”, “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?”, “Sin is to Blame”, “I Will Arise and Go to My Father”, “Shall Not A Dog Move His Tongue”
Most original of Rice’s recordings was the fifth to be issued, though it was made at his second session, Come and See. Drawing from the sixth chapter of Revelations it described the opening of the Seven Seals, with the title a sung refrain:
And I saw when the Lamb had opened one of the seals
And I heard the first beast saying-
Come and see; come and see; come and see….
And there went forth a white horse and he that sat upon him
Had a bow and a crown.
And he went forth conquering and to conquer,
And I heard the second beast saying-
Come and see; come and see; come and see…
So he continued through the opening of the seals in turn with the congregation singing the refrain in slow harmony, the trombone playing majestically with them. Rev. Rice, with his talent for condensing the scriptures continued:
I looked under the altar and I saw the souls
That were slain for the word of God,
And for the testament of Jesus,
And they looked out and cried with a loud voice,
How long, Oh Lord, dost thou judge and avenge our blood?
White robes were given to each of them,
That they might rest for a season,
And I heard the sixth beast saying-
Come and see; come and see; come and see…
“Come and See”
Testify-For The Lord is Coming Again was sung in responsorial form by Rice and his congreagation to the boom of a bass, piano and clattering tambourine:
Testify (Testify!) Don’t be sad (Don’t be sad!)
Tell the truth (tell the truth!) Don’t you add (don’t you add)
For no adder- can’t go in,
For my Lord is coming back again.
Sanctified father, sanctified son,
Sanctified people, all are one
If you’re not sanctified-can’t go in-
For my Lord is coming back again.
Testify- For The Lord Is Coming Back Again
We Got The Same Kind of Power Over Here, made at Rice, last session in mid-1930, was to the customary form of a Testifying meeting. Rev. Rice’s wife was called upon to testify:
I’m saved and I’m sanctified, baptized with the Holy Ghost and power,
Speaking with tongues as the spirit give up.
I thank God today for the same power,
That raised up jesus from the dead,
Has also quit my mortal body
And today I’m running up the King’s Highway- pray for me!
“Hallelujah!” responded Rice, “it’s a wonderful power in the blood”.
We Got The Same Kind of Power Over Here
Rev. Rice’s recording career stopped in 1930 because of The Depression and he left Chicago for Jackson, Alabama, where he had a small church for two years. In 1932, he became the pastor of the Oak Street Holiness Church in Montgomery , Alabama, and in 1941 also became Bishop of The Apostolistic Overcoming Holy Church of God for Alabama, Georgia and Florida. He had electric organ, and other instruments, depending on the musicians in his congregation. However, at this time only his Vocalion recordings survive. Bishop Rice passed on in March 1973, in Montgomery, Alabama. (from Roger Misiezwicz’s notes on Document’s Complete recorded works of Rev D. C. Rice)
I’m In The Battlefield For My Lord
This classic gospel song, written by Sylvana Bells and E.V. Banks, and performed here with lots of swing by Rev. D.C Rice, his congregation and some jazz musicians, is the perfect closing for the religious set of the Anthology. The song itself is an old favorite of Gospel singers, using the war imagery to express one’s faithful worship of God.
I’ve selected a few recordings of the song, all but one (an electronic-pop version from australian songwriter Charles Du Cain) from Gospel performers.
I’m In The Battlefield For My Lord Rev. D.C. Rice1928-30
I Am On The Battlefield For My Lord/I’m A Soldier United States Army Field BandIn My Dream
On The Battlefield For My Lord (feat. Juanita Harris) The Choral ProjectTell the World
I’m On The Battlefield For My Lord Charles Du CaneTomahawk
On the Battlefield for My Lord Curtis LundyGospel Glory
I’m on the Battlefield for My Lord Ethel Caffie-Austin The Harry Smith Connection: A Live Tribute to the Anthology
(Click on Harry Smith to download all the tracks of this post)
“The Half Ain’t Never Been Told” Rev. F.W . McGee and His Congregation (1928)
Tell it over again- (ain’t never been told)
The half ain’t never been told.
Dear brothers and sisters,
We come before you at this hour,
To tell you about the half ain’t never been told.
Our text is found in the Book of the First Kings,
The tenth chapter and the seven verse,
And reads as follows:
“Howbeit I believed not the words,
Until I came and mine eyes had seen it,
And behold-the half was not told me;
Thy wisdom and prosperity
Exceedeth the fame which I heard…”
“Before he began to preach, Reverend F.W. McGee led his congregation in a snatch of gospel song, their sung response lines overlapping antiphonally with his own, while the sweeping glissandi of a a broad-toned trombone and the cross-rhythms of guitar, piano and percussion contributed to the exhilarating sound. As the stanza ended, the tension was sustained with his powerful delivery of the story of the visit of the Queen of Sheba to the Kingdom of Solomon. Members of the congregation shouted their approval and sang or moaned in accord, while, with a strong and trembling voice, he lingered on specific words to an implied beat. His sermon was an allegory, an appeal for understanding, discernment and judgement, and was addressed not only to the congregation present but to the thousands of black people who purchased phonograph discs of preaching in the 1920′s.”
(This is the introduction to “Songsters and Saints” by Paul Oliver, a wonderful book about “Vocal traditions on Race records”, and I’m quoting him also for the biography of McGee)
Reverend Ford Washington McGee was one of the most popular preacher on the “Race” records of the 1920′s and 1930′s, along with Reverend J.M Gates, Rev. Nix or Reverend J.C Burnett. Born in Tennessee in 1890, he was raised in farming communities in Texas. His parents sent him to college in Oklahoma where he trained as a teacher, leaving this profession for evangelism and practicing faith healing, until he joined the Church of God in Christ. The blind pianist and singer, Arizona Dranes, helped him build his congregation in Oklahoma City, while he successfully evangelized in Iowa and elsewhere. In 1925 he established a church under canvas at 33th Street in Chicago’s South Side, and three years later laid the foundation stone of his “Temple” on Vincennes. His first recordings under his own name and with his Church of God in Christ Jubilee Singers was a single title for Okeh, Lion of the tribe of Judah, a shouting spiritual with stomping piano by Arizona Dranes.
Arizona Juanita Dranes was a blind girl from Texas of mexican and african-american parents. She has been instrumental in getting McGee to record and played with him and his Jubilee Singers on some of her sides in 1926.
Arizona Dranes (with McGee and his Jubilee Singers) on Bye and Bye We’re Going to see the King and Lamb’s Blood has washed me clean
A few months after his first session under his own name, he got a contract with Victor Records and recorded more than forty titles for the label in the following years until the Depression made a stop to his recorded career in 1930. Many of his records sold well and his 78rpm record coupling “Jonah in the Belly of the Whale” and “With His Stripes We Are Healed” sold more than 100,000 copies.
“Jonah in the Belly of the Whale” and “With His Stripes We Are Healed” by Rev. McGee
On his recordings, McGee’s rich and musical voice, which had more subtlety than other preachers, was accompanied by members of his congregation and some musical instruments like piano (played by Rev. D.C. Williams), guitars, mandolins, brass and rhythm instruments, creating a joyful and lively sound. On some recordings, the singing and playing is heard throughout, while on others, the preaching part is more important.
While his recording career stopped in 1930, Rev. McGee continued to increase his community in his own Chicago church and continued to preach until his death, in 1971.
-Document Records issued Rev. McGee’s complete recordings on two cds and have also one cd devoted to Arizona Dranes.
Fifty Miles of Elbow Room
Rev. McGee recorded “Fifty Miles of Elbow Room” with his congregation at his last session and it’s one of their best performance, sung throughout the whole side, with a full musical accompaniment of string and brass instruments. (Some even think this is the best song ever, read this fine article here)
Rev. McGee and Congregation, “Fifty Miles Of Elbow Room” (This is take 1 of the song, the one appearing on the Anthology is take 2)
The song was written by Herbert Buffum (1879-1939) a very prolific gospel song writer (who claimed to have written thousands of gospel songs). He was a Holiness/Pentecostal evangelist and lived and worked in California. It’s in this state that Sara Carter claimed to have heard the song for the first time in an Adventist church. She recorded it with the Carter Family during their very last session in october 1941 and it is to their version that most of the singers afterwards would refer to when they sing the song.
The Carter Family “Fifty Miles of Elbow Room”
Here’s a little compilation of 8 versions of the song that I like, many being in the same vein and influenced by The Carters but also a more Honky-Tonk Country version by Hank Locklin and a Dixie Jazz version (which is closer in feeling to the Rev McGee’s upbeat version) by Turk Murphy, both from the 1950′s.
Iris DeMent (Infamous Angel)
The Red Clay Ramblers (Merchants Lunch)
Turk Murphy And His Jazz Band (At The Roundtable)
Dry Branch Fire Squad (Live At the Newburyport Firehouse)
(Featuring Gillian Welch) James Alan Shelton (Gospel Guitar)
Hank Locklin (A Year Of Time)
Sonsy (Heaven’s Bright Shore)
Norman & Nancy Blake (Blind Dog)
-For discussing the meaning of the song “Fifty Miles of Elbow Room”, I can’t do better than turn you to this Celestial Monochord article
-I don’t know if it’s still in activity but there’s a fine web site/ record shop bearing the name “Fifty Miles of Elbow Room” from Brooklyn, New York who sells many fine lps and cds. Check it out!
In the summer of 1927, Ernest Phipps and His Holiness Quartet, all members of the Free Holiness Pentecostal Church around Corbin, Kentucky, journeyed to Bristol, Tennessee, to record for Ralph Peer for the historical “Bristol Sessions”. These sessions were considered the “Big Bang” of real American Country Music recordings mostly because Jimmy Rodgers and The Carter Family,two of the most successful and influential early Country artists were discovered there. During these few days in in July and August 1927, Mr Peer recorded a large sample of vernacular music from the South, String bands,banjo players, singers and religious bands. Among the religious performers, the most exciting sound came from Phipps and His Holiness Quartet, who sang in the fervent and vigorous style of the Holiness Church, accompanied by string instruments and clapping. This type of religious performance evolved from “The Great Awakening”, when “American Protestant rebelled against Old World Puritanism ” and spread a new spirit of religious fervor and emotion, which lead to the foundation of new religious groups like the Pentecostal and Holiness Churches. Like in many african-american churches, the congregation was invited to sing and rejoice with all his heart and sometimes reach a kind of ecstatic experience through the process.
-Listen to “A little talk with Jesus” by Ernest Phipps and His Holiness Singers
Ernest Phipps and His Singers would record six sides in 1927 and six more the following year. Apart from his preaching/singing occupations, Phipps was a coal miner. Born around 1900, he died in 1968.
Here are Ernest Phipps’s complete recordings:
A Little Talk With Jesus
Bright Tomorrow
Shine on Me
I Know that Jesus Set Me Free
Went Up in the Clouds of Heaven
If the Light has Gone Out in Your Soul
Don’t Grieve after Me
Happy in Prison
Jesus Getting Us Ready for that Great Day
Old Ship of Zion
Do, Lord Remember Me
I Want to Go Where Jesus is
-For another great example of this type of religious music, I strongly recommend the singing of Brother Claude Ely. I discovered him on the superb box set “Goodbye Babylon” issued by Dust-To-Digital a few years ago and this label issued a biography book this last winter that includes a cd of his best performances.
Shine on Me
Listen to “Shine on me” by Ernest Phipps & His Holiness Singers
Some verses of “Shine on me”, sung on the Anthology by Ernest Phipps & His Holiness Singers come from of a 19th century hymn called “Maitland” by George N. Allen which was sung with the words of “Must Jesus Bear The Cross Alone”, a text by Thomas Sheperd. But the chorus (“Shine on me” ) comes from a popular african-american spiritual “Let the light from the lighthouse shine on me” that was recorded many times during the last century. Usually sung with increasing speed and volume, (hear Leadbelly’s and Blind Willie Johnson’s for example), it is a beautiful and powerful song, really leading to elevate the “spirit”!
I’ve selected 10 versions of “Shine on me” that goes back to the early Gospel quartets of the 1920′s to the incredible harmony singing of the Gospel bands of the 1950′s, including some great guitar players/singers like Blind Willie Johnson, Leadbelly, Cliff Carlisle and Rev. Gary Davis.
The Carter Family recorded “Little Moses” in February 14, 1929, their third session for Victor. They arrived this time in Camden, New Jersey with a brand new Chevrolet, amazed at the popularity they gained during their three years in the recording business. During this session (that you can hear and download here) they recorded many of their best known songs like “I’m thinking tonight of my blue eyes”, “Sweet Fern”, “My Clinch Mountain Home”, “The Foggy Mountain Top”, “Engine 143″, etc… and the song we’re going to look more closely in this post, “Little Moses”. Sara Carter learned this “religious ballad” from an older relative, Myrtle Bayes and the song was collected in 1905 under the title “Moses in the bulrushes” in “Ballads and Songs Collected by the Missouri Folklore Society”. The song tells the story of the founding of baby Moses by Pharaoh’s daughter and some other famous scenes of the prophet’s life as told in the Bible book of Exodus. In his form, the song reads like a children’s Sunday school lesson and his simple melody in waltz time with his repetitive last verses in the chorus enhance this lullaby character.
Here are the lyrics:
1. Away by the river so clear,
The ladies were winding their way,
While Pharaoh’s little daughter stepped down in the water
To bathe in the cool of the day.
Before it was dark, she opened the ark
And found the sweet infant was there.
Before it was dark, she opened the ark
And found the sweet infant was there.
2. And away by the waters so blue,
The infant was lonely and sad;
She took him in pity and thought him so pretty,
And it made little Moses so glad.
She called him her own, her beautiful son,
And sent for a nurse that was near. (X2)
3. And away by the river so clear,
They carried that beautiful child,
To his own tender mother, his sister and brother,
Little Moses looked happy and smiled.
His mother, so good, done all that she could
To rear him and teach him with care. (X2)
4. And away by the sea that was red,
Little Moses, the servant of God,
While in Him confided, the sea was divided
As upwards he lifted his rod.
The Jews safely crossed while Pharaoh’s host
Was drownded in the waters and lost. (X2)
5. And away on the mountain so high,
The last one that ever did see,
While in his victorious, his hope was most glorious,
He’d soon o’er the Jordan be free.
When his labors did cease, he departed in peace,
And rested in the Heavens above. (X2)
The Carter Family’s version of “Little Moses” was covered many times during the last fifty years, from Joan Baez to Ralph Stanley… I ‘ve selected 15 recordings of the song that I enjoy and hope that you’ll enjoy too!
Track list:
Joan Baez (Joan Baez)
E.C. Ball (Land of Yahoe)
Margot Leverett & The Klezmer Mountain Boys (Second Avenue Square Dance)
The Stairwell Sisters (The Stairwell Sisters)
Straight Drive (I’ll Take a Page From Your Book)
John McCutcheon (Barefoot Boy With Boots On)
Wayne Henderson (Made & Played)
Ralph Stanley (A Distant Land To Roam: Songs Of The Carter Family)
Alex Campbell & Olabelle Reed (Old Time Gospel Singing)
Mac Wiseman (Great Folk Ballads)
Greg Morton (Solo Guitar)
Neal Morris & Jimmy Driftwood (Ozark Folksongs)
Mrs. Iva Haslett (Max Hunter Folk song collection)
The Seekers (The Seekers)
The Carter Family (Anthology Of American Folk Music)
Maybe the greatest “guitar evangelist” of all time, Blind Willie Johnson remains quite a mysterious figure, with only a few biographical hints to help us understand his life and his music.Like many blind african-american in the 1920′s and 1930′s, music was one way to scratch a living, singing on street corners and maybe, if you had a special talent and a little luck, on a recording studio for a phonograph company. In fact, we can find many examples of Blues guitar players from this era who were blind, played on the streets and had many religious songs in their repertoire: Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie McTell and Reverend Gary Davis being the most well known. We don’t know if Blind Willie Johnson played secular songs as well, as all of his 30 recordings are religious pieces and even if his records sold well during his time, he had to rely on busking throughout all of his life to make a living. As a performer, he remains one of the most intense singer and guitar player ever recorded, influencing many others during his lifetime and ever since. His superb slide guitar playing and his powerful harsh voice are the most distinctive elements of his musicianship but he could also play some intricate guitar bass runs and sing with a warm tenor on some sides.
-For elements of his biography, there are already many pages on the web you can look out. Here are a few interesting links:
-I choosed to share with you his last session, 10 sides (which includes the Anthology selection “John The Revelator”), recorded on April 20, 1930 in Atlanta. He is accompanied by his first wife, Willie B. Harris who takes the lead on some tracks. During this session, Johnson uses mostly his guitar in regular tuning, played with a heavy thumb, returning only for the last track to his more celebrated slide playing. One song here seems to come from the white tradition (“If it had not been for Jesus”) and some are among his best performances (“The rain don’t fall on me”, “The Soul of a man” “John The Revelator”).
Track list:
1.Can’t Nobody hide from God
2.If It had not been for Jesus
3.Go to me with that land
4.The rain don’t fall on me
5.Trouble will soon be over
6.The soul of a man
7.Everybody ought to treat a stranger right
8.Church I’m fully saved today
9.John The Revelator
10.You’re gonna need somebody on your bond
Listen here
John The Revelator (The Variations)
“John The Revelator” is a classic “call and response” african-american song about John of Patmos, the author of the “Book of Revelation”, the final book in the “New Testament” corpus. Blind Willie Johnson’s version seems to be the most influential and have been “covered” many times by Blues and Rock artists. I have compiled some of my favorite versions, which includes The Golden Gate Quartet, Son House, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, some contemporary bands like Frankenpine and Sacred Shakers,The Holy Modal Rounders (singing the “New John The Revelator”!) and a gospel a-capella choir recorded by Alan Lomax… Enjoy!
Known in his lifetime as “The Minstrels of the Appalachians” and “The Squire of South Turkey Creek”, Bascom Lamar Lunsford was a man of multiple endeavors, with a calling to preserve and entertain with the folk heritage of the Appalachian mountains where he spent all his busy life. Born in 1882 in Madison County, North Carolina, he was raised in a middle-class family which put education and arts above all things but stayed close to the soil and the traditional values of the Southern mountains. Bascom would be at ease all his life both with urban and country people, making a bridge between both worlds, the old and the new, the entertainment and the scholarship, the stage and the living-room, the church and the dance floor. He claimed that he visited more homes in the mountains than anyone, and thanks to his early occupations of fruit tree seller and beekeeper, he knew well the backwoods people, who were the good musicians and singers and managed to collect hundreds of songs, tunes and tales from them. Working officially as a lawyer, he nevertheless devoted most of his energy to promote musicians, organize festivals, record and collect folk music with a zeal and passion that was legendary. He “would cross Hell on a rotten tail to get a folk song”. His major achievements were the Mountain Folk and Dance Festival he created in Asheville in 1928 (and sill running today!) and the impressive number of folk songs and tunes he recorded for the Library of Congress (more than 300 items). Through his work with the festival and his recordings, he had the ambition to restore the pride and dignity of Southern folks and their music and keep this traditions alive against all the threats of modernity . With his five-string banjo and his impeccable suits, his impressive memory and love of his fellow-man, he indeed managed to be an incredible promoter and entertainer of folk music, years before “Folk Revivals” of all kind. When young urban people from the northern cities became interested in Southern music in the 1950′s and 1960′s, his attitude was often conservative and suspicious of the “outsiders”. He had a strong and personal vision of what was “authentic” and what not, even if he had to accept some new trends and changes along the years.
Recordings
His own performance style never changed much during the 30 years he recorded for collectors or records companies. With his simple but effective two-finger style picking on the banjo and his powerful and mannered voice, he was right in the middle between rougher mountain pickers and the more sophisticated folk singers like John Jacob Niles. He was first recorded in 1922 and 1925 by scholars Frank C. Brown and Robert Winslow Gordon on cylinder discs.
-Listen to Bascom Lamar Lunsford singing (without the banjo)“Old Gray Mare”, “Hesitation Blues” and “Not-a-gonna lay my religion down” ( Recorded on cylinder discs by Robert Winslow Gordon in 1925 for the Library of Congress)
(This recordings were issued on a lp called “Folk Songs of America” you can listen here)
The previous year, in 1924, he made his first commercial recordings for the Okeh company, recording “Jesse James” and “I wish I was a mole in the ground” (a song he would record again in 1928, and will be the subject of a future post…). I never heard this 1924 recordings as it seems they never were re-issued so if someone has a copy and can digitalize them, it would be greatly appreciated….
He recorded again two other sides for Okeh the following year, this time with Blackwell Lunsford (a brother maybe?) on fiddle.
-Listen to “Fate of San Barbara” and “Sherman Valley” (1925 Okeh recordings)
His biggest commercial recording session held in Ashland, Kentucky in 1928 for the Brunswick label where 12 sides were recorded. Most of them were his versions of old-time mountain songs but it also included two pieces he wrote himself, both songs dealing with the subject of moonshining: The first one,”Old mountain Dew” was maybe his most well-remembered song, one that became a standard and entered the folk tradition. The other song, “Nol Pros” Nellie, was a parody of the famous folk song “Darling Nelly Gray”. “Nol Pros” is a legal term meaning that the charges in the court are not going to be pressed. The “Nellie” of the song is a moonshiner who has fled the law. Unable to locate her, the authorities had to fill a “Nol Pros”.
-Listen to “Old Mountain Dew” and “Nol Pros” Nellie
From the same session, some of my favorite Lunsford sides:
-Listen to “Stepstones” and “Lost John Dean”
Bascom’s last commercial recordings on 78rpm records feature his story-telling and humor on two narratives, one, “Speaking the Truth” is a parody of a church sermon and the other, “A Stump Speech in the tenth district” is a parody of a politic speech, with a musical introduction by The Skillet Lickers.
-Listen to “Speaking the truth” and “A Stump Speech in the tenth district” (1930 Columbia recordings)
Bascom would record hundreds of items for the Library of Congress including ballads,songs, fiddle tunes,tales, jokes,singing games,hyms and religious songs,etc…;the whole gamut of the Appalachian folklore he collected during all these years visiting folks in the mountains and organizing the Asheville festival. He called this his “Memory Collection” and it’s maybe the biggest collection in this field. He recorded first in 1935 on aluminium discs and then in 1949. Only a few of this performances were released on commercial discs, and you can hear about 14 of them (it includes also 5 sides from the 1928 Brunswick recording session) on a Smithsonian/Folkways cd called “Ballads, Banjo tunes, and Sacred Songs of Western North Carolina”.
-Listen to “Swannanoa Tunnel” (A mountain folk lyric that evolved from an African-american work song that gave also the song “The nine-pound hammer”), “Ten Steps” (a fiddle tune), “Swing Low” (a religious song) and “The Mermaid Song” (A song that evolved from a Child Ballad)
Some of Bascom’s Library of Congress recordings were also issued on a lp called “Songs and Ballads of American History and of the Assassination of Presidents”. It featured one side with Lunsford’s songs and tunes related to the topic the assassinations of president. The lp was reissued by Rounder in CD format (Buy it here)
-Listen to “Zolgotz” (Leon Czolgotz killed President Mc Kinley in 1901, the song is a variant of “White House Blues”, see my post on the song here), “Charles Guiteau” (Guiteau shot President Garfield in”1881″, see my post on the song here),“Booth Shot Lincoln” (John wilkes Booth shot president Abraham Lincoln in 1865)”
Other commercial recordings includes a 10-inch lp called “Smoky Mountain Ballads” recorded in 1947 but issued in 1953 by Folkways Records (Buy it here from Smithsonian/Folkways), “Minstrel of the Appalachian”, a Riverside lp recorded in 1956 by folk singer and collector Paul Clayton (Out-of-print but available for download on this great blog here).
-For anyone interested in Bascom Lamar Lunsford, i strongly recommend the book “Minstrel of the Appalachians-The Story of Bascom Lamar Lunsford”, his biography by Loyal Jones. In addition to the whole story of Lunsford’s life, there’s a very complete discography, including a listing of all the items recorded for the Library of Congress and some lyrics and sheet music for Bascom’s songs and fiddle tunes.
The Dry Bones Variations
“The title of this spiritual is “Dry Bones.” It was known in our section after the visiting of a great Negro preacher who came to that section, was a powerful pulpit orator and a devoted man, and his name was Romney. And he preached a sermon on the “dry bones of the valley.” I first heard this sung by Fletcher Rhymer in the community near Alexander in Buncombe County, North Carolina.” (Bascom Lamar Lunsford’s introduction to “Dry Bones”)
“Dry Bones” by Bascom Lamar Lunsford
Old Enoch he lived to be three-hundred and sixty-five, When the Lord came and took him back to heaven alive.
I saw, I saw the light from heaven A-shinin’ all around. I saw the light come shining, I saw that light come down.
When Paul prayed in prison, them prison walls fell down. The prison keeper shouted, “Redeeming Love I’ve found.”
I saw, I saw the light from heaven Shinin’ all around. I saw the light come shining, I saw the light come down.
When Moses saw that a-burning bush, he walked it ’round and ’round. And the Lord said to Moses, “You’s treadin’ holy ground.”
I saw, I saw the light from heaven Shinin’ all around. I saw the light come shining, I saw the light come down.
Dry bones in that valley got up and took a little walk. The deaf could hear and the dumb could talk.
I saw, I saw the light from heaven Shinin’ all around. I saw the light come shining, I saw the light come down.
Adam and Eve in the garden under that sycamore tree. Eve said to Adam, “Satan never tempted me.”
I saw, I saw the light from heaven Shinin’ all around. I saw the light come shining, I saw the light come down.
I have to say that Bascom Lamar Lunsford’s Dry Bones is one of my favorite performance on the Anthology, the combination of Lunsford’s banjo picking and his unique mannered voice blend so perfectly on a biblical song that sounds like it comes from the african-american minstrel tradition of parodies of religious songs, telling biblical stories with an humorous twist.
-I didn’t found other versions of the “Dry Bones” Lunsford sang on recordings of the same period but some contemporary artists made their own version of Lunsford’s song (and in the case of John Fahey, a complete reworking of the tune).
-So here are Norman & Nancy Blake, The Handsome Family and John Fahey doing “Dry Bones”:
There’s also a popular spiritual called “Dry Bones” or “Dem Dry Bones” that has nothing to do with Lunsford’s version but it’s a great song and one that have been recorded so many times by black religious groups and popular singers that it’s worth hearing a few versions of it as well…
Dem Bones, Dry Bones or Dem Dry Bones is a well-known traditional spiritual song, used allegedly to teach basic anatomy to children (although its description is not anatomically correct). The melody was written by African-American author and songwriter James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938). Two versions of this traditional song are used widely, the second an abridgement of the first. The lyrics are based on Ezekiel 37:1-14, where the prophet visits the Valley of Dry Bones[1] and causes them to become alive by God’s command. (Wikipedia)
-Listen to The Four Gospel Singers (Black religious Quartet), Cora Fluker (Country Blues singer), Fats Waller (Jazz popular piano player and singer), Rev. Leora Ross (Singing sermon on the theme of the Dry Bones), Mitchell’s Christian Singers (Gospel group), Rev. J.M Gates, Elder Charles Beck, The McCoy Brothers (Preachers with singing congregations)
(Click on Harry’s picture to download all the 30 tracks of this post)
