S/D: Old-Timey Music (e.g., Prewar Gospel Blues, Bluegrass, Mountain Music)

hey i have only listened to the second ep of this so far but man it just slays, this is gonna be part of my week,

http://soundcloud.com/yetimike/buked-scorned-the-gospel

mcgonnigal is very much a bro

listening to it now. gracias.

pretty major pre-war blues story in ny times magazine today by john jeremiah sullivan.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/13/magazine/blues.html?hp&_r=0
totally amazing

this is great.

Don't want to blow your mind twice in one day but here is something else that will make you think twice: http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=240701&sid=68adecf93f0a6d6a9f44886f63059313

Just took a peek at Elijah Wald's The Blues: A Very Short Introduction and, while it seems reasonable enough, the guy inevitably comes up with either a challop or mistake to stick in my craw. In this case it is saying that Hank Williams was born in Georgiana, Alabama. No he wasn't, even though he grew there, he was born in nearby Mount Olive. Is such a picturesque and a propos fact so hard to remember and get right?
/little_things_that_make_you_irrationationally_angry

Probably wrong thread for that anyway

that john jeremiah sullivan piece is fucking amazing

For some of us, reading that article is the payoff for decades of music geekery, the way This is Spinal Tap was the payoff for watching lots of rockumentaries.

yeah it both totally de-romanticizes the whole thing and deepens the mystery immeasurably. which is quite a thing.

otm. It has the effect of one of those famous Hitchcock scenes where he starts with a wide angle shot from the top of a huge ballroom filled with people and then slowly, every so slowly, the camera zooms in to eventually arrive at the Macguffin/key/blinking eyes of the killer.

It makes me wish I was a history teacher so I could say Put away the textbook, we're spending the next week on this.

Not that history teachers ever do that, but they should.

Had an AP physics teacher who one sunny day let us go out and study the aerodynamics of the frisbee.

Other, more jazz oriented message board totally digging on that article, but disputing whether "Low Down Dirty Shame" was done by the gentleman mentioned in the article or another Don Wilkerson who played with Ray Charles and Amos Milburn and passed away a few decades ago.

the only thing that makes me slightly uncomfortable here is the "quasi theft" that unlocks some of the story for Sullivan -- the interview notes that McCormick's researcher takes photos of... ethical? Kind of a weird thing:
"I admired the bravery of her act of quasi theft, feeling strongly that it was the right thing to do. You’re not allowed to sit on these things for half a century, not when the culture has decided they matter. I know he didn’t want to sit on them — he was trapped with them. I give us both a pass. Caitlin had no job. Mack had been her job. But we had these pages, a grand total of nine, the letters and the transcripts. And we had a full-time, on-the-ground researcher/reporter in Houston, whom fate happened to be catching smack in the midst of her own budding Geeshie-and-L.V. enthusiasm. If Mack wouldn’t talk to us anymore, we would do this as an assignment for him, we would follow his leads."

agreed. as well-written as it was, parts of this article constituted odd confessionals or asides by the author. still a brilliant piece.

i mean, it's sort of terrifying to think about all the stuff in mccormick's archives that have gone unseen for 40+ years, all the leads that haven't been followed up that are probably completely cold cases at this point. hopefully the dude has a will worked out where it all goes to a university that'll take care of his work. but it is weird (as sullivan notes) for him to come across as even remotely a villain in the article, since he is the only guy who has devoted his life to gathering all of this priceless info. complicated. i wonder if his bio of robert johnson will come out in any form some day, if someone else could piece together something out of all the research mccormick has done. i remember reading about it in guralnick's book in the 90s, where he says, "it will be published shortly" or something. it's like the smile of blues books.

haha hmmm

http://www.mackmccormick.org was established to serve as a public resource for information pertaining to music and cultural historian, Robert "Mack" McCormick. This site will be expanded in the future.

Most of McCormick's archives remain unpublished, and thus McCormick welcomes serious inquiries that would result in the preservation and publishing of his archives so that the public could benefit from them.

As a result of preferring not use email, McCormick welcomes and encourages institutions and researchers to mail or telephone him at:

Robert "Mack" McCormick

9023 Autauga Street

Houston, TX 77080

Phone: 713-462-5114

McCormick's contribution to researching and documenting early American music and culture is substantial. His research has helped to uncover histories and biographical information that would likely have been lost forever had McCormick not conducted his meticulous field research of geographical locales where some of America's earliest recorded musicians were born, raised, and traveled. For example, McCormick's research on Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas is noteworthy because Thomas was one of the oldest African Americans to record in the 1920's. The list of others on whom McCormick has shed light is vast, and includes Lightnin' Hopkins, Robert Shaw, Buster Pickens, The George and Hersal Thomas Family (including Sippie Wallace), Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Peck Kelley, and Lydia Mendoza, to name only a few.

paging eric clapton, if you have a couple million dollars lying around, this would be a good thing to invest in...

Speaking of Hank, there's an intriguing review of The Hank Williams Reader in this just-past weekend's WSJ. The Free Pass sample of subscription content may not work for long, so better to google hank williams reader barry mazor wall street journal. Here's the gist of it (apparently like The Bronte MythandThe Coltrane Legacy, re tracking Rorschach effects):
This anthology's editors have left writers' errors, exaggerations and fantasies in place, though not without warnings and comment, the better to grasp the way "Hank Williams" has been brought to readers over time. It's not to the credit of some of the more posturing latter-day commentators included that they have, after so many decades of effort to get the slippery Hank Williams story right, reverted to some of the most lurid and unlikely versions—sometimes only to show approval of the same behavior that the earlier sensationalists were shaking fingers at. British entertainment writer Douglas McPherson fantasized in 1978 that "perhaps his ghost is there in the smoke and whisky fumes as some unknown singer shoots up, drinks up, and carrying his guitar in trembling hands, walks into the blinding spotlight. . . . Perhaps he is . . . trading guitar licks or one last beer with Gene Vincent, Sid Vicious and Elvis Presley. "
There's fine writing included, too—Ralph J. Gleason looking back at his encounter with Williams as a young reporter, Nolan Porterfield remembering what it felt like, as a Texas teenager, to hear the news of Hank's death, musicologist Henry Pleasants offering up his analysis of Williams's singing and writing, Peter Cooper recounting a trip he took that retraced Hank's last ride, biographer Colin Escott considering what Williams's fate might have been had he lived longer.
In the end, the editors suggest, we still make of Hank Williams what we will: "We know more about him, his work, and his influence than ever before. There remains, however, significant disagreement regarding the essence of the man and his music. . . . Williams has become an infinitely malleable figure." Take by writer's take, "The Hank Williams Reader" is an accessible, valuable reference for readers interested in the making of legends or American music, a volume to reshape our thinking about "The Lovesick Blues Boy," the continuing appeal of his music, and our relation to both.
—Mr. Mazor writes about country and roots music for the Journal.

my dad was just bitching about scholars, foundations and colleges who sit on the entire works and papers and music of great unknown artists with the intent of keeping the story until they die and then they have no plan to release.

I have both the Barry Mazor book on Jimmie Rodgers and the Colin Escott Hank Williams bio. Haven't read either from cover to cover, just dipped in here and there, so far so good.

Also recommending for the umpteen time Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity, by Richard A. Peterson.

FYI: The John Jeremiah Sullivan piece is a sequel of sorts to his amazing review/essay in the November 2008 issue of Harper's Magazine, "Unknown Bards." It's reprinted in his essay collection Pulphead. Few pieces of writing in the last twenty years have more excited me about music as that one. (I don't know if this says more about JJS or about me.)

Just noticed it's also in Da Capo's Best Music Writing 2009, which I don't have.

Currently devouring like mad the Alan Lomax List of American Folk Songs on Commercial Records article from 1940 briefly mentioned in that JJS piece. Fucking incredible. I want to hear all 350 of them!

http://www.texasmonthly.com/content/mack-mccormick-still-has-blues

2002 article

THE HOUSTON FOLKLORIST WITH ONE OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY ARCHIVES OF UNRELEASED RECORDINGS AND UNPUBLISHED INTERVIEWS IN THE WORLD IS 71 NOW AND HAS HAD HEALTH PROBLEMS OF LATE. WHO WILL SAVE THE LEGACY OF THE MAN WHO SAVED TEXAS MUSIC?
by MICHAEL HALL
APRIL 2002

Thanks for the book recommendations, Lem. What other books should a novice be looking for along these lines, focused on untangling prewar blues and country? I've read Unknown Bards and Tosches' Where Dead Voices Gather and the relevant chapters of Country.

I really like the tone of the Sullivan stuff, which focuses on the mystery aspect without overplaying it.

Tony Russell's Country Music Originals: The Legends and the Lost.

I'm prejudiced as it's my father's book but Ragged but Right explores the matrix of the stringband/ragtime era at the turn of the century that formed what would become blues and jazz through the primary prism of contemporary black newspapers in major cities. Worth a read i think.
http://www.amazon.com/Ragged-but-Right-Traveling-American/dp/1578069017
http://jazztimes.com/articles/19179-ragged-but-right-lynn-abbott-and-doug-seroff

That looks good, thanks. There is another thread with more recommendations, or maybe it is further up on this one.

some other books i've found very useful and illuminating:

Country Music USA by Bill C Malone (pretty much the definitive history of country music, spends a considerable amount of time on the pre-war era.)
Linthead Stomp by Patrick Huber (focuses on the Carolinas and the intersection of textile mill workers and the likes of Dave McCarn, John Carson, charlie Poole.)
Chasin that Devil Music by Gayle Dean Wardlow (collection of essays, interviews etc. ESSENTIAL!!)
Songsters & Saints by Paul Oliver
Blues Fell This Morning by Paul Oliver (Oliver is a a fairly prolific writer; but these are the two to read first imo.)
Charlie Patton: King of the Delta Blues by Stephen Calt

Thanks. Some of those I've been trying to get a hold of, a couple I have never heard of.

ANYWAY...
It's been really interesting to watch the reactions to that article.
Some people have an awful lot invested in Robert Johnson in particular, and McCormick's suggestion that what we know about RJ could be wrong has really rubbed some folks the wrong way. Biographies have been written, biographies are in the process of being written. People place different value on certain pieces of evidence -- a clincher (like the death certificate) for one researcher is just another "maybe" to another. Really fascinating to watch, and to think about why people place such importance on Johnson -- innovative as his bass runs were, in some eyes he was just another bluesman.

Similarly, I've heard a few reactions balking at the Times headline that Wiley & Thomas "changed American Music." Folks so wrapped up in there world of blues scholarship that they fail to take an editors attempt a hyperbolic, attention-getting headline for what it is.

Jesus what a story though -- murder, a closeted love for 50+ years, good old fashioned research.

xpost -- Calt's Patton book is supposedly getting a reprint within the years so don't shell out for a used copy..

ha, yeah the "changed American music" thing is a stretch, considering barely anyone knew of those records' existence for decades.
and the part where mccormick questions whether the robert johnson we think sang those songs is not actually the same guy did seem like he was maybe trolling the blues scholar world, but I mean who knows? if mccormick is unsure, then we should all probably be unsure.

and thanks for the book recs! hopefully some of these do get reprinted, seems like Paul Oliver's stuff is a little hard to come by.
this is cool: http://ghostcapital.blogspot.com/2010/11/va-songsters-saints-vocal-traditions-on.html

Similarly, I've heard a few reactions balking at the Times headline that Wiley & Thomas "changed American Music." Folks so wrapped up in there world of blues scholarship that they fail to take an editors attempt a hyperbolic, attention-getting headline for what it is.

xpost -- Calt's Patton book is supposedly getting a reprint within the years so don't shell out for a used copy..

Put together a Spotify playlist of the Alan Lomax "commercial records" list (or at least the 200 that are available).
http://open.spotify.com/user/arosner/playlist/3VGX58Cv02j2wFGqacxQ1i
Interesting to listen through the filter of Lomax's taste and (I assume) the unavailability of a lot of records we take for granted now.

In his review of the Patton (and heavy friends) box, Luc Sante doesn't think much of "the bizarre and obsessive" Calt's characterization of Patton. Don't know if I'd agree; I only know the music from the box (still want that Fahey book!)
http://www.villagevoice.com/2002-01-08/music/oracle-testimony/

re xpost recommended blues books, def check Robert Palmer's Deep Blues, Charles Keil's Urban Blues, Paul Oliver's The Story of the Blues, probably something by William Ferris, Samuel Charters; plus, mixing it up a bit more, Robert Gordon's It Came From Memphis, and Michael Bane's White Boy Singin' The Blues (Bane's also from Memphis, witnessed quite a bit of the 50s and 60s there).

Another good early blues comp reviewed by LS:
http://www.villagevoice.com/1999-03-16/music/roots-of-everything/

In addition to the books Don mentioned I'd add The History of the Blues, by Francis Davis. And, even though a hundred poptimists bloomed to contend on the other thread against something he or his brother said, Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music, by Ted Gioia is actually pretty good.

Probably some Peter Guralnick books too, especially Lost Highway and Feel Like Going Home.

yeah whatever dust gioia kicked up recently he's a great, super knowledgeable writer.

Gave away my copy of Lost Highway but it's been so long think I need a new one. They've added some A/V material to the digital edition and put that famous picture of Hank Williams and Roy Acuff's daughter on the cover. Note the dedication:
For Sam Phillips and Chester Burnett, the real heros of rock'n'roll.

just started Ragged but Right, that's a great-looking book

It makes me wish I was a history teacher so I could say Put away the textbook, we're spending the next week on this.
Not that history teachers ever do that, but they should.
― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Sunday, April 13, 2014 10:10 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, one thing that article strongly conveys is the (occasional) joy of real research. not everything is on the internet, kids!

calt is a weird, ornery motherfucker. his skip james book reveals the sort of violently mixed feelings about his subject that probably shouldn't have been aired unadulterated.

also, forkslovetofu, your dad is d0ug s3roff? I've dug his work on black gospel for a while. i wish i could afford those books (ragged but right / out of sight). i've certainly read them a few times over from library copies.

i think maybe the article plays down mccormick's bullheadedness a bit, or maybe the mccormick the author encountered is mellower than the one i've read about. from what i've heard/read it's not just that personal afflictions have kept him from publishing as much as he would want (something i can strongly relate to btw). he was often very very stubborn in revealing his sources and sharing basic information with other researchers. that may have been in part b/c some of the other researchers were, to one degree or another, assholes (certainly true of e.g. calt and fahey), but some very nice people got the same treatment. but again, i'm not going to hold it against mccormick.

the saddest thing is what somebody (tyler?) mentioned upthread; that some of the leads that could have been generated by his notes have long since gone cold. i've encountered that sort of thing in my own research: a name comes up in a 1955 memo that nobody knows was attached to "x" project, but that person died 25 years ago so it's too late to ask them about it.