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

also i find the individual stories as fascinating as anyone else but I find that the best (or at least the most ambitious) books on american music try to step back to see the bigger picture. which is mccormick's animus too, so it's doubly sad that he hasn't produced much of anything.

"bigger picture" = e.g. how blues arose within af-am music, what its musical parameters and variations were (by region, urban/rural, generational, etc.)

i should wirte that calt /was/ an ornery motherfucker; he died a few years ago, at a young age IIRC

I am not any kind of musicological researcher but I feel a vaguely similar pain of trail gone cold when I see some old jazz musicians that I know well enough to at least say hello to and try to ask them about the old days, maybe when they did studio work, but I just can't get any traction and if I do I get interrupted - somebody calls them to the bandstand, a member of the adoring public butts in to pay court, etc.

Kind of a derail, I guess, sorry

nah, i hear you. people are living their blues, they don't always (or can't) see their value as a witness to history. can't blame them.

had! i meant living their /lives/, but perhaps they are living their blues, too.

New borad title.

John Sullivan responds to various questions on the organissimo thread through the medium of Allen Lowe: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?/topic/75432-geeshie-wiley-and-elvie-thomas/

Just found the Bill C. Malone country book darkening my doorstep, along with Marybeth Hamilton's In Search of the Blues, when I left Angola got home tonight. That thing is a brick! Looking forward to curling up with it during a climate-change induced stormy night. Also had the occasion today to dip into my copy of the Encyclopedia of Country Music, which I don't thing anybody has recommended yet but is really quite substantial.

hey amateurist: yeah that's my pop.
BTW, he's currently working (like today even) on a new book with his writing partner about the roots of the blues from the 1890's to the late 19-teens that should be out in a few years that should directly address the scholarship y'all are requesting upthread.

Cool. Did your old man manage to find out who was the first to sing

First Line
Second Line, Same As The First
Another, Completely Different Third Line

?

he's not magic you know

Robert McCormick’s Daughter ‘Appalled’ by NYT Magazine Cover Story

UPDATE: Ms. McCormick said in a phone conversation this afternoon that her father, who suffers from bipolar disorder, had “unquestionably suffered” from the article’s publication.

“He’s old and sickly,” she told us. “His mental and physical health are fragile, so for something like this to happen is extremely upsetting to him.”

When asked why she believes that Mr. Sullivan and Ms. Love had more of her father’s notes in their possession, Ms. McCormick said: “When somebody exhibits a clear willingness to steal and to cross ethical boundaries, you have to assume that they’re fundamentally not trustworthy.”

Mr. Sullivan, for his part, defended his actions to the Observer in a telephone conversation shortly after the article was published.

“I won’t try to make it sound like I didn’t struggle with it,” he said of the ethical blurriness of the situation. “It’s not the kind of thing you want to do with every story.”

He added, however, that he was legally in the clear, as one cannot own somebody else’s speech, and Mr. McCormick’s transcript features the words of Elvie Thomas. (“You’re not allowed to sit on these things for half a century, not when the culture has decided they matter,” Mr. Sullivan writes in the article, referring to the transcript.)

Ms. McCormick called Mr. Sullivan’s comments “glib.”

“There is reason to believe this theft of my father’s research was their intention all along,” she said, “and that they have stolen far more from him than just the items Sullivan has publicly admitted.”

Not the best defense

eek! yeah, it's definitely uncomfortable ethical ground, which I'm sure Sullivan is aware of.

in more pleasant news, this is a good one: www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/2014/apr/28/issue-84-visions-coahoma/

Good title. Will take a look this evening.

this one is pretty amazing -
http://static.squarespace.com/static/5128322ce4b006d82fb7218b/t/52db06cbe4b0a428d2e470a6/1390085921081/?format=750w
http://longgonesound.com/current-travails/2014/1/18/alexis-zoumbas-a-lament-for-epirus-1926-1928-original-artwork-by-robert-crumb-10-recordings-with-deluxe-gatefold-lp
need to get more music along these lines...

There are some other ideas here:

http://everynoise.com/engenremap-oldtime.html

And see the little inset map at the bottom for related genres with even more ideas...

Tyler, you could check out a few of the other records Chris King has compiled -- "Don't Trust Your Neighbors" ; "Five Days Married & Other Laments" and "Aimer et Perdre"

also of interest could be the stuff Ian Nagoski has been compiling for MIssissippi/Canary, especially the Marika Papagika LP if you never grabbed that.

yeahhh, i've been digging into the canary records stuff -- haven't heard the papagika.
i think i need to go to greece.
and yeah, looks like chris king has a bunch of good releases! loved the cajun thing he did for tompkins sq. last year.
that everynoise.com thing is kind of cool!

haha yesss
http://f0.bcbits.com/img/a0407194569_2.jpg
http://canary-records.bandcamp.com/album/bed-of-pain-rembetika-1930-55

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/05/oh_you_kid/140529_CBOX_Cover-LoveLoveLove.jpg.CROP.original-original.jpg

Oh! You Kid! How a sexed-up viral hit from the summer of ’09 — 1909 — changed American pop music forever.

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/05/oh_you_kid/140529_CBOX_Photo-ShoesWide.jpg.CROP.original-original.jpg

read this yesterday -- very good.

good piece!

hmm that byline seems familiar somehow

good read!

Rosen is passionate about that era

hmm that byline seems familiar somehow

should have had joke tags around that

(yes)

On the tenth anniversary of the Night Train From Nashville project, celebrating the 'ville as an early hub of African-American recording, http://musiccityroots.com/roots-tv/'s weekly live show (7 to 10-ish, CST) features the Fairfield Four, Charles Walker Band, Robert Knight, Mac Gayden and several others, full details here: http://musiccityroots.com/events/wednesday-july-30th/ It can also be heard on them there "devices": http://new.livestream.com/musiccityroots and here: http://www.hippieradio945.com. All shows (so far)are archived as podcasts and mp3 downloads at musiccityroots.com

The opening act, the Valentines, incl. Mac Gayden, was lousy old man lounge (of good early 70s lounge R&B hits depending who's singing 'em), but second act, the McCrary Sisters, sound good, though some glitches in the stream for the moment.

And we're back! Sassy!

Kind of asking the musical question, "What if there were four Staples Sisters?" Not up to Mavis solo, but close enough.

Now the Fairfield Four, fixing to start.

Here we go, up there already!

Smokin the chitlin soul blues with Charles Walker's fleet crew.

jean ritchie RIP

http://blogs.lib.unc.edu/sfc/index.php/2015/06/02/thank-you-jean-ritchie/

RIP

she made her first recordings with Alan Lomax in NYC in 1949 and 1950, and you can stream the sessions on the Lomax archive:

http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-ix.do?ix=session&id=JR49&idType=abbrev&sortBy=abc

it's slightly surreal to hear traffic sounds in the background as she's singing all these plaintive Appalachian ballads

Just picked this up. From Dust to Digital. Comes with an 80-page book, too.
http://burnaway.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/20130708_111348-768x1024.jpg

R.I.P. Mack McCormick:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/26/arts/music/mack-mccormick-student-of-texas-blues-dies-at-85.html

My music scholar neighbor walked by the other day and told me the story of his figuring out who wrote "rock island line." Such an interesting guy.

RIP Mack

Speaking of xpost Jean Ritchie, she's the initially apprehensive, possibly conscripted guest on the impromptu cosmic epic finale of Roscoe Holcomb's live at San Diego State album, finally released: California dreamin' is becomin' a reality (see Roscoe's own thread for more about this).
Although several tracks on the promo files won't play, I'm getting some pretty strong initial impressions ofJoe Bussard Presents: The Year of Jublio---78 RPM Recordings of Songs From The Civil War. "Joe's got shit that God don't have," begins one blurb, and while that's always been true, his evident desire to depict via a range of material, starts with historically significant in-your-face sickly sentimentality x formalism, as written and performed (rich liner notes incl. discussion of attempts to redeem image of Confederacy via music, also redeeming image of fiddlers, but this is more like icky parlor music). It may be more about the renditions, like what are described as "maidenly" vocals; I do love the version of "Lorena" sung by Del McCoury on the mostly good-to-excellent collection Divided and United. And here we do get a rendition of "The Poor Old Slave, " in which straight-forward, non-tremulous sincerity finds its way unerringly among faded emblems, truth-based imagery (sung by ladies who may be maidens, for all I know, but don't make a big deal of it). Ditto the crisp, brisk "In The Cruel Days of Slavery." "Dixie" is all-instrumental, except for the occasional, too-cued-sounding cheers, and one brief, urgently spoken mention of those magnificent men massing outside----more old Rebs, mebbe, but this "Dixie" is all sinewy lide guitars and/or dobros, not the sound I usually associate with misty visions of the Confederate Lost Cause.
Bussard and friends play *Rebels Hornpipe" (recorded on 78, like he's been doing since the 60s, the 1960s, that is, so it's only a ringer chronologically).Starts strong, proceeds in a merry-to-dizzy, compulsive circle, in a way I def do associate with Confeds. "Pass The Bottle Round" starts as Rebel (maybe sometimes Union too) parody of the line, "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the ground, but his truth is marching on." "Johnson Boy" is a fiddle-stomper about a local rake ("Jump girls, don't be afraid," girls unexcitedly join in on chorus), who gets drafted even though he can't see good, and keeps romping 'round the hotly contested countryside, though maybe fog of war will slow him down, as myopia alone didn't do, back under the presumably clearer skies of home--so,"Jump up girls, don't be afraid." "Sweet Bunch of Violets" starts as a tearjerker, but that's a set-up for revenge beyond the grave, hurrah boys!
(Also see the Tompkins Square thread re box Legends of Old-Time Music: Fifty Years of County Records. So far, I'm especially digging several versions of the hearty "Fortune"-- like, "good or bad, hit me with it"---the strutting change of pace "Peacock Rag," and "Dan Carter's Waltz," which suggests courtship, pretty refined yet moonshined, so don't push your luck there, son).

gotta check out the roscoe holcomb disc -- was just reading petrusich's ny-er piece: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-discovery-of-roscoe-holcomb-and-the-high-lonesome-sound?mbid=social_twitter

love that county records set! just a pleasure throughout.

also digging into this lomax centennial set, which has some amazing sounds: www.piccadillyrecords.com/prod/VariousArtists-RootHogOrDie100Years,100Songs(AnAlanLomaxCentennialTribute)-Mississippi-106900.html

http://www.clatl.com/music/article/20845096/washington-phillips-and-his-manzarene-dreams

cover story on Creative Loafing: “The reason our label exists and supports people like Michael Corcoran is because for some people, this music means the world,” says Lance Ledbetter, who co-runs Dust-to-Digital with his wife April. “Anyone can get on the internet and find 99 percent of the information that’s already out there. But Corcoran, found the vital missing percent: He made the drive to Teague, he knocked on doors, he found people who knew Washington Phillips. If the music means that much, why wouldn’t you want to know more from the people who knew him and are still alive? The stories and the information that he uncovered are priceless.”

In November, Dust-to-Digital published a 76-page book and 16-track CD chronicling Phillips’ life and music, titled Washington Phillips and His Manzarene Dreams. The book is the culmination of more than a decade that Corcoran spent scanning old newspapers for clues, conducting interviews, and scouring the East Texas countryside. At the same time, Dust-to-Digital worked to track down the highest quality surviving 78s of Phillips’ songs to remaster.

yow, gotta get that. i've got a previous phillips release, but the book here looks to be worth the price of admission alone. and dust to digital always does a great job.

did anyone get this? totally fantastic selection of Lomax recordings. pretty much everything here is golden.
http://lightintheattic.net/releases/2118-root-hog-or-die-100-years-100-songs-an-alan-lomax-centennial-tribute