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

there's lots of great videos of Tommy Jarrell.

again, only vaguely appropriate, but i am going to bed:

Lonnie Johnson's mandolin is great on "Today's Blues" (Cora Perkins vocal.)

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Furry Lewis "I Will Turn Your Money Green"

oops i dunno why i tried to embed that as an image must be because i am an idiot.

HAY GUYS.
ROY HARVEY IS AWESOME KTHX.

Can you dig Mississippi John Hurt Spike Driver Blues? I knew that you could.

I guess Jack Rose has been selling a CDr of his favorite guitar pickin 78s. Eclipse has copies, maybe? I read about it somewhere online.
I'm still jamming my copy of "Mountain Guitar" on County, so I'm covered I think. But if anyone has or sees a track list of the Jack Rose CDr I'd love to see it.

Not sure why I haven't posted this here before...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokum

playlist lately has been heavy on:

darby & tarlton
lowe stokes & mike whitten "katy did" = one of my fave breakdowns

oh god can of worms w/r/t hokum article.

Bascom Lamar Lunsford fiddling & buck dancing, circa 1928-1935:

Cool. A place where I can post a bluegrass clip or two. Here's the Osborne Brothers from the killer Bluegrass Country Soul documentary. They're even sporting a drummer.

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Oh fuck it. Go here:

The supposed first recorded hokum song (1928's Tampa Red & Georgia Tom's "It's Tight Like That") was ironically by Thomas A Dorsey, the man known for institutionalizing gospel in the popular marketplace.

This was also the same year of the first two Boogie-Woogie recordings (Pinetop Smith's "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" and Cow Cow Davenport's "Cow Cow Blues").

Combined, I see these as the real roots of R&B/Rock-n-Roll.

Jimmy Martin -- "Freeborn Man"

I got some old-timey records today. Like any other day.
Two volumes of Cliff Carlisle on Old-Timey
Two volumes of Grayson & Whitter on Old Homestead.

Total cost: $20.

I've been meaning to get some Grayson & Whitter. I did pick up a volume of Gid Tanner stuff recently.

I also picked up the last couple CDs from the Black Twigs (a.k.a. Black Twig Pickers). They're from Ironto, Virginia, and they make some awesomely raw yet informed Appalachian folk.

I LOVE Black Twig Pickers!!

In 2004 I went to the Pasture Fest & Jubilee in Rural Wisconsin, which was mostly free-folk/drone/psychey kinda stuff, but they played as well. They could often be found in the parking lot (read: field) jamming with locals, surrounded by dancing children. It was awesome.

no need to capitalize Rural above, I guess. The town was Soldier's Grove IIRC. I had to drive through BLACK EARTH, WI. I decided I want to retire there.

Yeah, the Black Twigs do rule! They're super interesting. They play psych/noise/drone festivals because of their ties to Pelt/Jack Rose. But they also know straight up mountain folk and are highly respected in the area.

Plus, I just saw the Kruger Brothers. Their second set featured fiddler Bobby Hicks, who played with Bill Monroe in the 50s. He's still got it. Man, did he jam. They also brought vocalist Maynard Holbrook up on stage. He's wild. He sings true high lonesome.

Drag City, or one of their subsidiaries, is putting out an LP by Nimrod Workman. Compiled by Nathan Salzburg with access to the Library of Congress recordings. Classic coal mining balladeer. "Pneumoconiosis is the black lung blues."

guys, his NAME is NIMROD WORKMAN!!!!

our radio show tonight at 8pm EST on www.eastvillageradio.com (or itunes under radio>eclectic) is going to be two hours of 20s & 30s music, from blues & gospel to hillbilly to hot jazz with a smattering of cajun and hawaiian as well. Hope you listen. After tonight it'll be archived for a week.

we are on the radio now! on your ITUNES.

The new Dust-to-Digital 'Art Of Field Recording Volume II' should be with me on Friday. Christmas bonus hurrah (so much better than a bottle of booze)!

I shared an office with a dude in grad school who would shoot you in the head if you said that bluegrass was "old-timey".

"bluegrass was strictly a post-war innovation."

Was your office mate R. Crumb?

i could see that, like how i can get weird about the distinctions between "dixieland" and traditional jazz, and bands that play strict repertoire vs treating it as living music

He was a young dude, maybe 25 or so, and the angriest math grad ever. He'd get pissed off about the most trivial things like once I asked a friend (not him) for a ride to buy something from like Target or somesuch, and he started yelling at me that I shouldn't ask and that I should take the bus instead. So, I never discussed music with him of my own volition. I only happened on his views about old-time and old-timey when I learned he played banjo when he moved into the office and I asked him what kinds of things he liked to play. He talked about bluegrass and people who play bluegrass as if they would be better off with no hands and no ears.

Once, before I realized he was such a freak, I listened to him play banjo, and he sounded quite good to my unlearned and still attached ears.

There is definitely issues within the scene, community, etc. Usually bluegrass folks don't have a problem with old time musicians -- they are to be respected. But there are many old time musicians who look down on bluegrass, especially "progressive bluegrass." Mike from the Black Twigs told me about a jam circle in either Roanoke or Richmond led by this by this old, blind fiddler. He would swat any player with his bow who dared break out a bluegrass lick. Bluegrass is interesting. Many think it's the sound of the mountains. Yet many old time/hillbilly musicians see it as an invasive species, so to speak.

Well it's true. Bluegrass was made for big concert halls and radio shows -- it wasn't ma and pa on the porch music.

bluegrass is the jazzing up of old-time music, and as much is seen by many as an impure strain of american country music (not that i give a hoot--i like bluegrass, but if i'm not in the right mood it all sounds too fast.)

also, if anyone wants to listen to the radio show we did, it'll be archived through monday-- http://www.eastvillageradio.com/modules.php?name=evrshow&showid=89

Ma Rainey  	Big Feeling Papa  	Twelve Classic Performances  	Riverside
Victoria Spivey & Henry Red Allen 	How Do They Do It That Way? 	Volume 2 (1929) 	RCA
Jane Lucas w/ Big Bill Broonzy 	Pussy Cat Blues 	Do That Guitar Rag (1928-1935) 	Yazoo
Robert Wilkins 	Nashville Stonewall 	The Original Rolling Stone 	Herwin
Robert Johnson 	32-20 	King of The Delta Blues Single 	Columbia Mono 360 VG-
Darby & Tarlton 	Ooze Up To Me 	s/t 	Old-Timey
The Georgia Yellow Hammers 	Kiss Me Quick 	v/a Hell Broke Loose In Georgia 	County
Clarence 	Old John Hardy 	v/a A Fiddler's Convention in Mountain City Tennessee 	County
Jimmie Rogers 	Sleep Baby Sleep 	v/a The Bristol Sessions 	Country Music Federation
Cartwright Brothers 	Get Along Little Doggie 	v/a When I Was A Cowboy 	Morningstar
Naftule Brandwine's Orchestra 	Where Were You Before Prohibition 	v/a Klezmer Music 1910-1942 	Folkways
Rev. F.W. McGee & Rev. D.C. Rice 	Fifty Miles of Elbow Room 	Rev. F.W. McGee & Rev. D.C. Rice (1927-1930) 	Document
Wingy Manone 	Up The Country 	History of Classic Jazz 	Riverside
Roy Smeck 	Laughing Rag 	Plays... 	Yazoo
Kalamas Quartet 	Medley of Hulas 	Early Hawaiian Classics 	Folklyric
Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra 	Let's Sow A Wild Oat 	v/a Early Viper Jive(1927-1933) 	Stash
Fletcher Henderson 	I Wish I Could Make You Cry 	1923-1925 	Retrieval
Freddie "Red" Nicholson 	You Gonna Miss Me Blues 	v/a Piano Blues & Boogie Woogie 	Document
Blind Willie McTell 	It's A Good Little Thing 	1927-1935 	Yazoo
Blue Sky Boys 	Dust On The Bible 	Bill & Earl Bolick 	Bluebird
The Dorsey Brothers 	Sugarfoot Stomp 	Original Dorsey Brothers Band 	Pickwick
Bo Carter 	Time's Is Tight Like That 	The Rarest, 1930-1930 (Volume 2) 	Document
Louie Lasky 	Teasin' Brown Blues 	Sic 'Em Dogs On Me 	Herwin Records
Charlie Poole 	If the River Was Whiskey 	Volume Two 	County
Cliff Carlisle 	That Nasty Swing 	Volume 2 	Old-Timey
Blanche Calloway 	Lazy Woman's Blues 	with Louis Armstrong 	CBS
Bix Beiderbecke 	That's My Weakness Now 	The Bix Beiderbecke Story Volume 3 	Columbia
Blind Willie Johnson 	Dark Was the Night 	Jazz Volume 2 	Folkways
Joe Venuti 	Wild Cat 	Violin Jazz 	Yazoo
Joe Werner & The Riverside Ramblers 	Wondering 	Louisiana Cajun Music Volume 4 	Old-Timey
Walter Family 	Shaker Ben 	Way Down South In Dixie 	Morning Star
Fiddlin' Arthur Smith 	Adieu False Heart 	Volume 1 	County
B.F. Shelton 	Oh Molly Dear 	The Bristol Sessions 	Country Music Federation
Leo Reisman & His Orchestra 	What Is This Thing Called Love? 	v/a Sweet & Low Blues 	New World Recordings
Lydia Mendoza 	Noche Tenebrosa Y Fria 	Early Recordings Part 2 	Folklyric
Blind Mamie Forehand 	Wouldn't Mind Dying 	Fight On, Your Time Ain't Long 	Mississippi
Sister Rosetta Tharpe 	That's All 	Encyclopedia of Jazz Vol. 1 	MCA
Victoria Spivey 	Organ Grinder Blues 	1926-1931 	Document
Sam MAyo 	Things Are Worse In Russia 	Sprigs Of Time 	Honest Jon's
Tarras Instrumental Trio 	The Plain Bulgar 	Klezmer Music 1910-1942 	Folkways

asheville n.c. is still sort of a hotbed of old-time-vs.-bluegrass sentiment. a lot of those old-time dudes (and dudettes) are real hardcore about it. my sister plays fiddle and has played with some people like that and even absorbed some of the sentiment; i don't think she owns any bluegrass cds.

i regret having no musical education as a youth.
i feel like, at this point in my life, if i wanted to try to learn to fiddle or pick a banjo, i'd have an awfully hard time with it. after years of struggling i can still barely tune a guitar.

I confess that I'm not real big on bluegrass, 'cause I prefer more song in my song, and a lot of bluegrass seems to focus on technique to the detriment of song.

i feel like, at this point in my life, if i wanted to try to learn to fiddle or pick a banjo, i'd have an awfully hard time with it. after years of struggling i can still barely tune a guitar.

actually my sister didn't start until she was about 28 or so. it was after she had a kid, she wanted something she could do once a day that would just be for herself. and, you know, she's never going to be a pro, but she's gotten pretty good. she can go to old-time jams and play along.

(plus with old-time music in particular, the social and musical circles are small enough that they're pretty happy to have anyone. even as a novice, you can end up with access to some of the best people in the country for seminars or lessons.)

you ever been to the bluegrass jam at Freddy's bar, tipsy? I know it's not in yer hood, but it's usually pretty fun.

never been to freddy's at all, but it's on my "i should go there sometime" list...

maybe i'll shoot you an e-mail next time i head there for bluegrass night. not 'til february IIRC, i think i missed january's already.

that'd be cool, yeah.

there's a bluegrass jam night at the grizzly pear on macdougal. it gets crazy busy though. like a glenn branca bluegrass orchestra.

asheville n.c. is still sort of a hotbed of old-time-vs.-bluegrass sentiment. a lot of those old-time dudes (and dudettes) are real hardcore about it. my sister plays fiddle and has played with some people like that and even absorbed some of the sentiment; i don't think she owns any bluegrass cds.

I definitely think Asheville is dominated by bluegrass/hippie bluegrass folks. There is a healthy old time scene, but I tend to think southwest Virginia has more going on when it comes to old time.

I just got back from Roanoke, where I caught Charlie Parr and the Black Twigs. Great show. Anybody into country folk and rural blues should definitely check out Parr. He brought along this mind blowing harmonica player who can do the whole train speeding up/slowing down thing. Apparently, the guy actually works on the railroad up in Duluth. Wild. Parr plays both six and twelve-string steel. Incredible picker. For the second half of his set the Twigs joined him for a six-man jam. It was a total throwdown. They did "Glory in the Meeting House," "Last Kind Word Blues" and a few other fiery spirituals. There's a great version of "John Hardy" on the Twigs' MySpace site which features Charlie.
Here: http://www.myspace.com/blacktwigs

Tomorrow is another old-timey night on the radio I think.

I got some more old records from County this week incl. such greats as Riley Puckett, The Leake County Revelers, Doc Roberts, Lake Howard etc. Plus some great comps. I never realized Michael Hurley's "I'm Gettin' Ready To Go" was such a direct swipe of the Puckett version. I don't think it's credited anywhere on the Snockgrass sleeve anyway. Also, I ran across a few volumes of the Carter Family radio sessions on Old Homestead but didn't pick 'em up cause I'm trying to be frugal (yet i still bought those expensive new sublime frequencies lps...)

I'm getting more into a capella ballads & field recordings too. Some sweet regional collections put out by labels like The Blue Ridge Institute and the Tennessee Folklore Society. Also, the beautiful and highly slept-on Nimrod Workman "I Want to Go Where Things Are Beautiful" LP (in print on Twos and Fews, a Drag City-related label.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DXTsRQRqzqas

try that again...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTsRQRqzqas