The New Christy Minstrels...buh

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I have more to tell, Ned! Their Christmas album, Merry Christmas! (Columbia), is insane and brilliant. Okay, I grew up with it (surprise, surprise), but it stands up really well. Pick it up if you find it in a Goodwill.

Their "Go Tell It on the Mountain" might be the whitest version of that song ever recorded (side note: they had one Asian member), but it's so no-holds-barred geeky-gotta-dance (and they hit every damn note so fearlessly) that I think it should be form the basis of some new rock genre. "Christycore," maybe?

― Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 6 January 2004 00:46 (twenty years ago) link

Is the Danieleson Famile Christycore??

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 00:48 (twenty years ago) link

side note: they had one Asian member

I wonder if that was the basis of the New Main Street Singers having one conspicuous Asian American member in a sea of white.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 00:51 (twenty years ago) link

but Gene Clark was a member...and plays on Merry Christmas! And according to AMG, Barry Mguire modeled his voice on Wallace Beery?!?!

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 02:18 (twenty years ago) link

Look at all them gee-tars, Maw! Heck, they must be good. They got more fellers than Skynyrd!

― Speedy Gonzalas (Speedy Gonzalas), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 08:06 (twenty years ago) link

No shit, this kind of music makes me vomit. :{}~~~

― Speedy Gonzalas (Speedy Gonzalas), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 08:09 (twenty years ago) link

Aren't they the longest-running group in the history of the universe? I don't have the Guinness Book of Records handy. I seem to recall Kenny Rogers was a New Christy Minstrel at some point too.

― Schwingung (Damian), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 10:13 (twenty years ago) link

Alongside Dylan, the Byrds, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Simon & Garfunkel, Billy Joe Royal, The Cyrkle, The Pozo-Seco Singers (wha?), John Davidson (?!) and I forget who else, the Minstrels appeared on the old Columbia Records "Best of '66" comp I owned as a child. They did a woozy cover of "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" arranged for at least a half-dozen hokey voices, including one guy whose entire contribution was croaking "B-b-b-boots" over and over, like he was George Thorogood or somebody. Strange stuff.

― Scott Bloomfield, Tuesday, 6 January 2004 20:21 (twenty years ago) link

six months pass...

Pozo-Seco Singers

Presumably this has something to do with Chano Pozo (now that I've just reminded myself who he was--oh "Manteca," right) and the Seco label, a major Latin music label in, I think, the 50s and 60s. (I've read about who swallowed it up later on, but I can't remember the details at this point.)

― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Sunday, 1 August 2004 21:51 (nineteen years ago) link

Or maybe not. I can't come up with any connection between these guys and anything remotely Latin. Maybe they just liked those names?

― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Sunday, 1 August 2004 21:54 (nineteen years ago) link

Haha, a Google group search turns this up: The group was called "Pozo Seco Singers." Spanish "Pozo Seco" means "dry
well" in English.

What a name for a band. I think maybe I will pass on the possibility that they are lost geniuses.

― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Sunday, 1 August 2004 21:57 (nineteen years ago) link

Ok, honest question--when did xian music go from this self contained overly earnest oddness to the slick, postmodern, simalcura of really culture that it is today.

what happened to let that occur

― anthony, Monday, 2 August 2004 01:13 (nineteen years ago) link

Uhm, I'm no expert, but isn't it basically a case of x-ian teens getting into regular Rock/Pop music and the ensuing realization that they weren't gonna go back to x-ian music if it's the New Christy Minstrels? A simple case of moving on with the times in order to not lose contact with the kids?

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Monday, 2 August 2004 10:12 (nineteen years ago) link

I saw a little clip on some cable documentary the other night of Barry McGuire talking about how he had to leave the NCMs so he could sing about, like, how things were changing and all.

― spittle (spittle), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 05:40 (nineteen years ago) link

(cable documentaries are where all these people go to not die)

― spittle (spittle), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 05:41 (nineteen years ago) link

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