River's Invitation

The River's Getting Dry

2010-04-14T12:52:00.004+02:00

Dear readers,

I don't know how to say it but I'm getting a bit tired, abit lazy, a bit ditracted, and this blog hasn't been active for a few weeks now.

Lack of inspiration ? Weak feedback compared to the amount of work provided ? Too much time spent on my computer ? Need to take a new life turn, to be more open to real people, find a better job, try to make more music ? Yes, all these things, and a lot more.

I'm working on other musical projects, like building a big anthology of french chanson and pop since 1945. I'll probably open a new blog about that.

So I'm gonna make a break. Will it be goodbye or farewell ? Well, goodbye only.

In fact I don't know. Maybe I will come back tomorrow, maybe in a month, maybe never. I want to break the one post per week routine.

Anyway, I'll still be posting on Groover's Paradise (in English), etat-critique.com and L'Appel de la rivière (French).

Untill then here's a great song by one of my favorite French singers, Henri Salvador.

Anyway, if it's my last post, I want to thank you all for your presence, (too rare) comments and faithfullness.

Henri Salvador - Dans mon île (buy) (1958)

2 more covers by Yours Truly

2010-03-24T13:00:00.004+01:00

Me, my daughter Cyann and Honorio

Nicolas & Honorio - La Marine (Georges Brassens cover) (2010)

Nicolas & Honorio - Reason To Believe (Bruce Springsteen cover) (2010)

Hi,

Here are the two other songs that we mixed last week in Valencia after recording by exchange files with my friend Honorio. The African instruments were only for the photo !

Two songs by my 2 favorite singers : Brassens (as you probably noticed if you're a River's invitation regular) and Springsteen.

Honorio plays the guitars and did the arrangements. I sing and play the harmonica.

That's it. Hope you'll enjoy. Comments welcome, of course. See ya.

From Valencia with love

2010-03-18T16:00:00.008+01:00

Nicolas & Honorio - Canción Mixteca (2010)

Nicolas & Honorio - Guilty By Association (2010)

I'm in Valencia when the sun is always shining (except today)
I'm in vacations so I won´t make a long post, but just check out the songs that Honorio and me recorded and mixed this week:

Honorio played all the guitars, his friend Esteve the accordion and I sang. You'll probably recognize that the version of "Canción Mixteca" is a cover of the Paris Texas soundtrack rendition by Ry Cooder et ql, and that the second song is by Vic Chesnutt.

We did 2 more songs that I will post later.

¡ Hasta Luego !

Me voy a Valencia - Gent Del desert

2010-03-11T11:15:00.012+01:00

Gent Del Desert - El Record (2009)

(see lyrics with English translation below)

Vacations, again, at last ... 2 days left, and I'll be on the plane to Valencia, sunny Spain, to meet my friend Honorio, during the holiday week of Fallas (see photo). He's one of my Internet friends that I've never seen, we had a lot of great conversations in the Acclaimed Music forum. And we're making music together, by file exchanges. We recorded 4 covers (Brassens, Ry Cooder, Springsteen, Chestnutt)
Next monday we'll go to a studio and mix the songs. I'll post them here when I'll be back in 2 weeks.

So, no River's Invitation posts next week.

But today I'd like to introduce you with a Valencian band called Gent Del Desert. They sing in Valencian, the local language, which is close to Catalan.

According to Honorio, who played guitar on the album : "Gent del Desert is the music wing of a group of people, mainly poets, that gather every Thursday to sing some songs, read some poetry and chat about music and literature. They call themselves El Desert de la Paraula (The Desert of the Word). None of them except Jesús (the leader, and honorio's brother) and Marc had previous music experience (some of the other members, Sergi, Vicent and Pep however have published poetry books), but they were able to put together a fine album called “El Pèndol i la Terra” (“The Pendulum and the Earth”, 2007) a spoken-word album about texts of David Mira, a poet from Ontinyent, with music backing of traditional folk-songs and Jesús and Marc own compositions.

The approach to the second work, recorded during 2008 at Jesus' house, has been quite different and more ambitious. They again added music to poems but the majority of the songs were sung, although they did not completely give up the spoken-word. Moreover some poems were penned by members of the band. And the music approach abandoned the almost pure folk sound of the first album, adding many colours and textures coming from diverse styles including rock. As Henrik (from Acclaimedmusic) perfectly pointed in a personal e-mail, “Gent del Desert both look back and ahead, being both rootsy and experimental”.

My favourite song from “Molles” is (funnily) the only completely spoken one in the style of the previous album. The lyrics comes from a poem from Lluís Roda about childhood memories (and whorehouses). You can read the translated lyrics next. The first verses are recited by Vicent as an intro without background music but the main body of the poem is recited by Sergi, who does an excellent work here, giving the exact tone to the story, detached and mocking but evocative and emotional enough. And the background music is awesome (in my humble and non-objective opinion), based in another original tune with country and border flavours that Jesús and me used to play many years ago (once it was called “Vals del callejón”, “Backstreet Waltz”). The protagonists here are the guest musicians, the song is held up by an excellent tuba and accordion part played by Miquel Payà and the superb pedal steel part played by Pablo Gisbert (pupil of British blues guitar-player Graham Foster). The rest of the instruments are played by my brother himself, including guitars, percussion, banjo and piano (I love this fabulous honky-tonk piano figure at 2’14”!).
Seeing the many country music fans here in this forum I’m sure you will enjoy the song.

EL RECORD (Lluís Roda / Jesús Barranco)

És cert que fores, però a qui li interessa?
És teu només, el record.
Mira-ho bé i tira-ho, a ningú li fa cap falta...
Ni tu mateix te’n recordaves.

La via del tren separava la ciutat asfaltada. A l’altra banda, no hi havia res.
Un descampat, un solar, escombraries. Enderrocs, una séquia una claveguera.
Fang i pols i pedres. Herba i camps esparsos. Entre naus i fusteries i tallers.
I bars, alguns de putes.
I un enorme pal o bastida elèctrica, enmig de tot allò.
Un home havia sigut trobat mort penjat dels cables d’alta tensió.

La propietària del bar de putes, i l’única cambrera que recorde,
era una dona gran, o m’ho semblava,
amb faldilla curta i botes, cabell ros o platí,
amb uns pits punxeguts. Literalment, acabats en punta.

A les tres de la vesprada, el bar ja era obert.
L’obríem nosaltres cada vegada que passàvem, puntualment, en anar a escola.
Déiem puta i pegàvem a fugir.
Després ens aturàvem per veure si eixia, sempre eixia. I la véiem.

A vegades hi havia algú dins.
Sempre pensàvem que estava fent-ho.
A vegades deixava, o restava, la porta entreoberta.
I passàvem a poc a poc, una i altra vegada. Fins que la tancaven.
Era de vidre opac de colors diversos: roig, blau...

Un dia tancaren el bar, i en posaren un altre, amb vidres transparents pintats.
Recorde el dia que els pintaven: Bocadillos – Tapas variadas,
amb una clòtxina i una gamba dibuixades. No tenia cap interés.
Uns mesos després asfaltaren el carrer.

TEXT: Lluís Roda, Elogi de la llibertat, poemari datat a València entre 1990 i 1994 (Edicions Bromera, 2001, pàg. 7 i

THE MEMORY (Lluís Roda / Jesús Barranco)

You were there, that’s true. But, who cares?
The memory is only yours
Look at it and throw it, nobody needs it...
Not even you remembered it

The railroad track divided the asphalted city. On the other side there was nothing.
An open ground, a piece of land, rubbish. Rubbles, a ditch, a sewer.
Mud, dust and stones. Grass and scattered fields.
Between warehouses, carpenters workshops and repair shops.
And bars, some of them whorehouses.
And a big stick or electric pylon in the middle of that.
A man was found dead hanged on the high voltage wires.

The owner of the whorehouse, and the only waitress I remember,
was an elder woman, or so it seemed to me,
wearing a miniskirt and boots, platinum blonde hair,
with pointed breast. Literally, pointed at the end.

At three o’clock on the afternoon, the bar was open yet.
We opened it every time we passed, punctually, on our way to school.
We shouted whore! and ran away.
And then we stopped to see if she came out. She always came out. And we saw her.

Sometimes there was someone inside.
We always thought that he was doing it.
Sometimes the door was left, or remained, half open.
And we passed slowly, again and again. Until someone closed it.
It was made of opaque glass with different colors: red, blue...

One day they closed the bar, and they opened another one, with painted transparent glass.
I remember the day they painted it: Sandwiches – Assorted Snacks
with a draw of a mussel and a shrimp. It lacked any interest.
Some months later they asphalted the street.

LYRICS: Lluís Roda, Elogi de la llibertat (“Praise for Freedom” , poems dated in València between 1990 and 1994 (Edicions Bromera, 2001, pages. 7 and 8)

Discover Gent Del Desert on Myspace

Mexican sones : Mariachi, Huasteco y Jarocho

2010-03-04T12:56:00.019+01:00

Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán - El Mariachi (buy)

Last year I made a series of posts about Tejano music, mostly played by Mexican immigrants in Southern texas.
The book Americana by Gérard Herzhaft is the main source for this post.

Today I'll post songs of 3 different styles of sones, and later I will post about other sones, bolero and canción.

- First, the son mariachi , probably the most popular style of Mexican music. This music comes from the Jalisco state, on the Pacific coast. The term "mariachi" probably comes from the French word "mariage" (wedding). Bands from Jalisco were invited to play at weddings and parties by powerful people in Mexico. President Profirio Diaz was a big fan of mariachi orchestras. The most famous of all is el Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, created in 1897 and still active now. The traditional Jalisco mariachi ensembles did not feature trumpets, but they became so popular (and more powerful than harps) that Mariachi Vargas started adding trumpets in the 1940s.
This is one of their first recordings.

Los Camperos de Valles - La Pasión (buy)

Another vibrant regional style is the son huasteco, aka huapengo tipico, which comes from the state area of Northeastern Mexico called La Huasteca. This is an indian style with Arab and Andalusian influences, relying on violin, huapanguera guitar and jarana huasteca (the small 5 string guitar), and often using falsetto singing. The violin solos are very intense, and remind me of the gypsy music of Central Europe.
Los Camperos de Valles (pictured above) are the most famous and internationally known ensemble, having recorded for Smithsonian Folkways and toured in the whole world, although they still play at parties and weddings in their home state.
You can also read great article in Spanish about the son huasteco.

Guillermo Velázquez is another famous traditional musician who plays sone huasteco and arribeño, another genre from the Central states using the same instruments but with strong Spanish medieval influences in its lyrics.

Guillermo Velázquez Y Los Leones de la Sierra de Xichú - El Triunfo (buy)

Illustration : Enrique Valderrama

And last but not least, here's the son jarocho from the Southern Vera Cruz state on the Caribbean coast, a distinct, dynamic style. As the musicians from Conjunto Tenocelomeh explain on their great site, sonjarocho.com , " Just as the Son Huasteco from east-central Mexico and the west coast Son de Mariachi have their own characteristics the Son Jarocho can be distinguished by its percussive rhythms, syncopation, vocal style, and improvisation in its harmonic and rhythmic framework and verse." Read the whole article here. The main instruments are the harp and two local, small guitars, the requinto and the jarana. Some ensembles add bass guitar, percussions, Spanish guitars, etc..
"La Bamba", one of the most famous Mexican folk songs (thanks to Ritchie Valens and Los Lobos) comes from the Jarocho repertoire. Here is one version by Graciana Silva, a veteran harp player from the Vera Cruz state.

Graciana Silva - La Bamba (buy)

Blind Blake Higgs - Bahamian Songs

2010-02-25T12:54:00.010+01:00

Blind Blake Higgs - John B. Sail (buy) (1952)

Blind Blake Higgs - JP Morgan (buy) (1951)

E.T. Mensah - John B. Calypso (buy) (1958)

One of the great discoveries I made while exploring the music of the fifties.
Alphonso "Blind Blake" Higgs, not to be confused with the great Piedmont bluesman and guitar virtuoso, was a singer-guitarist from Nassau who was very popular there from the 1930s to the sixties.

Elijah Wald in anarticle says that the similarity between his name and the bluesman's may have been a coincidence, but I seriously doubt that. Just listen to the intro of the first song I posted and you'll hear a typical Blind Blake intro on the guitar, with his signature ragtime chord progression.

Just like the island it comes from, this music is a bridge, a doorway between the Southern United States and the West Indies, between the blues, jazz and American pop on onehand and calypso, mento, and other carribean styles on the other. The songs originate from the island tradition ("John B."), but also from Trinidad (the famous "love love alone")or Afro American numbers ("the Yas Yas Yas").

And of course there is the John B. song, made famous by the Beach Boys on Pet Sounds.

Like a lot of carribean songs, that one crossed the Atlantic in the 1950s and eventually ended up in Ghana, as the E.T. Mensah instrumental that I added especially for you, attests.

Go here to get the whole compilation

Before country (4/4) : 1916-1921

2010-02-17T16:20:00.008+01:00

Returning soldiers : the 1916-22 ear saw America engage in World War I.

Here's the final part of my series about pre-country music, which in fact encompasses a lot of different old recordings of all styles. I stop in 1921 because 1922 is the year of what is now considered as the first hillbilly commercial recording.

So as in the previous posts (part 1, part 2, part 3), I will go through this playlist made of sentimental songs, vaudeville numbers, blues played by military bands, hawaiian music, everything that influenced what people would call country music decades later.

1. Harry Lauder - Loch Lomond (1916)
Second song by this Scottish celebrity. A later great version by Bennie Goodman Orch. on their 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert album.

2. Ford's Hawaiians - Aloha Oe (1916) : the first years of the century were years of Hawaiian craze. See here for more Hawaiian music.

3. Prince's Band - Saint Louis Blues (1916) : Before the first blues were recorded by Afro American artist (in 1920) military bands recorded a lot of them, especially stuff by WC Handy. See more pre-blues here.

4. Don Richardson - Arkansas Traveler (1916) : this is one of the first recordings of a traditional country fiddler.

5. The Versatile Four - Circus Day In Dixie (1916) : The Versatile Four were an Afro american ragtime ensemble. They toured in Europe around WWI.

6. Harry C. Browne - Old Dan Tucker (1916) : Both a great fiddle tune and an everlasting folk song. Bruce Springsteen included that song on his traditional folk album in 2006.

7. Al Jolson - When Did Robison Crusoe Go With Friday On Saturday Night ? (1916) : one of the biggest "hits" of 1916. According to Wikipedia, Al Jolson (see picture above) was the "first openly Jewish man to become an entertainment star in America".[1] His career lasted from 1911 until his death in 1950, during which time he was commonly dubbed "the world's greatest entertainer”.

8. Vernon Dalhart - Star Of Bethlehem (1917) : before becoming one of the first country superstars, Dalhart was a sentimental pop singer singing sirupy songs. But he was very popular too, and Edison issued a Blue Amberol of this song for christmas 1917

9.Ada Jones & Billy Murray - Lilley of The Valley (1917) : a funny vaudeville number

10. Peerless Quartet - Oh! Susanna (1917) :
probably the best-known of all American old folk songs (even here in France), here performed by the famous Pearless quartet (on the picture above)

11.Harry C. Browne - Carve Dat Possum (1917) : someone suggested me that song after my first post, and now it's one of my favorite songs of the acoustic era. A great cover by Uncle Dave Macon. Yeah, I know, it's a "coon song", but I've heard much worse and the music is appealing. In the late 1910's coon songs were less frequent. Good riddance !

12. Samuel Siegel & Marie Caveny - Ragtime Echoes (1918): great banjo ragtime piece.

13. Charles Hart & Lewis James - Till We Meet Again (World War Song) (1918) : a sentimental song about the parting of a soldier and his sweetheart. Find the song's story here.

14. Al Bernard - St. Louis Blues (1919) : another "St Louis Blues", but a vocal version by vaudeville singer Al Bernard. Like Vernon Dalhart, Al Bernard recorded hilbilly music when it became popular.

15. Charles Hart & Elliott Shaw - I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles (1919) : a Tin Pan Alley hit that was also very popular in the UK, so much that it became the anthem of soccer team West Ham United. Read more about the song here.

16. Frank M. Kamplain - In Tyrol (1920) : a singer specialized in yodelling, one of the most popular attractions in vaudeville shows. In 1924, Riley Puckett became the first hilbilly artist to yodle on record.

17. Ben Hokea - Beautiful Ohio (1921)

18.Waikiki Hawaiian Orchestra - Rainbow Isle (1921)
Let's close this selection with Hawaiian music. What's striking in these pre-1920 popular recordings is that you never hear a guitar unless it's a Hawaiian band. Listening to the Ben Hokea track tells us how much Hawaiians influenced country and blues performers.

I would like to thank the site Bluegrass Messengers which listed a great part of the songs featured here in their "country music timeline.

BEFORE COUNTRY VOL. 4 (1916-1921)

Listmania : 1950

2010-02-04T13:19:00.006+01:00

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs - Foggy Mountain Breakdown (buy) (1950)

Professor Longhair - Mardi Gras in New Orleans (buy) (1950)

On the Acclaimedmusic.net forum, we're doing a decade poll every year. Last year we did the seventies, and in 2010 we're doing the 50's and 60's. I've decided to post here my favorite albums and songs of the fifties from time to time, starting with 1950.

If you feel like taking part in these polls, don't hesitate. We are nominating our favorite albums and songs from the years 1953 to 1955 this month. And roots music do needs some support at Acclaimedmusic !

So here are my 10 favorite songs of 1950 :

1. Percy Mayfield - Please Send Me Someone To Love : Go here if you want to hear it
2. Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs - Foggy Mountain Breakdown
3. Hank Williams - My Son Calls Another Man Daddy
4. Hank Williams - Long Gone Lonesome Blues
5. Professor Longhair - Mardi Gras in New Orleans
6. Fats Domino - The Fat Man
7. Archibald - Stack-a-Lee
8. Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Dream a Little dream Of me
9. Ruth Brown - Teardrops From My Eyes
10. Henri Salvador -Le Loup, la Biche et le Chevalier

To Jean Lejeune (1914-2010)

2010-01-21T13:35:00.009+01:00

(3 generations out ot of 4 of Lejeune guys on this picture taken in 2008 : me, Jean and Basile)

My grandfather passed away during the night. He was My father's dad.

We used to call him Pépé (pronounced "pay-pay").

Pépé was great. He was a good and humble man. Pépé was a French teacher. Past students used to call him or went to see him in his remote house in Burgubndy long after his retirement.

Pépé was a man of words. Pépé wrote his life in a book. Pépé loved to tell stories. We loved to hear them. Poems by La Fontaine, Baudelaire, Victor Hugo. He loved Rimbaud and Proust (I hate Proust). He wrote poems too, in a 19th century style.
Pépé loved tennis and football. Pépé was a good tennis player. Pépé loved fishing.
Pépé loved Bach, Edith Piaf and Ray Charles. And Georges Brassens. My first memories of hearing Brassens were at his house in the country. Brassens to me is Biches (the name of the village where he lived).

Pépé had gone to World War II. He had been given a gun, a revolver, but he never shot it. His regiment never fought. He went home in 1940 and resumed his job. He bought his house in the country. He had met his wife at a ball in 1937 and they were married since that date. Until a few weeks ago, Pépé, although physically impaired, had kept all his wits and we talked on the phone everynow and then.
Pepe, as a school teacher, has meticulously-made photo albums with type-written texts detailling what he's done almost everyday from 1950 to 2000. It's just fascinating. He used to describe himself as a witness more than as a maker.
So for you, Pépé, I can olny post these Brassens songs :

Georges Brassens - Grand père (buy)

First, of course "Grand père", a fierce, humourous piece which tells of a poor family who loses their grandfather and try to have him buried, but nobody wants to do it because they have no money. So (pardon the translation)

"At the grocery store,
No money, no groceries
At lovely Suzanne's
No money, no thighs
Low status dead people
Are outside of my jurisdiction

Yet I had inherited from grandpa
A pair of pointed boots
If ass kicks get lost sometime
This one hit its goal"

It would make him laugh. And thank God we won't have the same problem to take him to his last resting place !

The other one, "Je m'suis fait tout petit" instantly brings me back memories of summers spent in his house.

Georges Brassens - Je me suis fait tout petit (buy) (1954)

Song for Haïti

2010-01-15T13:09:00.010+01:00

Grupo Vocal Desandann - Guédé Nibo (buy) (1999)

Sometimes I'm just fed up with news images. Especially when such a tragedy hits. You get saturated by pictures and videos on TV, in the web, in your papers...

It really looks like, as Rev Gary Davis used to sing, death don't have no mercy in this land.

This beautiful song by a vocal ensemble of Haitian singers from Cuba (there's a huge Haitian community there) is dedicated to the day of the dead, on november 1st. Guédé Nibo is a spirit of death, but also of sexuality. Both ends of life.

So please listen to that song and give to your favorite nongovernmental organization; but the worst part of that tragedy is that it seems to be very difficult for medical or food supplies to reach their final destination - the people.

Thoughts to two of my friends, David and Aravena, who are still trying to get in touch with their families back there.

David has posted a link to this site on his Facebook page. If you're looking for friends and relatives in Haiti you can contact the site and leave a short message with youre-mail and the names, status and contact info at info@bodyandmindrevolution.com

You can also go the CICR site here if you're looking for news of friends and relatives.

You can also join this Facebook group called Together for Haiti, where you can send donations and be informed on the situation.

Honey Don't Play Me No Opera : the first "blues" records 1914-1916

2010-01-14T13:19:00.009+01:00

Marion Harris - Paradise Blues(1916)

Victor Military Band - Joe Turner Blues(1916)

Prince's Band - Hesitating Blues(1915)

Nora Bayes - Homesickness Blues(1915)

All blues scholars and writers have ID'd the first true blues record : "Crazy Blues", by Mamie Smith, recorded in 1920. Every story of the recorded blues starts with this song. But we tend to forget that songs were recorded with the word "blues" in the title before 1920.

While searching for pre-1920material I stumbled upon a list at redhotjazz.com, a great site dedicated to the history of jazz before 1930. It features a few records, between 1914 and 1916, that were blues before the blues.

The list is made of two different types of recordings : instrumental pieces recorded by military bands that play in the Jim Europe / WC Hadny stle, and songs by famous female (and white) entertainers of the times, like Nora Bayes or Marion Harris.

I've posted four of them, two of each style, just for you. They don't seem to bear a strong resemblance to the blues (maybe in the chord structure), but you'll recognize, in "Hestating Blues", a standard of both blues and hillbilly music of the 20's; and the female singers really sound like the first "classic" blues divas like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith or Alberta Hunter.

Historians probably picked the Mamie Smith recording as the first blues because Mamie was colored and also because that was the first (although unwilling) attempt at reaching the Afro American public. But those recordings I'm posting today have their dated charms, and I'll probably post some more from 1917-1920, especially by the great Al Bernard, the famous "jazz singer".

From cakewalk to ragtime 1998-1916

2010-01-07T14:40:00.016+01:00

Metropolitan Orchestra - Smoky Mokes (buy) (1900)

The Victor Minstrels - The Cake-Walk (buy) (1902)

Europe's Society Orchestra - Down Home Rag (buy) (1913)

Trying to trace the origins of jazz in pre-1920 recordings may prove a bit frustrating. The great New Orleans bands only started to gain the interest of producers in the mid-twenties. So all you get before is mostly music recorded by Victor in New York City, generally played by white bands with a military, vaudeville or classical background.
But that doesn't mean such explorations are useless and uninteresting. Proof is this compilation by French label Frémeaux & Associés featuring original recordings of rags and its direct ancestor, the cakewalk.

This styles are very important because they formed a link between 19th century European music and the music played by the black slaves. The cake-walk was derived from the dances of black people who mocked the European dances like menuets.

As this great article at basinstreet.com says, "Instrumental rags and ragtime-styled music (an ancestor and influence of jazz), were important in Jazz’s evolution because they: 1) brought Negro rhythmic music to the usually sophisticated American White society; 2) non-reading bands listened to and imitated the more learned orchestras heard performing ragtime song; 3) the large demand for dance orchestras during an era when dancing was the most popular form of social activity; and 4) they provided the style for the ‘ragging’ of marches by adding syncopation and blue notes by the piano players of the era."

Nowadays, when you think about ragtime, what comes to your mind is Scott Joplin's piano pieces (see previous post), but cakewalk and ragtime were mostly played and recorded by orchestras or by banjoists, and that's what you will hear in this compilation. These 36 sides may sound stiff at times, but it is a great document anyway on the influence of black music in the turn of the century, and on the popular roots of ragtime.

Included are American and European recordings. The cakewalk and ragtime came to France by 1900 with the Exposition Universelle, and the British started to take an interest in cakewalk at this time (as a 1903 piece by banjoist Olly Oakley attests).

"Cake-Walk" (listen to the mp3 above) is one of the earliest attemps to capture the autentic spirit of an Afro American dance contest. The MC is one of the vaudeville stars of the era, Len Spencer.

The most important bandleaders of the era were John Philip Sousa (specialized in marches), Arthur Pryor (an ex-Sousa band member) and Jim Reese Europe, the first great African-American bandleader who introduced jazz in France during World War I. Europe's Society Orchestra's "Down Home Rag",under the leadership of drummer Charles "Buddy" Gilmore has a drive and feel which is "the best of what was available in NY at the time. This is highly-polished orchestral ragtime, which stops just short of being jazz.", as Olivier Brard says in the interesting liner notes.

See the CD's tracklist here.

Before country, vol. 3 : 1910-1915

2009-12-31T09:58:00.012+01:00

Harry Lauder - Roamin' in the Gloamin'(1912)

Bert Williams - Nobody (1913)

Morton Harvey - I Didn't Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier (1915)

This is the third part of my explorations of pre-country music. Here is one more little compilation I've made of various songs and tunes from the first half of the 1910s. Musically speaking, ragtime is still very popular, and the arrival of Afro American syncopated music is related by Tin Pan Alley or vaudeville singers ("Alexander's Ragtime Band). The "first" blues song to be published, "Memphis Blues" by WC Handy, is from 1912 (I included Harlan & Collins' rendition). And in 1910 John Lomax published "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads", first big scholar work on Western music.

Like the two others, this selection features popular "hits", some of them sentimental ballads ("Will The Roses Bloom In Heaven ?" later recorded by the Carter Family), vaudeville and blackface numbers like "Some Of These Days" by Sophie Tucker, a Russian born entertainer that influenced the first "classic blues singers" like Mamie Smith or Ma Rainey, and of course the great Bert Williams (see picture above), maybe the best Afro American entertainer of the early 20th century, with his signature tune "Nobody" (great Johnny Cash version with Rick Rubin in 2000).

There are the usual oddities, like this beautiful Brasilian tune played by F. Van Eps on the banjo, fiddler and comedian Charles Ross Taggart and one of the most famous singers of the era, Sir Harry Lauder with the delighful "Roamin' in the gloamin'", that shows if need be, the strong musical links between Celtic and country music.

The last two songs are World War I related, especially the one by Morton Harvey, which is a good example of the debate on America's preparation and taking part in the conflict. See this short article about the songs and its context.

Here's what you get as a new year's eve present. I don't have the time to go through every song like I did last time, but don't hesitate to comment or ask details about the songs if you like.

1. Henry Burr - Old Folks At Home (1910)
2. Will Oakland - I'll Remember You, Love, In My Prayers (1911)
3. Bill Murray - Alexander's Ragtime Band (1911)
4. Arthur Clough & Brunswick Quartet - Down By The Old Mill Stream (1911)
5. Henry Burr - Will The Roses Bloom in Heaven ? (1911)
6. Sophie Tucker - Some Of These Days (1911)
7. Byron Harlan - They Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dog Around (1912)
8. International Association Quartette - The Church In The Wildwood (1912)
9. Bob Roberts - Ragtime Cowboy Joe (1912)
10. Harry Lauder - Roamin' in the Gloamin' (1912)
11. Edna Brown & James F. Harrison - The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine (1913)
12. Collins & Harlan - When The Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves For Alabam' (1913)
13. Bert Williams - Nobody (1913)
14. Charles Ross Taggart - Old Country Fiddler in New York (1914)
15. Fred Van Eps - Sans souci (Maxixe brésilienne) (1914)
16. Billy Murray & American Quartet - When You Wore A Tulip (1914)
17. Morton Harvey - In The Hills Of Old Kentucky (1915)
18. Collins & Harlan - Memphis Blues (1915)
19. Morton Harvey - I Didn't Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier (1915)
20. Peerless Quartet - Is There Still Room For Me Neath The Old Apple Tree (1915)

DOWNLOAD BEFORE COUNTRY VOL. 3 (1910-1915) HERE

... and enjoy the music !

Joyeux Noël

2009-12-21T13:48:00.007+01:00

Leadbelly - On A Christmas Day (buy) (1944)

Georges Brassens - Le Père Noël et la petite fille (buy) (1960)

Have a nice Xmas dear readers !!

You'll find more great christmas music and pics at the Big rock candy mountain

Blues Standards : Ain't Nobody's Business

2009-12-17T13:34:00.014+01:00

Bessie Smith - T'ain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do (buy) (1923)

Jimmy Witherspoon - Ain't Nobody's Business (buy) (1947)

Here's one of these blues standards that was sung by almost everybody.

If you think it's by Eric Clapton, you're wrong (again)...

The theme of this song is universal and holds in the title : it's a song of freedom. Freedom from the universal "what will the neighbors say ?".
That's the reason why it became so popular among the public but also among the artists, whose private lives are so often threatened and scrutinized.

According to French scholar Gerard Herzhaft's Encyclopédie du blues, the song has a blackface/vaudeville origin and the first influential version was recorded by Bessie Smith in 1923, and composed by Porter Grainger and Everett Robbins. It seems that a few other "classic blues" lady singers waxed it around 1922-23 (Sara Martin and Alberta Hunter).

According to the Traditional Ballad Index, this song dates back to 1911 and shouldn't be confused with another one that was recorded by African American Black entertainer Bert Williams in 1919, and which is about a preacher trying to protect his own private life. The lyrics of William's version are different, but the subject is the same.

But "Nobody's Business" was really made famous by Jimmy Witherspoon when he recorded it with Jay McShann orchestra in late 1947. The song was a #1 hit for Spoon in 1949 and became one of his signature tunes, that he recorded many times. I posted the original version (parts 1 & 2), but there's a Chess recording from 1958 that is excellent too.
Spoon's rendition became the reference for a lot of covers in the 1950s and afterwards (Billie Holiday, BB and Freddie King, Ike and Tina Turner among others).

But there's another version, more rural, less urban, that was recorded many times in the 1920's and after by both black and white artists, with a different melody.
Here are the Earl Johnson (hillbilly fiddler from Georgia)and Frank Stokes (Memphis bluesman) versions :

Earl Johnson - Ain't Nobody's Business (buy) (1927)

Frank Stokes - 'Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do (buy) (1928)

This different, folky version was also sung by Mississippi John Hurt (before Stokes, in february 1928), country singer Riley Puckett (several recordings between 1935 and 1941), and by Piedmont blues singer John Jackson in 1965. Taj Mahal recorded a similar version in 1976.

Before country : 1893-1909 (2)

2009-12-11T11:51:00.041+01:00

Dear readers,

I'm both excited and worried. Excited, because I've discovered a new field, a musical virgin land for me : pre-1920 recordings.
Worried because , as always, there is so much music and so little time. I just wanted to post a couple of songs the other week to illustrate the pre-hillbilly era, but now I'm hooked on this music and I want to go much farther.

I know this is just the beginning but as I did last time, I have posted a playlist I want to share with you (see link at the end of this post) of pre-country recordings (and more will follow), covering the same period as last time, from 1890 to 1910.

As you will hear, lots of different styles are featured there : Tin Pan Alley songs, some in the over sentimental fashion of these days, more comic tunes ore sketches from the minstrel tradition, gospel songs, banjo tunes, and some sadly famous "coon songs".

So here's the list (with my comments) :

George J. Gaskin - After The Ball (1893) : Gaskin, an Irish tenor, was one of the most famous singers from the 1890s. This song is typical of the sentimental style : the brother/sister misunderstanding episode can be found in numerous songs like "The Tragic Romance" (Doc Watson).

Cousins & De Moss - Poor Mourner (1898) : This is one of the most ancient forms of Afro American pre-blues music I've ever heard. It's fascinating. This banjo duet plays a call and response gospel in a pure rocking style. I HAVE to get more from them (and I will).

Steve Porter - In The Baggage Coach Ahead (1899) : This is the song that Mellencamp's grandma sings on JCM's Scarecrow album from 1984. It was covered by Vernon Dalhart in 1925.

Vess L. Ossman - Whistling Rufus (1899) : Vess Ossman was a very famous banjoist who recorded a lot in the turn of the century. Here he plays an instrumental version of the famous coon song "Whistling Rufus".

Dan W. Quinn - Ain't Dat A Shame (1901) : another recording star of the era, in another coon song.
I decided to include a few of these songs, because they were very popular at the time and that most of the time the music is excellent and shows a lot of African american influences. I am conscious that the lyrics are very offensive today, and needless to say I was disgusted by their outspoken racism, but they are very representative of the era. As Patrick Featser at his wonderful site Phonozoic says, "The coon song coupled the catchiest tunes of the age with words marking a low point in crude racial stereotyping and insensitivity. This genre of popular song shaped and reinforced racist assumptions to a degree that should not be underestimated". You can find an excellent article on coon songs here at Parlor Songs.

George W. Johnson - The Laughing Song (1901)

George W. Johnson was the first Afro American artist to record. A famous whistler and singer from Virginia, he started recording in 1890. From 1890 to 1895, the total sales of his records was 25 000 to 50 000, each one recorded individually by Johnson !! (every single record was a master by then). This is a re-recording of one of his most famous songs, carrying the stereotype of the big-mouth, loud laughing "darkey". Coon songs were not sung by white men only...

Silas Leachman - Fortune Telling Man (1901) : Silas Leachman was also known as George Walker, part of the Walker and Williams duo with Bert Williams, one of the first and the most prominent acts of Black comedy.

Arthur Collins & Vess L. Ossman - All Coons Look Alike To Me (1902) /
Arthur Collins & Byron G. Harlan - Old Black Joe (1902):
These are two of the most famous coon songs. Arthur Collins was a popular minstrel singer, who often paired with tenor Byron Harlan. The banjo accompaniment on these two songs is very interesting and probably derived from Afro American music. "All Coons Look Alike" was written bu a Black composer ! Sad...

J.W. Myers - I Stood On The Bridge At Midnight (1902) : a famous poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Byron G. Harlan - Always In The Way (1903) /
Byron G. Harlan - When The Harvest Days Are Over (1902) : As a solo artist, Harlan specialized in sentimental ballads like "Hello Central Give Me Heaven" (see previous post) or "Harvest Days", later sung by Uncle Dave Macon

Harry Macdonough - Stay In Your Own Backyard (1904) : another typical sentimental song, often advertised as a "plaintive coon song" (sic). Although showing compassion for a little coloured boy who his rejected by his white neighbors, the title and the conclusion of the song are more than ambiguous and justify segregation in the end.

Bob Roberts & Vess L. Ossman- - The Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane (1904)

Now a bluegrass standard, this song was written in 1871 for the minstrel trade. The song itself was popular, but the melody was even more widely used, finding itself adapted to a variety of other songs: "The Little Old Sod Shanty On The Claim" , "Little Red Caboose Behind The Train"; and even hymns, "The Lily Of The Valley".Fiddlin' John Carson's version of 1923 is famous for being the first commercial recording by a white rural musician.

Edison Male Quartet - When The Bees Are In The Hive (1905) : A pastoral sentimental Tin Pan Alley song later recorded by Bill Monroe.

Arthur Collins - The Preacher and the Bear (1905) :
Collins' greatest hit and signature tune, a great comic song and a convinving bear imitation.

Irving Gillette (Henry Burr) - In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree (1905)

Billy Murray - Parody on In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree (1905): Henry Burr(photo below), born in Canada, was one of the most prolific artists of the era. This song was so sentimental that Billy Murray recorded this parody.

Osman Dudley Trio - St. Louis Tickle (1906) : a ragtime piece for banjo celebrating the 1904 St Louis Exposition.

Len Spencer & Alf Holt - A Barnyard Serenade (1906) : this vaudeville comic duo performs a series of animal imitations.

Arthur Collins - Moving Day (1906) : another "coon song" that Charlie Poole would record later.

May Irwin - The Bully (1907) : May Irvin, a vaudeville Canadian actress and singer with her signature tune, the famous "Bully Of The Town" (in country, the Stankey brothers covered it). Her act around 1900 was known as "Coon Shouting" in which she performed African American influenced songs. watch out : the lyrics are particularly racist, but as they say at Parlor's song, it's important to know that such things existed. The Golden years were not good for every one....

Frederick Potter - Red Wing (1907) : Red Wing ("an Indian fable") was a popular Tin Pan Alley Song that became a very famous fiddle tune and a barn dances favorite.

Arthur Collins - All In, Down and Out (1907) : this vaudeville classic was later recorded by Uncle Dave Macon. The song title and line "If I ever get my hand on a dollar again, I'm gonna hold on to it" were used in the famous classic "Nobody Knows You When You're down and Out" (Bessie Smith)

Fisk University Jubilee Singers - Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (1909) : the famous a cappella ensemble was organized in 1871 to raise funds for the African American Fisk university in Tennessee and toured all over the world. This is one of their first recordings (of course it was not the origninal line-up). Fisk Jubilee singers still perform today.

Polk Miller & The Old South Quartet - Watermelon Party (1909)
Last but not least, a pure gem. It's from 1909 and it sounds like blues, 20 years before the fist country bluesmen were recorded ! It is one of the rare recordings from the era featuring a guitar, and the playing, singing are just plain authentic. And there's more to it : Polk Miller (see photo below), a white pharmacist and musician from Virginia, performed with a quartet of African American singers : one of the earliest mixed groups ever recorded ! According to various sources, they played material going back to the days before the Civil War. Mark Twain considered Miller as "the only thing this country can furnish that is originally and utterly American". One can understand why. Document records issued more songs by them and they're on my immediate wish list !

DOWNLOAD BEFORE COUNTRY VOL. 2 HERE

... and enjoy the music !

Henry Thomas, Texas songster

2009-12-01T13:31:00.005+01:00

Henry Thomas - Bull Doze Blues (buy) (1928)

Henry Thomas - Fishin' Blues (buy) (1928)

Henry Thomas, aka "Ragtime Texas" was one of the oldest Black folk musicians to ever record. Born in Big Sandy, Tx, in 1874, he recorded in 1928-89 when he was in his fifties. The 23 songs he left us (available on the Yazoo compilation Texas Worried Blues) are a great document on the music that was there before the blues. Henry was the archetypal songster, capable of playing any kind of popular music to entertain his audience and earn his life.
If you want to know more about the man please read this excellent article in The Handbook of Texas Online.

In fact Ragtime Texas only waxed a handfull of "bona fide" blues, and the rest was of various origins : rags, reels and other country dances, vaudeville and minstrel songs, with floating verses taken from many different popular songs.
His lively guitar playing, his use of the quills (see previous post), make him a very original figure of a great influence. His music was re-discovered thanks to the Harry Smith anthology in 1952, that featured a couple of his tunes, including "Fishin' Blues". In the 60's, great old-time music lovers like Dylan ("Honey Aloow Me One More Chance"), Canned Heat ("Bull Doze Blues" becoming "Goin' Up The Country"), Grateful Dead or Taj Mahal covered his songs.

And most of all, Ragtime Texas sang about the itinerant life of the hobo-musician like nobody else, especially in the following song :

Henry Thomas - Railroadin' Some (buy) (1928)

I leave you with this beautiful tribute made by Norman Blake 70 years after Henry Thomas recorded.

Norman Blake - Ragtime Texas (buy) (1998)

Before country part 1 (1891-1909)

2009-11-24T14:23:00.030+01:00

Edison Male Quartet - A Flower From Home Sweet Home (1907)

Edison Male Quartet - My Old Kentucky Home (1902)

Byron Harlan - Hello Central Give Me Heaven (1904)

Billy Murray - Casey Jones (1909)

It is admitted that the first documented country recording was Eck Robertson's Victor session in june 1922.

But what was there before ?

In the first years of the phonograph industry, before World War I, record companies only focused on an urban audience. They had not realized yet the importance of the rural population, at least as a specific audience.
As Bill C. Malone writes in Country Music USA (the main source for this post),

"Rustic types were staples of American entertainment, but these were usually sophisticated entertainers, such as John Denman or Cal Stewart(hear his "Uncle Josh In A Barber Shop"), who merely acted the parts of hayseed and rubes. Folk and rural songs likewise were not absent (...) but they were generally done by urbane song-and-dance men like Billy Golden (hear his "Turkey In The Straw" from 1891) or the Edison Male Quartet (see songs above)".

Out of curiosity for these unknown names, I went to archive.org and picked a couple of Edison Male Quartet tunes. These guys are really exciting to hear. Weird to hear music from cylinders more than a century old ! What I like the most is the man barking his announcements in a great sergeant-major style...

I listened to a few songs, then other ones, then others, and tried a little research on the Web. With the help of this page at bluegrassmessengers.com, I found so many great songs that I decided to make a little compilation you can download, in addition to the tracks posted above, featuring songs I think influenced country music. I only included tracks from the turn of the century (1891-1909). Of course, there will be (at least) a volume two.

Although, like Malone says, the instrumentation and performing style have nothing to do with hillbilly music, you'll find folk or Southern ballads ("My Old Kentucky Home", a great version of "Casey Jones") and many sentimental ballads, some of which were covered by country and hillbilly singers ("Silver Threads Among the Gold", with a melody that reminds me of "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain", "Hello Central Give Me Heaven", later sung by the Carter Family), more satirical comedy sketches about hillbillies ("Arkansas Traveler"), and a lot of vaudeville and minstrel shows artists like Byron G. Harlan. There also were tons of terrible "coon songs", but i didn't include them; I didn't know they were SO popular in 1900 !!

The sentimental "pop" ballads, along with the old folk traditions, were an undeniable influence on country music too.

Here's what you'll find :

Before country vol. 1 (1891-1909)

Billy Golden - Turkey in The Straw (1891)
Cal Stewart - Uncle Josh In A Barber Shop (1896)
JJ Fisher -The Girl I Loved In Sunny Tennesse (1899)
Joseph Natus - A Bird In A Guilded Cage (1900)
Edison Male Quartet _ My Old Kentucky Home (1902)
Arthur Collins - Oh Didn't He Rambled (1902)
Richard Jose - Silver Threads Among the Gold (1904)
Byron Harlan - Hello Central Give Me Heaven (1904)
Len Spencer -Arkansaw Traveller (1904)
Haydn Quartet - My Grandfather's Clock (1905)
Edison Male Quartet - A Flower From Home Sweet Home (1907)
Ada jones & Bill Murray - Rainbow (1908)
Will Oakland - The longest Way 'Round Is the Sweetest Way Home (1909)
Bill Murray - Casey Jones (1909)
Arthur Clough - Put On Your Old Gray Bonnet (1909)

DOWNLOAD BEFORE COUNTRY (vol.1) HERE

Growling Tiger : Knockdown Calypsos

2009-11-18T13:23:00.006+01:00

Growling Tiger - Money Is King (1979) (buy)

Growling Tiger - The Train Blow (1979) (buy)

First of all, I am deeply sorry for not posting those past weeks, I was too much busy with the Acclaimed music poll, which is now over.

Just after submitting my list of favorite albums, I found this gem, that I would heve included if I could. I knew one track already, the first one I posted, the delicious "Money Is King", on a great box set called Musica Negra In the Americas.

The album is a great surprise, even if "Money Is King" remains, IMO, the highlight of the lot. Neville Marcano, aka The Growling Tiger (1915-1993) was a calypsonian from Trinidad, an ex-boxer who became a star in the 1930s, when calypsonians started exporting their music overseas, and big names emerged like Lord Kitchener, Lord Invader or Roaring Lion (I don't know which one of Roaring Lion or Growling Tiger earnt his nickname first).

Check ou his bio here (Wikipedia) and here (Acousticmusic.com)

After a semi retirement, Growling Tiger was recorded by Alan Lomax in Trinidad in 1962 with an acoustic band, playing a traditional form of Calypso and even older styles. You can find these recordings on the Alan Lomax Series under the name The Growling Tiger Of Calypso.
Then 15 years later American enthousiast Steve Shapiro rediscovered a 64 year-old Tiger and recorded him again, this time with a more "modern" band featuring horns. These sessions gave birth to Knock Down Calypsos.

It is difficult to resist the Tiger's charms. His music, a sum of various influences from French, Spanish, English and African traditions, ranges from old-school minor-key calypso ("Money Is king") to derivations from more ancient styles like kalinda (a stick-fighting dance popular in Trinidad carnivals) or songs with a strong African heritage like "Youruba Shango".

A common trait in calypso, the lyrics and the singer's personality are very important. The singer must forge himself a strong identity in order to outshine the competition. Growling Tiger, with his deep barytone voice, was famous for his political and social lyrics, and never ceased to mock the rulers and the system, in pure carnaval tradition.

"Money Is King", both funny and serious, is a great example of his consciousness. The album also features bawdy songs like "The Train Blow". I couldn't understand the whole thing but it looks like the story of a romance on a passenger train. If somebody could help me with the lyrics exact meaning, that would be great (same goes for "Money is King") !

As Robert Leaver says, "A master of improvisation (extempo) and the competitive Calypsonian duel, Tiger could rhyme on diverse subjects with intelligence and wit. Rappers take heed -- Growling Tiger could school you".

Favorite roots albums : Blind Gary Davis - Harlem Street Singer

2009-10-27T13:53:00.004+01:00

Blind Gary Davis - Death Don't Have No Mercy (buy) (1960)

Blind Gary Davis - Lo, I Be With You Always (buy) (1960)

Sorry folks for the late post, I have few free time these days due to the Top 200 AMF album poll I'm running. This is another of my favorite albums.

This beautiful LP was part of my father's collection when I discovered it. It features a great vocalist and guitar picker in 12 gospel-blues songs as he sang them in the streets of New York City. The album was recorded in a 3 hour session on August 24, 1960.

This is pure top notch acoustic blues and one of the very first masterpieces of the folk/blues revival of the sixties.

I'll discuss the man Gary Davis later but you can check out his bio here.

Favorite roots albums : Georges Brassens Edition

2009-10-16T13:56:00.004+02:00

Georges Brassens - Le Gorille (buy) (1953)

Georges Brassens - Le Bistrot (buy) (1960)

Sorry guys i haven't got much time these days due to my work with Acclaimed Music's album poll, in which you can still take part (more details here. )

While I'm knee-deep (and soon chest-deep) into lists of favorite albums, here's an artist who will have at least 3 or 4 albums in my top 200.

Brassens is the first thing I remember, musically speaking.
My grandfather used to play these 10-inch (25 cm) LPs, I was 3 or 4 years old and soon I knew some songs by heart and sang them in my grandparents' garden.

My father played these records too, singing along. I listened to them with my sisters and grew up with this music. That's probably why I love folk music today.

And Brassens still rules : he's folky, and sometimes jazzy à la Django (most of the time just a double bass and two accoustic guitars), he's the hell of a songwriter, he's an exquisite poet (much better than Brel to me, much more literate), he's fun, go to his biography on wiki or AMG if you don't know him.

The songs ? about God (the hilarious "Le Mécréant"), death and murder ("Le gorille"), love ("Je m'suis fait tout petit", two of his very best songs), and of course, booze ("Le Bistrot", about a bartender's wife).

"Le Gorille", one of his very first songs, was banned from airplay because of its lyrics. It even caused Brassens' mother, a devout Catholic to boycott his concerts.

You'll find English subtitles in this video to learn why. Brassens is old and sick in the video so the performance is not as good as in the record.

A to Z : The Allen Brothers

2009-10-09T13:14:00.002+02:00

The Allen Brothers - Bow Wow Blues (buy) (1927)

The Allen Brothers - Jake Walk Blues (buy) (1930)

Ever since the beginnings of the country industry, singers and musicians were fascinated by the blues. Although the most famous of them was Jimmie Rodgers and his blue yodels, others like Darbie & Tarlton, Dick Justice recorded numerous blues songs, but the Allen Brothers' music was so rooted in the blues that Columbia catalogued their recordings as "race" performances, which caused them to leave the label.

Austin and Lee Allen were from a poor family of Chatanooga sawyers, and spent a part of their youth as itinerant musicians especially on miners camps in the moutains. There they probably met a lot of other songsters, black and white, and learnt a lot from them. The songs they recorded between 1927 and 1937 were mostly personal compositions (a rare fact at that time) inspired by blues standards and jug band numbers. They often wrote about current events : "Jake Walk Blues" is a commentary on the Jamaican ginger ("jake") food-poisoning episode that made headlines that year.

Although they were good singers and valuable banjo/guitar players, Lee's kazzo playing is the duo's trademark. As Bill C Malone says , "he took this child's toy of presumed limited range and converted it to a lead instrument of exceptional flexibility. On Allen Bros recordings the kazoo is used like a trumpet; the result is a sound not unlike that heard on Charlie Poole's string band recordings, a syncopated but structured swing."

Like a lot of musicians who recorded in the twenties, their onstage repertoire was wider than just the blues.

As a bonus, here is a good example of their uptempo, swinging songs.

The Allen Brothers - Ain't That Skippin' An' Flyin' (buy) (1928)

Check out their AMG bio

Here a post on Lonesome Lefty's Scratchy Attic

Favorite roots albums : Doc & Merle Watson : Ballads From Deep Gap

2009-10-01T13:09:00.004+02:00

Doc & Merle Watson - My Rough and Rowdy Ways (buy) (1967)

Doc & Merle Watson - The Lawson Family Murder (buy) (1967)

I'm a list maniac. There is no cure for that. So I spend a lot of time hanging out on the Acclaimed Music forum with my list maniac (and music nerd) friends.
I'm running a poll this month called "list you 200 favorite albums of all time" (all genres) and if you're a list maniac don't hesitate and participate !

So this month I will post about my favorite roots albums and the first of all (#8 in my all-time list which contains a lot of "non-roots" material).

I doscovered this forgotten gem by chance at the library while looking for some Doc Watson stuff. To this day, no folk-country album (I'm not counting compilations) has had such an effect on me.
The 12 songs encompass some of the best styles in traditional American music : old Appalachian ballads (a great rendition of Clarence Ashley's "The Cuckoo"), hillbilly music (a cover of Jimmie Rodgers' "Rough and Rowdy Ways"), bluegrass (Lester Flatt's "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms"), blues (a wonderful version of Mississippi John Hurt's "Stackolee") or murder ballads, with the "Lawson Family Murder", a terrible story sung in a gentle manner, which makes it even more stunning. The only other song on this subject that could pair it might be Suicide's "Frankie Teardrop", which tells the same story in a completely opposite manner.

And of course there is Doc and son's performance. Doc Watson is one of the best acoustic guitar players of the century, taking picking to unbelievable heights. Not only is he a technical virtuoso, but his playing is almost laid back and seems effortless. Everything is done at home, the sound is incredible, and the music is fast, fun and unpretentious.

I do hope I have convinced you to get that masterpiece. If you love the music I post here, you will love this album.

Track list :

1 Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms
2 My Rough and Rowdy Ways
3 The Wreck of the Old Number Nine
4 Gambler's Yodel
5 The Cuckoo
6 Stack-O-Lee
7 Willie Moore
8 Travelin' Man
9 The Tragic Romance
10 Texas Gales [instrumental]
11 The Lawson Family Murder
12 Alabama Bound

Tejano Roots (5) : Conjunto Bernal

2009-09-21T13:08:00.004+02:00

Conjunto Bernal - Mi Unico Camino (buy) (1958)

Conjunto Bernal - La Novia Antonia (buy) (1958)

Led by Paulino Bernal, this conjunto started recording in the 1950s, and became the best of its generation.
It was a classic tejano group, with Paulino on lead vocals and accordion and his older brother Elias on bajo sexto and harmonizing. Like many conjuntos, they started in South Texas, playing in bars for blue-collar immigrants to support their family.

I really love their modern sound and their harmonizing is divine. And they were the first tejano band to play rock 'n' roll, as you can hear on the second track, a cover of Larry William's "Bonie Moronie".

There's a great Arhoolie compilation of them (see the image above) that you can download at e-music.

If you're interested in Tejano music, check this article from the University of Texas site.

Perfect for reading Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy.
God, that is a great series of novels, the perfect companion for the music on River's Invitation.

You send, I like : KJ Walker

2009-09-17T12:16:00.005+02:00

KJ Walker - Without You (buy) (2009)

I've started receiving albums and e-mails about new artists and it's always a pleasure. Some were off-topic, some I didn't like enough, but I took KJ Walker's Cd with me when I went to the mountains and listened to it in the car.

I really liked his brand of roots rock, with a Californian flavour, especially in Kj's mellow vocals. The songwriting is solid most of the time, reminiscent of Roy Orbison, Tom Petty , and the melodies and beats are versatile enough.

I picked "Without You" a great love song, probably because it reminds me of the later Bruce Springsteen (didn't I tell you that Bruce is my favorite singer ?)and because of its nostalgia, but there are other highlights, from the ballad "A house In My Heart" to the driving rock'n roll beat of "Thinkin Of You".

According to his bio Kevin J Walker is a veteran of the Los Angeles blues circuit who started to play in the streets of Europe. And last but not least, just like me, he was born in Paris.

Bravo KJ !

If you liked this sample, you can either :

- visit the KJ Walker Band's Myspace

- or go here if you want to buy or hear more of the album.

Arhoolie 40th Anniversary Box Set (Cd 1)

2009-09-11T10:31:00.007+02:00

Mance Lipscomb - Charlie James (buy) (1964)

Clifton Chenier - Louisiana Blues (buy) (1965)

Just before I went on holidays, I received this wonderful box set, a best of Chris Strachwitz's Arhoolie label. I had burned it a few years ago but having the real thing is really something different : the liner notes are fantastic !

The man behind that label, Chris Strachwitz, is one of the most important record makers in roots music, and the equal of an Alan Lomax. Born in Germany, he arrived in the States at age 16, and like a lot of Europeans, was fond of traditional music. The box set follows his musical discoveries : first , the blues (especially from Texas, since Chris was living in San Francisco) and old-time country, then Cajun and Zydeco, Norteno, and his last love, sacred steel.

The first CD is focused on the 1960's. Chris, a school teacher then, started his label from scratch, making recording trips to meet his favorite artists : the great Sam Lighting Hopkins in the Houston ghetto, JE Mainer in the Appalachian, and one-man band Jesse Fuller in "San Francisco Bay" (his very first recording, made in 1954 at Jesse's house).

Highlights of this first cd include a lot of great bluesmen (Big Joe Williams, Lil' Son Jackson, Fred McDowell...) but I picked two artists that really owe to Mr. Strachwitz : Texas songster Mance Lipscomb and the Zydeco king Clifton Chenier.

So if you really love down home music of all kinds, don't hesitate and buy this wonderful box set. I had mine for 45 dollars and it's not much compared to its content (the music, of course, but also the liner notes). And you will support a great label !

100th post : A new river ?

2009-09-01T11:45:00.010+02:00

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band & Michael Martin Murphey - Lost River (buy) (1989)

Hi,

I'm back from the Briançon area in the Southern Alps where I spent 2 weeks of well-deserved vacations. The town is located at the foot of the mountains, surronded by numerous valleys. The more I come to this place, the more I find it beautiful. Me and my wife took a lot of river pictures while hiking, so this 100th post will be full of images and songs of mountain rivers.

Now september comes with a lot of new ideas. First, I guess I won't be posting as much as I did before. Maybe once a week, sometimes more, sometimes less I guess. I've got a lot of other projects, and especially to start making, recording and writing music again.

Instead of focusing on the roots of popular music as I did in the past few months, I will surf more freely between one era to another; that will mean more music from the sixties and seventies to the present, and possibly new releases if I still receive CDs, and between styles, although I will stick to the "roots" styles : country, blues, world, roots rock.

Now enough said, let's hear more river songs.

Clarence Gatemouth Brown - River's Invitation (buy) (1997)

The very first mp3 I posted here was, of course, the Percy Mayfield version of my blog's title song, but I cherish this recording by Texas guitarist Clarence Gatemouth Brown, from his great album Gatemouth Swings, that he recorded with a big band.

Cephas & Wiggins- Going To The River (buy) (1996)

In contrast with the joyful picture above (yes, that's me with my wife and son), this song, originally written by Dave Bartholomew for Fats Domino is a mournful song of love lost, where the river's invitation is nothing but death calling. I love the way Cephas and Wiggins play it, almost gently, as if to remind us that singing the blues will stop the guy from drowning, as in these beautiful words by Blind Willie McTell :

Now a white man go to the river, take him a seat and sit down
The blues overtake him, he jump overboard and drown
Yes he's weary, weary hearted and blue
And that's why we're cryin' these weary hearted blues

Now a colored man go to the river, take him a seat and sit down
He takes the blues, he come home back to town
And yet he weary, weary hearted and blue
And that's why I'm cryin' these weary hearted blues

Summer closing

2009-08-06T16:17:00.006+02:00

Pink Anderson - I'm Going Away Baby (buy) (1961)

This is where I will spend the next 2 weeks, in Briançon, a little town in the Southern Alps, away from computers of all kinds. Then I'll go for another week in Normandie, so I won't be back before three weeks.

See you in september with a new River's Invitation : possibly one post a week instead of 2, and more bridges to late 20th century music.

Black ballads (5) : Crimes of passion

2009-08-02T21:36:00.008+02:00

Mississippi John Hurt - Frankie (buy) (1928)

Leadbelly -Ella Speed (buy) (1944)

Man-to-woman murder, or the opposite, is very common in the blues, and it was the subject of ballads too : the two above, but also "Delia", sung by Willie McTell and brilliantly covered by Johnny Cash in 1994. What is more appealing and thrilling than passion and murder, treason and love gone mad ?

Of course the most famous of all is "Frankie and Albert", "Frankie and Johnny" or just "Frankie" in the Mississippi John Hurt version. You will find anything you need to know about it here in this Wikipedia article, and once again, at the Old Weird America, where you can download dozens of different versions of the song by blues, hillbilly, jazz and pop artists.

"Ella Speed" is based on the story of a New Orleans mulatto prostitute (an "octoroon") who was shot by Louis "Bull" Martin, a white man of Italian origin who was in love with her. She was married and had turned him down.

In Leadbelly's rendition, Bull Martin becomes Bill Martin. You can read more about the song story here in a post about the Mance Lipscomb version recorded by Chris Strachwitz in 1960. A good transition to my next post, as you will see in a few days.

Fiddle tunes (2)

2009-07-30T09:58:00.009+02:00

Johnny Gimble

Paul Warren - Listen To The Mockingbird (buy)

Kessinger Brothers - Turkey In The Straw (buy)

Johnny Gimble - Ragtime Annie (buy)

Bonus track : Quinteto Tipico Mexicano - Sobre las olas (Over The Waves) (buy)

(My main source for this post is Bill C. Malone's Country Music, USA)

Some fiddle tunes, among the most popular, didn't come directly from the folk repertory, but were composed and sometimes sold as sheet music during the 19th century.
Some came from black-face minstrelsy, like "Old Dan Tucker", "Turkey in the Straw" ( a song dating from the 1820s and originally called "Old Zip Coon"), "Cotton Eyed Joe" or "Listen to the Mockingbird", which became a classic for fiddle virtuosos and entertainers who could imitate various species of birds with their instrument (like bluegrass musician Paul Warren in the first track).

Other tunes came from the various popular styles : "Arkansas Traveler"was composed in the 1800s; "Ragtime Annie", here played by Texas fiddler and one time -Bob Wills sideman Johnny Gimble, but also "Dill Pickle Rag" or "Chicken Reel" were adaptations of popular dances.

And there were those which came for foreign countries. As Malone says, "If the country fiddler heard a good tune, he made it his own, whether it came from his own immediate experience, was a legacy from his ancestors, or moved into his consciousness from a foreign source. "Over the Waves", which is still probably the most popular country waltz, was originally written as "Sobre las olas" by the Mexican composer Juventino Rosas."
As a Mexican music fan, I couldn't resist to add as a bonus track a Mexican version of this classic.

Another foreign tune turned into a fiddle standard is "Under The Double Eagle", originally a patriotic march by the Austrian composer Josef Wagner which became a favorite of John Philip Sousa and thus made its way into American music.

Before jazz : Marches and brass bands

2009-07-27T10:25:00.011+02:00

US Marine Band - The Liberty Bell (1894 historic recording) (buy)

US Marine Band - The Thunderer March (1896) (buy)

US Marine Band - Maple Leaf Rag (1906) (buy)

WC Handy - Yellow Dog Blues (buy) (1922)

Marches, as played by military or civilian brass bands, were very popular in the 19th century. Marches were very influential both to ragtime (see previous post) and to New Orleans jazz.
John Philip Sousa, "the march king", composed dozens of very popular pieces that were first recorded in the 1890's by the United States Marine Band, which he conducted from 1880 to 1892.

The tracks I posted are among the oldest musical recordings in the world, so don't test your brand new stereo with them.

You'll probably recognize the first one as Monty Python's Flying Circus Theme. The second one, more syncopated, "with its lead trumpets, supportive trombones, and piccolos winging arpeggios over the top" (to quote Kevin Whitehead in this very interesting essay at emusic), sounds more pre-jazz.
The United States Band, nicknamed "the President's own", played various styles of music for the White House, and weren't indifferent to the ragtime boom of the 1890s as their recording of "Maple Leaf Rag" from 1906 attests.

W.C. Handy, the so-called "father of the blues" (more the father of blues copyright, as Whitehead says), recorded with his band between 1917 and 1923, so a few years before King Oliver and the first black jazz bands did so.
He was one of the first to commercialize blues as sheet music. Before that, there was a certain gap between musicians who could read music and those who played the blues and "made up their own tunes" (I heard a great Bunk Johnson interview about that). It is the meeting of these musicians, and especially in New Orleans where creoles and blacks interacted, that gave birth to jazz. WC Handy's band plays with the discipline of a "reading" band, without swing, but his music, in a sense, is the last exit before jazz.

A to Z : Ray Agee (1930-1990)

2009-07-23T06:48:00.012+02:00

Ray Agee - Tin Pan Alley (buy) (Sahara, 1963)

Ray Agee - From Now On (buy) (Hi-Fi, 1958)

Ray Agee (see his All Music Guide Biography), born in Alabama, was stricken by polio at age 4. On one of the rare pictures of him I could find, he's leaning on two crutches. When his family emigrated to California, he and his brothers formed a gospel group. Then he switched to doo-wop and R&B and recorded his first 45, "Deep Troubled" for L.A label Aladdin.

I really love his 1963 cover of "Tin Pan Alley", his most acclaimed song, with a great guitar work by Johnny Heartsman. Agee was both a versatile and prolific composer. He tried doo-wop, soul, smooth Charles Brown-like West Coast blues, acoustic blues, socially conscious songs and pop-corn soul and recorded for myriads of small, local labels, never earning a nationwide fame.

Please don't forget to check out 2 posts about Agee in The MPM blog, with a 1972 song and most of all, a great radio interview of Frank Zappa, Ray Agee and Shuggie Otis from 1970 followed by an accoustic jam session with Agee singing. You'll learn that the first record Zappa ever stole was a Ray Agee 45 !

Black ballads (4) : Bad Men, from Stack'O Lee to John Hardy

2009-07-20T12:30:00.024+02:00

Champion Jack Dupree - Stack O'Lee (buy) (1958)

The bad man is another recurrent hero of black ballads, and an object of fascination and fear (see the Railroad Bill discussion) . The bad man survived the blues era and can be found in rap and of course, reggae. Last week I saw "The Harder They Come" (with the famous and excellent soundtrack), a great "bad man" story.

The archetypal bad man is, of course, Stagger Lee (or Stack'O Lee), a St Louis (or, some say Memphis) pimp who shot Billy Lyons for a Stetson hat. A lot has been said and written about him, including a famous essay by Greil Marcus who linked him to Sly Stone.
Most scholars see a shooting in Saint Louis as the original murder that gave birth to the Stagger Lee legend.

Please check out this great post about Stack'O Lee at Gadaya's Old Weird America with the original story, many useful links and 40 versions by musicians of various genres and times.

In short, like Gadaya says, Stack is the dark side of John Henry, and his song, like the one about the steel diver, was recorded by hundreds of artists (400 according to the Staggerlee.com site). I love the Mississippi John Hurt rendition, one of the very first, but as we've already heard his John Henry, I'm posting the Champion Jack Dupree cover, one of a long line of New Orleans Stagger Lees (by Archibald, Lloyd Price, Fess Longhair, etc..).

Leadbelly - Duncan and Brady (buy) (1947)

Other bad men and murderers include Duncan, who shot sheriff Bill Brady in a barroom or a grocery store (some grocery stores sold whiskey and even other things). This song is very similar to Stagger Lee and seems to originate from St Louis too, as well as "Ella Speed" or "Frankie" of which we will talk later.
It was first recorded by hillbilly singer Wilmer Watts but the most famous version is by Leadbelly. Check out this discussion at Mudcat Cafe's forum and you'll learn a lot about the song's origins.
Let's not forget that Leadbelly himself carried the image of the bad man, sentenced 3 times for murder and assault.

Willie Walker - Dupree Blues (buy) (1930)

Frank Dupree grew up in Abbeville, South Carolina. He came on the scene in December 1921 in Atlanta, Georgia, where he had a gal Betty. In trying to appropriate a diamond for her in a jewelry store he shot a policeman down. Fleeing to Memphis and later to Chicago, where he was cornered, he killed a policeman and wounded several more. He was caught while getting his mail and sent to Atlanta for trial. He was executed for murder on September 1, 1922." (Roberts, Leonard Ward. In the Pine: Selected Kentucky Folksongs. Pikeville College Press, 1978.)

Another bad man story, where the hero kills for love (or, should we say, where the hero kills to satisfy his woman's greed) and the occasion to post a song by the great Willie Walker, a blind and forgotten musician from South Carolina (just like Dupree)who recorded 4 fantastic Piedmont blues in 1930 for Columbia with Sam Brooks, his regular accompanist.

Last but not least, John Hardy. In my earlier John Henry post, Lynchie from Aberdeen stressed the strong link between these two Johns. This is something I had never thought of, but this page confirms that for some people, J. Hardy and John Henry were one and the same. Both stories come from West Virginia.
Don't forget to check out the John Hardy post at Old Weird America, replete with information and recordings.
The historical John Hardy was probably a black coal miner who killed another worker over a crap game in West Viriginia. Before being hanged, he wrote a repentance song, which is believed to be the origin of the folk piece. Although John Hardy was black, the majority of singers who recorded the song were white, with the notable exception of Leadbelly (and more recently, Alvin Youngblood Hart). But the rendition which in my opinion towers over all the others, is by the Carter Family, with the great guitar work of Maybelle and Sara's voice.

The Carter Family - John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man (buy) (1928)

Fiddle tunes (1)

2009-07-16T13:22:00.027+02:00

on the photo : Gaither Carlton

The fiddle is the father of every American folk instrument(if human voice doesn't count). In country music it has a very symbolical, traditional role, and God knows if country is, among other things, about tradition. That's probably why the fiddle stayed in country music, while practically disappearing from blues and rock (with exceptions like Andrew Bird).

Let's read how Bill C. Malone introduces his discussion about the instrument, in his wonderful book Country Music USA. I'm halfway into the book and I feel I've found a goldmine and the Bible of country scholarship :

The instrument most favored by rural folk, and for a long time virtually the defining instrument of country music, was the fiddle. The fiddle came with the earliest colonists, was soon mastered by nearly every folk group in North America, from the French habitants of Acadia to the blacks of the South, and was then taken to the farthest reaches of the frontier."

A great exemple of fiddling in "The farthest reaches of the frontier" is my old post about the Gu-Achi Fiddlers.

The Skillet Lickers - Soldier's Joy (buy) (1929)

The fiddle was a dance instrument, as in this track by the Skillet Lickers (photo above), featuring one of the finest fiddlers of old-time country, Clayton McMichen.
Another great institution is the fiddle contest, that helped a lot of musicians earn fame. A quick Google search will show that fiddle contests are still alive and kicking today.

Bill C. Malone, in his book, makes a short classification of fiddle tunes.
Some of the oldest were of direct Celtic origin, such as "Soldier's Joy", "Old Molly Mare". According to Malone, tunes like "Flop-Eared Mule", the bluegrass classic "Fire On the Mountain" or "Leather Breeches", "although presumed to be American, drew on British airs". Here's a nice version of "Flop-Eared mule" by modern-day Alabama fiddler Jerry Rogers. If you like this, please consider buying the album.

Jerry Rogers - Flop-Eared Mule (buy) (2004)

I'd like to add this John Hartford's version of "Leather Breeches" from his classic progressive bluegrass album Aereo Plain. I took the picture of Hartford below from a post by Nelson at Star Maker Machine.

John Hartford - Leather Britches (buy) (1971)

Other fiddle tunes were American-born, with geographical references in their title, like "Cumberland Gap", "Cripple Creek", "Mississippi Sawyer". Then there were those which commented historical events : "Bonaparte's Retreat" or "8th of July" (...1815, when Andrew Jackson defeated the British at New Orleans, the subject of a famous Johnny Horton song too).

Let's hear of one the most acclaimed fiddle players of old-time country, Arthur "Fiddling" Smith, with the McGee Brothers, palying his lively rendition of "Cumberland Gap". You can find a lot form and about Arthur Smith at Jeremy's Saggy Record Cabinet.

Then, from the Doc Watson Family album, a great "Bonaparte's Retreat" with Gaither Carlton, Doc's father in law, on fiddle (he's the guy on the very first photo above).

Sam & Kirk McGee with Arthur Smith - Cumberland Gap (buy) (1957)

Doc Watson and Gaither Carlton - Bonaparte's Retreat (buy) (1963)

Happy 14 juillet (French National holiday)

2009-07-13T14:50:00.014+02:00

Django Reinhardt & Stéphane Grappelli - Echoes of France (La Marseillaise, French national anthem) (buy) (1947)

Georges Brassens - La Mauvaise Réputation (buy) (1953)

July 14 (called Bastille day in English, althoug we never call it that way) is France's national holiday.

Tonight there'll be fireworks and "bals populaires", big balls for the people, generally held on every village/town big square or at the fire station (traditionally it's the firemen who are in charge of the dances).

Tommorrow will be the day of the big military parade on the Champs Elysées.

Georges Brassens, one of our greatest folk songwriters and poets (and my favorite French singer) says, in "La Mauvaise Réputation" (Bad Reputation) that "on the 14th day of July, I stay in my cosy bed / Marching music is none of my business"...

It's a great occasion to play old French music. This version of "La Marseillaise" (our national anthem) by Django Reinhardt & Stéphane Grappelli is my favorite by far, and, since it's an instrumental, you don't hear those agressive lyrics about war and blood.

Sometimes I tell myself that I should play more French music here, even though this blog is more about my love for American music. Don't hesitate to give comments if you liked those French songs, I could give you more. Sometimes, too, I wish that American people in general were a little bit more curious about other countries'cultures...

My bonus track : Boris Vian, a great songwriter, jazz critic, trumpet player and most of all, a fantastic author of novels, plays and short stories, begins this song (whose title can be translated as "We're not here to be given hell") with a humorous account of how he went to the military parade with his wife just to be held back by the police, and the way he protested (in a very French manner). In the next stanza the same guy goes home drunk with a friend and this time it's his wife that gives him hell, and hits him so hard with the rolling-pin that he ends up in heaven with his buddy, and once again they're turned back by St Peter. To which Vian answers "If you kick out the drunk, there must'nt be a lot of people left"... So the two of them go to hell, "and downstairs it was marvellous". The morale of the story : Protesting may prove fruitful in the long run...

Boris Vian - On n'est pas là pour se faire engueuler (buy) (1956)

Black ballads (3) : Railroad Bill and Kassie Jones, Heroes of the railway

2009-07-09T22:11:00.035+02:00

Will Bennett - Railroad Bill (buy) (1929)

Furry Lewis - Kassie Jones (two parts) (buy) (1928)

On March 7, 1896, a man was shot at Tidmore and Ward’s general store in Atmore, Alabama (see photo above), and fell dead with 15 bullets in his body. The authorities and newspapers identified him as Railroad Bill, the famous outlaw who had been robbing trains in the Louisville to Nashville (L&N) railroad line and around, and murdered (at least) a lawman and 2 sheriffs that ware sent after him. You can find his whole story here at the Encyclopedia of Alabama, and an account of his death here at Lady Muleskinner Press.

Railroad Bill soon became a hero, especially to African Americans, who saw him as a symbol of rebellion against white power in these hard times of increasing segregation. He was said to be a sort of Robin Hood, selling stolen goods to the poor at a cheap price, and as a trickster and even a shapeshifter, able to turn into a dog or a fox when he was hunted. As Paul Oliver writes in his book Songsters and Saints :

Railroad Bill was the bad man/hero who was admired and feared by the black community; the outlaw on whom could be projected the challenge to the dominant whites, which, in a troubled time, they were too afraid to make themselves.

Ballads about Railroad Bill started circulating around 1900, and in 1929 Will Bennett, an unknown songster, recorded the most famous afro-american version in Tennessee. He puts himself in the place of the outlaw with a long description of his weapons, exactly like a gangsta rapper of the 1980's...

Kassie Jones (or Casey Jones, see photo above) was another great hero of the railway and subject of numerous ballads. He was the opposite of Railroad Bill : a white ingeneer who died in 1900 at the controls of his machine in a collision with another train while speeding to make up for lost time.

As he did for "John Henry" and the ballads on the Harry Smith anthology, Gadaya at The Old Weird America made a great post about Kassie Jones, including Lewis'bio, the whole story of the events depicted in the song and the history of the Casey Jones ballad. You can also find 50 different versions of the song !

Go to the Kassie Jones post on Old Weird America and find 40 different versions

While white singers emphasized the heroic behavior of the engineer and made him a symbol of self-sacrifice (he stayed at the control trying to stop his train and asked his fireman to jump to safety), the Furry Lewis version, which is the first recorded by an Afro-American, is quite different. Furry Lewis was an ex-hobo who had lost the use of a leg while trying to get on board of a train in his youth.

If you look at Furry Lewis' version (see here the lyrics of the traditional "white" ballad and the Furry Lewis version) it is not a chronological account of the facts but a sort of "stream of consciousness", jumping from the story to the narrator's point of view and to verses that seem to have no relation to Casey Jones and are borrowed from other ballads. The emphasis is not only on Kassie (who becomes almost a secondary character) but also on the figure of the "easeman" or "eastman", the narrator. Here's the final stanza :

I left Memphis to spread the news
Memphis women don't wear no shoes
Had it written in the back of my shirt
Natural born Eastmen don't have to work
Don't have to work
I'm a natural born Eastman, don't have to work

which makes Paul Oliver write :

The Eastman, or easeman, was a hustler, who lived by his wits, and, most often, as a pimp. Perhaps because the principal figure was white, perhaps because he died at the throttle straining to make up time, Casey Jones seems not to have been an enduring hero-figure in black ballads compared with the popularity of the engineer in white songs. If the moral of the story to some white singers was a reckless attention to duty, Furry Lewis's insouciant final stanza makes it clear where he stood.

In fact, just like Will Bennett's "Railroad Bill", it is very typical of what Paul Oliver calls the "blues ballad". The words are improvised, only the general structure is pre-established, with stanzas and, in the case of "Railroad Bill", a one-line refrain. In every recording Furry Lewis did of "Kassie Jones", the words were different : some new stanzas appeared and some others were put in a different place. These traits are found in the blues too.

Will Bennett ends his "Railroad Bill" with stanzas about his alcoholism, which have nothing to do with the Railroad BIll story. It is, in a sense, very symbolical of how the blues was born. Songsters, in addition to playing the old ballads, started to sing about their personal experience. The blues is very often sung in the first person.

I guess I've told you enough for today...

PS : Let me add, as a bonus track for those who'll have read the whole text, a great cover of Kassie Jones by Rory Block, 70 years after !

Rory Block - Kassie Jones (buy) (1998)

Tejano Roots (4) : Valerio Longoria

2009-07-07T13:44:00.010+02:00

Valerio Longoria - El Canoero (buy) (1989)

Lisandro Meza - Cumbia Pa'Oriente (buy)

Valerio Longoria - Pasa Tiempo (buy)(1963)

Valerio Longoria & Freddy Fender - Escarcha (buy)(1963)

Valerio Longoria (1924-2000, see his bio here) was an innovator in many many ways for Tejano conjunto. He was one of the first to sing while playing, and to do so while standing up on stage. He added new instruments to the traditional ensemble like a set of drums or the saxophone and bass guitar; he could repair his instrument and manipulate new sounds (by adding an extra row of buttons, by altering reeds and bass stops), an ability that made him, as AMG says "a Les Paul of the accordion".

He also added a lot of new genres to his repertoire, and especially "tropical" music styles like cuban bolero and cumbia from Colombia. The first song posted here, "El Canoero", recorded with his sons on bass and saxophone, is a typical cumbia, a genre originating in Columbia, as you can hear in the next track, "Cumbia Pa'Oriente" (by Colombian singer Lizandro Meza).

The next 2 songs are Cuban boleros, the first tropical genre to be recorded by traditional musicians both sides of the Mexican-American border (see my post about Lydia Mendoza). The second one is sung by hispanic country star Freddy Fender.
The appropriation of these styles brought a more sophisticated tone to Tejano music.

PS : For those who speak Spanish, two great articles about Mexican cumbia here (from a lecture by Mexican scholar José Juan Olvera) and here (a Wikipedia article about Mexican cumbia)

And you know what ? It definitely makes me want to get deeper into Latin music, so I'll post again about it, maybe going South from Texas to Mexico, and then South again.

Black balllads (2) : Jack Johnson and the Titanic : when the blues brought the news

2009-07-03T13:48:00.017+02:00

Leadbelly - the Titanic (buy) (1948)

First I'd like to wish all my American readers a happy 4th of July. Please check out Darius'blog, Oliver di Place, for great Independance Day posts here.

Let's go on with our exploration of Afro American balladry. Yesterday I found this great Leadbelly song in a French compilation called Black Heroes : From Stagger Lee to Joe louis.
Another subject of ballads was the news, the real events (and not only legends). The sinking of the Titanic gave birth to hundreds of songs. As always, Gadaya made a great job of compiling the best Titanic songs in his blog.

When that great ship went down : the Titanic variations at Old Weird America

But what's also interesting in Leadbelly's song is the mention of Jack Johnson, not the singer, but the boxer, a true Afro American hero. He became heavyweight world champion in 1908 after defeating Canadian Tommy Burns who until then had refused to fight a black man. The legend has it that he wanted to board the Titanic but was turned back because, as Lead sings, the captain "didn't haul no coal".
Apart from that song, Jack Johnson is absent from folk songs, but Miles Davis dedicated an album to him in 1970.

Musically, the Leadbelly song is very close to this one by Johnnie Head, who only recorded 2 sides in 1928. With his kazoo and tenor voice, he must have come from a vaudeville/medicine show or even jazz background.

Johnnie Head - Fare thee Well (buy) (1928)

Other athletes (like boxer Joe Louis or baseball players Jackie Robinson or Larry Doby) were the heroes of folk songs, but there's a song I really like, that I also discovered in the Black Heroes compilation. I guess it's the perfect post for a 4th of July. It tells the story of how a poor Mississippi farmer called the White House in 1934 to save his mortgaged farm. Pdt Roosevelt himself picked up the phone and helped him.
The news went nation-wide and Memphis Minnie made a song out of it the following year.
Find more here about the story.

Memphis Minnie - Sylvester and his Mule Blues (buy) (1935)

Black ballads (1) : John Henry

2009-06-30T14:01:00.022+02:00

Ed Cabbell - John Henry (from the Digital Library of Appalachia) (2000)

The Two Poor Boys - John Henry Blues (buy) (1931)

Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry - John Henry (buy) (1958)

Today we'll start a series of posts about Afro-American ballads, a musical form that came just before the blues. Ballads were derived from European sources (see previous posts about folk songs), but very soon in the 19th century American ballads emerged, and among them, the ballads of black folk-heroes. The songsters and itinerant musicians carried these songs all over the country, and soon they would evolve into blues, the main difference being that in the blues, singers tell their personal story.

John Henry is by far the most popular of the black ballads, and the most covered in many genres, by musicians of all origins.

First of all, if you want to know and hear more about John Henry, go to Gadaya's John Henry post on The Old and Weird America. My fellow French blogger from Britanny has made a wonderful work of picking no less than 100 versions of the song compiled in 4 different playlists that you can download. The result is amazing. You will also find useful links (including this site dedicated to JH) and a great review of the song.

For this blues oriented post, I only chose African American versions. John Henry was a steel driving man and the famous Big Bend episode told in the song, when he competed against a steam-powered drill, might have taken place in West Virginia. This Appalachian origin explains why the song was covered by countless country and bluegrass musicians.

Painting : Palmer Hayden

In the first version I posted, Ed Cabbell mentions this last fact with humor in his spoken intro, before performing the song a capella, the traditional, work-song way. One of the reasons why the song is so popular, beside the symbolism of its lyrics, was the melody, with its short phrases and pauses, that made it an ideal hammer song, as Paul Oliver states. And please click on the guy's name, you'll learn many intersting things (in short he's a scholar, activist and historian of the Afro American community in the Appalachian).

(Almost) Nothing is known about The Two Poor Boys, apart that they came from East Tennessee and recorded one session in 1931. We don't even know for sure if they were black or white, although I ( along with the majority of historians) really think they were the former, contrary to what Wikipedia says. Their version is interesting because it has a strong hillbilly heritage : the mandolin, the singing and the floatin verse "Who's gonna shoe your pretty little feet", taken from old English ballads. The two guys were probably songsters and played material of various origins. Read more about them here at American String Conspiracy, a great blog that sadly has gone dead.

The third rendition by Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry is an old favorite of mine, because it was in my father's collection when I discovered blues 25 years ago. I guess this is the version I hear in my head when I think about John Henry. The duo was from the Piedmont region, just like our hero.

Mississippi John Hurt - Spike Driver Blues (buy) (1928)

Cephas & Wiggins - Nine Pound Hammer (buy) (1996)

Those are the main 2 variants of the song I also wanted to post. The first is by Mississippi John Hurt, one of the best songsters ever recorded (We will soon come back to his amazing life story). Here the melodyic line, at least in the very first verses is about the same, but the story is a bit different. It's a sort of "post-John Henry" song where the worker prefers to leave than to go on working like this, as if Henry's death had changed something. It's also a symbol of the musician and songster's life, who prefers his freedom and independance to hard labor. Leadbelly did another great version of that song with his "Take This Hammer". Note that Lead used to boast he could pick a bale of cotton a day (an impossible job for one man) in a very John Henry-like attitude.

"Nine-Pound Hammer", first published as a "negro folk-song" in the 20s became a country and bluegrass hit for the Monroe Brothers, Merle Travis or Tennessee Earnie Ford. Cephas & Wiggins, a sort of modern McGhee-Terry duet from Virginia recorded it in 1996 for their beautiful album Cool Down

And what about you ? What's your favorite version of John Henry ? Tell me, please !
Consider checking Gadaya's post on OWA before. Merci Gadaya for your help as the main source of this post.

From Honolulu to Nashville : Hawaiian music and country

2009-06-28T09:56:00.029+02:00

Hi, today we're going to the islands... And Btw, I'd love to read more comments from you guys. I mean you are 200 or more to come here everyday, and no one drops a line ? C'mon guys, don't be so shy, just tell me if you love the music here. Put gas in RI's engine !
I know it's not technically easy to leave comments, but maybe this will help.

Benny Nawahi - Maui No La Ka Hoi (buy) (1930)

Sol Hoopii - Hula Girl (buy) (1933)

The music played by Hawaiians in America had a tremendous influence on American popular music until World War II, and especially on country music, where steel guitars and yodels became a trademark.

Guitars were first introduced on the islands by Mexican vaqueros in the 19th century. In the years 1870-80, Hawaiian musicians invented a new way of playing guitar. By raising the nut they could play with the guitar lying flat on their lap, sliding a bottle or a piece of steel on the strings. The sounds produced matched their traditional way of singing. They played open chords and used countless different tunings.

The annexation of Hawaii in 1898 gave birth to a real passion in America. People were dreaming about these paradise islands, and the first tours by groups of musicians were hugely successful. The Bird of Paradise follies in 1904 in Broadway turned this fashion to a real craze.
Crowds were stunned by Hawaiian guitarists and singers, and their records sold by millions, making Hawaiian music a best-selling genre. Hawaiian musicians easily adapted their art to vaudeville, country, blues, and jazz.

It is mainly for them that American instrument makers from Central Europe (Dopeyra or Rickenbacher) created metallic guitars like the National or the Dobro.
The king of these guitar players was Sol Hoopii, a real genius and perhaps one of the best slide guitarists of the century. His only rival was King Benny Nawahi, who started to play on Trans-Pacific boats before settling in California.

Roy Smeck - Twelth Street Rag (buy) (1931)

Jimmie Rodgers - Everybody Does It In Hawaii (buy) (1929)

This revolutionary way of playing the guitar was soon imitated by many American musicians from the mainland, jazz men, bluesmen who sometimes, thanks to old African traditions like the diddley-bow, were already familiar with slide playing, and country guitarists.

The first blues record ever recorded by a man, "Guitar Rag", by Sylvester Weaver in 1923, was a Hawaiian-style instrumental. Leon McAuliffe, Bob Will's guitarist, did a great cover of it, "Slide guitar rag"; Cousin Jody with Roy Acuff, Jimmie Tarlton, Cliff Carlisle played or featured laptop steel guitars.

New York City multi-instrumentalist Roy Smeck (photo above) learnt steel guitar after seeing Sool Hoopii on stage, and became one of the most stunning virtuosos of the instrument, as you can hear on his version of "Twelth Steel Rag", a piece were jazz and swing meet country music.

Jimmie Rodgers, the "father" of country music, toured with a Hawaiian group of musicians in medicine shows before recording his first sides. His famous yodel is more Hawaiian than Swiss : the melodic line of his trademark yodel is the same as "Maui", (my first post). JImmie recorded two songs with Hawaiian guitarists Joe Kaipo and Charles Kama in 1929, including this "Everybody Does It In Hawaii".

Danny Stewart - Les Femmes d'Amérique (buy) (1937)

I have to thank, once again, Mr Gérard Herzhaft, French scholar and ethnomusicologist, who wrote a lot about the subject, and is the author of the great compilation Hawaiian Music : Honolulu - Hollywood - Nashville 1927-1944 (Frémeaux & Associés) featuring 4 of the 5 tracks I'm posting today.
He also wrote the liner notes (in French and English) that helped me a lot and and were my main source of information for this post. A shame that his encyclopedia of country and folk wasn't translated into English.

Last track I want to post is in French. Hawaiian music was big in my country too in the early 20th century, because of French Polynesia and the links we have with this part of the world. Les Femmes d'Amérique is a ballad originating in Tahiti (the main French Polynesian island) , here sung by Danny Stewart and played by Augie Goupil's band. Goupil was a Tahitian musician and bandleader working in Los Angeles. The chorus could be translated as :

American women are so pretty / But to have them, you've got to have dollars
While in Tahiti / You have them for nothing
Vive Tahiti / The land of love (le pays des amours)

A to Z : Derroll Adams (1925-2000)

2009-06-24T22:17:00.020+02:00

Derroll Adams - Portland Town (live) (From the out of print Live album, 1976)

Derroll Adams - Oregon (buy) (1977)

Derroll Adams - Freight Train Blues (From the out of print Feelin' Fine album, 1972)

Derroll Adams was a very influential figure in the folk community in the sixties and seventies, but his recordings are scarce and hard to find. He's much more popular in europe than in his native country. A banjo player and singer, he led a unsteady life, marrying five times, changing jobs and homes (see his full biography). A left-wing sympathizer, he wrote anti-war songs like Portland Town, met Woody Guthrie and Rambling Jack Elliott in the fifties in California.

In 1957, he relocated to England, playing gigs and recording with Elliott in London.
Derroll stayed for good in Europe, marrying and settling in Brussels. He met Donovan in the mid-sixties in London and and became the subject of the younger singer's song, "Epistle to Derroll". He can be seen in Pennebaker's movie, Don't Look Back, introducing Dylan to Donovan.
Then his marriage broke again, and despite an album for Decca in 1967, his rebellious way of life, and serious bottle problems prevented him from pursuing a steady career.

In 1970, Derroll Adams married his fifth wife, and settled down in Antwerp, Belgium. He recorded several LPs (Check out his discography here), and gave countless gigs all over Europe until the late '80s. In 1990, folk musicians like Rambling Jack Elliott, Bert Jansch and Pentangle musicians came to Courtrai, Belgium, to celebrate Derroll's 65th birthday on stage.
In the 1990s, his health was failing and he turned to painting. He passed away in 2000 in Antwerp.

Belgian TV made what looks like a great documentary on Derroll. You can see three distinct videos on Youtube, including that one (I love what Arlo Guthries says about folk music at the end)

Did you know him ? And if you didn't, did you like what you've heard ? Please don't hesitate to give your comments, you've been quite silent, these days, but I know you come on a regular basis.

Tejano Roots (3) : Don Santiago Jiménez Sr.

2009-06-21T15:21:00.011+02:00

Don Santiago Jiménez Sr - Ay Te Dejo En San Antonio (buy) (1979)

Don Santiago Jiménez Sr - Viva Seguin (buy) (1942)

Don Santiago Jiménez Sr - Zulema (buy) (1979)

Don Santiago Jiménez Sr. is not only a great musician and Tejano conjunto pioneer, but he's the father of Flaco Jiménez, probably the biggest Tejano star, who mixed his father's style with country and jazz, and Santiago Jiménez Jr, who played in the traditional way.

Don Santiago was himself the son of an accordeonist, Patricio Jiménez, from Eagle Pass, Tx. Patricio was from this generation of Mexican musicians who borrowed polka, mazurka and waltz from the German-American musicians and mixed them with rancheras to create a wholly new sound.
Santiago made his first records in 1937, mostly polkas or waltzes, bringing innovations like the use of the small double bass called tololoche, combined with the 12-string bajo sexto. You can hear its distinctive flapping sound in each of the three tracks posted here.

For all his life, Santiago Jiménez kept to the 2-button accordion, even when the instrument became dated. The first and third track here are from a beautiful Arhoolie record he made in 1979 with his son Flaco on bajo sexto and Juan Viesca on the string bass. The first song, "Ay te dejo en San Antonio" was covered by Los Lobos in 1983.

Here's a video taken from Chulas Fronteras, a documentary on Tex-mex music shot by Les Blank in 1976. Most of the video features Flaco Jiménez and in the very end, you can see his father, playing his small accordion. Sadly the interview is cut off, but it is very interesting to hear the difference between father and son (and you get the grandson too).

New Orleans and the birth of jazz

2009-06-17T10:42:00.032+02:00

Original Dixieland Jass Band - Livery Stable Blues (buy) (1917)

Original Dixieland Jass Band - Dixie Jass Band One Step (buy) (1917)

Spike's Seven Pods of Pepper Orchestra (Kid Ory) - Ory's Creole Trombone (buy) (1922)

King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band - Just Gone Blues (buy) (1923)

At the turn of the century, a number of crucial Afro-American musical styles were born that would change forever the face of XXth century music. We've discussed in a previous post the ragtime boom, and we've heard various forms of spirituals.

Today, we will stop in the Crescent City, the place where jazz was born.
If jazz is not the main topic in this blog (which has more to do with various forms of American popular songs, especially country music and the blues), it deserves a series of posts because its links with the blues are very strong, as well as its folk roots. Jazz is absent from the purest forms of blues (i.e. "Delta" blues), but both styles took a lot from each other. Think of the first "classic " blues female singers like Bessie Simth or Ma Rainey, who were backed by jazz combos, or the big band boom of the 40's which had more of its share in the rise of rhythm and blues.

New Orleans is the "craddle of jazz", if not the only city where jazz took form.
The French catholic community were more liberal than the Puritans in the rest of the South, and during French and Spanish administration drums and percussions were allowed among slaves (cf. the Congo Square tradition).
New Orleans is a port, open to Caribbean influence (there was for instance, a significant Creole immigration wave from Haiti), and a city of pleasures and entertainment, with Storyville as the epicenter.

To learn more about the historical context, especially the French speaking Creole subculture, check out these excellent articles here at Red Hot Jazz, and here at Dixieland Jazz. To sum it up, it was the clashing of the refined and classical musical training of the Creoles with the traditions of the American Blacks, (for the majority, newly freed slaves and their descendants) that caused jazz to emerge. The Creoles brought their mastering of music and ensembles while the Afro-Americans brought improvisation, the key factor in jazz, as well as the blues, spirituals and hollers.

In NO, as in any city before the phonograph era, there were a lot of orchestras, playing on various occasions : picnics, garden parties, funerals, dance halls. Bands played everywhere, not only in Storyville. In the streets, the gardens, sometimes on top of wagons that cruised the streets, advertising a dance. They soon borrowed the military brass band instruments that were left after the Civil and Spanish American wars.
Marches, square dances, polkas blended with rags, spirituals, blues, to form a new style of music.
The classical Dixie jazz orchestra was formed then, with one or two cornets, trombone, clarinet, double bass (or tuba), 4-string banjo (or guitar) and sometimes piano (although it was absent from the first jazz orchestras).

There are sadly no recorded documents of this great turn in instrumental Black music in the first years of the century. In 1916, bandleader Freddie Keppard refused to record (by fear of being imitated) and legendary cornet player Buddy Bolden never put foot in a studio. The first recording was in february 1917 by a white orchestra, The Original Dixieland Jass Band (photo below), led by Nick La Rocca.

The spirit of jazz is present in those recordings (the fun, the polyphony, the 4/4 beat), although the band don't improvise and the rhtythm is still a bit "stiff", brass-band like.

Most historians agree that Black musicians sounded much better at that time, but it took 5 more years for them to record. The first was bandleader and trombone player Kid Ory (below with his orchestra) in Los Angeles in 1922, then King Oliver (with Louis Armstrong on second cornet) in 1923 for Gennett in Richmond, Indiana.
Both musicians had emigrated as soon as 1919, but Ory chose California for health reasons, while Oliver went to Chicago.
Those bands, especially Oliver's, have a much better sense of swing. Oliver's style is still polyphonic, without solos.

We'll come back to early jazz later, with recordings that predate 1917, and a lot of other suprises for you. Thanks for your patience (for those who've read all) and laissez les bons temps rouler !

Blues standards (A to Z) : After Hours

2009-06-14T10:27:00.008+02:00

Erskine Hawkins Orchestra feat. Avery Parrish - After Hours (buy) (1940)

Clifton Chenier - Blues After Hours (buy) (1969)

This instrumental blues piece was first written and arranged by Avery Parrish who played piano in Erskine Hawkins Orchestra (photo below), for Bluebird records in 1940. The slow walking bass and right hand melody are easily recognizable and deliver a perfect wee-wee hours athmosphere, with smoky bar and sleepy pianist. The horn section only comes in at the very end of the song.

It was covered by numerous blues and jazz musicians. In jazz, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Jimmy Smith or Roy Haynes tried their hands at it.
Blues musicians include other pianists like Blind John Davis, Jay McShann or Pinetop Perkins, and guitar players like Pee Wee Crayton or Roy Buchanan.
And last but not least, the Clifton Chenier version for accordion and zydeco band, from his "Sings the Blues" album released by Arhoolie in 1987 but recorded by Roy C. Ames in Houston, Texas on April 1, 1969 and first released on Prophesy and Home Cooking labels.

As for Avery Parrish, according to All About Jazz, he "left the Hawkins orchestra in 1941, moved to California, and subsequently got into a bar fight. He suffered partial paralysis and never played again, at the age of 24. He died under mysterious circumstances at 42, in 1959".

The ragtime boom of 100 years ago

2009-06-11T10:28:00.030+02:00

Scott Joplin - Maple Leaf Rag (buy) (pub. 1899)

According to Wikipedia, "Ragtime (alternately spelled Ragged-time) is an originally American musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published as popular sheet music for piano. It was a modification of the march made popular by John Philip Sousa, with additional polyrhythms coming from African music. The ragtime composer Scott Joplin became famous through the publication in 1899 of the "Maple Leaf Rag" and a string of ragtime hits that followed, although he was later forgotten by all but a small, dedicated community of ragtime aficionados until the major ragtime revival in the early 1970s". Please check out the article, it's really well made.

I love the sound of piano rolls and player pianos. Ragtime piano, first a written music, and especially Maple Leaf Rag, sounds better this way than when it's played live. You really get the 1900's picture I guess.

Here's a great jazz cover of this theme, by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, an excellent white band from the early twenties :

New Orleans Rhythm Kings - Maple Leaf Rag (buy) (1923)

Jelly Roll Morton - Tom Cat Blues (buy)

Cow Cow Davenport - Mama Don't Allow Easy Riders (buy)(1929)

One of the first stars in early jazz, Jelly Roll Morton (photo) wrote some rags too. The second track, by Alabama-born Cow Cow Davenport, is a good example of ragtime when played by blues-boogie pianists : musically simplified but as lively and syncopated. That was really ragtime's main appeal : mixing classical melodies with syncopated rhythms. Like jazz, like the blues. It took what was best from European and African cultures.

Another style to integrate the ragtime idiom was the beautiful Piedmont blues from the Southern Atlantic coast (from Virginia to North Florida).
Guitar players like Blind Gary Davis, Blind Boy Fuller or Blind Willie McTell had numerous rags in their repertoire. But the undisputed "king of ragtime guitar" was Blind Blake, one of my all-time favorite guitarists and musicians, who really made his instrument sound like a piano. We'll come back to him, but everything by Blind Blake is worth buying.

Blind Blake - Southern Rag (buy) (1926)

Learn more about ragtime :

Wikipedia
AMG review of The Greatest Ragtime Of the Century

Waltzes, Polkas and Yodelling : Central Europe in country

2009-06-07T14:37:00.019+02:00

Charlie Poole - There'll Come A Time (buy) (1926)

Immigrants from Germany, from the different countries of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires (Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Russia,etc..) came in numbers to America in the 19th and early 20th century, especially to the mining states of the Appalachian mountains. Like every other group, they brought their musical traditions with them.

First, waltz -originally a German and Austrian popular dance. Waltzes were very common in the first old-time country recordings, like this Charlie Poole song above, and in Cajun recordings in Louisiana. They probably came from the big cities with different waves of European immigrants.
Check out more info on Charlie Poole here at Old Weird America.

Pee Wee King - Get Together Polka (buy) (1952)

Coming from the Czech lands, Polka, with its lively beat and 2/4 time signature (distinct from the waltz's 3/4) was one of the most infectious dances of the 19th century, spreading everywhere in Europe from France to Scandinavia and Ireland. In America, polka and made its way into country music and into Mexican-American border Tejano where accordion became the key instrument (see previous posts). Pee Wee King, born born Julius Frank Anthony Kuczynski, came from Polish extraction and was the son of a polka band leader. A major figure in the Grand Ole Opry, he introduced not only waltz and polka, but also modern instruments (drums, electric guitar).

Roy Rogers - Cowboy Night Herd Song (buy) (1937)

The Swiss, German and Austrian Alps were one of the main places where yodeling was born (along with some areas in Central Africa and in the Caucasus for instance). Although he was not the first one to record yodel songs (Riley Puckett did that in 1924), Jimmie Rodgers popularized yodel in such an extent that he was imitated by legions of singers, including cowboys like Roy Rogers. The origins of Jimmie Rodgers' yodelling remain uncertain. It seems this way of singing was common in vaudeville, medicine, minstrel and tent shows (both black and white) where many country and blues musicians worked. Hawaiian musicians, hugely popular in the early 20th century, had also adopted yodel.

Sounds Of the South (4) : American Folk Songs For Children

2009-06-04T21:18:00.011+02:00

Almeda Riddle - My Little Rooster (1959)

In my modest opinion, the fourth disc in the box set Sounds Of The South is musically speaking the least interesting, although it has an undeniable documentary value.
Most of the performers were already present on the previous cds, but there are newcomers like Almeda Riddle (photo above), an unacompanied folk singer from Arkansas who sings 5 old nursery rhymes in a traditional way.
Among them "My little Rooster", "Frog Went a-Courting" or "Go Tell Aunt Nancy", a song that French singer Dick Annegarn adapted in 1999.

There are also a few bluegrass songs, blues by Fred McDowell or harmonica player Forrest City Joe. But my favorite one is by Bessie Jones and was recorded in the Georgia Sea Islands.

Bessie Jones & Group - Johnny Cuckoo (1959)

You'll notice, of course, the difference in singing between both performers.

And there is one more by the wonderful Estil C. Ball, here with his wife Orna fo a delicious "Paper of Pins" that I uncluded here in a post I made for Star Maker Machine about questions and marriage.

Now, the surprise. I don't do that usually but here I'll post the whole box set, given that it is out of print.

Sorry, all I have is a file and not the physical box set, so I can't give you any photos or liner notes. You may find the covers at Amazon.

DOWNLOAD HERE the full Disc 1 of Sounds Of The South : Sounds of the South - Blue Ridge mountain Music (97MB)

HERE Sounds Of The South Disc 2 : Roots of The Blues - The Blues Roll On (97MB)

HERE Sounds Of The South Disc 3 : Negro Church Music - White Spirituals (92MB)

HERE Sounds Of The South Disc 4 : American Folk Songs For Children (92MB)

Discography : Country 1927-42 (Fremeaux & Associes)

2009-06-02T11:07:00.012+02:00

Sam Mc Gee - Railroad Blues (buy) (1928)

My discography of roots music is expanding week by week. Recent additions include this great compilation from Frémeaux & Associés, an excellent French label devoted to traditional music and audio books. They've got a huge collection of blues, country, early jazz and world music compilations with liner notes in French and English.

This double Cd is a good introduction to prewar country music. Every subgenre is featured, from old Appalachian folk (a lot of songs in common with the Harry smith anthology) to hillbilly blues (Sam McGee, Jimmie Rodgers), old-time (Carter Family, Monroe Brothers), cowboy ballads and Western swing (Bob Wills, Milton Brown), and the first country stars (Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb).
Liner notes are by French scholar Gérard Herzhaft.

Check out here the tracklist and the AMG review.

Highlights include this immortal classic by the Carter Family

Carter Family - Wildwood Flower (buy) (1928)

Please don't hesitate to tell me which artist or album you would like to hear or you think is absent from my discography and deserves an entry. I'll be glad to post about them if I like them. Paul already suggested George Jones, an artist I'm not very familiar with. I just received a GJ compilation and I'll soon be posting about him. So I'm waiting for your suggestions.
Please note that only folk, blues and country artists in the broad sense are accepted. Prewar jazz and pre-1954 R&B are also accepted, along with Tejano, Cajun or other forms of American folk music.
I'm counting on you all !

Sounds Of The South : Spirituals

2009-05-28T13:19:00.018+02:00

Vera Hall - Trouble So Hard (1959)

I've always wondered what would all these musicians from 50 years ago or more have thought if they'd knew that their recordings would still be heard in the 21st century, studied by scholars in universities in the whole world.

So imagine Vera Hall (see picture above), wife of a coal miner from Livingston, Alabama, recorded by Lomax fifty years ago, learning she sung on an international smash hit in 1999...

So here we go gain with our Sounds of the South antholgy, dedicated today to religious music, with black and white spirituals. Sadly this great box set is out of print, but wait until the next (and final) post and you might get a special bonus..

Mississippi Fred McDowell - Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning (1959)

Fred McDowell (above with his wife) is one of -if not THE- biggest discoveries of Alan Lomax. Lomax and Shirley Collins met him with his wife in the Como area, after visiting the Hemphill and Young families. They were struck by his talent, his pure Delta blues slide guitar playing. The guitar is another voice that responds to the singer, sometimes finishing verses, in the same style as Blind Willie Johnson, the Texas preacher, a way of playing that was common before the war.

Viola James and Congregation - Is There Anybody Here Who Loves My Jesus (1959)

Reverend G.I. Townsel - A Sermon Fragment (1959)

Attending mass in the ageing, Catholic churches of France is a gloomy thing most of the times. People barely sing, the hymns are boring as hell. Always makes me wish I was in a baptist church in Mississippi listening and singing with Viola James or in Alabama with Reverend G.I. Townsel. (Not that I go to church so often, now it is only for the occasional wedding or baptism, I confess). I really can't imagine any catholic priest engaging in a sermon like Rev. Townsel !!!

Alabama Sacred Harp Singers - Cavalry (1959)

Sacred harp singing is one of the most spectacular forms of hymn singing, especially in the Southern states. Still practised nowadays (see picture above), its most famous ambassadors were the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers recorded in 1942 and here in 1959. If it is much more formal and written than the black hymns and sermons we heard before, it is not less passionate and beautiful.

In the last post about Sounds of The South you heard a song by Virginia singer and fingerpicker Estil C. Ball. He was a very religious man who later recorded a lot of spirituals. So we'll quit with his rendition of "When I Get Home", with his friend. His guitar playing is typical of Piedmont, same as Doc Watson's. Something that strikes me is how much prewar religious songs were obsessed by death, seen as a relief from this world. An idea totally alien to our Western modern (and sometimes fake or exaggerated) optimism.

Estil C. Ball & Blair Reedy - When I Get Home (1959)

DOWNLOAD HERE the full Disc 3 of Sounds Of The South (92MB)

Tejano roots : Lydia Mendoza

2009-05-25T11:36:00.010+02:00

Lydia Mendoza - Mal Hombre (buy) (1934)

Lydia Mendoza (1916-2007) was the first female star in tejano music, a living Mexican-American legend on both sides of the border, with a life story that reads like a novel, full of carwrecks, alcooholic fathers and husbands, and segregation. Her recording career spans 6 decades, from 1928 to 1988, but her golden days were in the thirties when she started recording solo with her 12-string guitar. She was called 'La Alondra de la Frontera' (The Meadowlark Of The Border) and 'La Cancionera de los Pobres' (The Songstress Of The Poor). Thanks to Chris Strachwitz at Arhoolie Records, her beautiful recordings are now available in CD on various compilations.

For biographical information, you can check the short AMG bio, but if you want to know more about the lady, please don't miss this awesome article on fRoots site.

Born in Houston, she had to support her family by playing music in San Antonio plazas with her sisters. Recorded in 1934 by Bluebird, her song "Mal Hombre" became an instant hit but his father, a drunkard who prefered to stay at home and spend the money his daughter had earnt, prefered to be paid cash rather than in royalties, so although her records sold, Lydia stayed poor and on the road for the major part of the 30s and 40s.
After the war, things got better for her. She recorded for companies (especially Ideal) who paid her better, got to tour extensively in the US and in Mexico (but not before the sixties)where she was welcomed by huge mobs. In the seventies and eighties, thanks to her rediscovery by Arhoolie, she continued to perform and received all due honors.

Lydia Mendoza - Adios Muchachos (Canción Tango) (buy) (193?)

According to Strachwitz, "Lydia's totally unique. She's from the early era of recording and was the first and only real star of that era. She sang all types of songs and never stopped by limiting herself to any one genre as did, say, Chelo Silva, who only sang boleros in the early '50s. But that was the happening genre by then and catered to a better class, kind of like Bessie Smith versus Billie Holiday. Conjunto accordeon music came to the fore in the early 1950s with musicians like Flaco, Santiago, Trio San Antonio, that's really after Lydia's era. Lydia has recorded with accordeons, orchestras, mariachis, every kind of Mexican music backing. That said, she never fed into the tejano orchestra sound that was to become very popular."

I love her songs from the thirties when she's alone on the 12-string, but she also recorded great sides with orchestras, especially in the fifties, with a bolero flavor that links her music to other parts of Latin America.
Generally speaking and compared to Narciso Martinez (see previous post), her music is much more Spanish and Latin then the very Central European polkas and mazurkas that were often praised in old-time conjunto: The rhythms, the song structures with verses in minor and choruses in major (something that the Beatles adopted on some songs but that was alien to American roots music) make her sound like Cuban son singers like Eliades Ochoa from Buena Vista Social Club.

You'll find her best recordings on Arhoolie compilations. In The Best of Lydia Mendoza, Pedro Almodóvar fans will notice a version of "Piensa En Mi", a song featured on the "High Heels" soundtrack.

Lydia Mendoza - Aunque Me Odies (Canción) (buy) (1954)

A to Z : Roy Acuff

2009-05-19T13:03:00.023+02:00

Roy Acuff - Wabash Cannonball (buy)

Roy Acuff (1903-1992) was a major figure in country music's coming of age. He was the one who took old time Appalachian music and made it something big, something new, adding pop elements, new instruments (like the dobro). He is less acclaimed now than Hank Williams, The Carter Family or Jimmie Rodgers, but in my opinion he was the first "modern" country star, paving the way for Hank and honky tonk. Unlike Jimmie or Hank Williams, he was not a rebel (he was rather conservative) and he didn't die young.
But I love his songs and his voice. What a hit maker !!!

Roy Acuff had a great role in the development of the Grand Ole Opry and in the music business when he founded in 1942 the Acuff-Rose company.

Born in Maynard, a remote Tennessee community, he was from a family of musicians. Roy remembered that his daddy used to play the fiddle in the morning. It would wake him up and he stayed in bed for a long time listening to him.
But Roy didn't plan to be a musician : he tried his luck at baseball, but due to a severe sunstroke followed by a nervous breakdown, he never could play as a professionnal.
That's when he turned to music, becoming a member of Doc hauer's big medicine show in Tennessee in 1932 where he met people like Clarence Ashley and a dobro player, Cousin Jody.

He soon started his own band with Jody, called the Crazy Tennesseans and they got their first contract with ARC and producer Art Satherley in 1936. Roy recorded an old spiritual he had re-arranged, called "Great Speckled Bird" that became a hit in the Southeast. "Wabash Cannonball" (with vocals by his harmonicist Dynamite Hatcher) followed that year, along with songs featuring Cousin Jody's dobro work, like "Steel Guitar Blues".

In 1938, the Grand Ole Opry invited Acuff to audition for the show. At first, they were a bit reluctent to have him in because they thought his music was not "traditional" enough, but the big success of "Great Speckled Bird" proved them right. Acuff's popularity helped the GOO become popular nationwide in the 1940's.

From 1940 to 1947, Acuff and his band (now renamed the Smoky Mountain Boys and featuring dobroist Pete "Brother Oswald" Kirby in place of Cousin Jody and the great harmonica player Jimmie Riddle) had a big string of hits. Their music changed too, adding elements of jazz and pop, and became a sortof all-acoustic "eastern swing", keeping but updating the old Appalachian sound in "Precious Jewel", "Fireball Mail" or the beautiful "Wreck On The Highway" (one of my favorite country songs ever).

Roy Acuff - Wreck On The Highway (buy)

In 1947 his version of "Jole Blon" a traditional cajun tune was his last national hit until 1958.
After the war, Roy Acuff refused to "electrify" his band in the honky tonk style that he had partially influenced. He toured a lot, recorded for various companies and stayed one of the major figures at the Opry. In 1962, he became the first living performer to be inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1974 he was invited by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band to appear in their album Will the Circle Be Unbroken and scored a last hit with Charley Louvin for a remake of "The precious Jewel" before passing away in 1992.

My sources for this post : Roy Acuff's bio on AMG and Guide de la country music et du folk by Gerard Herzhaft and Jacques Brémond, a great French country encyclopedia.

Sounds Of The South (1) : country

2009-05-14T12:04:00.032+02:00

Neil Morris & Charley Everidge - Banks of The Arkansas/Wave The Ocean (buy) (1959)

I told you in a previous post that you'd soon hear again about Sounds Of The South, a 4-CD box set of field recordings made by Alan Lomax during his journeys in 1959 with Shirley Collins. The material on this compilation already appeared on 7 lps that were published in 1960.

I've heard the first 2 cds so far, and they are a goldmine, as I expected. I'll focus on the first one today (called Sounds Of The South & Blue Ridge Mountain Music), and especially on the country tunes, that stand for 17 of the Cd's 28 tracks.

The first song (above) is a traditional medley played by two musicians from Mountain View area in Arkansas, Neil Morris & Charley Everidge. The latter is the one on the mouthbow, an instrument of possible African origin with that incredible sound (especially when it's played by White musicians)

There's another great recording of Neil Morris alone, giving his very own interpretation of the murder of Jesse James. The spoken introduction is great, the song, a little less.

Neil Morris- Jesse James (buy) (1959)

Now, an interesting version of "The Farmer's Curst Wife", a song that you can find in Harry Smith anthology as "The Old Lady And The Devil". It is hung here by Estil C. Ball (see picture above), a folk and gospel singer from Rugby, VA.
Lomax had recorded him as early as 1941. Ball was a bus driver by trade, and recorded a couple of lps for County and Rounder, often singing with his wife, mostly gospel songs, but also ballads like this one. I'll probably come back to him in a future gospel post.

Estil C. Ball – The Farmer's Curst Wife (1959)

Let's stay in the Old Dominion with a bluegrass group called The Mountain Ramblers from Galax, VA. If, like me, you've never heard of them before, please read their AMG bio.

First a "straight" electric country band, they went bluegrass and acoustic after a few shifts of musicians. The Mountain Ramblers are a cult band, which never recorded "commercialy" but had a tremendous influence through the Lomax records. Or at least that's what Eugene Chadbourne at AMG says. I suspect him of exageration, especially when he says they "are considered as important to the early beginnings of bluegrass as the first records by mandolinist Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys", but maybe I'm wrong..

The Mountain Ramblers - Big Tilda (1958)

Lomax was as enthousiastic, writing that "In my opinion they stand for a new wave of American music, far more important than the city folkniks, the Paris-oriented longhairs, the selfconscious 'cool' men and the weary technicians of Tin Pan alley. They have a new orchestral form to play with and a mature singing style, and they are enjoying themselves."

I'm not (yet ?) a specialist of bluegrass history, but I know that Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs had started to record bluegrass in the late 1940s, so more than 10 years before. But Chadbourne says that the Lomax Lp was the first bluegrass record imported in Australia, for instance.

Anyway, the Mountain ramblers didn't seem to be aware of that. According to the AMG bio, "The band was recorded in 1958 by Alan Lomax, out on one of his many music gathering and recording explorations. He was fortunately able to record tracks featuring the group with its prime lineup of players. Well, almost. Bluegrass or folk music enthusiasts would invariably nod their heads knowingly at the mention of Lomax, but to some members of this group he meant nothing and in fact, guitarist Herb Lowe said he would rather go to a dance than waste time hanging around a recording session. As a result, these recordings feature a substitute guitarist, the young Eldridge Montgomery. It was his first performance with a group of any kind, so the praise that normally is bestowed on these Mountain Ramblers tracks should be doubled to count for this obvious handicap."

The Mountain Ramblers - John Henry (1958)

Hobart Smith has already appeared here in the fife and quills post . A "sadly overlooked master of Appalachian folk music" (AMG), he was a multi-instrumentist playing banjo, guitar, piano and the fiddle, as here. I usually find solo fiddle pieces a bit boring, but this one is fantastic. You can't help stamping your feet in unison.

Hobart smith - John Brown (1958)

That's all folks for today. There are still 2 records to explore (and maybe the 13 volumes of the "Southern Journey" collection at Rounder, not to mention the rest of the Lomax collection there).

DOWNLOAD HERE the full Disc 1 of Sounds Of The South (97MB)

Italian influence on country : old-time mandolin

2009-05-11T11:32:00.014+02:00

Doc Watson - Texas Gales / Blackberry Rag (medley) (buy)

Late 19th century saw an increasing immigration wave from Europe, especially Mediterranean countries like Greece or Italy, or Eastern and Central Europe.
Those groups had their influence on American popular music and especially in country, not so much as the Afro Americans, but undoubtdedly noticeable.
If Italian folklore is not directly perceived in country, the growing use of the mandoline, first a Napolitan instrument, is a major contribution.

According to various sources, it seems that the mandolin was first introduced in the late 19th century, thanks to "a group of touring young European musicians known as the Estudiantina Figaro, or in the United States, simply the "Spanish Students."
The success of the Figaro Spanish Students spawned several groups who imitated their musical style and colorful costumes. In many cases, the players in these new musical ensembles were Italian-born Americans who had brought mandolins from their native land." (Wikipedia)

"Luthier Orville Gibson introduced the flat-backed, scroll-bodied mandolin in 1898. When designer Lloyd Loar introduced his improvement of this design, the Gibson F-series mandolin in 1923, the model's improved tone and greater volume enhanced the mandolin's appeal, as did Bill Monroe's distinctive use of the F-5 model in the 1940s and beyond.

Earlier, blind minstrels Lester McFarland and Robert Gardner (Mac & Bob) had formed a popular duo whose songs were spread via broadcasts from WLS in Chicago and their popular records. Their singing and mandolin/guitar accompaniments inspired a host of brother-style duets in the 1930s, notably the Blue Sky Boys and the Monroe Brothers." (Encyclopedia of Country Music, published by Oxford University Press).

Monroe Brothers - My long Journey Home (buy) (02/17/1936)

I love these Monroe brothers recordings... We will come back to them later for sure.

A funny anecdote I read in Wikipedia : "Because his older brothers Birch and Charlie had already laid claim to the fiddle and guitar, respectively, young Bill was left with the smaller and less desirable mandolin during family picking sessions. Monroe later recalled that his brothers insisted that he remove four of the eight strings from the instrument so that he would not play too loudly."

More about mandolin : Country Music Hall Of Fame instrument page
About the Monroes : a great review of their compilation "What Would You Give In Exchange For Your Soul ?" on popmatters.com.

Fife and drums (2) : The Young Brothers by Alan Lomax

2009-05-07T11:01:00.005+02:00

Ed Young & Brothers - Chevrolet (buy) (1959)

I finally got the "Sounds Of The South" boxset with recordings by Alan Lomax and it's a goldmine.

The Young brothers recordings I told you about in a previous post
are in my collection now, and I have to say that I agree with the guy who wrote that it's the best f&d band Alan Lomax recorded. And they sing ! And it's way better recorded than Lomax's previous tracks from 1942.

So here is the passage refering to the Young brothers performance in Lomax's book The Land Where The Blues Began :

He always danced as he played, his feet sliding along flat to the ground to support his weaving pelvis, enticing someone in the crowd to cut it with him, turning this way and that, always with dragging feet and bent knees, and always leaning toward the earth.
His brothers Lonnie and G.D. Young played with him, Lonnie at the tail of the orchestra beating the bass drum, and G.D., a tiny sprite of a man –like a little dried-up ginger root and just as peppy- on the snare drum. Once you looked closely, you saw that the mainspring of the action was Lonnie and his bass drum. Lonnie was tall, lean as a country hound, with a flat, shiny roach of hair on top, always laughing quietly and, when his drumsticks were breaking out, always dancing. Movements flowed from Lonnie's midsection throughout his body. He played the lead in the band's polyrhythm, his padded sticks making a low, murmurous, but heated comment on the squeals of Ed Young's fife, as G.D. Young, the little brother of the bunch, riffled the snare drum. They went in for subtle stuff, quiet stuff. They capered without lifting their feet; their shoulders, belly, and buttocks separately twitched to the beat.

Ed Young & Brothers - Jim and John (buy) (1959)

The dance, as you might suppose, began at once, the Young brothers supplying the music, and as participants there were wives, flirting half-grown daughters, cousins, kids, neighbors drifting in -all experts at the Delta slow drag. The chocolate tape was sliding off the reels and across the silver recording heads, while the needles on two meters jumped to the beat in the face of the big Ampex. This was 1959 and I finally had German mikes and a Cadillac of a recorder and I was doing stereo - the first stereo field recordings made in the South. You should hear the recordings – for me, a life's dream realized.

I love Alan Lomax, especially when he gets lyrical...

As I told you, fifes and quills were progressively replaced by a more powerful, more expressive competitor : the harmonica. After recording the Young bros, Lomax went to Arkansas where he found Forrest City Joe, a bluesman who played the harp with a band in the Sonny Boy Williamson style. Check out this great solo performance :

Forrest City Joe - Levee Camp Remiscence (buy) (1959)

Then after that, Alan tried to go to the Black part of town in West Memphis to find more musicianq, but immediately got busted and thrown out of town by two threatening cops. That was Arkansas in 1959...

Anybody interested in more Sounds of the South tracks ? Please let me know. It's a hard to find record and it costs like 200 bucks on Amazon ...

You can DOWNLOAD HERE the full Disc 2 of Sounds Of The South (97MB)

A to Z : Johnny Ace

2009-05-05T11:42:00.019+02:00

Johnny Ace - Pledging My Love (buy) (1954)

It's been six months now that I'm running River's Invitation, and this blog is now dedicated to my main project of presenting the history of roots music, especially blues, country and folk music, from the beginning to the 1980s.

In addition to this chronological pattern that may seem a little monotonous, I've decided to create some more categories, and another crazy project has come to life, as stupidly systematic as the first : an "A to Z" approach of our cherished genres (blues, country, r&b, roots reggae, roots rock).
Crazy because I have absolutely no idea if we will reach the letter Z, but who cares?

So, let's start with the letter A and this short-lived R&B crooner, Johnny Ace (1929-1954).

Born in Memphis, John Alexander Jr. took part of the bourgeoning postwar Memphis scene, playing with BB King and Bobby Bland. With B.B. gone to LA, and Bobby Bland in the army, Ace took over as a vocalist and soon changed his name to Johnny Ace and signed with Duke Records.

His first hit in 1952, "My Song", established him as a ballad crooner, and he scored 8 hits in this style in two years, becoming the firm's top seller with Big Mama Thornton.
This promising carreer was put to a sudden and dramatic stop with his death by gunshot in 1954 during a break between sets at the City Auditorium in Houston, Tx.
Here is what Mr. Wikipedia wrote about the subject :

"Big Mama Thornton's bass player Curtis Tillman witnessed the event;

“I will tell you exactly what happened! Johnny Ace had been drinking and he had this little pistol he was waving around the table and someone said ‘Be careful with that thing…’ and he said ‘It’s o.k.! Gun’s not loaded…see?’ and pointed it at himself with a smile on his face and ‘Bang!’ – sad, sad thing. Big Mama ran outta that dressing room yelling ‘Johnny Ace just killed hisself!”
The widely believed Russian Roulette story was made up after his death by his management, presumably to boost record sales, and cover up his childish behavior.

Big Mama Thornton, a witness to the shooting, said in a written statement (included in the book The Late Great Johnny Ace) that Ace had been playing with the gun, but not playing Russian Roulette. According to Thornton, Ace pointed the gun at his girlfriend and another woman who were sitting nearby, but did not fire. He then pointed the gun toward himself. The gun went off, shooting him in the side of the head.
There have also been accusations that record company owner Don D. Robey, with whom Ace had been trying to renegotiate his contract, was responsible for his death.

Ace's funeral was on January 2, 1955, at Memphis' Clayborn Temple AME church. It was attended by an estimated 5000 people."

Whatever the cause of his death, Johnny Ace was a promising singer, and "Pledging My Love", a posthumous hit, is one of my favourite ballads from the 50's.

But Johnny could rock too, usually on the B-sides of his singles, with fast blues in the R&B tradition, like this one :

Johnny Ace - How Can You Be So Mean ? (buy) (1954)

Tejano Conjunto Accordion Pionneers

2009-05-02T07:53:00.007+02:00

Narciso Martínez - Muchachos Alegres (polka) (buy)(1946)

After Mexico's independance, Central European immigrants, and especially German farmers and brewers settled on both sides of the border. They brought with them the accordion, a recent invention in Germany. Mexican and Tejano musicians borrowed it quickly, seduced its loudness, cheap price and ability to play bass and melody. Accompanied by bajo sexto and contrabajo and later with saxophones and drums, the accordion became the leading instrument of Norteño music, in Mexico or Conjunto Tejano (Tex-Mex) across the border.

This music adapted all forms of styles and dances from central europe (polka, waltz, mazurka) and from hispanic origin (corridos, the border ballads, but also bolero, mariachi or ranchera). Tejano in 20th century became the hispanic equivalent of country music for Southern Anglos or the blues for Afro-Americans.

Bruno Villareal - Un Capricho (buy)(1935)

Bruno Villareal, a blind itinerant musician from San benito, was the first to record in 1930, and was soon followed by other pionneers like narciso martinez, the first great accordion player and the father of Tejano Conjunto.

According to Chris Strachwitz at Arhoolie Records, "Narciso Martínez made hundreds of recordings of mostly instrumental dance tunes emphasizing the melody side of the accordion and leaving the bass parts to his bajo sexto player. This established a new sound, a sound which to this day is immediately identifiable as Texas-Mexican Conjunto Music. Not only did Narciso establish the conjunto accordion sound, but he was also one of the first to accompany singers on commercial records when he became the house accordionist for the newly established Ideal label of San Benito, Texas in 1946. He played with popular singers like Carmen & Laura, or Lydia Mendoza.

Lydia Mendoza with Narciso Martínez - Si Fue por Eso (bolero) (buy)(1954)

(...)Martínez learned many tunes from German and Czech brass bands. He'd listen with a friend who had a good ear and memory. The friend would whistle the tunes to Narciso when they got home, allowing Narciso to transpose them to his accordion!"

Narciso Martínez - Patricia(mazurka) (buy)(1951)

Without Chris Strachwitz at Arhoolie Records, a great tejano lover and record collector who purchased the Ideal Company and recorded numerous tejano and norteño artists, this joyful music wouldn't be so available.

For more information, check these articles about Narciso Martínez and the roots of Tejano music written by Strachwitz.

North Mississippi fife and drums

2009-04-27T15:29:00.019+02:00

Othar Turner and the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band - Granny, Will Your Dog Bite ? (buy) (1980)

In 1942, while traveling in North Mississippi, Alan Lomax discovered a community of musicians who played the most African-like (and I would add : with a little Indian influence too) music played in the USA (see my "Fifes and quills" post).
He recorded Sid Hemphill in 1942 with his band (snare drum, fiddle, guitar, quills), then in 1959 the Young brothers, the first real Mississippi fife and drums band ever recorded. Unfortunately I don't have these tracks, they are on a compilation called "Sounds of the South".

North Mississippi fife and drum bands generally feature a bass drum, a snare drum and a home made fife. They played at picnics, gatherings and celebrations. On Memorial day week end there was always a big fife and drum party just outside of Como, which underlines the military origins of this tradition. Fife and drums is a soldier's music, widespread in the British colonies and in the US Army.
Black recreational fife and drum music is very rare in the USA, but is common in the West Indies (check that Jamaician field recording released by Folkways in 1975), which were an important transit point for slaves shipped from Africa. In the USA drums were generally banned during slavery. So we can assume that this special, and very local tradition originated after the Civil War. But Mississippi fife and drum music is much more festive, as the descriptions made by Lomax in "Land Where The Blues Began" of picnics and dances suggests. There is a constant interaction between musicians and dancers, and very suggestive and sexual dance postures.

About Mississippi fife and drums, check out this great article by David Evans (1972), and watch this 10 minute-movie by Evans.

If this music may sound a little repetitive, you have to hear (and watch) it live. I saw a Brazilian batucada band in my hometown festival a few weeks ago, and this polyrythmic beat really puts you in a trance.

Napoleon Strickland - Black Water Rising (buy) (1969)

Fife and drums is a family and a community affair. Two of the most recorded performers, Othar Turner and Napoleon Strickland, said they learned how to play and make fifes from Sid Hemphill, who also taught his granddaughter, Jessie Mae, who was a great bass drum player. And Othar Turner taught his children and grandchildren.
Here are 2 videos of Sharde Thomas, Othar's granddaughter who keeps the tradition alive.
Check out this article about her.

First video with her grandfather (aged 94 at that time). You'll notice that she's learning to play in rhythm first, rather than melodically.

A few years later :

Looking for more ? Pay a visit to the folkstreams site, there are plenty of articles about fife and drum music and Othar Turner.

Old time mountain banjo

2009-04-24T13:42:00.022+02:00

Buell Kazee - The Wagoner's Lad (buy) (1928)

When Cecil Sharp went to the Appalachian mountains in the 1910s (see previous post), the area was already changing, with the rise of the coal industry. Immigrants came in numbers to build roads and work in the mines.
Among them were Afro-americans, freed from slavery and looking for better life conditions. The meeting of these musical traditions, the Appalachian and the Afro-american gave birth to what would soon be called country music.
While the British and Celtic tradition relied on violin and singing, Black musicians added rhythm and the guitar.
Minstrel and blackface shows in the XIXth century had already brought Afro-american influences to the mountains, and spread the use of the 5-string banjo.

Whitter, Hendley & Small - Shuffle Feet Shuffle (buy)

While until 1920 the guitar was seldom seen in the mountains (it was difficult to get one), the banjo was easy to build, easy to play and widely spread.
While Afro Americans progressively turned away from the banjo because it wasn't easy to play blue notes on the instrument, white musicians in the Appalachian invented new styles, new built instruments, sometimes fretless, and new tunings. These home made styles, like the famous clawhammer (that you can hear on the Buell Kazee recording), asociated with the "classic" playing from the Northern states, were the ancestors of the bluegrass banjo as popularized by Scruggs.
Banjo players like Charlie Poole, Doc Walsh or Frank Jenkins did a lot for the evolution of old-time banjo into bluegrass. We will come back to these musicians, and I'll have to make a whole series of posts about the history of the banjo, but for the moment, let's hear a great instrumental by Frank Jenkins.

Frank Jenkins - Home Sweet Home (buy) (1927)

Thanks to Gadaya at Times Ain't Like They Used To Be, I discovered that strange and very interesting compilation called The Library Of Congress Banjo Collection. It is a collection of field recordings made in the 1930s and 1940s by the Lomaxes (them again). A great document, with a raw sound, not made for commercial release but for song collection. Among a lot of old time banjo tunes, I love this one played by a Black performer from South Carolina and recorded on the plantation where he lived. This is one of the rare recordings of Afro Americans from the Appalachian playing banjo.

Belton Reese - McKenzie Case (1939)

The last track was recorded at a banjo contest in Virginia in 1941. The player, Raymond Sweeney, performs a version of "John Henry" with a 3 finger style that was evolving into the style known as Scruggs or bluegrass.

Raymond Sweeney - John Henry (1941)

If you want to hear more of this album, just go there

If you want to see a video of Buell Kazee explaining different old time banjo styles, just go there.

Fifes and quills

2009-04-17T22:15:00.027+02:00

Flutes or pipes are not very common in blues recordings, because in the 1920s they were already part of the past, and had been replaced by the harmonica. In the blues, there are of two sorts :

The quills

Everybody with an interest in music should read Land Where The Blues Began by Alan Lomax.
When Alan Lomax came first to the hill country near Senatobian, in northern Misssissippi, in 1942, he met Sid Hemphill, a multi-instrumentist, born around 1876. Hemphill showed him the quills, "a set of hollow canes of varying lengths, bound together with the tops even". They are the same instrument as the Greek or Romanian panpipes, or the Inca's rondador. The quills were of various sizes, 4-tube to 10-tube for Sid.

In my first post about Indians and the blues, I'd put a recording of Sid Hemphill playing the quills in a fashion that called back to his African and Indian roots.

"Them's the quills...that's old folks' music. Music of olden time. Back yonder almost everybody used to play on quills. Now, ain't hardly common no more."

Henry Thomas : Old Country Stomp (buy) (Chicago, june 1928)

Another great quills player was Henry Thomas, who recorded 25 sides for Columbia in 1928. Being born in the 1870s, like Sid Hemphill, he was one of the oldest blues musicians ever recorded. The song above is an old square dance tune from the 19th century.

Read more about the quills here in this great Web page by a guy named Norm Sohl.
Ed at the great blog The Blue bus made also a great post about the quills.

The fife or fice

In Land Where The Blues Began there is this great description of Napoleon Strickland making his fife :

Majesterially, he draws the red-hot poker out of the coals and, holding up a section of cane, says, " Now this is something you go fishing with, but I'm gonna fix it so it will make music." He puts the cane down on the floor and, holding it steady with his foot, burns the first finger hole into the barrel, then puts the poker into the coals again. " Now I'm gonna show you how I make it sing."
He holds the flute uo to his lips and licks the place where he will blow it. Then he burns in that hole. Next he licks his other fingers and spreads them along the barrel, locating the other finger holes in accordance with his normal way of spreading his hand along the barrel when he plays. These tuning points are marked with spit. He nicks the chosen witted points with his big clasp knife - "See, I takes my knife and I swings each one of them out."
"How far apart do you put the holes ?"
"About half an inch, I think"
Here we witness black magic. No micrometer, not even a ruler or a pattern, has controlled the tuning of his fife. The finger holes are simply set a comfortable and familiar distance apart, where his fingers naturally fall when he's playing. He carefully burns out and enlarges these holes, one after another. He delicately touches the end of the cane. "When the sound come out this end, you got it made." Napoleon opines. "Now I'm gonna burn the jintes out of the cane." So saying, he pushes the red-hot poker up the barrel of the new fife, and as he burns through each joint of the cane, delicate notes of smoke rise in the kitchen air. Withdrawing the poker, he blows the barrel of the fife clear of smoke, shavings, and cinders. He rubs the cane to cool it off. "Now," he says proudly and with his widest grin, "here's the fice, and i'll do it like this."

Of course, fife is often accompanied with drums (and I soon will post about that style).
Ed Young was another fife player that Lomax met on his hill country trips. Here is a improvised version of "Joe Turner" he recorded with white banjo player Hobart Smith.

Ed Young & Hobarth Smith : Joe Turner (buy)

(this photo and the first one were taken by Alan Lomax).

From field hollers to the blues : Texas Alexander

2009-04-17T13:18:00.021+02:00

Leadbelly : Linin' Track

Nobody knows for sure, but it's admitted that the blues was born around the 1890s. In his interview about Africa and the blues, this is what Gerhard Kubik says :

" We don’t know exactly what kind of music was first heard which later would be called blues. But African Americans began to try their hands on the guitar—before that it had been the banjo—soon after the Civil War, at first imitating the current, 19th-century popular music. They imitated ballads and other European country folklore. That is how the three common chords got into the blues. The stage was set by African-American soldiers participating in the Civil War. There is a precious photograph of a minstrel show they staged during that period or later, with one guitar and two banjos. Then some younger, second generation African American guitarists began to introduce the tonality of field hollers and other former slave folklore into their guitar accompanied music. They were highly successful. But they had to find ways of adapting these different total harmonic systems to each other."

Work songs and field hollers, being a capella, didn't have to stick to a particular structure or harmonic system, and thus were very spontaneous forms of expressions, bearing a lot of African traits, and especially the famous blue notes that were totally alien to Western harmony.

A great exemple of this transformation is the music of Texas Alexander (1900-1954). Born in Central Texas, he had been working on various camps, building railroads, levees or roads, including forced-labor camps. He was also a solo singer, who didn't play any instrument. Unfortunately there's hardly any picture of him.

Texas Alexander : Levee Camp Moan

Texas Alexander was first recorded in 1927 with New Orleans guitar player Lonnie Johnson (see photo below), one of the finest players of the era, and one of the first blues musicians to play guitar solos.

According to Lonnie Johnson, quoted by Paul Oliver (1) “He was a very difficult singer to accompany; he was liable to jump a bar, or five bars, or anything. You just had to be a fast thinker to play for Texas Alexander. When you been out there with him you done nine days work in one! Believe me, brother, he was hard to play for. He would jump–jump keys, anything. You just have to watch him, that’s all.”

"Levee Camp Moan" is one of Alexander's masterpieces. Lonnie Johnson doesn't try to play the three common chords, but just tries to respond to Alexander's vocals. Alexander sung with a lot of different musicians after him, but Lonnie Johnson was the one who best understood his music.
This is the blues being born. Note that the lyrics are sung in the first person, which is typical of the blues. The singer tells his own story.

Here's another song in which Lonnie plays the tree common chords. It's really funny to hear how the guitar plays cat and mouse with the vocals, trying to catch them.

Texas Alexander : Sittin' On A Log

For musicians only : You'll notice notice that the third (or dominant chord, e.g. G in the key of C) is barely played. The blues has a problem with dominant chords. Mr Kubik (kneeling on the left on photo below), please, again, explain that to us :

"It seems this integration was reached by African American musicians in the late 19th century when they were trying to align the tonality of field hollers, many of which are in savanna pentatonic system, with a guitar chord progressions they had learned. It then turned out to be possible to first back a field holler melody with the tonic chord (C) on the guitar, and then switch back to the sub dominant chord (F). (...) The dominant chord had to be modified or omitted or substituted. And so we get through blues and jazz history the problem of what to do with the dominant chord. They rejected it. You can listen to bebop. All the time it's being substituted by something else. Bebop has blues tonality."

Texas Alexander was also accompanied by pianist Eddie Heywood, who was a little less at ease with Alexander's singing, but finally got away with it quite brillantly, although he plays cat and mouse with the vocal line.

Texas Alexander : Sabine River

If you want to know more about Texas Al (like how he was sentenced to prison for murdering his wife in 1940) , check out these links :

AMG biography

2 great posts by DJ and blues scholar Jeff Haris on his Big Road Blues site

Texas Troublesome Blues : The Blues of Texas Alexander part 1

Texas Troublesome Blues : The Blues of Texas Alexander part 2

The Gu-Achi Fiddlers : Black Mountain Mazurka

2009-04-14T21:38:00.012+02:00

The Gu-Achi Fiddlers : Black Mountain Mazurka (buy) (1988)

While searching the Canyon Records site for Native music, I stumbled on a review of this record, which is a living example of the great melting-pot of American popular music. And the perfect transition post between Indian and Hispanic music, the next style I will study in my exploration of US music's origins.

The Gu-Achi fiddlers belong to the Tohono O'odham (Desert People) Nation, formerly known as the Papago. They're from the Sonora desert, in Southern Arizona. They play fiddle music, backed by bass drum, snare drum and a guitar. Their music is an amazing mix of Indian melodies, Spanish and Mexican influences (especially norteno), and they play dances from all parts of Europe : polka, mazurka, 2-step.
As the title suggests, this is old time music, precursor to a more recent style called waila or chicken scratch, with saxophone, drums and electric guitar.

Star Maker Machine (and blues from South Africa)

2009-04-13T22:14:00.018+02:00

Just a quick one, to tell you that I'm posting now on a collective blog called Star Maker Machine (after a Joni Mitchell song).

Go see this blog, it's great : every week there's a new theme, and people have to post songs about it.
This week, the topic is "rediscovery". I'm happy to be a part of SMM because I love this blog and it'll give me the opportunity to post about every genre, now that River's has gone old-timey oriented only.

Speaking of discoveries, here is a song picked from the "Africa and the blues Cd". It comes from South Africa and it's played on the pennywhistle, a cheap flute that replaced the too expensive saxophone in the townships during the 1950s and 1960s. That style, named kwela, is the father of mbaqanga (you know, the "Graceland" style). This is a great example, along with Ali Farka Touré, of a "full circle" cultural influence, because the blues, an American form partly influenced by African music, came back to Africa after the Second World War.

Lemmy Special Mabaso - 4th Avenue Blues

Africa and the blues (2) : face to face

2009-04-09T11:16:00.033+02:00

Dear fellow river men and women,

I have received -and am halfway into- the book by Gerhard Kubik I told you about in a previous post. And Garaya just provided the companion disc on his blog.

That means I can post those fascinating samples given by Kubik when he did that "trait-by-trait" comparison between blues songs and field recordings he made in Central Cameroon in 1964.

Let's start with Big Joe Williams' "Stack-o Dollars", a very rough, one-chord Delta blues accompanied by a one-string fiddle. According to Kubik, an Africanist,"Delta blues has processed a stronger shot of traits from the West African savanna and sahel zone than other blues styles".

Big Joe Williams - Stack'o Dollars (buy) (Chicago, 31 oct 1935)

Now, let's hear Meigogué, a Hausa gogé (one-string fiddle) player recorded by Kubik in 1964. Gogué was a professional trader (like a lot of Hausa) and musical traveler from Cameroon.

Adamou Meigogué - Gogé song(Yoko, Cameroon, feb. 1964)

Meigogué's singing style with its melisma (singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession), alternating voice and fiddle, one-string melody and penthatonic mode is really close to the Big Joe recording. This style of music is influenced by Muslim-Arabic music, especially in the way of singing.

Another (even more) fascinating comparison can be made between :

A grinding song by a Tikar woman from Central Cameroon recorded by Kubik in 1964. Kubik said he had walked for half a day when he came to her village and heard her sing. So he gathered his equipment and recorded her at once. The song is about hard work, children supporting and the fear of death.

Tikar woman - Grinding Song(Monbra, Cameroon, feb. 1964)

... and Mississippi Matilda's "Hard Workin' Woman"

Mississippi Matilda - Hard Workin' Woman(buy)(New Orleans, 1936)

In addition to being simply amazing (and beautiful), those two examples show two distinct African styles that have influenced the blues (I'm quoting Kubik); They both come from the same area, the west central Sudanic belt, i.e. "the region from Mali across northern Ghana and Northern Nigeria into northern and central Cameroon"

(1) A strongly Arabo-Islamic song style, as found for example among the Hausa. It is characterized by melisma, wavy intonation, pitch instabilities within a pentatonic framework, and a declamatory voice production. All this behavior develops over a central reference tone, sometimes like a bourdon

(2) An ancient west central Sudanic stratum of pentatonic song composition, often associated with simple work rhythms in a regular meter, but with notable off-beat accents. This style reaches back perhaps thousands of years to the early West African sorghum agriculturalists, now scattered through the Sudanic belt in remote savanna, often mountainous areas. This style has remained unaffected by the Arabic / Islamic musical intrusion which reached West Africa along the trans-Saharian routes.

Of course, other African styles played a part (see the map on my first post), but those styles from west central Sudanic belt have a lot of common traits with the blues. They are devoid of percussion instruments, and drums were banned in most of the US plantations. they rely on string instruments, and are played by solo artists or small groups, on stringed instruments for the Arabic/muslim styles. That's probably why they survived more than the other styles in Northern America.

If you haven't, please check out the "Africa and the blues" program (interview, podcast) on the Afropop site.

Songs about old people : John Prine vs. Jacques Brel

2009-04-07T11:43:00.020+02:00

Great discovery of the past weeks : the self-titled John Prine album from 1971, and especially the song "Hello In There". The music is awesome, the lyrics too; as I read somewhere, what kind of 26-year old wrote so well about old people ?).

John Prine - Hello In There (buy) (1971)

Wow ! That song alone (and a conversation with a friend over great polish vodkas) made me want to play music again. If I come up with something good enough, I'll post it here (own song or cover).

I realized I couldn't remember a better song about old couples. Except maybe the Jacques Brel song. But Jacques Brel's point of view is more general, the song is called "Les Vieux" ("The Old Folks"), whereas Prine puts himself in the skin of a retired man, which I think is stronger. Anyway, the Brel song is one of his masterpieces.

Jacques Brel - Les Vieux (buy) (1963)

Here's a translation I made, borrowing some lines from the English cover by one Laurika Rauch (quite forgettable I would say)

Old folks don't talk
Or only with their eyes
Even rich, they are poor
They lost their illusions
And share one heart for two

Their homes all smell of tyme, of clean, of lavender
And of old-fashioned words
May you live in the city, you all live in a small town
When you've lived much too long
And have they laughed too much, do their dry voices crack
Talking of times gone by
And have they cried too much, a tear or two
Still always seems to cloud the eye
And if they tremble a little
Is it because they're watching the same old silver clock
It tick-tocks oh so slow, it says, "Yes," it says, "No"
It says, "I'll wait for you."

The old folks dream no more
The books have gone to sleep, the piano's out of tune
The little cat is dead and no more do they sing
After Sunday's white wine
The old folks move no more, their world's become too small
Their bodies feel like lead
From the bed to the window
Then from bed to armchair
And then from bed to bed
And if they still go out, arm in arm, arm in arm
All dressed in stiff clothing
It's to follow in the sun
An older man's burial, an uglier woman's funeral
And while they mourn and cry
They'll forget for an hour the same old silver clock
It tick-tocks oh so slow, it says, "Yes," it says, "No"
It says, "I'll wait for you."

The old folks never die
They just go down to sleep and they just sleep too long
They hold each other's hand afraid to lose each other
But one will get lost anyway
And the other will remain here
The best or the worst, the gentle or the strict
It doesn't matter now, the one who's left behind
Just finds himself in hell
You'll see her sometimes, You'll see him one day
All covered up with grief
Crossing the present
Already feeling sorry of not going further
Escaping while they can
For the last precious time
The same old silver clock
It tick-tocks oh so slow, it says, "Yes," it says, "No"
It says, "I'll wait for you."
The old, old silver clock that's hanging on the wall
That waits for us
All

I'm sure you know a lot of other great songs about old age. Don't hesitate to mention them in the comments section. It's great to hear from you guys!

One more folk song : Barbara Allen

2009-04-03T21:55:00.021+02:00

Surely one of the best-known of all traditional songs on both sides of the Atlantic, "Barbara Allen" was collected by Cecil Sharp on various places during his Appalachian trips (see previous post).

It is a very old song, of uncertain origin, going back to the 17th century in England and Ireland as well. See here for more details about the song.

As Mr. Wikipedia says "Most versions of "Barbara Allen" can be summarised thus: a young man is dying of unrequited love for Barbara Allen; she is called to his deathbed but all she can say is, 'Young man, I think you're dying.' When he dies, she is stricken with grief and dies soon after. Often, a briar grows from her grave and a rose from his, until they grow together."

Following a request for early and traditional version sof the song, I dug and found a few interesting ones.

In the 1950s song collectors from America went to Ireland and recorded traditional singers, in a sort of Cecil Sharp trip in reverse. Here is one of them, Sarah Makay, recorded in 1954 by Jean Ritchie.

Sarah Maken - Barbara Allen (buy) (1960)

Let's cross the ocean once again and hear a bluegrass version by The Lilly Brothers and Don Stover (banjo), recorded for Folkways in 1961.

The Lilly Brothers & Don Stover - Barbara Allen (buy) (1961)

Then, back to England, with Shirley Collins and her sister Dolly's strange and beautiful portative organ. Shirley was an important figure in British folk revival in the sixties and after.

Shirley Collins - Barbara Allen (buy) (1968)

But Barbara Allen was not only sung by folk musicians. Barbara could be pop and jazzy and swinging sometimes.

Doris Day - Barbara Allen (buy) (1941)

(quote from Wikipedia) : "Johnny Cash re-wrote lyrics to this song and performed it live at Austin City Limits in 1987. The song was re-named "The Ballad of Barbara". The main theme of the song is about divorce instead of death.".

In fact the song was first recorded in 1977 on The Last Gunfighter Ballad. I prefer the original version.

Johnny Cash - Ballad of Barbara (buy) (1977)

Unfortunately I don't have the beautiful Bob Dylan version, but here it is on the Deezer player

Découvrez Bob Dylan!

Cecil Sharp in the Appalachians

2009-04-02T13:15:00.016+02:00

Cecil Sharp was the founding father of the English folk revival in the beginning of 20th century. When he came to America in 1915 he realized that nearly all of he English folk songs the immigrants had carried with them in America had vanished, replaced by more sophisticated and "educated" versions.
Then he heard abut the Appalachian, the geographical isolation and the strong folk song tradition of the mountaineers. Sharp made three visits to North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and collected 1700 traditional English ballads, including versions that were not being sung in England and Scotland anymore. The whole story is told in this excellent article. The collected ballads included "The House Carpenter", "Barbara Allen", "The Gypsy Laddie", or immigrant songs like "Pretty Saro" (look here for the song's origins).

Dolly Greer - Pretty Saro (buy) (From the album "Doc Watson & Family, 1963)

Dolly Greer is a distant cousin of Doc's. She sings it a cappela, in the open, the way people sang to Sharp in 1917.

Imagine a very British scholar in a 3-piece suit climbing the mountains and meeting with bewildered but cooperative families of mountainers, and you won't be far from the truth.

But when he visited the Appalachian, the place was changing, opening to the outside world. Coal mines were attracting a population of new settlers coming from different parts of the continent and from overseas. This new melting pot was about to give birth to what we now call country music.

Sharp was only interested in the survival of English ballads and didn't pay much attention to native American ballads of any origin.

There's also this controversial quote in his diary :

We tramped - mainly huphill. When we reached the cove we found it peopled by niggers... All our troubles and spent energy for nought.

In his obsession for lost British folklore, Sharp (who was not so sharp-eyed after all) totally missed what was about to happen to American folk music. Nevertheless, his story is a great document to study the origins of country music.

In September of 1916, Sharp collected 26 songs from a Mrs Bruckner in Black Mountain, NC, including "The Farmer's Curst Wife", that Bill & Belle Reed recorded under the name "Old Lady and the Devil" 12 years later. In the mean time, the guitar had begun to replace the banjo.

Bill & Belle Reed - Old Lady and the Devil (buy) (1928)

Find more versions of this song here, on my fellow French roots blogger Gadaya's wonderful site, Old Weird America, entirely devoted to the Harry Smith anthology. It's a real gold (or coal ?) mine !

I need your help

2009-03-28T18:07:00.014+01:00

You must have realized that this blog has gone 100 % "roots" music now. If you look at older posts there used to be some rock here, even new stuff, but I realized that a lot of people were coming (and staying) when I posted about older styles like blues, country, folk or roots reggae or rhythm & blues.

Well I'm still a big rock fan (at the moment, I'm listening to David Bowie) but I LOVE old time country and blues. There are hundreds of blogs about "modern" genres, and I guess my knowledge of traditional music would be more useful for the music blog community.

So I'm building a sort of discography for this site, a list of important and favorite "roots" records, albums or compilations, from 1920 to 2009. Check it out by clicking on the link above.

My Favorite roots records

The list is in progress, so there are omissions. But YOU can help.
Tell me what are your favorite roots albums, e.g. anything blues, gospel, folk, country, old r&b, old reggae, even world music. Tell me what records you would include in that list, let us build it together.

I'll listen to them if I can (and if I don't already know them) and (probably) include them in the list and make posts, etc...

I'm waiting for your comments. Before going back to historical posts, let's hear something (relatively) recent : the great come-back album of Chicago guitar player Jody Williams.

Jody Williams - She Found a Fool and Bumped his Head (buy) (2002)

Mardi gras Indians

2009-03-27T07:58:00.007+01:00

During the past weeks it was carnival time everywhere in the world, and even here in France where we have great "carnavals", especially in the north (with giants).

So, with a little delay, my last ( I promise) post about bluesy Indians will be for Mardi gras Indians. They've always been a object of fascination for me, and even more so now that I've read about their history here or here.

The Wild Tchoupitoulas - Hey Hey (Indians Coming) (buy) (1976)

Laissez les bons temps rouler !!

When Indians play the blues

2009-03-24T13:52:00.009+01:00

Pura Fé (photo), a great singer, songwriter and guitar player, is a descendant of Tuscarora nation by her mother. I discovered her music through Music Maker Relief Foundation's first compilation, The Last and Lost Blues Survivors (which seems to be available in France but not in the US now). Her albums are worth checking out, she looks like a nice woman (and I've got the same guitar as her ).

Pura Fé - Rise Up Tuscarora Nation (buy) (2004)

Coincidentally, French label Dixiefrog just issued a 3 CD compilation called Indian Rezervation : Blues and more. This box set, assembled by ... Pura Fé, features contemporary Indian musicians.

Ricky Gonzales, French blogger and radio DJ podcasted 2 of his shows about Indians and the blues (coincidence !!)on his blog Surfinbird, featuring songs from the box set and by other famous Native American songwriters. Comments and announcements are in French but the music is awesome ! You HAVE to check them out :

Surfinbird # 88 : Indian Rezervation Blues & More

Surfinbird # 92 : Indian Rezervation Blues & More 2

Indians in the blues

2009-03-21T07:48:00.007+01:00

There are few blues songs that refer to Native Americans. I found some on the Saga Jazz compilation Cherokee Boogie : Indians and the Blues. Check out the title track by sax player and band leader Bullmoose Jackson :

Bullmoose Jackson - Cherokee Boogie (buy) (1951)

In prewar blues, Indians are often referred in verses about "Going To The Nation" and marrying an Indian squaw. "The Nation" or "the territo's" are Oklahoma, a state where the five "civilized tribes" (Cherokee, Cree, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Seminole) were deported in the 19th century. I found an interesting article by Chris Smith in the Cambridge Journals on the subject. The Indian nations are seen as a refuge from hard life and segregation.
Take this Bo Carter song from 1931

Bo Carter - So Long, Baby, So Long (buy) (1931)

But the irony of it all was that this optimistic dream was a mirage : Oklahoma, once a place where former slaves gained civil and property rights, had passed Jim Crow laws since 1903. Jesse James, in " Lonesome Day Blues", has realized that the Nation "is no heaven on earth" :

Jesse James - Lonesome Day blues (buy) (1936)

The Blues has Indian blood

2009-03-17T22:25:00.058+01:00

When asked about the origins of the blues, everybody says "Africa" and maybe "Europe", but what about the first settlers on the American continent, the Amerindians ?

I really think they had their part. In the South, there has always been ties between Indians and Afro-Americans. Check out this wikipedia article on Black Indians for more info. And Indian music, especially from the Southeastern tribes, bears resemblance to the blues in its hypnotic rhythm and pentatonic scales.

A good example can be found in the Hemphill family in North Misssissippi. Sid Hemphill, a multi-instrumentalist musician who was discovered by Alan Lomax in 1942, was the son of a Choctaw Indian. When he played the quill, the heritage was more than apparent.

Sid Hemphill - The Devil's Dream (buy) (1942)

His granddaughter Jessie Mae, who passed away in 1993, recorded a few albums in the '80s. She played her own hypnotic brand of blues, typical of the hills country, on the electric guitar, with a tambourine attached to her foot, or leg bells, in the Choctaw manner.

Jessie Mae Hemphill - My Daddy's Blues (buy) (1987)

First time I heard about a possible Indian influence on the blues was from French blues and country scholar Gerard Herzhaft, in his book Americana : Histoire des musiques de l'Amérique du Nord (I guess you don't need a translation), and then at a conference about the blues he gave once. For him, Indian influence shouldn't be underrated for two reasons :

- The ties between Amerindians and Afro-Americans, especially in the Mississippi valley. In some places Indians and Africans were enslaved together, in other places Indian tribes absorbed fugitive slaves (or enslaved them, but with much better life conditions). That led to cultural exchanges and intermarriage. Again, check out this wikipedia article on Black Indians for more info.

- Musical styles from Southeastern tribes, like the Cherokee, have common traits with the blues : pentatonic scale, call and response structure, hypnotic beats, and the use of "floating verses".

I find this idea kinda appealing, but I have difficulties to go further and find more "scientific " documentation about it. I don't know American Indian music very well, and all I found was numerous recordings from Southwestern Indians (Navajo, Hopi, Apache) or Great Plains tribes. No Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw traditional music. A lot of New Age stuff with synthetisers. But I did find something extremely exciting that I saved for a further post...

The Hemphill Family

I was looking for songs that reflected Indian music influence on the blues, and I thought of the Hill country style of North Mississippi. Maybe fife and drum ? And then yesterday, in my shower (that's where most of my ideas come to me, contrary to my President who gets his ideas while shaving... Sometimes I wish he could grow a beard) I thought about the Hemphill family as described in the Alan Lomax book Land Where the Blues Began. I went to my record collection and that was a hit.

Every folk and blues lover should read that Lomax book, and especially the chapter when Lomax meets Sid Hemphill in 1942. Hemphill was born in 1876, which makes him one of the oldest blues musicians ever recorded. His father was a Choctaw Indian. On one of the field recordings Lomax made with Hemphill, there is one instrumental played on a ten-note quill that is really fascinating.

Everyone (including Lomax and Scorsese in his documentary) was very quick to point out African influences when hearing fife and drum music, but the hypnotic beat and the muffled shouts sound very Indian to my hears.

In this part of Mississippi music is a family affair. There is this moment in the Lomax book when, during the second meeting between Alan and a very old Hemphill in 1959, a young girl steps out of the house playing a big drum. She's Jessie Mae, Sid's granddaughter and she recorded in the '80s a few singles and a couple of albums.

Jessie Mae plays electric guitar, bass and snare drums, and on several songs a tambourine attached to her foot, or leg bells obtained from Choctaw Indians to emphasize this part of her heritage. She electrified her ancestors' music but still plays these hypnotic beats that characterize the regional style of the Hill country (Tate and Panola counties).

Now what do you think of this ? Are there links between Indian music and the blues (or any form of popular music ) in your opinion ?

A Drinking Song

2009-03-16T16:27:00.008+01:00

Paul at Setting The Woods On Fire is posting a great series about drinking songs, and the guys at the great collective blog Star Maker Machine have followed.

So today I'll add my modest contribution to this great project by posting a song about alcohol that moves me. It's by New Orleans piano player Little Brother Montgomery and was recorded in 1966 in... East Berlin during the American Folk Blues Festival. I love this song and its old-fashioned vocal style and piano playing.

Little Brother Montgomery - I Keep On Drinking (buy) (1966)

Among other booze songs that I enjoy, I have to mention "Gambling Barroom Blues" by Jimmie Rodgers, that I posted last week. Check it out here.

And last but not least "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" that you can hear here.

Feel free to tell me (or Paul on his site) about your favorite drinking songs.

A week of folksongs (6) : I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground

2009-03-12T16:11:00.014+01:00

What a strange and beautiful song ! Recorded by Bascom Lamar Lunsford, who was himself a folklorist and minstrel (and a lawyer by trade) from North Carolina. According to Harry Smith, Lunsford wrote that this song is "typical of the Pigeon River Valley".

The following is a quote from a short Wikipedia article about the song :

As stated in his own words within his recordings, Mr. Lunsford considered
himself an archivist and never took credit for this song or any songs he
recorded. He traveled the western mountains of North Carolina and learned this
song from the "locals" as it was his goal and passion to archive songs that he
heard growing up for historical reference.

Novelist and critic Robert Cantwell says: "Listen to 'I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground' again and again, learn to play the banjo and sing it yourself over and over, study every printed version, squander your time in the bargain, and you still won't fathom it." He's right.
(Retrieved from the folktunes site)

Bascom Lamar Lunsford - I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground (buy) (1928)

Swedish folksinger Kristian Matsson aka The Tallest Man On Earth, mentions Lunsford as one of his main influences. In his song "I Won't Be Found", the opener of his great self titled debut album that came out last year, he even quotes Lunsford's verses about the mole in the ground and the lizard in the spring.
Check this song on his myspace page .

So that was the last post for this week of folk songs. I'm taking the kids to the country this week end and I'll be back next week.
See you !

A week of folk songs (5) : In The Pines / Black Girl

2009-03-12T09:04:00.017+01:00

Hi,

I first planned to post about "Frankie and Johnny", but Glenn at the musical blog So Well Remembered made an excellent post about the Harry Smith anthology including a review of Mississippi John Hurt's "Frankie". You have to check it out !

According to a good Wikipedia article, "In The Pines" dates back from at least the 1870s and may be of Southern Appalachian origin.

It was first published by Cecil Sharp, founding father of the folklore revival in England. His story is very interesting and this man had a crucial role, even though it is an indirect one, in the emergence of country music. I will come back to his story in a future post.
Sharp collected the following lines :

Black girl, black girl, don't lie to meWhere did you stay last night?
I stayed in the pines where the sun never shines
And shivered when the cold wind blows

The wikipedia article gives a big list of people who performed that song, including the Monroe Brothers, great Georgia bluesman Peg Leg Howell, and Louisiana Cajun accordion player Nathan Abshire who recorded a French version (I really should hear that one).

But the version I want to play you is not part of the list. It's by Darby and Tarlton and it's from 1927, so it's probably one of the earliest versions of the song. Darby and Tarlton, a hillbilly duo featuring Hawaiian-style guitar, played in such a bluesy manner that people often mistook them for Afro-American performers.

Darby & Tarlton – Lonesome In The Pines (buy) (apr. 1927)

And then, of course, the Leadbelly version, "Black Girl", made famous by Nirvana's cover. Leadbelly was from West Louisiana / East Texas, home of the piney woods, and I've always found his version menacing and mysterious. But I'm a Leadbelly fanatic…
It seems that Leadbelly took from Darby & Tarlton, because he also recorded a song called "On A Monday", that may originate from D & T's biggest hit, the great "Birmingham Jail".

Leadbelly – Black Gal (Where Did You Stay Last Night ?) (1944) (buy) (NYC, feb.1944)

Links and sources :

Wikipedia article about "In The Pines"

On Darby & Tarlton, see this intersting post on American String Conspiracy

On Leadbelly, see AMG bio

On Harry Smith's anthology, see this great blog dedicated to the Anthology

And Glenn's posts on So Well Remebered

A week of folk songs (4) : Careless Love

2009-03-11T10:26:00.010+01:00

This one's a traditional tune, whose origin is not very clear. Is it from Britain, Ireland, or is it an American creation ? Nobody knows for sure.
It was first published by WC Handy as "Loveless Love", and it is more common in blues and jazz than in country music.

My favourite version is by New Orleans guitar player Lonnie Johnson. I love his almost introspective singing.

Lonnie Johnson – Careless Love (buy) (New York, nov 1928)

There's also a great country version by The Delmore Brothers, one of the greatest harmonizing duets. Sort of musical grandfathers to Gary Louris & Mark Olson (fathers being the Everly Bros, of course).

Delmore Brothers – Careless Love (buy) (Chicago, jan 1938)