Year: 2008

Traditional Music From The Cumberland Plateau Vol. 1 & 2

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Traditional Music From The Cumberland Plateau

Here’s another record in Down Home Radio’s continuing “Awesome Out-of-Print Records” series. This is a collection of field recordings made in Tennessee in the 1970’s by folklorist Bobby Fulcher. Included here are volumes 1 & 2. If anybody has vol. 3, send it along!

This album is actually available to buy, please check out Sandrock Recordings!

www.sandrockrecordings.com

These are incredible records, and very hard to find. They were digitized and sent to me by Norm over at www.juneberry78s.com, an awesome website which is well worth checking out. Huge Thanks to Norm!

I first heard brief selections from these records while listening to a podcast of an interview with Bobby Fulcher.
When Bobby played a bit of one of his field recordings of Retta Spradlin, I was completely floored and had to find the record as soon as possible! She sings and plays banjo and is incredible.  The whole record is great but she really hit me hard.

Another of my favorite musicians is banjo player Virgil Anderson, also recorded by Bobby Fulcher.  Anderson appears on three cuts in this collection.  Fulcher released a full LP of Anderson which is really great.  I have posted it here: Virgil Anderson – On The Tennessee Line.

“American Folk Music & Left-Wing Politics: 1927-1957″- A Book Review by Mat Callahan

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Pictured on the cover are The Almanac Singers

What follows is a review of the book, “American Folk Music & Left-Wing Politics 1927-1957″ by Richard A. Reuss and completed after his death by JoAnne C. Reuss. This is an awesome book, the best book on the subject. I discovered it while doing research in my college library, I found it in its pre-book form, as Richard Reuss’ doctoral dissertation (unindexed!) and then to my delight discovered it had recently been published. This book is remarkably lucid, the stuff he says makes sense (as opposed to many other books that try to deal with music and politics, which do not make sense). Reuss was a gifted researcher and in the course of reading the book you realize that he has uncovered and written down the real interactions that characterize the relationship between the musicians in the scene and political events that played out in more or less the Popular Front period surrounding World War ll. This was certainly a seminal time, making possible the careers of many great artists including Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Leadbelly (as well Henrietta Yurchenco). This excellent book review was done by Mat Callahan, author of another great book on music and politics called, “The Trouble with Music.”

– Eli Smith (Host- Down Home Radio, etc.)

Book Review by Mat Callahan, musician and author of the book, “The Trouble with Music.”

American Folk Music & Left-Wing Politics: 1927-1957
Richard A. Reuss with JoAnne C. Reuss

Richard A. Reuss came to folklore studies by way of his interest in music. He led a folksinging group while a counselor at summer camp and as an undergraduate student at Ohio Wesleyan University. He earned his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1971. He taught at Wayne State University in Detroit, broadening his studies to labor lore and music.

Leadbelly on Capitol Records

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Leadbelly Capitol Records with zither, etc. photo by E. Gomez

This is an incredible Leadbelly record, which he did for a mainstream commercial recording company, Capitol Records (as opposed to Folkways), out in Hollywood, CA in 1944. These were his last sessions for a major label and he really seems to have put everything into the recordings he made here. They’re great! This might be my favorite Leadbelly. He plays 12 string guitar, piano, and is accompanied by Paul Mason Howard on what is supposed to be zither, but seems to in fact be a Dolceola, a very small piano like instrument seen below. This record was loaned to me by a friend and as with all the records I post here I fed it into my computer, chopped it up into tracks, and here it is! Hope you enjoy.

CLICK HERE to download Leadbelly on Capitol Records
If you have problems downloading this leave a comment
or email me at DownHomeRadio@hotmail.com .

See below for the back of the record / notes / song list

Dolceola:
Dolceola

Virgil Anderson – On the Tennessee Line

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Virgil Anderson - On the Tennessee Line photo by E. Gomez
I think Virgil Anderson is my favorite banjo player right now. He’s great. I picked up this old out of print County LP last summer when I was at the Clifftop banjo and fiddle convention and I’ve been listening to it a lot ever since. Virgil Anderson has such a mellow feel, very bluesy and laid back. This record is great for the early morning and late at night, or any time!

The material on this record was recorded, I believe in the late 1970’s, by folklorist Bobby Fulcher. Bobby Fulcher also produced a film called “Chase the Devil: Religious Music of the Southern Appalachians (1986) which features great footage of Virgil Anderson.

CLICK HERE to download On the Tennessee Line
If you have problems downloading this leave a comment
or email me at DownHomeRadio@hotmail.com .

See below for the back of the record and notes:

Interview with Art Bailey- The Klezmer Music of Joseph Moskowitz

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Joseph Moskowitz

Today’s show is an interview with Art Bailey of the New York based Klezmer band Orkestra Popilar. The show features recordings by Orkestra Popilar as well as early Klezmer source recordings by the great Romanian cymbalom (hammer dulcimer) player Joseph Moskowitz which have been a large part of the inspiration for Orkestra Popilar’s music.

Art Bailey's Orkestra Popilar
Art Bailey’s Orkestra Popilar – See above for a live recording of them from Banjo Jim’s Dec. 5th, 2008

Notes for my talk at Podcamp New York

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The following are notes for my talk on Saturday at 4pm at the podcasting conference Podcamp New York:

Notes for:
“Old Public Domain Folk Music = Podsafe Music”

Here are some links to check out for easily downloadable music. Use it on your podcast! Its awesome, its different, its easy to get and its free. Old public domain folk music is the undiscovered goldmine of podsafe music.

http://downhomeradioshow.com/
Check out the “Out of Print Records” catagory

http://www.juneberry78s.com/sounds/index.htm
– All types of great stuff

Digital Library of Appalachia:
http://www.aca-dla.org/
– Lots to sort through, well worth it.

American Folklife Center at LOC online archives
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/onlinecollections.html

Honking Duck
http://honkingduck.com/mc/audio_compact
– More old 78s

Archive.org
http://www.archive.org/
– Search for 78 record, but there’s lots and lots of audio on here.

Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/
– This is the most public domain of public domain, I mean this stuff is old.

Secret Museum of The Air:
http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/SM/
– Not downloadable as Mp3, but still an incredible resource. Sorted by category, region and subject.

* Thanks to Dan Paterson for brainstorming the idea of equating old public domain music with being podsafe.

The Ekonting: African Roots of the Banjo – A Direct Connection Between African & African-American Music

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On today’s show Eli attempts to demonstrate the real links between African & African-American music.

The show features a direct comparison of African ekonting music to African-American banjo music followed by an interview with Daniel Jatta, music researcher of the Jola tribe from Senegambia. In the interview Daniel plays Jola songs on the ekonting, and gives a description of his research into the instrument and its clear connection to the African-American banjo. He also discusses the cultural center he has founded in Gambia to preserve and promote Jola culture and other traditional cultures of the region. This group in Africa has retained a musical culture closest to that which arrived with slaves brought to America from that region hundreds of years ago.

Included above is also a complete 46 min tape of field recordings of ekonting music sent in by Daniel Jatta.

(Photo by Ulf Jägfors)
(L) Anonymous folk painting. South Carolina, c. 1790. One of the oldest depictions of an early gourd banjo in America. (R) Master ekonting player Jules Ekona Jatta with drums and percussion, Mandinary, Gambia 2003.

Daniel Jatta and the Jola akonting:

Daniel is doing real amazing work. For years American researchers have tried to trace “the roots of the blues” back to Africa, with little real success. African America music is just not that much like any African music that they could discover. Daniel’s research into the music of his tribe, the Jola, really presents the most direct link between African and African-American music that is known. The instrument that he learned from his father, the ekonting, is obviously banjo like in its construcion and its playing technique is identical to that used by elder African-American banjo players here in the USA.

New York Banjo Festival – Coming Up On Wed. 4/16/08

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Banjo Band circa 1917. Photo courtesy of Shlomo Pestcoe

Banjo Jim’s First Annual 2008 Banjo Festival – Wednesday, April 16, 2008 7:00-2:00am

Banjo Jim’s First Annual 2008 Banjo Festival with Tony Trishka, Noam Pikelny, Shlomo Pestcoe, Andy Cartoun, Dayna Kurtz, Matt Munisteri, Eamon O’Leary, Jesse Harris, Skip Ward, Eli Smith, John Pinamonti, Jake Schepps, Alexa Story, special guest Sana Ndiaye and much more! $10 cover, two drink minimum, no advance tickets, doors open 6:30pm

Banjo Jim’s First Annual 2008 Banjo Festival is being held in benefit for The Akonting Center.

(For complete schedule see below)

The Akonting Center is a grassroots, non-governmental, cultural initiative in the village of Mandinary, Gambia (West Africa), started by Gambian Jola folk music scholar Daniel Laemouahuma Jatta and Swedish banjo historian Ulf Jägfors. Its objectives are to research, document, and perpetuate the many different endangered string instrument traditions of the various peoples of Senegambia, such as plucked lutes (e.g. the Jola akonting [ekonting], the Manjak bunchundo, the Wolof xalam, etc.), bowed lutes (fiddles, e.g. the Fula nyaanyooru, the Wolof riti, etc.), and harp-lutes (bridge-harps, e.g. the Jola furakaf, the Mandinka simbingo, etc.). The Akonting Center is organized under the auspices of The Chossan Center for Senegambian Culture, a community-based NGO which strives to perpetuate the traditional agrarian way of life and folkways of Senegambia as the foundation for progressive communal self-development on a democratic cooperative basis.

Jug Free America – A notable 21st century jug band

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Jug Free America 87 E. Lorrain St. Oberlin, Oh 2003(?)

Jug Free America was a jug band I played in, which existed from 2001-2005. We played a mix of old jug band tunes, early blues/pre-blues, old-time, country, ragtimey stuff and acoustic reggae. I don’t usually go around promoting my own stuff on the show, but just objectively, this band is worth checking out.

Posted here is our final CD- “Jug Free America- California: 2005”
(Click Here to download)
This was recorded on the fly by Chris Patchett at his house in Berkeley, CA in the summer of 2005, shortly before the band broke up. I think we got real good by the end! This album has never been released anywhere, so this is its debut.

– Eli (host, etc. Down Home Radio)

“These guys are really good” – Ramblin’ Jack Elliott

Jug Free America moved to Oakland, California in the fall of 2004 from their previous hometown of Oberlin, Ohio. They played gigs around the Bay Area through the fall of 2005. The group formed in Ohio in 2001 while students at Oberlin College. From 2001-2005 they played gigs all over the United States and in Poland, where they toured in 2004.

See below for more information- personnel, track listing, etc:

J.B. Smith: Ever Since I Have Been A Man Full Grown

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Ever Since I've Been a Man Fullgrown

“Been returning recently to one of the more intense and affecting albums I’ve experienced in my short life of trouble: recordings made by Bruce Jackson in 1965 at Texas’s Ramsey Prison Farm (now the Ramsey Unit) of a fellow named Johnnie B., or J. B., Smith. The record was released in 1966 on John Fahey’s Takoma label, and is as far as I can tell the only LP devoted to a single unaccompanied singer of prison work-song (or field hollers, if you prefer). Not only that: the LP, “Ever Since I Have Been A Man Full Grown,” devotes nearly all of its second side to a composition of Smith’s of that same name, a 24-minute opus drawing on imagery and lyrics most fans of African American work songs, hollers, and blues will find familiar, but strung together and performed with an artistry and delivery both unsettling and incredibly moving.” – Nathan Salsburg , excerpt from his entry on the Root Hog or Die blog.

I was first made aware of this record, and its incredible title track, by Nathan Salsburg, host of the fantastic internet radio show Root Hog or Die. I listened to the record and was blown away. Then Nathan played it again on his show last week and I realized the gravity of the situation and that I had to jump on this bandwagon and post the album on my site as well. This song, “Ever Since I Have Been A Man Full Grown,” is a masterpiece, it draws together moving lines and imagery from all across the spectrum of folk music. Smith’s performance is apparently completely relaxed and masterful. Give this 24 minute song the time it deserves. Listen closely or intermittently, or both as it bears many repeat listenings.

This record was digitized and is available for download on the Magic of Juju blog.

Click Here To Download the Record directly!

Bruce Jackson, the folklorist who made this field recording is currently a distinguished professor of American Culture at State University of New York at Buffalo and edits the online journal The Buffalo Report, mostly covering politics but also some cultural stuff. He mentioned Down Home Radio last year when Henrietta and I rebroadcast the program she produced on WNYC back in 1940 featuring Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. In 1966 Bruce Jackson, together with Pete, Toshi and Dan Seeger made a film called “Afro-American Work Songs in a Texas Prison.” An incredible film, you can watch it for free on your computer at FolkStreams.net. Bruce Jackson continues to do great work, definitely check him out.