Down Home Radio Show

A new article by Mat Callahan, author of “The Trouble with Music:“

“Music can remember what History forgets.  Attesting to this fact is a great body of music commemorating people and events often ignored or obscured by prevailing historical accounts.  This is not confined to ballads or folk songs of the past but is the subject of contemporary compositions as well.”

Music and Historical Memory

Music and memory have always been inseparable.  After all, Memory is the name of the Goddess who was Mother of the Muses.  The Muses, according to the poet Hesiod, “were nine like-minded daughters, whose one thought is singing, and whose hearts are free from care…who delight with song… telling of things that are, that will be and that were with voices joined in harmony.”  They called on Hesiod to sing their praises but they did so with a challenge: “You rustic shepherd, shame: bellies you are, not men!  We know enough to make up lies which are convincing, but we also have the skill, when we’ve a mind, to speak the truth.”[i]

That the nine muses were the daughters of Memory and not another Goddess is explained by the fact that their number corresponds to the gestation period of human beings.  Memory lay with Zeus nine nights to produce nine daughters and in the marvelous mathematics of myth our story begins with the renewal of human life upon this earth.  Memory serves unfolding and rebirth, not the mere storage of information.

This interpretation is supported further by the fact that Memory was the protectress of Eleuther’s Hills-Eleuther meaning freedom in Greek.  What greater gift could there be than to rejuvenate our bodies while freeing our imaginations? Therefore, the Greeks of Hesiod’s time thought memory should be (more…)

Just a word to let everyone know that John Cohen’s new film, “Roscoe Holcomb: From Daisy, Kentucky” is out now!  It has been released by Shanachie Video and is available for purchase by CLICKING HERE.

The film has been packaged by Shanachie as “The Legacy of Roscoe Holcomb.”  The DVD includes John’s new film about Roscoe as well as his classic 1962 film about Holcomb, “The High Lonesome Sound.” You get both!

“Roscoe Holcomb: From Daisy, Kentucky” recently premiered at the Margaret Meade Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History together with a retrospective of John’s work and also just won the award for Best Documentary Short at the Woodstock Film Festival.

Also, a very nice piece about John Cohen and the new film just aired on NPR’s Weekend Edition: CHECK IT OUT

Here’s a synopsis that I wrote for the program guide of the Woodstock Film Festival:

“John Cohen explores the life, philosophy and music of Eastern Kentucky banjo player, coal miner and construction worker Roscoe Holcomb. Holcomb has been injured on the job and forced into early retirement. He discusses his life and music and plays a number of traditional songs from his region. Using intimate footage of Holcomb at home as well as footage of his family, community and region, Cohen presents a remarkable and visually beautiful portrait of Roscoe Holcomb, a man who despite economic hardship and changing times has maintained a powerful and authentic personal music and philosophy.”

John used old footage from the early 60′s that he couldn’t use for “The High Lonesome Sound” because the technology didn’t exist at that time to put the film footage and audio into sync.  But now that is possible and was accomplished in expert fashion.  For this new film John also used really awesome color footage that he took of Holcomb and his family in the 197o’s.  It’s a beautiful film and a wonderful tribute to Roscoe Holcomb.

[Roscoe Holcomb with John Cohen, 1964]

“People were saying that Southern folk song was dead, that the land that had produced American jazz, the blues, the spirituals, the mountain ballads and the work songs had gone sterile.” –Alan Lomax, 1960.

Happily, Alan Lomax’s 1959-1960 field recordings from the American South have been reissued on stunning LPs by Mississippi Records out of Portland, OR.  The reissue was currated by Down Home Radio friend Nathan Salsburg over at the Alan Lomax Archive/Association for Cultural Equity.  For more information, check out the blog entry at Root Hog Or Die, and be sure to check out Nathan’s awesome online radio show of the same name at EastVillageRadio.com.

Here’s a bit of what Nathan had to say about the reissue.  Read more on his blog entry at RootHogOrDie.com

“Without delving into the twists and turns of the most highly specialized folkloric record business or indulging in musings about its current strange renaissance and the stranger counter-cultural moment from whence it comes, I’m pleased to say that the season of my tenth year with Alan Lomax’s archive also marks the release of five new LPs commemorating Lomax’s most famous field-recording trip: what he called his “Southern Journey” of 1959 and 1960. Production for a commemorative series began exactly a year ago, after I met Eric Isaacson of Portland, Oregon’s Mississippi Records – one of the principals in the unlikely vanguard of the vernacular music LP resurgence – at a panel discussion put on as part of Asheville’s fine Harvest Records’ fifth anniversary festival. While Harvest was turning five, the Southern Journey turned 50, yet there was not a whisper regarding it anywhere (outside of a season-long tribute series in Belgium, put on by the noble Herman Hulsens and the Ancienne Belgique). Adding insult to injury was the fact that not a single release of Southern Journey material was currently in print…” READ MORE

Down Home Radio Continues!

Hello everybody,

Well the fund drive has been a success!  Thank you thank thank you thank you to all of you who donated to the program.  I am very much looking forward to bringing you many more fun, interesting and educational episodes of Down Home Radio in 2010.  The money raised through your donations will be put towards the purchase of new equipment to replace stuff that is getting to be pretty broken as well as to upgrade equipment and software and give me as your host and the program’s producer some compensation for the time it takes to make every episode of Down Home Radio that you see here on the website.

Of course it is still possible to donate to Down Home Radio.  If you are a fan of the show and haven’t yet donated, and I know there are many such people out there, its not too late!  No donation is too small, $25 dollars and up gets you one of the premiums, but $5 or $10 dollars gets you my everlasting gratitude and the promise of more great episodes of Down Home Radio on a much more regular basis.  See below for details.

That said there has been a really great show of support for the program, both in the United States and from our friends in Europe and Canada.  That in itself has been inspiring as many of you who donated also wrote into the program to express your appreciation for the show.  Thank you.

Down Home Radio can now continue into 2010 as I get back to work doing interviews, spinning records, digging out archival treasures, digitizing LPs and being your source for “the greatest hits of the 1920′s, 30′s and today!”

Keep in touch,

Eli

Apparently this album is still in print and I was asked to take it down.  Oh well, great album.  But it is available for download on iTunes.

Here’s a wonderful LP from Art Rosenbaum (banjo) & Al Murphy (fiddle).  Art Rosenbaum has recently been issuing his fantastic field recordings on the “Art of Field Recording” series from Dust to Digital records.  Art Rosenbaum is a musician, field-recordist, painter and professor of painting at the University of Georgia.

“Art Rosenbaum likes his music to have roots. ‘As a kid I listened to labor union songs, Burl Ives, Pete Seeger and the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music,’ said the UGA art professor and self-taught folk musician. ‘Fairly early on I realized the most exciting music was that music developed in a style and passed on to the next generation.’

While living in New York City, he and a friend John Cohen, the filmmaker and Beat generation photographer, thought pop music ‘was kind of bland.’ So they and their like-minded friends organized concerts of traditional and folk music. Rosenbaum and Cohen began collecting folk music in the field. In his home state of Indiana Rosenbaum rediscovered blues guitarist Scrapper Blackwell and recorded fiddler John W. Summers.” (This text from below website)

For more information about Art and to view his awesome paintings, check out: www.artrosenbaum.org

“Al Murphy is eastern Iowa’s premier fiddler. He has been playing since he was a teenager, influenced by his Uncle Leo, who was a fine old time fiddle player. Named four times as a Master Artist for the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program, Alan continues to pass his skills and knowledge along to younger players.” (This text from www.iowaartscouncil.org)

See below for track info and complete 5 page liner notes in PDF format: (more…)

Work's Many Voices Vol. 1 compiled by Archie Green Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Root Hog or Die tribute to Archie - hosted by Nathan Salsburg Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this posting we pay tribute to Archie Green, the great scholar of laborlore (the study of the expressive culture of working people) who passed away in March at the age of 91.  Included here are his now out of print LPs “Work’s Many Voices” volumes 1 & 2 – a selection of labor related songs drawn from Archie’s collection of rare 45 rpm singles.  These songs span the years 1950-1985 and cover a number of musical styles including country, blues, Mexican corridos, Cajun and polka. To hear the 1st volume in its entirety, click the top play button.  Click here for the track list.

Click here to Download Work’s Many Voices Vol. 1

Click here to Download Work’s Many Voices Vol. 2

Also posted here is a selection from Nathan Salsburg’s Root Hog or Die radio program, originally aired on East Village Radio, paying tribute to Archie by playing a bunch of recordings that were influential to him and that he loved.

Back in December I did a long (all afternoon long, he loved to talk) interview with Archie at his home in San Francisco.  It was a great conversation and there’s probably material in there for several episodes of DHR, so look out for that in the coming months.

Selections from Mother Jones, The New York Times and The Daily Yonder obituaries:

“Archie Green, a shipwright turned folklorist whose interest in union workers and their culture transformed the study of American folklore and who single-handedly persuaded Congress to create the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, died last Sunday at his home in San Francisco. He was 91… (NY Times)” (more…)

“…a country mule ready to kick a hole into the future…” – Alan Lomax

Vinyl LP records are back. A lot of people I know own typewriters.  Many musicians, photographers and other artists record their work analogue and then transfer it to digital later for distribution.  Examples include musicians recording to old fashioned tape machines and photographers using various film cameras, working in the darkroom and then digitally scanning their work.  What does this mean?  Why do people continue to use obsolete forms of technology?  The answer that I’ve often heard when discussing this with people is that these technologies still work well, they still exist and are in fact better suited to certain uses and forms of expression than more recent inventions.  I will try to summarize here some of the ideas I’ve heard knocked around lately plus add in some of my own thoughts that I’ve hatched while trying to write this article!

There is a dual relationship developing between the physical world and the digital world.  People obviously want to go into the digital world, but they want to leave it too, out of a pure physical and psychological need to see, hear and touch something plain and simple.  On a personal level and on a cultural level people are also judiciously considering their notions of technological progress.  Practically speaking, through a process of trial and error, they are finding out what forms of technology work best in different situations.

Digital: Looking at information on a computer screen, or even typing in album titles, pressing play and listening to music on a computer – all of this is like looking through the glass at a diorama in a museum, with the feeling that if you stepped through the glass it would all come alive.

What’s the difference between digital music in a computer and a vinyl record with its sleeve?  I think that CDs will eventually die out, and in the short term will be used mostly to transport music from a vendor to one’s computer.  Most people will get and listen to their recorded music digitally, and some smaller number of people will gravitate towards vinyl records.  These people will use digital music to some lesser and practical extent, such as when traveling, listening to internet radio or to something unavailable on LP.  For myself, if I hear something I really like and treasure I’d want to own it as a physical object on LP, where as something I were only lukewarm about I might want to just have filed away digitally.

Why are these music lovers attracted to this older form, why has it been selected?  Yes, records do sound better than digital, sometimes surprisingly better.  It’s a warmer sound, fuller – not so cold, hard and matter-of-fact as digital – there’s some surface noise and a crucial bit of remove that is desirable in a recorded medium.  But there’s more to it than that, having to do (more…)