Down Home Radio Show

A Walk Around Clifftop 2009 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I went down to the Clifftop Appalachian String Band Festival just a couple of weeks ago with my band The Dust Busters. We had a great time, met and played with a million different people and played a set on Saturday afternoon with our friends John Cohen and Tracy Schwarz of the New Lost City Ramblers.  The old-time music never stops at Camp Washington-Carver in Clifftop, West Virginia, so about midnight on Saturday I broke out my field recording device and made a round of the different campsite jam sessions that were in full swing.

This broadcast is a just a straight 45 minute recording of my midnight wanderings through the grounds of Clifftop.  I walked from one great group of musicians to the next in rapid succession.  Each campsite had its own huddle of musicians playing fiddles, banjos, guitars, doghouse basses, harmonicas and singing away at the old-time tunes- no matter which direction I turned, it was hard to go wrong!

Banjo Music Mix Tape (All the original recordings of songs taught in the workshop) Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

John Cohen Banjo Workshop Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Banjo Tunings and Styles Workshop with John Cohen

Here’s the first bit of audio I’m posting from the Brooklyn Folk Festival - John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers leads a banjo workshop focusing on different tunings and styles used by a number of banjo players he has learned from either directly or studied through their old recordings.  Banjo player Wade Ward describes tunings as “different atmospheres.”  Each banjo tuning carries its own set of possibilities and its own feeling.  In 1965 John Cohen encountered Ward and many other banjo players as he journeyed through the South finding musicians, making field recordings, discovering banjo tunings and lots more along the way.  Many of these field recordings were released on his wonderful album “High Atmosphere”. John discusses and demonstrates these many styles, sounds and techniques in this workshop from May, 17th, 2009.

The first play button plays a banjo music mix tape of all the original recordings of songs John covers in this workshop.  The second play button plays the audio of the workshop itself.  This is for banjo players only! (Unless you’re really interested)

John begins with a bit of Pete Seeger up picking, then a bit of frailing and thumb lead 2-finger picking, then more up picking (the same rhythm as clawhammer but picking up instead of hitting down on the string), Charlie Poole style finger picking banjo, Bascom Lamar Lunsford / George Landers style up picking (the workshop focuses a lot on this style, where in the first finger picks the melody and also then brushes up over the strings and the thumb picks the fifth string and drops down to some of the other strings.  There are no downward motions in this style.)  Sydna Myers style clawhammer, Dock Boggs finger picking and finally Pete Steele finger picking

Links:
Film about John Cohen on FolkStreams.net: Remembering the High Lonesome
Down Home Radio Rufus Crisp Feature Episode – playing recordings of Crisp, a banjo player very influential to John Cohen and the early folk music scene in New York.

Tunes included in the workshop: (more…)

Interview with Jake of The Cangelosi Cards Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

On today’s show I speak with Jake Sanders, guitarist and band leader of The Cangelosi Cards.  The Cards are an awesome New York based old-time jazz, swing, New Orleans music, blues, country band (that’s a mouthful, but they really range widely in their repertoire!).  The Cards play all kinds of different gigs and have become very popular on the national swing dance scene.  I became a big fan the first time I saw them, more than 2 years ago now and am very pleased to have Jake on the program.

The band has built up their following the old fashioned way, word of mouth and face to face.  Jake started out as a street musician and built up the band, which is now achieving considerable success, from there. He talks about the beginnings of the band, their evolution and all the gigs and tours they’ve done lately.  Jake also discusses some of his own background as a guitarist and plays some records from a number of musical styles that have been influential to him, and I play some recordings that I made of the band live at Banjo Jim’s in Manhattan.  The Cangelosi Cards frequently play my Down Home Live show at Banjo Jim’s, which happens the 2nd Saturday of every month, and they play at Banjo Jim’s regularly, every Monday night.  Check ‘em out!

In the show I apologize for not having more recent live recordings of them. But I got one!  So I just posted it.  Check out this awesome live set by the Cards at my Banjo Jim’s show in Jan of 2009.

Cangelosi Cards gig listing (more…)

Roots n Ruckus Live at Jalopy 8/27/08 Part 1 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Roots n Ruckus Live at Jalopy 8/27/08 Part 2 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Jessy Carolina                         Dom Flemons                         Feral Foster

Willy Gantrim               Sam Shepard & Peter Stampfel          Frank Hoier

Every Wednesday night I take part in a live folk music show called “Roots n Ruckus” that takes place at the Jalopy Theater in Brooklyn, NY. Here’s another live recording I made there back in August.  That night the show featured many of the Roots n Ruckus regulars as well as Dom Flemons from the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Peter Stampfel and Sam Shepard of the Holy Modal Rounders.

It was a great show!  Hope you enjoy.

The acts:

Part 1
0:00 – ???  Who is this?  I can’t remember, but he’s real good.
22:00 – Frank Hoier
45:30 – (Elements of the) Peach Colored Jug Smugglers w/ Eli Smith (me) on guitar & Dizzy on washboard
66:00 – Feral Foster
88:00 – Peter Stampfel & Sam Shepard w/ Jeannie Scofield & Eli Smith

Part 2
0:00 – Dom Flemons
38:00 – Willy Gantrim
68:00 – Jessy Carolina

Hello everybody, thought I’d post up a bunch of my favorite videos I’ve found over the last period.  To all those people who have posted these videos – I salute you.

Enjoy!

Videos below:

“March of Time” newsreel footage about Leadbelly and John Lomax -
A reenactment where they play the parts of themselves! This is unbelievable footage. It is also pretty spooky and haunted. (more…)

Interview with Brett Ratliff & Sylvia Ryerson Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

On today’s show I speak with Eastern Kentucky banjo player, fiddler and singer Brett Ratliff and with Cambridge fiddler Sylvia Ryerson.  Brett and Sylvia were en route through New York and stopped in to play a set at the Roots ‘n’ Ruckus show at the Jalopy Theater in Redhook, Brooklyn.  I recorded their set and interviewed them out on the street afterwords (you will hear some trucks going by).  Sylvia, a student at Wesleyan University in CT, spent the summer working at the radio station of the Appal Shop, a community arts organization in Whitesburg, KY that preserves and promotes old time music, the indigenous music of the area.  Brett lives in Whitesburg and has just released a CD of banjo and fiddle tunes and ballads called “Cold Icy Mountain,” on June Appal records, the Appal Shop label.  We’ll hear about all this in the interview, plus a few songs from the new CD and Brett & Sylvia’s live show that night.

Brett Ratliff is returning to Brooklyn on October 3rd to play a show at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, and a square dance the next night up in Greenpoint.  Be sure to check that out, should be awesome!  I’m definitely gonna go. (more…)

Interview with Art Bailey Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Orkestra Popilar Live at Banjo Jim's Dec. 5th '08 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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 – See above for a live recording of them from Banjo Jim’s Dec. 5th, 2008 (more…)

Roots 'n' Ruckus Jalopy Feb 20th 2008 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Part 2: Roots 'n' Ruckus Jalopy Feb 20th 2008 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Peter, Sam, Pat & Citizen 3/26/08 at Roots 'n' Ruckus Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Jalopy Theater – Redhook Brooklyn, 2/20/08:

Peter Stampfel, Pat Conte, Sam Shepard and Citizen Kafka perform live at Roots ‘n’ Ruckus at the Jalopy Theater. (photo by Eli Smith)

This is a recording of the Roots ‘n’ Ruckus show, briefly mentioned in today’s New York Times piece, “The Sound Is Rural, the Setting Urban,” which takes place every Wednesday at the Jalopy Theater in Redhook Brooklyn. The recording here is from the show on 2/20/08.

This particular show had special guests! – Playing together were Peter Stampfel (of the Holy Modal Rounders and Fugs), Sam Shepard (the playwright and actor), Pat Conte (Otis Brothers, Secret Museum of Mankind) and Citizen Kafka. The show also featured Dom Flemons (of the Carolina Chocolate Drops) and many of the Roots ‘n’ Ruckus regulars: Down Home’s own Eli Smith (hope you enjoy my set!), Feral Foster, Jessy Carolina and Hubby Jenkins. This is a long show, running more than 2.5 hours. I’ve split it into 2 sections, see above. Peter, Sam, etc’s set starts at 31:00 minutes in the 1st part.

If you’re trying to figure out who’s who on the recording, the order of performances is as follows:

Part 1: Eli Smith; Feral Foster and Jessy Carolina; Peter, Sam, Pat & Citizen

Part 2: Dom Flemons; Feral Foster; Hubby Jenkins with Dom Flemons.

Peter, Sam, Pat and Citizen played at Roots ‘n’ Ruckus again on March 26t, 2008. That appearance is now posted here as well. Click the 3rd play button above.

For more information check out the Folk Music In NewYork section of this page.

See below for more pictures: (more…)

Internet Music Resources Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

On today’s episode I play only tracks that I have downloaded for free from the internet. I actually ended up using only tracks that I got from the fantastic music blog www.eldiablotuntun.blogspot.com , but there are many other great ones out there! See my complete list below. The internet has made it possible to hear pretty much anything you want, even and especially obscure folk music, for free. This is quite a positive turn of events – the only trouble is finding out what you want to hear. Down Home Radio is here to help! But you can now really educate your self thoroughly, feed your aural addiction and generally have a great time, with out breaking the bank. This should be taken advantage of to the fullest extent.

Here’s my list of favorite music blogs, archives and downloading software:

(If anybody has additions to this list, please let me know!)

http://eldiablotuntun.blogspot.com

http://www.juneberry78s.com

http://totallyfuzzy.blogspot.com/ – Search the world of music blogs!

and more… See below:

(more…)