Some Favorite Videos

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.

Interview with Brett Ratliff & Sylvia Ryerson

Brett Ratliff at Jalopy
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.

Interview with Art Bailey- The Klezmer Music of Joseph Moskowitz

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

Roots ‘n’ Ruckus at the Jalopy Theater: Live Recording From the Feb. 20th Show

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

Peter Stampfel, Sam Shepard, Pat Conte, Citizen Kafka at Roots ‘n’ Ruckus Jalopy Feb 20 2008
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: