down home radio show

 

 Martin Carthy Radio Show Jan - Feb 1994: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Martin Carthy Radio Show Feb - March 1994: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Back in 1994 British folk musician and scholar Martin Carthy hosted a series of 6 radio broadcasts on the BBC 2 station. I recently got my hands on cassette tapes of these broadcasts, and they’re awesome! He did a really good job- plays some amazing music. I digitized the tapes, and here they are. The first tape is programs 1-3, Jan-Feb 1994 and the second is programs 3-6, Feb-March. You will notice in the middle of each tape it cuts off and then cuts back in, that’s where the tape side switches. I really recommend these shows, fun to listen to.

Enjoy!

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.

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. (more…)

 

 Jug Free America - California 2005: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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: (more…)

Dear Friends,

I am very sorry to report that Henrietta Yurchenco, my friend and co-creator of Down Home Radio, died on the morning of Monday Dec. 10th at the age of 91. Although she had not been feeling well for some time, her death was never-the-less sudden and shocking. She was an extraordinary person, incredibly full of life, energy and love for people and for music. Henrietta leaves behind untold numbers of friends, devoted students and people who she influenced in any number of ways. The value of her work documenting and promoting the indigenous cultures of Mexico, the United States and many other parts of the world is extraordinary.

The Down Home Radio project was not Henrietta’s first time around with radio, it was more like her fourth or fifth, and yet she approached it with all the zeal of someone a quarter her age. Henrietta started her radio career in late 1939 as a producer at WNYC here in New York. She produced a series of programs featuring American folk music and music from around the world, and was also the producer of Leadbelly’s radio program. She worked closely with Leadbelly preparing the scripts for the show and doing whatever else producers do! She arranged for Pete Seeger’s first radio appearance as well as Woody Guthrie’s first radio appearance in New York. It was not easy to find foreign ethnic bands at that time or even to get recordings, so in order to get talent for her world music radio shows she would hit the streets, casing ethnic community houses and restaurants, union halls and other places to find musicians to put on the air. Henrietta was back on the air for a short time in the late 50’s on WBAI, and then for almost all of the 1960’s on WNYC where she did a show called “Adventures in Folk Music.” On this program she did the first, or one of the first, radio interviews with Bob Dylan. Name almost any folk musician (and many “non-folk” musicians and other artists) of the last 60 years and Henrietta had them on a radio show at one time or another. That or they came to one of her famous parties, or appeared at a concert she produced or all of the above. (more…)

Here’s some notes from the show I just hosted on KPFK in LA about the history of protest songs and contemporary protest songs and singers:

By the way, the interview I did with Pete Seeger is not yet posted up, I will be posting it on the night of Friday, October 5th, so check back for that.

Lots of Links, etc. below-

The Songs:

Here’s a blurb for each song. I see the program as being a bit of history and then bringing it up to date with great contemporary stuff. We’ll start at the beginning of the 20th century with the IWW, a One Big Singing Union who liked to parody Salvation Army bands because they had good familiar tunes. And if the Salvation Army band tried to drown out the IWW singers with their brass bands, the Wobblies could just sing along. “The Preacher and the Slave” is a song written by Joe Hill in 1911. It was written as a parody of the song “In The Sweet Bye and Bye.”

1. Preacher and the Slave by Harry “Mac” McClintock - Harry McClintock was a singer associated with the IWW. He is the composer of the song Big Rock Candy Mountain, but here sings a song by Joe Hill, of whom he was a personal associate, one of very few the reclusive Joe Hill had. They, along with T-Bone Slim were the main composers of the IWW, International workers of the world. I think they had the best songs of any labor movement in America. This recording is taken from a remarkable one of a kind interview with McClintock, conducted by Sam Eskin in 1950. Click the above link to got Smithsonian Global Sound where you can buy the track, read the liner notes, etc.

(more…)