Down Home Radio Show

Roots of the Otis Brothers Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Pat Conte on Arthur Miles - The Throat Singing Cowboy in 1927?!? Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

(The Otis Brother’s first album cover, artwork by R. Crumb)

Todays show features a selection of the original recordings which influenced Queens, NY based blues/pre-blues string band, The Otis Brothers. These guys have listened to a lot of music! An hours worth of their influences provide a listening pleasure and real education in early blues and stringband music captured on commercial 78 rpm records and field recordings. The picture of early blues music painted by a sampling the Otis Brothers influences is a remarkable one. There was so much more to play than there was time for on this one program, but hopefully this is a good sample. Be sure to check out the previous episode of Down Home Radio; an interview with the Otis Brothers.

Also, click the 2nd play button above to hear a mini episode featuring Pat Conte’s commentary on “The Lonely Cowboy,” the only song recorded by cowboy singer and musical singularity Arthur Miles, back in 1927. He sings, yodels, and then something else. Is it throat singing or humming and whistling?!? Hear what Pat Conte has to say, then you decide!

See below for a track listing from todays program as well as a list of recommendations on more music to listen to: (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:

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The documentary film on the life and work of Pete Seeger appropriately entitled “The Power of Song” is currently playing in New York City and at Upstate films in Rhinebeck, NY. I saw it when it premiered last Spring at the Tribeca Film Festival, and as it has now come out in the theaters I thought it time to write my own review.

The short answer – Its great!! See it right away.

The film was done by Jim Brown with empathy, knowledge and insight – it will move you. Brown has a history with Seeger – he first met him as a boy when he was Lee Hayes’ gardener. He is a skilled and experienced documentary film maker in the field of folk music and leftwing politics, 25 years ago he did film on the Weavers, he also did a film on the song “We Shall Overcome” as well as many others. (more…)