Shows

Interview with Jessy Carolina

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On today’s show I speak with New York folk singer and song writer Jessy Carolina.  Originally from Venezuela, Jessy grew up in North Dakota and later New York City.  She sings a lot of early blues songs, old-time and folk songs, Woody Guthrie songs and writes her own songs. We recorded this interview in a park in New Orleans when we were both down there back in February, busking on Royal street and escaping the New York winter.  Jessy plays live on the show, talks about her background, the trip down South and life busking in NOLA.  I also play some live recordings that I made of Jessy at the Jalopy Theater in Redhook, Brooklyn.

Jessy will be performing, along with 20 other great acts, at the upcoming Brooklyn Folk Festival, which will be held at Jalopy the weekend of May 15th -17th.  Its gonna be fun!  Check out www.BrooklynFolkFest.com for details.

Jessy Carolina sings “Oh Babe It Ain’t No Lie,” by Elizabeth Cotten on the streets of New Orleans, Feb. 2009.

True Story of Abner Jay – Mississippi Records

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Abner Jay, Mississippi Records by you.

On today’s show I speak with Eric Isaacson, founder of Mississippi Records & owner of the record store by the same name, located on Mississippi Ave. in Portland, OR.  Mississippi Records has been releasing some really amazing music, compilations of old 78s which are really well chosen and programmed as well as more modern recordings of vernacular music, a lot of gospel and blues stuff. They are committed to releasing their music on vinyl LPs, but occasionally they do small releases of cassette tapes.  Whoever is responsible for the artwork on their record jackets should be commended, they’re really great.

On today’s show we will hear a selection of cuts drawn from various MS Records releases, and then we’ll feature, in fact hear the whole A side of their new release, “True Story of Abner Jay.”  This is an amazing record of Abner Jay a one man band and song writer from around Atlanta, GA who passed away in 1993 and had apparently been actively playing since the 1930’s.  He has a deep style that is related in some amazing way to Bob Dylan’s music, but is really its own and operating on a number of levels.  He plays the guitar or 6-string electric banjo, harmonica and bass drum and high hat with his feet.  See below for a video of him.

Mississippi Records by you.
Some MS Records releases featured on today’s program

Fuck Your "Progress" in Portland, OR 7-14-7 by xXxBrianxXx.

See below for the back of the Abner Jay record, notes, etc…

Tribute to Richie Shulberg aka Citizen Kafka

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Citizen Kafka by kenf225.
(L) Richie Shulberg, aka Citizen Kafka in a recent photo, (R) Kenny Kosek, CK & John Goodman doing “The Citizen Kafka Show” on WBAI, 1980’s.

Its been a hard couple weeks around here.  On Wednesday March 11th Bob Guida of the Otis Brothers passed on, he was 54.  A few days later on Saturday the 14th Richie Shulberg aka Citizen Kafka, age 61, left the physical plain and on Sunday March 22nd Archie Green, the great folklorist, laborlore scholar and advocate of vernacular culture died at his home in San Francisco at the age of 91.  I will be doing tributes to all three of these great people in the next few weeks.

On today’s show I am rebroadcasting a tribute to Citizen Kafka that was done on WBAI this past Saturday on the “Morning Dew” show.  Kenny Kosek, Ed Haber & John Goodman came down to WBAI and put together this broadcast, playing old recordings of Citizen Kafka and “The Citizen Kafka Show” that they hosted together back in the 1980’s, as well as sharing some of their reminiscences. The Citizen Kafka show was really crazy and awesome!

The Citizen (born 1947 in Canarsie, Brooklyn) had a number of talents, he was a great fiddler, top notch – also really spontaneously funny, a talented and funny poet, an accomplished collector of records and many other types of objects, he was also knowledgeable about natural medicine, obscure, local and pop cultures, had driven a cab and had apparently done some mineral prospecting/mining work out West!  He was the leader of the infamous Wretched Refuse String Band, hosted the music/comedy show, “The Citizen Kafka Show” on WBAI and co-hosted the “Secret Museum of the Air” with Pat Conte on WFMU.

I had a great time hanging out with the Citizen, although I only knew him in the past year or two.  He was loud, manic, difficult with many people- he was some kind of genius and a real mensch – incredibly generous and kind.  He would hire me to come to his house and help clean up the place, which was a

Interview with the Tillers

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On today’s show I speak with The Tillers, an excellent 3 piece string band on tour from Cincinnati, Ohio.  The Tillers were in New York over the weekend where they played at my “Down Home Live” show that I host every month at Banjo Jim’s on the Lower East Side.  We met on Saturday afternoon at the Music Inn, the great old instrument and record shop on W. 4th St. and recorded this interview there in the basement.

The Tillers are Michael Oberst, Sean Geil & Jason Soudrette.  Mike and Jason started out playing punk music, but in the past couple of years have begun playing old-time music – and have been particularly inpsired by Woody Guthrie.  They do a number of songs that Woody Guthrie & Cisco Houston did together, and do them very well!  I recorded their set at my “Down Home Live” show on Saturday night and play cuts from that, as well as from the Tillers’ studio album on today’s show.  The Tillers also play some of their favorite records, both current favorites and old standbyes.

The Tillers’ CD, “Ludlow Street Rag” on the Chestnut Tree Records label is availale at: http://www.chestnuttreerecords.com .

The Tiller’s myspace page


Eli with the Tillers outside of the Music Inn on W. 4th St. in Greenwhich Village where this interview was conducted.

Interview with Elizabeth Butters

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On today’s show I speak with Cambridge folk singer Elizabeth Butters.  Elizabeth plays the guitar and dulcimer and is a wonderful singer of ballads and other types of songs, many of them having to do with death!  She was in New York last weekend for a show that we played together out in Bushwick and I caught up with her the next day at her sister’s house to tape this interview.  Elizabeth plays live on the air, talks about her influences and plays some records that she likes.  In the above picture she appears to be visiting some sort of pastoral Lama home.

Elizabeth Butters’ myspace

Passim Archives

Interview with Alan Lomax about Leadbelly

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From the Yurchenco Archives: On today’s show I air an interview Henrietta Yurchenco did with Alan Lomax about Leadbelly.  I’m not sure when this interview was conducted (there was no date on the tape), but I think it was done in the mid 1960’s for one of her broadcasts on WNYC.  Alan Lomax gives a really excellent talk about Leadbelly, about his music and about when he and his father John Lomax first encountered Leadbelly at the Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana.  After the interview I play some of the very first field recordings that the Lomax’s made of Leadbelly when they met him that day in 1933, and when they returned to record him again in 1934.  Thanks go to Nathan Salsburg of the Alan Lomax Archive for supplying me with those recordings.

The film posted here is a mid 1930’s “March of Time” newsreel starring Leadbelly and John Lomax playing the parts of themselves in a stylized reenactment of their first meeting and early activities together.

In 1933 John & Alan Lomax were supplied with a portable disc recording machine, the first of its kind, and once they got the hang of using it they proceeded to the first stop on their field recording trip, the Angola State Pen, and the first person they encountered there was Leadbelly. Alan Lomax’s description of this series of events is vivid, and together with the early field recordings I play on the show and the “March of Time” film, you can get a startling connection with that moment in time and space.

Remembering Henrietta Yurchenco – Leadbelly & Woody Guthrie Live on WNYC, 1940!

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Henrietta Yurchenco, photo by Peter Gold 2006

Last December, Down Home Radio co-founder Henrietta Yurchenco passed away at the age of 91. I met her when she was 89 and we had a great time doing this show together and generally hanging out in the last 2 years of her life.   She was a tremendously accomplished person who over a very long career left an amazing musical and historical legacy, some of which has been preserved for us to hear. For a short history of her carreer read my essay, her obituary from the New York Times, her excellent autobiography, or visit her website.

Starting now I will begin to bring out some of the things from her archives which I have or can get my hands on. In this entry I am re-posting a very remarkable show we did in January of ’07, airing a radio show Henrietta produced for WNYC in 1940 at the beginning of her career – It was Leadbelly’s show, and that week the guest was Woody Guthrie. This amazing show was recorded in excellent quality, preserved and found by the archivist at WNYC! We re-aired it together with Henrietta’s comentary 67 years later.  So look out for more excellent material from the Yurchenco archives, as well as all the shows we hosted here on Down Home Radio.

This week Henrietta and Eli discuss outlaw ballads and how criminals are transformed into popular heroes. In conjunction with that and of extra special interest, they rebroadcast a show Henrietta produced for WNYC radio back in 1940. It is Leadbelly’s show and he has as his guest, Woody Guthrie. This program has not been heard since it was first broadcast 67 years ago! Down Home would like to thank WNYC and archivist Andy Lanset for providing us with this rare material.

Leadbelly & Woody Guthrie Live! On WNYC 1940

Interview with Jake of The Cangelosi Cards

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The Cangelosi Cards by e_v_e.

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

The New Lost City Ramblers: 50 Years – Interview with John Cohen & Tom Paley

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The New Lost City Ramblers (John Cohen, Mike Seeger & Tom Paley) formed as a band in 1958, and this year marks their 50th anniversary.  In fact, this interview, recorded on September 13th, 2008, was 50 years to the day after their first concert, held on September 13th, 1958 at a chapter hall of Carnegie Hall.  On today’s show I speak with John Cohen and Tom Paley about their memories of the birth of the band, how it happened, how they met, began playing together, chose the name, got their sound, made recordings and started touring.  John and Tom don’t remember it quite the same way, but some where in there lies the truth!

Tom left the band in 1962 and moved to Europe where he still lives.  But he and John were both in New York where they played together at the “11th Annual Park Slope Bluegrass & Old-Time Jamboree” at the Society for Ethical Culture.  I was able to catch up with them there and we sat in the basement and talked.

The New Lost City Ramblers have been a tremendously influential band in the folk revival of the last 50 years as well as in the parallel revival of interest in old-time string band music.  Their enthusiasm for and devotion to the old-time sound changed the debate in the folk music world of the 1950’s and 60’s and made musicians and listeners take a much deeper and nuanced listen to the rural sounds they were hearing on records.  The NLCR made urban, non-traditionally schooled musicians approaching the material, aware of not the just songs, but the style and challenged them to grapple with that issue.  This is still a serious question and one that is very relevant today.
(Read the rest of my essay below, plus track information for the today’s show)

Echoes of the Ozarks Vol. 2 – another great old record

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Echoes of the Ozarks vol. 2 front cover

Continuing with Down Home Radio’s “Awesome Out of Print Records” series – On today’s show I play one record straight through.  Its an old County Records LP  I picked up called Echoes of the Ozarks Vol. 2, released in 1970.  I really like this record, there is some great string band music on here.  It was an unexpected treat.  I got it somewhere for cheap, didn’t look at it closely at all, figured it would be only mildly interesting.  Then I put it on and haven’t been able to stop listening since. I particularly love Reeves’ White County Ramblers use of the old fashioned pump organ in their sound.  Apparently they usually used piano, but used the organ because that’s all they had at the recording studio.  Glad they did!  Its great.

The record features: Reeves’ White County Ramblers, Luke Highnight’s Ozark Strutters, Dr. Smith’s Hoss Hair Pullers, A.E. Ward & His Plowboys, and Fiddlin’ Bob Larkan & Family.  All great bands and hard to find.  If anybody has volume 1, send it my way!  This is an excellent compilation.

CLICK HERE to download this record cut up into tracks.

See below for liner notes and more track information: