CONTACT INFO
E-Mail Address: downhomeradio@hotmail.com
**Breaking News** Down Home host Eli Smith is looking for a part time job in New York City! He has many skills! Click Here for his resume.
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Mat Callahan Follow-up Interview Well, Down Home Radio has ended up back on hiatus as Eli heads down to Clifftop, West Virginia for the fiddle and banjo convention going on there. Down Home will be back on air/line in mid August. See ya then! (I'm hitting the road, and will be back with a full report!) Meanwhile, check out some of our past episodes.
Down Home Radio: Saturday July 28th Episode
Down Home Radio: Saturday July 21st Episode Rufus Crisp Feature Episode Interview with Prof. J. Woodford Howard Jr. This is an interview Eli conducted with Prof. Howard, nephew of Rufus and Lulu Crisp, at his home in Baltimore, MD. He grew up in the same area and provides first hand recollections of the family and regional history, social context, as well as Rufus' music.
Down Home Radio: Saturday May 26th Episode Nimrod Workman Feature Episode This week, Eli & guest host Nathan Salsburg do a special episode on the music and politics of Nimrod Workman- Kentucky coal miner, union organizer, song writer and ballad singer. They play a bunch of his songs and and spoken segments, and then in the last quarter of the show play tracks from some associated musicians. They also discuss the current situation in Kentucky coal mining, including the horrendous practice of mountain top removal mining. Nathan Salsburg hosts the internet radio show "Roothog or Die" on East Village Radio. He is the production manager at the Alan Lomax Archive. See this week's blog entry for lots more information
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Down Home Radio: Saturday Feb. 10th Episode 2nd Hour of the Two Hour Special. Songs That Inspired Bob Dylan Part 2
Down Home Radio: Saturday Feb. 3rd Episode Songs That Inspired Bob Dylan Part 1 This week Eli and guest host Steve Strohmeier play a bunch of old recordings of songs Bob Dylan has stolen or been strongly inspired by over his long career. These are songs that Dylan has heard and then used the melody, the lyrics or parts of both to create his own songs. In this way he has taken the older forms of music that he was exposed to and changed the feeling to suit himself and his contemporary audience. In this show we take a direct look at how Bob Dylan takes various songs and forms of music and "Bob-Dylanifies" them.
For playlist info and more check out the Blog Entry for this show . Also!! - Down Home Radio host Henrietta Yurchenco did one of the first radio interviews with Dylan back in the early 60's. Does anyone have a copy of that? We can't find one. If you have this or know who does, please contact us at downhomeradio@hotmail.com.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Down Home Radio: Special Feature Episode Are There Real Links Between African and African American Music? Yes. Interview with Daniel Jatta- This links to an Mp3 of an interview Eli conducted on 1/4/07 with Daniel Jatta, researcher of music (particularly the akonting, an African banjo predecesor) of the Jola tribe from Senegambia. In the interview Daniel plays Jola songs on the akonting, and gives a description of his research into the instrument and its clear connection to the African-American banjo. He also discusses the cultural center he has founded in Gambia to preserve and promote Jola culture and other traditional cultures of the region. This group in Africa has retained a musical culture closest to that which arrived with slaves brought to America from that region hundreds of years ago. Go To Blog Entry. See myspace.com/akonting for more information on the akonting. For field recordings of the akonting, see below: African Roots of the Banjo, Old-Time and Blues Music- A Sonic History This weeks show begins with a look at the Johnny Cash song "Cocaine Blues." We'll take a look at the family of songs that he got it from, going back into the old-time music tradition. Then we turn to the African roots of the banjo. Eli interviews Bela Fleck about his trip across Africa, the musicians he met there, the album and film he recorded and his thoughts on the African origin of the banjo. Then Eli will talk about some new research that is coming out on the "Akonting," a very compelling and direct African banjo predecessor played by the Jola tribe of Senegambia. We'll hear some field recordings, make comparisons between the Akonting and the banjo as played by elder African-American musicians and try to really hear specifically how our American music came directly from Africa. The past really happened- A sonic history more compelling than any text book! Tracks played on this episode: 1. Intro. John Henry- Sid Hemphill & band 2. Cocaine Blues- Johnny Cash 3. Chain Gang Blues- Riley Puckett 4. Little Sadie- Clarence Ashley 5. Field recodings of Akonting music, recorded by Daniel Jatta 6. Roustabout - Mike Seeger 7. Various tracks selected from CD "Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina & Virginia." 8. Field recordings of Lucious Smith 9. Bulldoze Blues - Henry Thomas |
