Pete Seeger Sings Guthrie’s Original “This Land Is Your Land” at Obama Concert

1 Comment


Bruce Springsteen got Pete Seeger invited to play at this Obamanation concert event at the Capitol yesterday.  Tao Rodriguez, the Boss and a large choir sang the song as Pete called out the lyrics to the crowd.  Pete called the song as originally written by Guthrie back when, complete with the verse about private property:

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn’t say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.

He also got in another lesser known verse:

In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I’d seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?

The choir kind of messes up on the private property verse.  Was it planned to sing that one?  He sings it instead of the chorus.  I guess it was planned since it seems like the thing was rehearsed with the choir somehow, but all the same I’m amazed they let him even say the words “private property.”  That’s awesome.  He gave people a dose of the real business.

Guthrie took the melody for “This Land Is Your Land” from the hymn “When the World’s On Fire.”  Guthrie loved the Carter Family so maybe he heard their version or he just learned the song from someone he knew.  Bryant’s Jubilee Quartet does a great version, you can find that on iTunes.

I also appreciated that Rev. Lowry referenced Big Bill Broonzy’s song “Black, Brown & White Blues” at the end of the benediction he gave at the inauguration.

“They says, “if you was white, should be all right,
If you was brown, stick around,
But as you’s black, hmm brother, get back, get back, get back”

Interview with Alan Lomax about Leadbelly

2 Comments


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!

5 Comments

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

Leave a Comment

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

6 Comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download


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

6 Comments

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:

Twos & Fews’ first release: I Want to Go Where Things are Beautiful

1 Comment

On today’s show I speak with Nathan Salsburg, curator of the new record label Twos & Fews. Their first release is entitled “I Want to Go Where Things are Beautiful” by the legendary Kentucky/West Virginia singer, coal miner and union activist Nimrod Workman, recorded by Mike Seeger. Nathan talks about the new record and new record label he has created as an imprint of the Chicago record company Drag City.  He is also the production manager at the Alan Lomax Archive, he talks about his work there and plays some of his favorite finds from the archive’s vaults.

Click here to order a copy  of this excellent new CD!

Be sure to check out Nathan’s awesome internet radio show Root Hog or Die as well as the Root Hog or Die blog & list of world music Mp3s sites

Check out the Nimrod Workman Feature Episode of DHR from May of ’07 to hear more of his recordings.

(Whew… that’s a lot of links)

Here’s a selection from Nathan’s notes to the album:

“I’m really excited to be starting with this record of Mike Seeger’s recordings of Workman. I first discovered Nimrod while digging through Lomax’s record collection in 2000. Came across a 45 that was released on an Appalshop-related imprint called Dillon’s Run, and featured what have become – if anything can be so-called – Workman’s most famous compositions; namely, “42 Years” and “Coal Black Mining Blues.” The cover portrait of the man, his face stricken with deep rivulets, like a parched and lonesome scrubland, attested to his many years spent underground and along the picket line, and was a visual correlative to his eerie, bristling songs. Those songs floored me. I had never heard anything as starkly intimate and honest,

Interview with John Houx

2 Comments

John Houx

On today’s show I speak with New York song writer John Houx. Originally from northern California, Houx has been in NYC for less than two years, but in that time has written a slew of excellent songs. In my view, John has developed a lyrical style and musical sense that allows him to deal directly and plainly with specific personal, social and political issues that he encounters, while maintaining in his songs a broader, general perspective. John plays live on the air, talks about his background and influences and plays some records that he likes.

John Houx – Live at Banjo Jim’s May 24th, 2008 – which I recorded at my “Down Home Live” show that I host at Banjo Jim’s in Manhattan.

John Houx myspace page

Phoning It In with John Houx

John Houx on Last.fm

See below for track information from the show:

Interview with Lech of the California Honeydrops

Leave a Comment

On today’s show I speak with Lech Wierzynski of the California Honeydrops.  This band of expert musicians has created a sound drawing from virtually all areas of African-American music – early folk and New Orleans music, blues, gospel, R & B and soul, creating an excellent and unique style.  They are writing some great new songs using conventional instruments such as guitar, piano, trumpet and snare, but also incorporate folk instruments such as the tub bass and washboard into their sound.

On the show we plays some songs from their new CD, “Soul Tub,” plus Lech speaks about their influences and gives us a brief but very well informed sample of African-American music history – a bunch of seminal recordings which I had not heard before.  Great stuff!

The band is:

Lech Wierzynski : Guitar Vocals Trumpet…. Nansamba Ssensalo: Washboard, Drums, Vocals, Fiddle, Jug, Tub Bass…. Chris Burns: Piano…. Ben Malament: Tub Bass, Drums, vocals

California Honeydrops Myspace page

Tracks played on today’s episode:

Jalopy Theater on Brooklyn TV

1 Comment
PlayPlay

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The Jalopy Theater & School of Music (the gravitational center of Down Home Radio) was recently featured on the Brooklyn Independent Television channel.  The show features interviews with owners Geoff and Lynette Wiley, with Roots n Ruckus host Feral Foster and with Eli Smith (me) as well as some excellent footage of the place.  This is from an excellent cable show, featuring different neighborhoods in Brooklyn each week.  We were included in the Redhook episode, Jalopy being located in the Redhook section of Brooklyn.

Jalopy has lots of great live music on weekends and throughout the week, sells and repairs instruments and offers music classes.  I teach the banjo class there.