Blues

The Cards Visit Shanghai

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The Cangelosi Cards, one of Down Home Radio’s favorite bands, have just completed a three month stint playing nightly at a club over in Shanghai, China.  The Cards are a brilliant old-time jazz, blues, country band local to Brooklyn who have been touring the U.S. for several years and are now starting in on the rest of the world!  Filmmaker and “Down Home TV” producer Chris Low happened to be over in Shanghai on another project and was able to catch up with The Cards to film this segment:

An extended interview with The Cangelosi Cards


And don’t forget to check out the Down Home Radio advert in the Old Time Herald Magazine – www.oldtimeherald.org – lots of great articles, reviews and more!

Photos From the Festival

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[Radio Jarocho at The 2010 Brooklyn Folk Festival.  Photo E. Smith]

Well, the 2010 Brooklyn Folk Festival has come and gone, and I can tell you that it was a great success!  It sold out every night, the new outdoor stage was a huge success and people had a great time!  The whole thing was professionally recorded by Don Fierro and we look forward to the release of at least one Brooklyn Folk Festival 2010  CD/LP probably over the winter on the brand new Jalopy Records label.  The music that was played at this festival was to put it plainly AMAZING.  I knew it would be good, but didn’t realize just how good.  As the organizer and MC I was very emotionally moved by the whole proceeding!  Truly.  Already planning for next year… well maybe I’ll take a break.  But I’m already excited!

Below are some photos I took at the festival.  All of my photos from the event can be seen at this link. Look out in the reasonably near future for some films from the festival shot by filmmaker Chris Low.  I’ll be posting up a bunch of those plus audio and some videos I took, etc.


[The Calamity Janes.  Photo E. Smith]


[Feral Foster.  Photo E. Smith]


[Rashad Brown performs at the outdoor stage.  Photo Susan Heske]


[Clifton Hicks (R) The Dough Rollers (L)  Photo E. Smith]


[The Tillers. Photo E. Smith]


[John Cohen.  Photo E. Smith]


[John Cohen screens his new film “Roscoe Holcomb From Daisy Kentucky.” Photo by E. Smith]


[Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues.  Photo E. Smith]

To see all my photos from the 2010 Brooklyn Folk Festival Click Here. And check back for audio and video from the festival coming soon…

The Brooklyn Folk Festival is Here!

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Brooklyn Folk Festival Logo by you.

The Brooklyn Folk Festival has arrived again!
May 21-23rd, 2010 at the Jalopy Theater!

Down Home Radio is proud to announce the 2nd annual Brooklyn Folk Festival.  This festival will feature the best in old-time music, blues, pre-blues, jug band music, New Orleans jazz, folk style songwriting, Greek, African and Mexican folk music and dance with concerts, workshops, and a Sunday afternoon square dance.  Thirty-one musical acts over 3 days! Come down and check it out, its gonna be fun!

–See below for the complete schedule–

*This festival is brought to you by Down Home Radio, and will be MCed by Down Home Radio host Eli Smith.

Pricing:
$15 per day for the main stage evening concerts and workshops or $40 for all three evenings.
$5 per day for Saturday afternoon concerts and Sunday afternoon outdoor stage, square dance included!  What a deal!

Contact The Jalopy Theater to buy advance tickets.

The Jalopy Theater
315 Columbia Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231
(718) 395-3214
www.Jalopy.biz

Schedule:

Friday May 21st at Jalopy:
7:30pm – Hubby Jenkins – Blues and folk songs
8:15 – George Stavis – Original improvised banjo music
9pm- Salieu Suso – Gambian Kora player
9:30pm- Calamity Janes – Oldtime String band
10:15pm- The Dust Busters – Oldtime string band
11:15pm- Blind Boy Paxton – Blues guitar, stride piano, old time banjo
12am – Ernie Vega – Blues, folk and original songs

Saturday May 22nd at Jalopy:

Blind Boy Paxton on Down Home TV

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Here’s the 2nd installment of our new venture into Down Home TV.  That same night after speaking with Mamie Minch, Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton stopped by and I was able to film a segment with him.  If you’ve heard the interview from a year and a half ago that I did with him (when he was only 19) then you know that he is a truly amazing guitarist, banjoist and stride-piano player as well as an excellent singer.  On today’s show Blind Boy plays a few guitar and banjo pieces for us on camera and talks a little bit about his background.  For more information, be sure to check out the extended audio interview with him from back in the DHR Archives.

Thanks go once again to filmmaker Chris Low and his crew for shooting and editing this footage.

Down Home TV!

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Down Home Radio has stormed the citadel of visual representation, thanks to the great work of filmmaker Chris Low.  On this first installment I talk with the wonderful blues guitarist, singer and songwriter Mamie Minch.  We sat down in the room above the Jalopy Theater just before she took the stage at the Brooklyn Folk Festival Preview and Benefit show a couple of weeks ago.  Mamie speaks about some of her influences and plays some tunes, live on Down Home Radio (TV)!  Many thanks go to Chris for making this possible.

The Black Banjo Gathering

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Hey everybody – just wanted to let you know about an event/conference that is happening at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC this week.  Its called “The Black Banjo Gathering.”  This is the second such gathering, the first happened back in 2005.  Its organized by folklorist Cece Conway and is meant to bring attention to the African-American roots of Old Time music.  My band The Dust Busters will be performing and doing workshops at this event, along with many many other performers.  Its gonna be a really great gathering of people.  If you live in North Carolina or can get there, this is definitely worth going to. – Eli
BB Gathering Logo
From their website:

The 2010 Black Banjo Gathering Reunion at Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina

Dedicated to the memory of musicians Clif Ervin & Mike Seeger

From March 23 to March 28, banjoists, scholars, old time, traditional jazz, and blues musicians will hold a Black Banjo Gathering Reunion at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. Concerts, workshops, jams, panel discussions, dancing, lectures and frolics will commemorate the historic 2005 Black Banjo Gathering that gathered hundreds at the same site in April 2005.

The Farthing Auditorium concert will be Wednesday, March 24th at 7:30p.m.  (doors open at 6:30). Tickets: $10/$20 in advance (while tickets last)  $12/$25 at the door.  For tickets call Farthing Auditorium at 1-800-841- 2787, or visit www.farthing.appstate.edu.  Fri & Sat Workshops & Legend Tickets TBA.  Hotel Information.

The Reunion will feature lectures, workshops, concerts panels, films, outreach sessions to Appalachian State students and to the surrounding communities.

Tentative Schedule for the 2010 Black Banjo Gathering Reunion

The Brooklyn Folk Festival: May 15th-17th

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Thanks to everybody who made the festival such a big success.  See ya next year!

(Look out for audio, pictures and video from the festival coming up real soon here on DHR)

Brooklyn Folk Festival Logo by you.

Friday, May 15th thru Sunday, May 17th at the Jalopy Theater.

Down Home Radio is proud to announce the 1st annual Brooklyn Folk Festival.  This festival will feature the best in old-time music, blues, pre-blues, jug band music, New Orleans jazz, folk style songwriting, African folk music and Mexican folk music and dance.  Come down and check it out, its gonna be fun!

*This festival is brought to you by Down Home Radio, and will be MCed by Down Home Radio host Eli Smith.

$10 Per Day or $25 for 3 days – Afternoon Workshop Included!

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.

Frank Hovington: Lonesome Road Blues LP

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Frank Hovingtong Lonesome Road Blues LP Flyright 522 by you.

Here’s an excellent LP by blues guitarist / banjoist / singer Frank Hovington (1919-1982).  Hovington was from Pennsylvania but lived in Delaware.  These recordings were made by Dick Spottswood & Bruce Bastin back in the summer of 1975 at Frank’s home, using a tape recorder on loan from the Library of Congress. It was released by the British Label Flyright Records in 1976.  I’ve really enjoyed listening to this one lately, Hovington is an excellent singer and has a great style, or range of styles on guitar and banjo.  This album was apparently reissued on CD by Rounder Records at some point, but as far as I know is now out of print.  Hovington was originally “discovered” by John Fahey while John was driving around looking for old records.  Mack McCormick brought him to the 1971 Smithsonian Folk Festival, but other than that Frank Hovington did not like to tour or try to play lots of gigs at that point in his life.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ALBUM CUT UP INTO TRACKS

F R A N K   H O V I N G T O N; from back cover of Flyright FLYLP 522; photographer: Bengt Olsson

See below for track list:

Interview with Lech of the California Honeydrops

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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: