Here’s an article that I wrote for the Music For Democracy website on the interchange between music and politics. I tried to isolate different approaches to the question of music and politics and then pick one musician that exemplified each approach.
Art Rosenbaum & Al Murphy LP 1972
Apparently this album is still in print and I was asked to take it down. Oh well, great album. But it is available for download on iTunes.
Here’s a wonderful LP from Art Rosenbaum (banjo) & Al Murphy (fiddle). Art Rosenbaum has recently been issuing his fantastic field recordings on the “Art of Field Recording” series from Dust to Digital records. Art Rosenbaum is a musician, field-recordist, painter and professor of painting at the University of Georgia.
“Art Rosenbaum likes his music to have roots. ‘As a kid I listened to labor union songs, Burl Ives, Pete Seeger and the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music,’ said the UGA art professor and self-taught folk musician. ‘Fairly early on I realized the most exciting music was that music developed in a style and passed on to the next generation.’
While living in New York City, he and a friend John Cohen, the filmmaker and Beat generation photographer, thought pop music ‘was kind of bland.’ So they and their like-minded friends organized concerts of traditional and folk music. Rosenbaum and Cohen began collecting folk music in the field. In his home state of Indiana Rosenbaum rediscovered blues guitarist Scrapper Blackwell and recorded fiddler John W. Summers.” (This text from below website)
For more information about Art and to view his awesome paintings, check out: www.artrosenbaum.org
“Al Murphy is eastern Iowa’s premier fiddler. He has been playing since he was a teenager, influenced by his Uncle Leo, who was a fine old time fiddle player. Named four times as a Master Artist for the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program, Alan continues to pass his skills and knowledge along to younger players.” (This text from www.iowaartscouncil.org)
See below for track info and complete 5 page liner notes in PDF format: