Week 10: Country Blues: The Delta

Son House

Reading: Leroy Jones: Blues People Negro Music in America. Reader pps. 117-146. Reread this again to see how your understanding has changed. It's an important book. New reading: Blues from the Delta. William Ferris, Reader pps. 147-164. Two  Reserve Books also apply: Mary Beth Hamilton, In Search of the Blues  (2008), and the classic, Robert Palmer, Deep Blues (1982).
Also--John Swed covers Alan Lomax's blues fieldwork extensively at  various points in his biography. (See Son House references in his index, especially p. 192-3.) One of Lomax's later books is The Land Where the Blues Began. For a very different view on this theme of Blues, read Albert Murray's Stomping the Blues (1972).

Songs (in your tan songset, and on the original S&P CD): 
Corrina, Corrina
Careless Love
Sweet Home  Chicago (great song--but it's not really a sing-along)

Download:  https://berkeley.box.com/s/gwamo1pfjmeelmauzkm

For the next two weeks we'll do the Blues. For Week 10, concentrate on Delta Blues--and Country Blues in general. For Week 11, concentrate on Chicago and the city blues tradition.

It's a very broad topic--but generally speaking...

You can think of the blues in terms of it's rural origins, in the early 1900s--from the Mississippi Delta and elsewhere in the South--East Texas, for example. There's also the Piedmont blues from the Carolinas, and blues styles from places like Memphis, Kansas City, St. Louis. Gradually the music was carried up the Mississippi River and by rail  to Chicago--where city blues took off. This shift followed emigration patterns--black southerners moving to northern cities for work beginning in the period of  WWI. Chicago blues came into its own during WWII and the post-war years. A very good book on this topic is Robert Palmer's Deep Blues. Note that the terms Country Blues, Delta Blues and Downhome Blues are used somewhat interchangeably.

Skip James

Key DELTA BLUES people include Charley Patton, Son House, Skip James, and slightly later, Robert Johnson, and Muddy Waters (in his very early years)--along with MANY others... Mississippi John Hurt is sometimes called a blues player (and he did record some key blues songs--his version of Stagger Lee is classic) but in many ways MJH represents an earlier Songster era. There's also the important early Texas blues player Blind Lemon Jefferson, whose recordings in the 1920s became widely popular. Other Texas players, from the next generation include Lighting Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb. And not to forget the early players Memphis Minnie... and singer Victoria Spivey. (Later came Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Big Mama Thornton...)

Note that the Delta Blues/Country Blues are very different from recordings by Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Ida Cox and others--primarily women, whose songs were performed with jazz band accompaniment and in many ways represent an extension of the vaudeville tradition. Country Blues emphasizes the solo voice with a solo acoustic guitar. The two answer each other--and the power of the music comes from this. (Listen to Charley Patton, Son House,  Skip James, Robert Johnson...) The Delta style is unique in the way the guitar is linked to the voice...always expressive, always from within...

Robert Johnson (recently discovered photo)

When southern blacks began moving north--first to places like Memphis and St. Louis, then to Chicago and Detroit, what was in essence a rural (and acoustic) music took on the attributes of the city--amplifiers, for one. Muddy Waters is key here. (We'll concentrate on Chicago  next week.)

 Here are the tracks on your download that correspond to the Country and Delta Blues:

DELTA BLUES
34 Blues     Charley Patton  (1887?-1934)
Lonesome Road Blues    Sam Collins (1887-1949)
Cross Road Blues    Robert Johnson  (1911-1938)
Come On In My Kitchen    Robert Johnson
Milkcow's Calf Blues    Robert Johnson
I'm So Glad   Skip James  (1902-1969)
Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues   Skip James
Parchman Farm Blues    Bukka White  (1909-1977)

And some related early recordings, also on your download (moving beyond Delta Blues):

How Long, How Long Blues  Leroy Carr (1905-1935)  (Nashville, originally, and a smoother stylist)
The World Is Going Wrong   Mississippi Sheiks  (recorded 1930's)
Jet Black Snake    Roosevelt Sykes   (1906-1983)
Hoodoo Lady    Memphis Minnie   (1897-1983)
Caught Me Wrong Again   Memphis Minnie
Black Snake Blues    Victoria Spivey   (1906-1976)

Memphis Minnie

Here are some key YouTube recordings for the Country Blues /Delta Blues tradition. Some include film/video (made in more recent years, obviously, mostly from the 1960s).

YouTube - Charley Patton - Spoonful Blues (Delta Blues 1929) (audio only)
'Some These Days I'll Be Gone' CHARLEY PATTON, 1929 Delta Blues Guitar Legend (audio) 

▶ Son House - Field Recordings 1941 & 1942 - YouTube (Delta Blues, audio only)
▶ Son House "Death Letter Blues" - YouTube  (video of Son House performing, 1960's)

Skip James - Devil Got My Woman - YouTube   (video, early 1960's)
YouTube - Skip James sings "Crow Jane" (video early 1960's)

Blind Lemon Jefferson, record advertisement

▶ Black Snake Moan - Blind Lemon Jefferson - YouTube (Texas Blues, audio)

▶ Lightin' Hopkins - YouTube  (Texas Blues, next generation--video, 1960's)
▶ Mance Lipscomb - Jack of Spades - YouTube (Mance Lipscomb playing Texas blues, video. Originally a Blind Lemon Jerfferson song.)
Mance Lipscomb - Motherless Children - YouTube (from the Les Blank film, 1972, a beautiful video clip.)

and finally, a very early Muddy Waters audio recording, from his Mississippi beginning's (this from Alan Lomax fieldwork):
McKinley Morganfield - Burr Clover Farm Blues - YouTube

The young Muddy Waters, in Mississippi

Next week--we'll follow Muddy Waters north, to Chicago and City Blues...

Week 9: Woody Guthrie

DOWNLOAD: Woody Guthrie on BOX: https://berkeley.box.com/s/ivaxn1cuzyz6y23xra0m

READING: We can pick up again with the READER--there's a chapter included from Woody Guthrie's autobiography--Bound for Glory (pps. 57-91, with a good introduction by Studs Terkel). Note his drawing! Also see the section on Woody Guthrie's life, which starts on Reader p. 244. It's from Phil Hood, Artists of American Folk Music.  (There are other good sections from that book--on Pete Seeger, John Lomax, Odetta Carter Family, Elizabeth Cotten... I've included some of these in the Reader as well.)

Bound for Glory, cover, 1943

Also: Read this key chapter in John Szwed (Alan Lomax bio): Bohemian Folklorist (exploring the question of folksongs in the city), pps.141-167, particularly the section on Woody Guthrie in New York, pps. 157-167.

SONGS: Here are the main songs for this week (all in your tan songsheets). They're ALL good songs to sing...

This Land Is Your Land  (also--compare the way Dylan recorded it early on, included in YouTube section, below)

Roll on Columbia

Blowin' Down the Road
we can also do
Do Re Mi
So Long It's Been Good to Know You (Dusty Old Dust)

Here are the (supplemental) titles on your Woody Guthrie download. I included some of his Dust Bowl ballads, (The Great Dust Storm, Tom Joad)  a "talking blues," his high-spirited version of Go Tell Aunt Rhody, some topical songs (Philadelphia Lawyer, Lindberg, and Jarama Valley) plus several other--to give you a good taste. There's of course lots more on YouTube, but this is a start (and the sound will be better...)

The Great Dust Storm (Dust Storm Disaster)
John Henry
Talking Dust Bowl Blues
Dusty Old Dust (So Long, It's Been Good To Know You)
Go Tell Aunt Rhody
Dust Bowl Blues
Blowin' Down The Road (I Ain't Going To Be Treated This Way)
Lingbergh
Tom Joad - Part I
Pastures Of Plenty
Tom Joad - Part II
Do Re Mi
Dust Bowl Refugee
Philadelphia Lawyer
Gypsy Davy
Hobo's Lullaby
Roll On Columbia
Jarama Valley
This Land Is Your Land
When That Great Ship Went Down
Long John

Woody Guthrie, Alan Lomax,and friends, New York, early 1940s

YOUTUBE:

There are a number of great YouTube things as well. The first with Woody Guthrie live in an old film clip. These film clips of him are apparently rare. Can you find better? The first two are for LOOKING (so watch them carefully!!!); the next three, for listening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5NJKx8ObDY
Woody Guthrie performing, film fragment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbulO_FB2ZI&feature=related   
This Machine Kills Fascists  (A short Summary of the Year 1941). Sets Woody Guthrie's work in a historical context--what he (and his peers) were dealing with in the world. Good visuals...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxiMrvDbq3s
This Land Is Your Land. Woody Guthrie's own version 
Bob Dylan - (Rare The Minneapolis Party Tape) - This Land Is Your Land - YouTube 
The Bob Dylan's version I wanted you to hear is no longer on YouTube  (although I'm sure you can find it elsewhere). The one above (even earlier, from Minneapolis in 1961, will give you a good idea of how he did the song.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM54-ZRd-9k&feature=related
Red River Valley. Woody Guthrie, early Asche recording. Compare with out S&P version (The Texian Boys, who were--in case it's not been mentioned--John Lomax and friends. I consider the Lomax version classic in terms of the meaning of the lyrics--one of our most beautiful songs. Woody Guthrie's version is sprightlier. Why do you think this is so?

Woody Guthrie's family, Okemah, Oklahoma

QUESTIONS: As with Leadbelly, there's a lot of social history in Woody Guthrie's songs--and in his life (he was born in Okemah, Oklahoma  and grew up with the music of that place--it was in him all throughout his life, even as he moved into and through MANY other social and artistic worlds. This is probably the key thing to consider: Woody Guthrie's heritage--and his life--as giving form to his songs. How did he become "a spokesman for the common man?"  (Oklahoman, vagabond, hobo, musical wanderer, hollywood radio show host, then new york, the recordings with moe asche (founder of folkways records), friendships with leadbelly, sonny terry & brownie mcgee and cisco huston, plus his influence on pete seeger (who loved the music, but didn't come from woody's "real" country background) and other subsequent "folk singers." And I left out his career in the Merchant Marine (his ship was torpedoed in the Atlantic during WWII) and the songs that came from that...plus his drawings and paintings...AND his jaunty autobiography (Bound for Glory). 

Woody Guthrie, Eric Shaal photo, New York, 1943

Week 8: Leadbelly

Leadbelly & Woody Guthrie

DOWNLOAD: Leadbelly Songs

https://berkeley.box.com/s/3ps7p4cpsairtjcrro1m

READING: Start the Alan Lomax biography, read John Swed's introduction (pps. 1-4), and his two Leadbelly chapters: Road Scholars (pps. 31-58) and The Saga of Lead Belly (pps. 59-76). Together these will give you a good understanding the Lomax recordings--and what they went through to make them (including the unwieldy recording set up they carried in the trunk of their car). And the beginnings of an understanding of Huddie Ledbetter himself... (Two copies of Swed are also on reserve in CED library.)

On the road, 1934--the Lomax car trunk

I kept this week's download a bit more manageable in size, but you'll still need to be selective as to what songs you concentrate on. Remember that our original S&P set has these three (they're basic):

Rock Island Line
Goodnight Irene
Midnight Special


The ones below are in the Leadbelly supplement download for this week. They're all good, of course, but I've picked out a few favorites. In particular, I want you to consider the words Leadbelly uses for Take This Hammer. The sequence of the verses as well...

The Gallis Pole
Duncan And Brady (Acapella)
Take This Hammer  (lyrics in gray songset--give them some thought)
Grey Goose
In The Pines
Bring A Little Water Sylvie (beautiful song to do together)
Corn Bread Rough
We Shall Be Free (with Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston, and Sonny Terry)
Let It Shine On Me
Blind Lemon
Sukey Jump

Leadbelly, cover of Life magazine, 1935

Here are some additional suggestions:

* Consider the chorus in Midnight Special. What WAS the Midnight Special? How did this image figure in Leadbelly's life? Look into this.
* With Rock Island Line, there's some important history: the song was subsequently covered (basically stolen) by the English Skiffle Band figure, Lonnie Donnegan (in the 1950's), who  recorded--and later copyrighted--the song as his own. Look into this. There are videos of the skiffle version on YouTube. (The same thing happened with Elizabeth Cotten's Freight Train--you can look into the details here as well.) We can discuss this phenomenon in general...
* In the Pines and Bring a Little Water, Sylvie are just plain beautiful songs...

Also, and VERY important--as you look for videos of Leadbelly, as always with YouTube it's a question of how to sort through the vast array. Here are three that I think are IMPORTANT to pay close attention to (I WANT YOU ALL TO DO THIS!):

1.  Leadbelly /  segment from the Gordon Parks film (1976)    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG7wpN6Pcfs   
It's well worth watching how Gordon Parks (the distinguished African American photographer and film maker) depicts Leadbelly. There's a lot of "attitude" here--and it's worth paying close attention to. Ask yourselves, why is this film almost impossible to find...?

Leadbelly in Gordon Parks' film version, 1976

 2.  The Leadbelly "Newsreel"   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxykqBmUCwk
In which the "story" of Leadbelly is told--with footage of John Lomax and Leadbelly acting their parts, and a narrative which stands in relief to Gordon Parks' treatment. Note that the script here was written by the March of Time newsreel producers, not John Lomax. Consider the audience--in other words, who was this for? Newsreel features were common at the time--shown in theaters before the movies. (The newsreel images are fictional--a picture follows of the actual Angola Penitentiary in a period photo.)

Leadbelly and John Lomax, from the 1935 March of Time newsreel

Angola Penitentiary (Angola, LA), period photo

3.  And finally, Leadbelly singing Goodnight Irene (with Martha Promise Ledbetter)   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMarv156mKw&feature=related
I just found this recently--it's a gem. Martha Promise was Leadbelly's wife...! The setting is "set up" of course--how could it not be--but their personalities shine through...

Leadbelly and Martha Promise, Wilton, Conn. 1935

A good question throughout--in fact, the main question I'd like to consider--who WAS Leadbelly? The man himself--and the figure he presented to the world (the several figures). How do we come to our own terms with the question? And in relation to Mississippi John Hurt? They both left what was home--at very different times in their lives, and under very different circumstances. How is this reflected in their characters--and in the character of their songs?

_____

One more thought: Leadbelly's late recordings, from 1948 (made in  New York, in his apartment with Martha during those last years) are also worth looking into. (Where Woody Guthrie slept on the couch for something like a year.) They may not show Leadbelly in full vigor, but each one has a ranging introduction in his own voice--and these are priceless. Listen to his version of Goodnight Irene here--even just the beginning...

The Last Sessions

Leadbelly

Week 7: Mississippi John Hurt / The Songster Tradition

Mississippi John Hurt, 1964, David Gahr photo (detail)

For the next two weeks we'll explore the songster tradition--a wonderful example being the music of Mississippi John Hurt. First, here's a download on box with a selection of his songs:

https://berkeley.box.com/s/ys2pvqpxyluf8hoaz3dj

READING. A good biography of MJH by Philip Radcliffe is on the Reserve in CED library. This would be a good time to dip in. Also, you've read Norm Cohen on the folk revival movement, now (at some point) read another version--Eric von Schmidt ("Baby Let Me Follow You Down," Reader pps. 101-116) This was the period (early 1960s) when Mississippi John Hurt, by then in his 70s, became known to a wide audience... But for his story, we need to go back to Mississippi of the 1920s. Here are two very different versions. Read and consider them carefully!

*  Jas Olbrecht article:  http://denniste/mjhurt/mjhjas.htm

And, for a more personal (and personally enlightening) view, I'll attach something Betsy (Elisabeth Dubovsky) wrote several years ago. Also a telling of the life of Mississippi John Hurt--as related to us one evening here in Berkeley by musician and poet friend Max Ochs. Max was part of the circle of people from the Washington DC area who located ("rediscovered") John Hurt in the early 1960s, in Avalon, Mississippi, invited him north, and helped introduce him to a wide and receptive new audience. Betsy's piece was published as a small chapbook edition, in 2005.  (Note: To maintain original formatting, you'll need to view online using MS word, or download before reading)


* With Mississippi John Hurt, by Max Ochs:  https://berkeley.box.com/s/oq4vltmialozpysrh0jv 

And listen to John Hurt telling his own telling of this story (a clip from from Pete Seeger's 1960's television show, Rainbow Quest):

* Rainbow Quest: Mississippi John Hurt - Goodnight Irene - YouTube

Songs for the week. All of Mississippi John Hurt's songs are a delight, and for projects you're free to work from the ones you like best. But for singing together, here are three I like in particular:

Make Me A Pallet on Your Floor
Beulah Land (YouTube link--this song not on download)
Louis Collins

You can find all the lyrics here: MJH Lyrics – Compiled by Ken Whitfield 4-2008

John Hurt and Jessie

Also key: Avalon Blues, recorded by Mississippi John Hurt in one of those early sessions in 1928, and (because it made reference to Avalon, Miss., his hometown),  the route to his rediscover three decades later. It's on your download, but here's a YouTube link for convenience (below). The lyrics are important--you can find them in Ken Whitfield's compilation, in two versions:  MJH Lyrics – Compiled by Ken Whitfield 4-2008.     Consider where Mississippi John Hurt locates himself--the song speaks of this--and why. (How he juxtaposes Avalon, Miss. and New York City, where he'd gone for the first time to make the recording.)

* Avalon Blues:  Mississippi John Hurt - Avalon Blues - YouTube

 

Montage by Ron Anton Rocz

_______

During a later week, we'll pull the camera back and look at (and listen two!) a wider variety of songster material--and consider how it brought together so many streams from American popular music of an earlier era. More to come...

Two Wildcards

Santos and Johnny, Sleepwalk, 1959

Two new song for Kouros....

Sleepwalk,  by Santos and Johnny 1959 (from Brooklyn, representing the Italian American community). And they're still going...! (See the wikipedia article, under their names for full story... )

▶ Santo & Johnny - Sleep Walk 1959 - YouTube

OR:

Dick Dale and the Del Tones, 1963

Miserlou, by Dick Dale (that would be Richard Anthony Monsour)

 ▶ Dick Dale & The Del Tones "Misirlou" 1963 - YouTube

Week 6 Supplement: English Folk in its Regional Variety

In Rugby, Warwickshire

The question came up in class as to how English songs are presented--Baylor wanted to know if there was a more raucous tradition in parallel to how we tend think of English folk material. Helen (who's visiting from Leeds, and whose home is in Warwickshire) sent us this:

I did a little research and found some youtube videos relating to many different styles and periods of English folk. This isn't an exhaustive list, but there are some really beautiful and interesting things here. A lot of the music has quite a strong regional identity, as some parts of England such as Cornwall, Northumbria and the West Country used to be separate. Of course, class is a really massive factor, so songs that were sung in royal court are a lot better preserved than the old drinking songs sung by the common people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS4hJkKSuY8 - industrial revolution work songs (recorded by Alan Lomax)

http://youtu.be/AhqHBigE3ZE - Morris dancing!

http://youtu.be/R8vXR92hiuU - madrigals. non-religious Renaissance/Baroque music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfeEY71r9Vc and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PweXRsMQAms - sea shanties

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UvesKl8_W8 - medieval folk song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWQjpSwxS94 -  version of a 18th century Romantic song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRkI8OhhHJc - traditional drinking song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeZDfcKVsPM - Cornish folk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4piTON0IMI - the wonderful Eliza Carthy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzfmkWFl16g - fiddle and accordion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln-qXAz7tp8 - this is a really beautiful song, with a great jig going on too!

I hope this is helpful for what we are going to discuss!   Helen

Week 6: Supplement / Barbara Allen versions

Don Edwards singing Barbara Allen

You have Jean Ritchie on the S&P CD

Here are some others:

* Don Edwards - Barbara Allen - YouTube
* John Jacob Niles - Bar'bry Allen - You Tube (a classic recording, see note below)
* Bob Dylan - Barbara Allen Live - YouTube
* Bawbee Allen Ewan MacColl ( Barbara Allen child 84) - YouTube
* Meg Baird and Sharron Kraus - Barbara Allen (traditional) - YouTube
* John Denver with Bill and Taffy Danoff-Barbara Allen - YouTube 

And here's Ollie Gilbert's version: Barbry Allen  


______

A note on John Jacob Niles:

John Jacob Niles (b. Louisville, Kentucky, April 28, 1892; d. Lexington, Kentucky, March 1, 1980) was an American composer, singer, and collector of traditional ballads. He is often called the Dean of American Balladeers.[1]

He is well known for his original song "Go 'Way From My Window", as well as the many traditional ballads he collected in the Appalachian region of the United States, such as "Pretty Polly" and "Barbara Allen". He also composed the haunting Christmas song "I Wonder As I Wander". He performed such material in an intense, dramatic manner, his voice frequently extending into a very high falsetto (which he often used to portray female characters in the ballads). He often accompanied himself on an Appalachian dulcimer or other plucked stringed instruments, many of which were self-made. He made several recordings and many of his songs were later performed by other folk singers, including Joan Baez, Burl Ives, and Peter, Paul and Mary. Marlene Dietrich recorded "Go 'Way From My Window" and included it in her stage show. Also, the song was a notable influence on Bob Dylan, who appropriated the first line for use in his song "It Ain't Me Babe".

He also composed a sizable number of art songs for voice and piano in classical style.

Niles is buried at St. Hubert's Episcopal Church in Clark County, Kentucky.

Wildcard: Pays-Bas (Chansons oubliées)

David Adolph Constant Artz (Dutch, 1837-1890)

Here's the recording of the Nederlands songs we listened to last class. Three marked in bold that you'll remember. The collections by Radio France are very good--that particularly French effort to track and record poeple still singing this kind of older folk material, from around the world. The Pays-Bas CD has long been one of my favorites.

If you'll remember, the way we got here was by my trying to show you examples of songs performed in a traditional style--with less influence of contemporary recordings and treatments. We'll see a lot of this with the American blues players--older musicians like Skip James or Son House (or songster Henry Thomas) as opposed to good contemporary players like Taj Mahal, Keb' Mo, or Corey Harris...

It's said that the way the music is played reflects the social conditions--the context--of its development. And that context is simply different today. Music is always influenced by other music (would Orpheus agree?), but the cultural world in which a song develops remains unique...

CD cover image

Note: I realize I don't have this in uploaded files, so for now all I can share with you is the CD info, and the titles... and recommend that you hunt up the recording!

Pays-Bas (Chansons oubliées) Ocora, 1996

1. Soldaa Kwam Uit De Oorlog (Soldier Returned From The War)

2. Drie Schuintamboers (Three Side-Drummers)

3. Ons Katrijnije Was Beschonken(Our Catherine Was Drunk)

4. En Al Ik Dan Toch Sterven Moet (And If Still I Must Die)

5. In Het Rozenland (In Oostland)

6. Een Rijke Heer (A Wealth Gentleman)

7. In Frankrijk Buiten De Poorten ( In France Outside The Gates)

8. Voor Schellinge Lag Een Schip (Off Schellinge Was A Ship)

9. Voor Schellinge Lag Een Schip (Off Schellinge Was A Ship)

10. A Yankee Ship Came Down The River

11. Hoera Voor De Meisjes Van (Bergen Op Zoom)

12. Hoe Vrolijk Is 'T Op Zee Te Varen (How Cheery 'Tis To Sail The Sea)

13. Het Vrouwtje Van 'S-Hertogenbosch (A Woman From Hertogenbosch Once Came)

14. Klein Nachtgaaltje, Vogeltje Schoon (Small Nightingale, Beautiful Bird)

15. En Nu Laat Ik Het Minnen Maar Varen (And Now I'll Give Up Courting)

16. De Ruiter met Zijin Blanke Zward (The Knight With A White Sword

17. 'T Hijgend Hert, Der Jacht Ontkomen (The Panting Deer, Escaped From The Hunter)

18. Het Hagenbeuker Evanglie (The Hornbeam Gospel)

19. Roep Koeienhodster (Call Of A Cowherderess)

20. Haallijntje (Shanty)

21. O Heer Waar Mag Mijin Minnaar Wezen (Oh Lord, Where Could My Lover Be)

22. Met U Te Gaan Wandelen (To Go Walking With You)

23. Zeilen Wij Uit Van Hellevoetsluis (We Set Out From Hellevoetsluis)

24. Ik Ben Een Arme Weverszoon (I Am Poor Weaver's Son)

25. Op Een Zondag (One Sunday)

26. Laurentia Lief (Laurentia Sweet)

Week 6: Appalachia II / The British Ballads

Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles, Appalachia ca. 1918

This week we take up British ballad sources--antecedents to Appalachian songs like Banks of the Ohio and Will the Circle be Unbroken. Many were brought to America by the immigrants who first settled Appalachia. That mountain country being so isolated that the songs--and aspects of their Elizabethan language--were preserved relatively intact for some 200 years. Song collectors like Cecil Sharp (and Francis James Child before him) brought this material to a wider public through the collection and publication of the ballads. See notes below on their work. For our class, Cecil Sharp is the more important, because of his collecting trips in Appalachia in the early 20th century.

S&P Ballads download on box:
https://berkeley.box.com/s/p8v1c365iwe449t3lljd  
Listen carefully to these songs--words and music. (Note that this is the same download we began with last week. It takes some repeated listening--this week with a focus on the relation between the British Ballads and their American counterparts.)

The download has examples of Child Ballads, sung in their American versions:

Barbry Allen (Child 84)  Jean Ritchie
Black Jack Davey (Child 200) Carter Family--and one by Bob Dylan
The House Carpenter (Child 243) Clarence Ashley
Pretty Polly (Child 4)  Doc Boggs version, and one by Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson

And several distinctly American ballads from Appalachia (these have a different feel than the Child ballads--they reflect the American experience):

Omie Wise (G.B. Grayson)
Shady Grove  (Clarence Ashley and Doc Watson ( (Shady Grove includes some Child Ballad lines)
Sugar Baby (Doc Boggs)
The Wagoner's Lad (Buell Kazee)
John Henry (Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley)

There are also a selection of related songs--including more Carter Family material and two from the anthracite coal miners. Plus one beautiful English ballad, The Lowlands of Holland (pay attention to the story--and the experience it reflects).

Roscoe Hocomb's Hands, John Cohen photo (detail), 1959

Recall that some of these songs were included by Harry Smith on his 1952 Folkways Anthology of American Folk music, which brought them to the attention of the 1960s folk revival people. Examples include The Coo Coo (Clarence Ashley), Sugar Baby (Doc Boggs),  Omie Wise (G.B. Grayson), and The Wagoner's Lad  (Buell Kazee).

Reading:
Norm Cohen article in Reader pps. 33-56 (background on the folk revival).
Mike Yates excellent and detailed article on Cecil Sharp. This is your main reading for the week. Here's the LINK:  http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/sharp.htm
For the adventurous, at some point: Nick Tosches in Reader, The Twisted Roots of Rock and Roll, pps. 187-204, which takes one song-- Gypsy Davey, and traces it's winding (and fascinating) history. (Here's a wild card: Woody Guthrie's version: Gypsy Davy - Woody Guthrie - YouTube

Three Songs for this week (you already have these in your S&P CD download and Tan Songsheets) KNOW THESE BY HEART! 

Barbara Allen   Barbara Allen (Jean Ritchie)
And here's Ollie Gilbert's version: Barbry Allen

Down by the Sally Garden   Down by the Salley Gardens (The lyrics are by William Butler Yates, from a traditional melody in the West of Ireland)

Comin' Thro' the Rye   Comin' Thro' the Rye  (Julie London, in a non-traditional version)

Topics and people to keep in mind:
Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles (Appalachian collecting trip, 1916-18)
Olive Dame Campbell, American folkorist and song collector)
Francis James Child  The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (1892-1898) (The Child Ballads)
Harry Smith, Anthology of American Folk Music (Folkways Records, 1952)
John Jacob Niles  (The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles, 1960)

Sharp and Karpeles collecting, ca. 1918

Note on Cecil Sharp. Cecil Sharp was an English song collector who did work in Britian and America in the early part of the 20th Century. The old ballads were disappearing in the England of his day, so Sharp made a collecting trip to the Appalachian mountains, where (he reasoned) the songs in something of their original form had been preserved for 200 years by the descendents of the original immigrants. Sharp worked with Maud Karpeles, also from England--and collaborated with Olive Dame Campbell (the American song collector and folklorist). Read Mike Yates article on Cecil Sharp: Here's the link: http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/sharp.htm

Sharp recorded the the songs, in musical transcription. Karpeles recorded the words. They both kept diaries, which present a picture of their journey and what they encountered. Here's a good BBC documentary on the recent online publication of the diraries:
* BBC News - Audio slideshow: Cecil Sharp's diaries

Sharp also made photographs, which can be found on this site:
* VWML Online :: Introduction to Cecil Sharp's diaries

Cecil Sharp photo, ca. 1918

Note on Francis James Child. Child was also a ballad collector, an American scholar whose work preceeded Sharp. Child worked in the 19th century. He focused on the lyrics of the songs (not the music), studying the relationship between their historical variants in England, Scotland (and America). His collection was eventually organized and published (between 1882-1896) as The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. There are 305 in all, each one numbered (including variants). Child Ballad themes include "romance, supernatural experiences, historical events, morality, riddles, murder, and folk heroes." Many had their beginnings in medieval times--the legends of Robin Hood and the court of King Arthur.

Here are some Child Ballads lyrics: 
* The Elfin Knight (Child 2)   
* Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight  (Child 4)     
* The Bonnie Earl o' Moray (Child 181)
* The Gypsy Laddie  (Child 200)

Here's more of Jean Ritchie (there are numerous films of Jean Ritchie because she left Kentucky for New York, working in the Settlement House movement and presenting the songs she'd grown up with to a much wider audience. She also made many records of the Kentucky mountain songs--and their British precursors):
* Jean Ritchie--Barbry Allen - YouTube  (also on your S&P CD) (Child 84)
▶ Jean Ritchie - Shady Grove - Rainbow Quest 
▶ JEAN RITCHIE - MY DEAR COMPANION - Alan Lomax Footage - YouTube 
* House Carpenter Jean Ritchie (Child 243) - YouTube
* Jean Ritchie - O Love Is Teasin' - YouTube

Ollie Gilbert versions:
* Pretty Polly Come Go Along With Me - Max Hunter Folk Song Collection  Ollie Gilbert
* Barbry Allen - Max Hunter Folk Song Collection Ollie Gilbert
* House Carpenter - Max Hunter Folk Song Collection - Ollie Gilbert

Cecil Sharp photo, Appalachia, ca. 1918

As we saw in class, Sharp made photographs on his collecting trips in both England and America.  They offer an interesting contrast--consider this. Related to the difference between Child ballads in their European   form and American ballads like Omie Wise or The Wagoner's Lad. Or a later American song like Tom Dula.

Cecil Sharp photo, Devon, England

Child Ballads in British and European versions:
* Emilie Faiella - Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight, a Medieval Ballad (with lyrics) - YouTube
* Steeleye Span - Lady Isobel And The Elf Knight. Live Video - YouTube
* Wearie's Well punk harp version - YouTube
* The Wife of Usher's Well (Child 79) - (Traditional Scottish) - YouTube
* King Orfeo / Skoven Årle Grön ( Child Ballad 19 ) - YouTube
* Child #2: The Elfin Knight - YouTube
* Elspeth Cowie - The Laird O' Elfin - YouTube

Note for class. This is a lot of material. For your project, work from one of the three songs for the  week, together with songs on Ballads download, comparing the Child Ballads with the songs of American origin. Read Mike Yates. The remainder (all worthwhile) you can return to over the next weeks.)
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And finally, from the Carter Family--Wildwood Flower (this well-known song has English precedents as well--it's in your tan songsheets, p. 2).
* The Carter Family - Wildwood Flower - YouTube (An earlier filmed version) 
* Mother Maybelle Carter - Wildwood Flower - YouTube
(An older Maybelle Carter recalling their first recordings, Johnny Cash television show, 1969-71.

Maybelle Carter and Family, 1950s television

 













These two videos are examples of how the Appalachian songs reached a popular audience through the Grand Ole Opry and other radio (and later television) venues. We could compare Garrison Keeler's Prairie Home Companion of today (intended for a quite different popular audience, however).