Jes' some old tunes, is all...

April 18, 2008 7:10 AM

For your weekend aural edification, courtesy of Internet Archive, a sampling of Old-Time and country blues gems: Buell Kazee's The Dying Soldier (1928), B.F. Shelton's Pretty Polly (1927), Geeshie Wiley's Last Kind Words (1930), Dock Boggs' Danville Girl, Kelly Harrel's Rovin' Gambler (1925), Clarence Ashley's My Sweet Farm Girl (1931), Charlie Poole's Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Blues (1925) and the Memphis Jug Band's A Black Woman is Like a Black Snake (1928).
posted by flapjax at midnite (13 comments total)

Oh my thank you for posting this. Buell Kazee is one of my favorite musicians, so much raw emotion contained in his ballads.
posted by cloeburner at 7:16 AM on April 18, 2008

Yeah, Buell is great, eh? There's one more tune from him at Internet Archive: Butcher's Boy. Here's 2 YouTube clips: East Virginia and Wagoner's Lad.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:40 AM on April 18, 2008

Sweet Lord this is great. I've never heard of any of these artists, but I do love me some old time country. These are all going into high rotation on iTunes.
posted by waldo at 7:57 AM on April 18, 2008

I've never heard of any of these artists, but I do love me some old time country.

Well then, waldo, you might find this post helpful as well.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:08 AM on April 18, 2008

Newly restored album by Buell Kazee from Appalshop's label (I'm spreading the gospel this week, apparently) June Appal.

thanks for the post! IA is such a great resource..
posted by ethel at 9:34 AM on April 18, 2008

(the page I linked to seems to be a dud - here's another).
posted by ethel at 9:39 AM on April 18, 2008

My great grandparents were neighbors of and perhaps related to (at that point in E. Kentucky its not clear there was much of a distinction) Buell Kazee. According to family legend and at least one internet bio, my great grandmother, Sade Bailey, gave him his first banjo. Before she passed away, my grandmother recalled sitting on the front porch of her childhood home listening to him play and gave me her copies of his earlier albums. On the back of one of those album covers is a picture of my great grandmother. I did not grow up listening to this music but it is strange how I seem to have some indescribable deep connection to it when I listen now. It's haunting stuff.
posted by cyclopz at 12:18 PM on April 18, 2008

Wow, Sweet Farm Girl is a masterpiece of innuendo, managing to get both cunnilingus and analingus into a single verse as a writer for Salon put it.

But what the hell does "I cut her grass" mean?
posted by sportbucket at 12:18 PM on April 18, 2008

Well then, waldo, you might find this post helpful as well.

Wow, there's something useful on MySpace. You learn somethin' new every day. :)
posted by waldo at 3:10 PM on April 18, 2008

I did not grow up listening to this music but it is strange how I seem to have some indescribable deep connection to it when I listen now. It's haunting stuff.

Man, forgive me, but I have to tell a little story about that. I come from a very long line of banjo/guitar pickers. Real life hillbillys who you can still visit today, WAY back up in the hollow. I hadn't spent much time with them, because I was a navy brat and lived in California. In the early 80's we got stationed over seas. My friends and I had a little band going on and we were trying to get a gig opening for Cheap Trick in a USO show. I was pretty anxious waiting one night for the call to go visit everyone to set things up, so I sat in my room fooling with a guitar. I had one of those epiphanous musical moments because out of nowhere I was jammin' a three figner, what I now know as a clawhammer. So at this point I'm really happy with myself, getting ready to go drinking and maybe meet some famous guys, when I hear my Dad from an other room, wailing. It turns out that during that half hour when the "three finger" came to me, my Grandpa, the really great banjo picker, had passed away. Every time I hear this kind of music, I can't help but feel that deep connection.


sportbucket: My banjo/guitar pickin' uncles used to refer to intercourse as "burnin' hair". I'm guessing "cutting her grass" is a nicer way of putting it.

flapjax: thanks for another beautiful and inspiring post!
posted by snsranch at 3:47 PM on April 18, 2008 [2 favorites]

ethel: that Kazee Appalshop page you linked to must be still under construction. None of those links are active, unfortunately.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:36 PM on April 18, 2008

Oops, sorry ethel, somehow I missed your 2nd comment... you already knew the first link was a dud.

Anyway, long as I'm here... more Charlie Poole.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:53 PM on April 18, 2008

Buell's version of The Butchers Boy was what convinced me to pick up the banjo.

Simply breathtaking.
posted by mediocre at 3:47 AM on April 19, 2008