Oh yeah. There he is, Mr.
RL Burnside, in the year of nineteen and seventy eight, Independence, Mississippi, porch fulla kids, singin' about
when his first wife left him, million-dollar smile on his face. And there he is again, with his guitar and amp, out by the barb wire fence, a
poor boy a long way from home. These two little gems just added to the
Alan Lomax Archive YouTube channel, where you'll also find some wonderful newly-uploaded clips (filmed in 1983) from
fretless banjo plucker Tommy Jarrell, the toast of Toast, North Carolina.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Mar 15, 2012 -
9 comments
Within that small and very specific sub-genre of musical Americana identifiable as the
train imitation, there is one amazing performance, from 1926, that set the standard:
Pan-American Blues. The man who recorded it did a fine and fanciful job of evoking the sounds of a
fox chase as well, and his rhythmically compelling solo rendition of
John Henry stands as testament to the potential for musical greatness achievable by one man and a humble harmonica. He was an African-American who was a founding member of the Grand Ole Opry, a musical institution that we rarely (as in,
never) today associate with black people, and his touching and tragic story, documented
here, is one that will be of interest to those concerned with the racial, economic and socio-cultural history of American popular music. He stands at one of its more unexpected intersections: his name is
DeFord Bailey.
[more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Dec 30, 2010 -
15 comments
Born in Big Sandy, Texas in 1874,
Henry Thomas was one of the oldest black musician who ever recorded for the phonograph companies of the 1920′s and his music represents a rare opportunity to hear what American black folk music must have sounded like in the last decade of the 19th century.
[more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on May 11, 2010 -
21 comments
Bobby Charles 1938-2010. Songwriter, musician's musician and cultural treasure, he died on last Thursday in Abbeville,Lousiana. In the 1950s, he wrote Fats Domino's
Walking to New Orleans, Bill Haley and the Comet's
See You Later, Alligator and recorded for Chess records. His
eponymous Bearsville album recorded in Woodstock in 1972 has been described as the best Band album released under another name.(Check out
Small Town Talk there.) He appeared as well in the Band's farewell concert filmed as The
Last Waltz. He made an enormous contribution to American popular music.
[more inside]
posted by y2karl
on Jan 19, 2010 -
25 comments
Desperate Man Blues Edward Gillen's documentary about Joe Bussard, renowned collector of 25,000+ blues, folk and gospel 78rpm records from the 20s and 30s. It's about the hunt and the hunter, as much as what he found. One week only on Pitchfork TV
[more inside]
posted by msalt
on Jan 31, 2009 -
15 comments
Dreams and Songs of the Noble Old, a film by Alan Lomax, takes a loving look at the talents and wisdom of elderly musicians, singers, and story-tellers from southern American folk traditions. All the musicians featured in the film have soul and musical energy to spare: great, great performances and engaging reminiscences make this film a real treat. Please see the [more inside] for a collection of links to several of the outstanding performers featured in the film.
[more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Mar 25, 2008 -
15 comments
And here we have a couple of YouTube productions, screensaverish animations of photos and lyrics to the original recordings:
Robert Petway - Catfish Blues and
Tommy McClennan - It's Hard To Be Lonesome. This is mostly about Petway and
Catfish Blues but you can't mention Petway without mentioning McClennan, as they ran together in their time and as both did versions of
Catfish, a song canonical in Delta Blues, recorded and performed by nearly everyone--
Muddy Waters - Rolling Stone, for example. Petway just happens to be the first person to record
Catfish, and quite possibly the person who wrote it and certainly. to my mind, at least, the person who nailed it... in the uptempo version at the very least.
[more inside]
posted by y2karl
on Feb 28, 2008 -
8 comments
John Fahey - Fare Forward Voyagers
John Fahey - Dance Of The Inhabitants Of The Palace Of King Phillip XIVClips from a 2 hour performance at
the Euphoria Tavern in Portland, Oregon from 1976. Among the cognoscenti at
FaheyGuitarPlayers, the consensus is that these clips display Fahey in rare form on a very good night.
Apart from Fahey,
Bohemia Visual Music aka Mike Nastra, the contributor of these clips, provides an interesting assortment of way too hip YouTubery offerings including, among others, Spike Jones, Dimandas Galas, Gene Krupa, Tuxedo Moon, Sun Ra, Pere Ubu and the Holy Modal Rounders.
posted by y2karl
on Oct 16, 2007 -
9 comments
Here is Uncle John Scruggs singing and playing
Little Log Cabin Round the Lane in RealAudio
Dial Up and
DSL format. The dancing is great and I do like the walk-on kitten part, myself.
That's from the
Center For Southern African-American Music Video Link Page. Their
audio link page is a wonder, too with individual artists galore. But, for the real deal, check out the
Various Artist compilation album pages. Those may be 20 second of so mp3 clips but, still, those Yazoo, Document and Folkways albums are the bomb and there you get a taste of what they offer. And anywhere you can hear, for example, even a few bars of Blind Alfred Reed's
How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live ? or Estil C. Ball and Lacey Richardson's
Trials, Troubles, Tribulations rules in my world.
posted by y2karl
on Jun 29, 2007 -
9 comments
Folkstreams.net has two goals. One is to build a national preserve of hard-to-find documentary films about American folk or roots cultures. The other is to give them renewed life by streaming them on the internet. The films were produced by independent filmmakers in a golden age that began in the 1960s and was made possible by the development first of portable cameras and then capacity for synch sound. Their films focus on the culture, struggles, and arts of unnoticed Americans from many different regions and communities. The filmmakers were driven more by sheer engagement with the people and their traditions than by commercial hopes. Their films have unusual subjects, odd lengths, and talkers who do not speak "broadcast English." Although they won prizes at film festivals, were used in college classes, and occasionally were shown on PBS, they found few outlets in venues like theaters, video shops or commercial television. But they have permanent value...
folkstreams.net Currently streaming are the films
The Land Where the Blues Began ,
Cajun Country ,
Jazz Parades: Feet Don't Fail Me Now ,
Talking Feet: Solo Southern Dance: Buck, Flatfoot and Tap ,
Ray Lum: Mule Trader and
Pizza Pizza Daddy-O , among
many others.
posted by y2karl
on Oct 6, 2006 -
14 comments
Labors Of LoveHere are some handmade pages, personal and corporate, on American Vernacular Music and more:
First, here's
Long Time Coming, with three separate shrines to
Dock Boggs,
Pretty Boy Floyd and
Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers, worthy subjects all. I have no idea what the
Eyeneer Records revenue model is or was but their
American Music Archive,
(Latest Update - August 20, 1999), albeit spotty, is still a must stop and see with pages on
Charley Patton,
Sleepy John Estes and
Lucille Bogan, for example, and that's just the blues section. It's a very promising sounding site--and it's too bad they never finished it, but, on the other hand, thank god,they have not yet pulled the plug.
Lea Gilmore's It's A Girl Thang's Historical Profiles has it goin' on with
Sister Rosetta Tharpe,
Big Maybelle and
Georgia White for examples. Catherine Yronwode, of course, is a name well known here, as is her wondrous
Lucky Mojo, cornucopica that it is. There, among much riches, is the extensive and authoritative
Blues Lyrics and Hoodoo --but that's Not All ! »→ »→ »→
posted by y2karl
on Feb 12, 2003 -
21 comments
Folk Music. Stefan Wirz and Hideki Watanabe pay homage to their favorites. Check out Hideki's
Muscle Shoals page for another slice of his Americana
pie. Or click on a name--
Eric Von Schmidt, say--on Stefan's completist, slow loading page and wallow in pictures and stories... Then there's the
Richard & Mimi Fariña website. Jan Hoiberg's
Band site is another.
I love labors of love. And don't forget
the Bauls of Bengal or
the secrets of John Wesley Harding revealed! And note, newsfilterians, you can now order Mickey Jone's
home movies from the '66 tour, too. I'm going to see the Bobster tomorrow, so I've been thinking of these things.
posted by y2karl
on Oct 3, 2002 -
18 comments
