Friends, neighbors, let's drop in on ol' Don Reno, Red Smiley and the Tennessee Cut Ups for a heapin' helpin' of some of that good old time country/bluegrass goodness, shall we? What say we kick it off with their fine rendition of
Love Please Come Home? Mmm-MMM, so satisfying! You know, the boys had their own lil' ol' TV show, too, brought to you by the fine folks over at your local Kroger grocery store, and I'll just bet you'd like to watch the pilot episode, now, wouldn't you? Well, here's
Part one, and there's...
[more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Apr 2, 2013 -
3 comments
He won't win any accolades for subtlety or refinement, perhaps, but he was a beloved entertainer who stomped his feet and threw himself wholeheartedly (and very, very energetically) into every tune he ever performed, from the early days of country radio to the Grand Ole Opry to television's Hee Haw series. I'm talking about
Louis Marshall "Grandpa" Jones. Today's his birthday, so why not drop in on some of the Grandpa performances on offer at ye olde YouTubes, such as
Good Old Mountain Dew,
Night Train To Memphis,
Are You From Dixie or
The Kickin' Mule. When he wasn't hamming it up for the camera, though, his vocal performances were often much more varied and accomplished. Check out, for example, his delivery and vivacious yodeling on
T For Texas. And here he turns in a solid, honest version of the great Merle Travis classic,
Dark As a Dungeon [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Oct 20, 2012 -
34 comments
Like many other great American folk songs, She’ll be Comin’ Round the Mountain reaches us through the filter of both religious and secular movements.
The music underneath the words has its original genesis in a spiritual sung originally by slaves and later popularized in the black churches of the south; the lyrics we know today – the version which came into the larger cultural vernacular and which spawned various children’s versions – was, originally, a protest song.
[more inside]
posted by luriete
on Jul 30, 2012 -
36 comments
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
In 1969 banjo virtuoso and bluegrass innovator Earl Scruggs parted ways with his
longtime musical partner
Lester Flatt and the band they led to
great popularity and acclaim,
The Foggy Mountain Boys. Scruggs wanted to push his musical gifts as far as they could go. In 1970 he was the subject of a PBS documentary where he played with artists such as Bob Dylan, Doc Watson, The Morris Brothers, The Byrds, Charlie Daniels, Bill Monroe, Joan Baez, various friends and family members, and even records a track accompanying a Moog. You can watch the whole thing online:
Earl Scruggs, His Family and Friends.
posted by Kattullus
on Jan 28, 2011 -
17 comments
I had this concept--after a strange dream, while scoping out the
I Dreamed I Saw st. Augustine tab in my just-in-case-it-disappears downloaded
dylanchords, of ...
St. Augustine as a slow moody slide in Open D ala Blind Texas Marlin. But then I got to wondering whether someone might have a chord dictionary online where a few variations on a first position
B Minor in Open D might be found. Voila! Achtung, Baby! Behold
Brian's huge chordlist collection. Oh, man, he's got your standard and open tunings on guitar plus mandolin, uke, banjos, bouzouki, pipa and lute. A living room guitarist's must have, no doubt, although a few more open tunings for pipa would have been nice...
[more inside]
posted by y2karl
on Dec 9, 2009 -
6 comments
Music in the Digital Library of Appalachia provides an unprecedented resource for study of repertoire, technique, lore, and the musical interchanges among the region's traditional musicians. Once you know what you like, it's easy to find the music live with
Blue Ridge Music Trails. Meet musicians who have grown up with that music, visit settings in which Blue Ridge folk music thrives, see traditional dancing, and in many cases, take part in the festivities.
The Crooked Road, Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, winds through the mountains of Southwest Virginia. Along the trail, the Bluegrass, Old Time, and Traditional Country music is as beautiful and rugged as the landscape itself.
[previous 1, 2]
posted by netbros
on Mar 8, 2009 -
12 comments
Eighty one years ago to the day, barber, banjoist and balladeer
B.F. Shelton travelled from his home in Kentucky to take part in a recording session in Bristol Tennessee. Now referred to as the "
Bristol Sessions", these recordings are widely viewed as some of the most important and influential in American music history. The four songs Shelton recorded that day, stark, simple and immensely powerful in their unadorned honesty, can all be heard
here. After Bristol, Shelton never recorded again.
[more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Jul 29, 2008 -
16 comments
Each of the following
MySpace Music pages features bios and/or photos and/or videos and/or miscellaneous related materials and/or up to four songs by each of the following Old Time, Traditional, Appalachian folk (and related) artists:
Lowe Stokes,
Clarence Ashley,
Charlie Poole,
Gid Tanner and the
Skillet Lickers,
Roanoke Jug Band,
Roscoe Holcomb,
Hobart Smith,
The Weems String Band,
Burnet & Rutherford,
Bascom Lamar Lunsford,
John Masters,
Dock Boggs,
Tampa Joe & Macon Ed,
William Stepp,
Buddy Thomas,
Buell Kazee,
Isidore Soucy,
John Salyer,
Cousin Emmy,
Luther Strong,
Elizabeth Cotten,
Fred Cockerham,
G.B. Grayson,
Melvin Wine,
Lewis Brothers,
Uncle Dave Macon,
George Lee Hawkins and
Wilmer Watts. And here's some general Old Time (etc.) pages, featuring various artists:
Dust To Digital,
Traditional Music of Beech Mountain and
North Carolina Folklife Institute.
[more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Oct 24, 2007 -
17 comments
For lovers of old-time, mountain banjo styles and songs,
Roscoe Holcomb and
Dock Boggs are revered figures. To many, however, plucker and singer
David Akeman remains uncelebrated or unknown, even by his stage name of
Stringbean. Is it because he
was for a time actually
famous as a
country music showbiz staple, and therefore lacks
folk cred? Or maybe the purists just can't get with those
low-hanging pants the man was known for, his original
hillbilly homeboy styling? Or was it cause on any given tune his
left hand would likely be
off the neck of the banjo more than on it? Whatever the reason, it's time folks took a new look at Stringbean. After all, the lines between
folk and commercial styles have
always been blurry in American music. Let's hear it for
Stringbeeeeeeeaaan! [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Oct 17, 2007 -
15 comments
You really shouldn't miss the snazzy ukulele stylings of the great
Roy Smeck, strummer and showman extraordinaire, who was not only fast as greased lightning, but for whom the ukulele also occasionally functioned as a
wind or
percussion instrument. The man was indeed a
wizard of the strings: just give him a slide and watch him lay down that
Hawaiian sound. And as you'll see
here, he was still going strong in his later years.
[most links to YouTube]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Mar 23, 2007 -
15 comments
