MetaFilter posts tagged with folk and music

"Everybody's talkin' 'bout the new sound, funny, but it's folk/psych/prog/70s Korean rock to me

kkokkodalk — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:35:32 -0800

Boys dared to grow their hair and girls dared to wear mini skirts and in Korea indecency officers patroled the street with scissors and rulers, publicly cutting hair too long and checking if skirts were too short. Shin Joong-hyung, was there with his 70s hit, Beauty, as were other musicians and artists like Sanullim and the Key Boys. Shin's memorable hook from "Beauty" of "I look at her once, look at her twice, I want to keeping looking at her” matched with an addictive beat and guitar riff created the trend of "I _____ once, _____ twice, I keep wanting to ______" wordplay according to Jishik Shidae's E documentary on Shin (link to part two, giving video clips, photos and some of the music from the time). Shin was performing since the 50s, beginning his career entertaining US troops, and in the 60s in bands like Add4 and he continued to pump out popular hits that are still familiar to the ears of many Koreans today. For example, Beautiful Rivers and Mountains, topped the charts again in the 80s when it was covered by power vocalist Lee Sun-hee, and is now considered one of her greatest hits (song clip is actually from a 2003 performance in North Korea as part of a "Reunification Concert" where South Korean singers went to perform in North Korea). Shin, who is considered the godfather of rock and soul in Korea, was an influential guitarist and musician. He also wrote songs for and worked with other acts like the Pearl Sisters (1, 2). Another one of his great hits, Officer Kim Returning from Vietnam, was performed by Kim Chu-ja. Sanullim were also a force to be reckoned with. Even though they created progressive and psychedelic music, the trio were also responsible for many recognizable hit now part of the Korean pop music lexicon with hits and exploded onto the scene with "Oh, no! Already?" (linked above) from their first album. From Sanullim's first album: Restless Heart Open the Door Girl A couple of songs from Sanullim's second album: I Think It's Really Like That Dear One Leaving Me Lining My Heart With Silk The Key Boys were responsible for another one of the most recognizable Korean songs Let's Go to the Beach, a karaoke favorite and covered by numerous performers, including punk band No Brain in 2001. It wasn't just the boys who got to play, there were also female artists with a more pop sound like Kim Jung-mi and Yoon Si-nae Another song that most Koreans are familiar with: Song Gol-mae's 80s hit, You, Who I Accidentally Ran Into To see album covers read up some more info (including how much collectors are paying for some of these albums!) check out Belgian Psyche Van Het Folk radio show's collection of Korean psychedelic folk music and their labyrinthine links. Other folk-style acts to note: Yang Hee-eun Onions Kim Jung-ho One of Shin Jung-hoon's hits was One Cup of Coffee, (performed by the Pearl Sisters). Interestingly enough, one of the more current incarnations of Korean folk and psych tradition, Chang Ki-ha and The Faces, were able to escape unknown indie band status with another coffee-themed hit, Cheap Coffee. Chang Ki-ha and The Faces perform with an enigmatic, silent and stony-faced background dancer/backup singer duo named The Mimi Sisters," an obvious nod to the 60s-70s both in the naming convention and in their sometimes retro style of dress: Why Does that Man...? The Moon is Becoming Full Accept Me

Goodnight to all. Much love, Tay

cjorgensen — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:26:51 -0800

Taylor Mitchell, 19, was a promising Canadian folk singer. Her life was cut short by a rare coyote attack. Her music can be heard on her Myspace page. Mitchell on Facebook. From her bio: Taylor has just released her debut full length recording "For Your Consideration"- a collection of mostly original songs that showcases a range of styles, from folk to country-rock to pop, and reflects the diversity of her talent.

bluestab's blog meets AfricanAfrican aka NegroArtist.com

y2karl — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:20:15 -0800

Chanteur puissant à la voix rocailleuse. And here is bluestab's blog And here, via Babelfish is bluestab's blog in an English of sorts. Then, while, looking for mp3s to match the tabs, I came across the universe of African American history and culture that is AfricanAfrican aka NegroArtist.com, a site so big it has two URLs. [Billy Mays] But, wait--that's not all! [/Billy Mays] Then, while looking for in the commons mp3s for any of the titles in bluestab's blog , I stumble upon a treasure trove of such in the 5000 series pages at Document Records. , the completist's completist pre-war jazz and blues label, And found even more even more in the Rare Recordings and Video page of AfricanAfrican, a small universe of texts, music and motion pictures of and on the African American experience. I am overwhelmed. Yoda says I: Truly a Labor of Love this is. And between the two--voila! We have a post!

Técső Banda tear it up.

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:13:31 -0800

Fiddle, accordion, and a singing drummer. Seven minutes and fifty seven seconds of Gypsy music from Ukraine, live in Budapest. The real thing. Totally wailing. Kickass. Técső Banda at Kertem.

R.I.P. Mercedes Sosa

lunit — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:44:06 -0800

Mercedes Sosa, a beloved Argentinian folk singer, passed away today. Argentine President Cristina Kirchner has ordered an official period of mourning. Known as the "voice of the voiceless ones" and affectionately as "La Negra", her music was deeply political. Over the course of her career, she produced over 70 albums and helped to popularize Nueva Canción (previously on Metafilter), a movement in Latin American music that combines folk music with contemporary influences and political lyrics.

Always been a rambler....

signalandnoise — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:53:48 -0800

Mike Seeger, folk musician and folklorist, passed away on August 7, 2009. Half-brother to Pete Seeger, Mike Seeger was self-taught at banjo, fiddle, guitar, autoharp, and dulcimer, among other instruments. Additionally, Seeger spent decades traveling the country to collect and document American folk musicians, many of whom would have been forgotten were it not for his efforts. In the late 50's, Seeger, Tom Paley, and John Cohen founded the old-time string band The New Lost City Ramblers. The Ramblers countered the rising tide of bluegrass music with a return to old-time traditionals and were a significant influence on the mid-century folk revival. Seeger's death coincides with the upcoming release of an Arhoolie Foundation documentary about the Ramblers (warning: the documentary link contains an embedded video). On Youtube: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Bob Dylan said of NLCR: "The New Lost City Ramblers was Mike Seeger, John Cohen, and Tom Paley. They never made the big time like the Kingston Trio, but they never did wear striped shirts. One of the things that the New Lost City Ramblers did was uncover great old songs -- songs that you could only find in those days, in piles of 78s in somebody's barn. They breathed new life into those songs, and their records stand the test of time, just like the originals." Here's Bob Dylan and Mike Seeger performing a duet of "The Ballad of Hollis Brown." And just because it gives me a chance to bring up another favorite old-time musician of mine, here's Mike Seeger performing and chatting with Roscoe Holcomb. - Radio Interview with Mike Seeger - Seeger discussing and performing the song "Walking Boss." - New Lost City Ramblers Discography

O Black and Unknown Bards - Among Other Things, Regarding The White Invention of The Blues

y2karl — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:08:58 -0800

...The narrative of the blues got hijacked by rock ’n’ roll, which rode a wave of youth consumers to global domination. Back behind the split, there was something else: a deeper, riper source. Many people who have written about this body of music have noticed it. Robert Palmer called it Deep Blues. We’re talking about strains within strains, sure, but listen to something like Ishman Bracey’s ''Woman Woman Blues,'' his tattered yet somehow impeccable falsetto when he sings, ''She got coal-black curly hair.'' Songs like that were not made for dancing. Not even for singing along. They were made for listening. For grown-ups. They were chamber compositions. Listen to Blind Willie Johnson’s "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground.'' It has no words. It’s hummed by a blind preacher incapable of playing an impure note on the guitar. We have to go against our training here and suspend anthropological thinking; it doesn’t serve at these strata. The noble ambition not to be the kind of people who unwittingly fetishize and exoticize black or poor-white folk poverty has allowed us to remain the kind of people who don’t stop to wonder whether the serious treatment of certain folk forms as essentially high- or higher-art forms might have originated with the folk themselves.

From Unknown Bards: The blues becomes apparent to itself by one John Jeremiah Sullivan. I came across it while browsing Heavy Rotation: Twenty Writers On The Albums That Changed Their Lives. For Sullivan, that album was American Primitive, Vol. II: Pre-War Revenants (1897 - 1939), which is my favorite CD of the year. Which came out in 2005 while I just got around to buying it this year. Foolish me. It is a piece of art in itself in every respect--all CDs should have such production values. In it, Sullivan recounts how in 1997 or 1998, he--as a junior editor at the Oxford American, fact checking an article by Greil Marcus--and John Fahey, then yet another recluse in a welfare hotel in Salem, Oregon attempted to decipher the lyrics of Geeshie Wiley's Last Kind Word Blues, which most of you may know from the soundtrack of Terry Zwigoff's documentary film Crumb. There are three or so copies and he, R. Crumb, would have one. Well, among many other things, at least one hearing of Last Kind Words is required for your Cultural Literacy Certificate. As is at least one hearing of I Got Your Ice Cold Nugrape. NuGrape - now available again at Fred Meyers and QFC here in Seattle. And here is a discussion of the lively reader response in Harper's to his interpetation of Wiley's lyric. Not wanting to spend money on assorted essays on the Smiths, Beastie Boys and Jay Z, I read Unknown Bards standing up at Borders Books. An ethically suspect practice, no doubt--as is posting the article entire in pdf form. Or in a series of comments at a thread at Jazzcorner's Speakeasy. Well, the scrupulous may pay for it at Harper's where it originally ran. Unknown Bards discusses the CD American Primitives, Vol. II and two must read books, In Search of the Blues: The White Invention of Black Music by Marybeth Hamilton and Escaping The Delta: Robert Johnson, and the Invention of the Blues by Elijah Wald. Oh, and for the guitar players out there, here, from Guitar Seminars Dot Com, is a thread with a rough tab of Last Kind Word Blues by one Mr. Mando. For what it's worth, Marybeth Hamilton's overall thesis about the white invention of the blues sounds about right to me--and I was fascinated by her story of James McKune, the Father of Us All, to whom, more than any other person, we owe the most for the consensual reality we inhabit, and cultural construct we share, when we hear the word 'blues.'

...decades ago it was a lodging house run by the Williamsburg branch of the YMCA, and it was here, in a single room on the uppermost floor one unknowable day in the mid-1950s, that the Delta blues was born. Born, that is, in the imagination of one of the YMCA’s long-term residents, a record collector named James McKune. A journalist turned postal worker, reclusive, homosexual and alcoholic, McKune conducted his life as a long downward spiral: moving into the Y around 1940, losing job after job as his drinking intensified, and eventually ending up on the streets, where he died at the hands of a violent stranger in 1971. Yet during his years at the Y he scavenged junk shops and used record stores to build up an extraordinary collection of blues 78s. In time that collection became the driving force behind the 1960s blues revival, when white Americans and Europeans discovered - one might say invented - a tradition that they called the Delta blues, constructed out of scraps of old recordings that African-Americans had long left behind.

Oh, and for what it's worth, the title Unknown Bards comes from the James Weldon Johnson poem O Black and Unknown Bards.

LLangollen Eisteddfod

Balonious Assault — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:50:29 -0800

The 2009 Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod competitions have concluded, with the Pavarotti Trophy for Choir of the World being awarded to The Westminster Chorus. The Eisteddfod includes choral, solo, instrumental, and dance competitions. Video of the competitions can be seen here.

"Nowadays a chantey is worth 1000 songs on an iPod"

Miko — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:43:49 -0800

Stan Hugill, often known as "The Last Shantyman," authored a book called Shanties From the Seven Seas, based on his own work experiences in the last days of sail. Influential in the folk revival, the book is one of the most important written sources for music sung aboard ships in the 19th and early 20th century, the "Bible" of sea music. Decades of chanteying in pubs and at festivals have kept many of the songs alive, but in most cases they've strayed stylistically from the verses and versions Hugill collected, or dropped out of popularity entirely. Now, one musician is returning to the source and creating a new audio archive for the original versions of the songs as written, by singing through the more than 400 songs in the book, one song each week, and posting the songs on YouTube, with commentary. In case it's confusing, the British spell it "shanty/ shanties/ shantyman" and the Americans tend to spell it "chantey/ chanteys/ chanteyman."

'Songs From the Life of Leonard Cohen' 1988 BBC doc

Item — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:59:23 -0800

"Songs From the Life of Leonard Cohen. More a biographical documentary than a concert, the 70-minute program combines live performances--some complete, many abridged--mainly from Cohen's 1988 show at Carnegie Hall, in support of his then-current album, I'm Your Man, with interviews with Cohen himself, his original musical patron Judy Collins and protege Jennifer Warnes." Parts: one two three four five six seven eight nine torrent
Full songs from the soundtrack follow this (leonard) colon: First We Take Manhattan Suzanne Chelsea Hotel #(1) 2 Take This Waltz Hallelujah Who By Fire Bird on a Wire Red River Valley So Long Marianne Famous Blue Raincoat The Partisan Joan of Arc live at Burning Man it ain't, Austin City limits it is Ain’t No Cure for Love Tower of Song ...in which our hero reads Tower of Song's lyrics at his Rock n Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony Dance Me to the End of Love

Joyful Noise

Miko — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:55:03 -0800

Pilgrim Productions Presents: Voices Across America, an archive of gospel music in a variety of genres, submitted for free play and download by church groups and folk and traditional groups across the country and beyond. Style, age, and quality vary greatly, but fans of noncommercial music will enjoy hunting for the gems of blues, Cajun, bluegrass, choral, shapenote, country, vintage, and mountain gospel and more.

Modulating for the Lord!

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 02 May 2009 02:07:17 -0800

The foot bone connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone connected to the leg bone, the leg bone connected to the knee bone, the knee bone connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bone connected to the hip bone, the hip bone connected to the back bone, the back bone connected to the shoulder bone, the shoulder bone connected to the neck bone, the neck bone connected to the head bone, now hear the word of the lord...and be sure to check the hover-overs for link details on all this bony business,

The Bothy Band

carter — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:06:25 -0800

The Bothy Band - Ireland's finest traditional folk ensemble - rip it up in 1977. (SLYT) The Bothy Band may well be the finest Irish traditional folk band you never heard of (some history from Folk World). Releasing three albums between 1975 and 1979 (The Bothy Band, Old Hag You Have Killed Me, Out of the Wind Into the Sun), their mix of technical virtuousity and attack was highly influential. Previously mentioned here, but never YT'd here, until now. "Genius and Joy," says one of the YouTube commenters, and you can't argue with that. Drunken landlady The green groves of Erin Music in the Glen/The Humours of Scariff Martin Wynne's/Reels Old hag you have killed me/???/Morrisons (front page link) The Humours of Loughrea Do you love an apple 16 come next Sunday Fionnghuala Casadh an tSugain 19 Tiocfaidh an Samhradh Matt Molloy & Donal Lunny: Bucks of Oranmore The laurel tree

Abdurehim Heyit: now that's some STRUMMING, right there...

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:20:14 -0800

Who has the longest necks (on their duttars, that is) and the tallest hats in the music biz? Why the Uighurs, of course. And one more for the road... a lucky Japanese fan caught an impromptu performance by Abdurehim Heyit, the star of this FPP, at a musical instruments shop in Kashgar, and posted it to YT. Even with all the magnificent playing from Heyit on the TV appearance and "official" video links in this FPP, this one for me rocks the hardest. Totally badass.

Anyone Who Ever Asks

kimdog — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 06:09:49 -0800

The Musical Mystery of Connie Converse
"To survive at all, I expect I must drift back down through the other half of the twentieth twentieth, which I already know pretty well, the hundredth hundredth, which I have only read and heard about. I might survive there quite a few years - who knows?"

This was the cryptic note Connie Converse left her family in 1974, and no one heard from her again. She had spent the 1950's in New York City, trying to promote her music- haunting, melancholy folk tunes, but never made a go of it. Her songs very nearly disappeared into the ether, but thanks to Lau derrete Records, her first album is now available to the public, fifty years after the songs were recorded. (via Spinning On Air)

The Anthology, notated.

1f2frfbf — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:15:25 -0800

"With this blog, I want to use the Folkways Anthology as a roadmap to explore American folk music and maybe other countries traditions along the way. I’ll use texts, images, music and videos gathered from my personal collection and from the net to make this work-in-progress enjoyable and educational the best I can." (via)

"Instead of speaking proper Dutch..."

grapefruitmoon — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:04:58 -0800

Chris Chameleon is an Afrikaans musician who talks a bit about his native language's origins in this intro to his song Klein Klein Jakkalsies. Note: I speak neither Afrikaans nor Dutch. I can not be held responsible for anything said in the lyrics.

Revival Revival

Miko — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:06:52 -0800

The Folkways Collection is a downloadable, 24-part podcast series that "explores the remarkable collection of music, spoken word, and sound recordings that make up Folkways Records (now at the Smithsonian as Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)."

Chumbawamba

finite — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 01:12:28 -0800

Her majesty's a pretty nice girl but she never did a thing for me Mouthful of shit is a seven-minute documentary about Chumbawamba. Here are some more of their songs:

Add me (2008)
You can (2007)
Invasion (1986)
Smashing of the Van (2003)
Farewell to the Crown (1997)
That's How Grateful We Are (1990)
Give the Anarchist a Cigaratte (1995)
Revolution (Liberation / Stagnation) (1985)

And here is a Slovak duo's cover of Tubthumping.

Figuring out harmonies mathematically is like reading the mind of God.

1f2frfbf — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 07:36:29 -0800

The occasionally updated The Celestial Monochord claims to be the "Journal of the Institute for Astrophysics and the Hillbilly Blues" Highlights include: The connection between Gillian Welch and a rare South Carolina flower that was "discovered by a man who didn't name it, named for a man who didn't see it, by someone who didn't know where it was," . Did Tom Waits reinterpret Stephen Foster in Cold Cold Ground? A possible source for the title of Bob Dylan's breakout album. The connection between the New Lost City Ramblers and Voyager 1.

i bought some crappy lights and started calling people up

Potomac Avenue — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:16:20 -0800

Live from the Pink Couch: Punks, Girls, Boys, Warriors, Witches, Kids, Comptrollers, and your new favorite band Best Friends Forever! (boyzone comment flamewar included) If You Make It also has oodles of live concert footage (like more BFFs!) and a (well intentioned) series of 31 films in 31 days. Similar to Daytrotter's Live Sessions or VPRO 3VOOR12's Elevator Sessions or Blogotheque's Concerts A Emporter but with no corporate sponsorship or fixed agenda, it's just a guy and a "crappy Ikea couch" documenting folks who like to Dream It Yourself.

A legend takes the Rainbow Bridge

rdone — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:06:21 -0800

The great British guitarist Davey Graham died Monday at 68. Every aspiring acoustic guitar player who came of age during the 60s knew of Davy Graham, composer of Anji and inventor of the DADGAD tuning. His own records were never commercial smashes, but his influence was felt by all his contemporaries in the world of folk music and by legions who came after who knew nothing of him personally. The Guardian has a brief obit and assembles a fine video tribute .

The Lady With The Braid.

The Whelk — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:24:01 -0800

"I was listening to the radio and it’s one of those moments where you have to stop what you’re doing and pay full attention.” Dory Previn, met composer Andre' Previn while working in MGM's music dept. in the 1960s. They collaborated on movie music such as "A Second Chance" and "Valley Of The Dolls". Andre' divorced Dory in 1969 to marry Mia Farrow. Following this, Dory Previn recorded six original albums known for their wit and confessional tone. Dory Previn unofficially retired in 1976 and has been reluctant to give interviews. However, she released a free online album, Planet Blue in 2002. She gave a rare interview to the Times in February. She talked about her influences and meeting Howard Hughes with Bernadette Cahill in 2005.

Feels just like Sunday...

Potomac Avenue — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 13:11:58 -0800

John Prine Live in 1980 on youtube--with interspersed interviews from around his hometown: in his 1951 Ford Custom Club Coupe (Automobile), down by the train tracks (Bruised Orange) on the porch ( How Lucky) and at the Scene of the Crime (The Accident). Previously More: Paradise Ubangi Stomp From the classic and innovative Soundstage TV show (still on but diminished in value these days). This episode is currently the only John Prine concert available on DVD.

The young Dylan on TV

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 04:32:46 -0800

Back in 1963, a TV special called "Folk Songs and More Folk Songs" aired, which featured a cross section of the "folk" artists who were at that time just beginning to receive wider media exposure. Aside from the squeaky-clean, white bread embarrassment of groups like The Brothers Four, the show redeemed itself with performances by a very young Bob Dylan, who sang The Ballad of Hollis Brown (with banjo and bass accompaniment) and Man of Constant Sorrow. And here's two more very early Dylan TV appearances, from Canada, 1964: A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall and Girl From the North Country. Here's the same Girl From the North Country performed years later, once again on broadcast TV, in duet with Johnny Cash, from the Johnny Cash Show. The wonderful Staple Singers were also a part of "Folk Songs And More Folk Songs", but unfortunately their segments of the broadcast haven't shown up on YouTube. Only the show intro (linked in this FPP under The Brothers Four and the outro (I'll link to it here, though it's kind of awful) are to be found on YT. So, I'll just go ahead and add a link here to the Staple Singers' classic, I'll Take You There, accompanied, of course, by the ace session men of Muscle Shoals, Alabama.