Get well Michael McKean

From all of us at PCL.

From Sept. 6th, 2011: The Corn Wine Odyssey of The Flower People from Stonehenge

Happy Birthday Alan Lomax!

"...Starting in the mid-1930s, when he made his first field recordings in the South,  Lomax was the foremost music folklorist in the United States. He was the first to record Muddy Waters and Woody Guthrie, and much of what Americans have learned about folk and traditional music stems from his efforts, which were also directly responsible for the folk music and skiffle booms in the United States and Britain that shaped the pop-music revolution of the 1960s and beyond...

... Long before the Internet existed, he envisioned a “global jukebox” to disseminate and analyze the material he had gathered during decades of fieldwork. A decade after his death technology has finally caught up to Lomax’s imagination. Just as he dreamed, his vast archive — some 5,000 hours of sound recordings, 400,000 feet of film, 3,000 videotapes, 5,000 photographs and piles of manuscripts, much of it tucked away in forgotten or inaccessible corners — is being digitized so that the collection can be accessed online. About 17,000 music tracks will be available for free streaming by the end of February, and later some of that music may be for sale as CDs or digital downloads. ..." 

See article in The New York Times: Folklorist’s Global Jukebox Goes Digital.

Further news about this Global Jukebox see news at Cultural Equity.

Thanks to Johan Jacobsson.

I'm so Depressed -Abner Jay

From WIKI: Abner Jay (1921 – 1993) was an American multi-instrumentalist, who is best known for performing eccentric, blues infused folk music, as a one man band. His idiosyncratic lyrics and style can also be considered within the realm of outsider music. -->READ MORE

When I Get Rich by Ted Silar

Recorded live at Godfrey Daniels in Bethlehem, Penn., U.S.A.

Black lung Blues

Nimrod Workman.

It's always worth a second cup.

Joel Cooper - Cuppa' Jesus

Seattle Folklore Society's video tapes from the 1960s

"In the late 1960's, the Seattle Folklore Society and KCTS public television video taped various acts that came through town."

Check out Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Jesse Fuller, Bukka White, Big Joe Williams, Doc Watson, Elizabeth Cotton, Fred McDowell, Fred McFalls and Bren Byson, Furry Lewis, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, Mike Russo, Mike Seeger, Roscoe Holcomb, Roy Caudill, Son House and embedded here Rev. Gary Davis and Buell Casey.



Part 2 of the Rev. Gary Davis video can be found here.



Part 2 of the Buell Casey video can be found here.

If you enjoy watching footage of legends of blues and folk blues as much as I do you should head on over to FolkSeattle's Channel immediately.

Mating Dance

Is very cultural and tradition of native homeland.

Joni Mitchell, Mama Cass & Mary Travers

I love the 60's TV hippie glam look.

[via]

Snow on the roof, Fire in the furnace

Gadaya at Times ain't like they used to be tells us:
" ... Recorded at the end of the 1970's, produced by two young folk musicians (Malcom Dalglish and Grey Larsen) and issued by June Appal Recordings, "Snow on the roof, fire in the furnace" (love that title...) is a very enjoyable journey through folk and popular music. Here you'll hear a brass band playing marches, a black piano player talk and play some fine Blues, a wonderful fiddler, a old tenor banjo player singing German songs and old pop tunes, a superb Oud player originally from Lebanon, and a accordeon player doing Irish tunes. All this vernacular and ethnic music represents the diverse immigrants who settled in the Cincinnati Area and the musical traditions they brought with them. ..."
Snow on the roof, Fire in the furnace (Cincinnati area traditional musicians)


Pigmeat Jerry - Pigmeat's Name / Freddy

Tinikling

Try everything in life but incest and folk-dancing.

--quote attributed to Sir Thomas Beechum (also George S. Kaufman)

I remember being tortured with learning the Filipino folk dance "Tinikling" back in grade school, and was mysteriously drawn to downloading this album from A Closet of Curiosities.

To perform the Tinikling, the two kneeling on the floor get to rhythmically whack bamboo poles together and on the floor, and the unfortunate dancers are required to artfully prance in between. There was ample opportunity for "oops! missed the beat" and slam your poles together when either Toni Tennen or Ellen Sturm's ankle was situated between. Unfortunately, pole slammers eventually had to become prancers, and revenge was sweet.

For those of you fortunate enough to have bypassed Tinikling in grade school, there's also some joy in listening to a bossy Filipino woman named Miss Carmencita providing you with "Bamboo Beating Instructions".... and for the more advanced, "Bamboo Beating to Music".

After 5 years (1)

What are the first WM artists doing?
I mean those that contributed to the first WM CD?
The Dutch folk and bluegrass band Blue Dew turned their most recent theatre show "Little Whiskey Child" into a movie, with the band members as actors. The music by the film is been played live each time, just like in the old days. The premiere is next weekend in Zwolle at the filmfestival:



The film was made by Sindala film

Scotland Till I Die!

The Scottish blood running through my veins just couldn't let Lex10's bagpipe babe go by without a little co-blogging. Here's a Scottish lad with tunes to make your heart soar:


[via Everything is Terrible.]

WD Zantzinger Gets His At Last

Hattie Carroll

NYT Obit
Bob Dylan's song The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll was based on his arrest for murder and conviction of manslaughter. Interesting sad story of racism. Great song.

Hear here:
The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll

Sam's rag

Sam Chatmon - Sam's rag:

Added by BVBeige

Harry Smith : Anthology Of American Folk Music

Harry Smith " was an artist whose activities and interests put him at the center of the mid twentieth-century American avant-garde. Although best known as a filmmaker and musicologist, he frequently described himself as a painter, and his varied projects called on his skills as an anthropologist, linguist, and translator. He had a lifelong interest in the occult and esoteric fields of knowledge, leading him to speak of his art in alchemical and cosmological terms." (via www.harrysmitharchives.com )

Harry Smith's folk 78rpm collection : Anthology Of American folk Music (originally released on Folkways in 1952) with 84 songs from various artists recorded between 1927 and 1932. A must have ! If you don't own a copy you fool, go grab it on DoYouSpeakEnglish?

Harry Smith's experimental movies Early Abstractions made available on YouTube by JuanAuxEnfers

Seal Djiril's Hymn

"... A series of songs and recitations, many of them based loosely around Cape Breton folklore. Selkies abound. The centerpiece is the beyond- abstruce story-song "Hadkenek: The Snow that Comes." ..."
Gordon Bok's "Seal Djiril's Hymn" available thanks to Time Has Told Me.

A Treasure Chest Of American Folk Song

"... the pleasure of Ed MCcurdy's beautiful renderings of 34 of the older American folk songs. They are divided here into 4 parts (sides): "New England", "The South", "O Pioneers!" and, finally, "A Song For Occupations". ...

This glorious (and somewhat legendary) two-disc set was released on the old-labelled Elektra in 1961. Sadly, it was never re-issued on CD. ..."

Ed McCurdy & Eric Darling - A Treasure Chest Of American Folk Song, now available (via RapidShare) at Time Has Told Me.

On a Rainbow Quest

Pete Seeger hosted a regional tv show in the US mid 60s called 'Rainbow Quest'. 38 episodes were produced. Folk- and country music legends were guests at the show discussing music and jamming some songs.

All the clips here under go to YouTube clips.

Rainbow Quest Episode 3:

-Rosa Valentin and Rafael Martinez
-Pete Seeger - Guantanamera
-Elizabeth Cotten - Mama, Your Papa Loves You
-Elizabeth Cotten - Wilson Rag
-Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train


Elizabeth Cotten and Pete Seeger.

Rainbow Quest Episode 5:

-Pete Seeger, Bernice Reagon, and Jean Ritchie - O Mary, Don't You Weep
-Bernice Johnson Reagon - Come and Go with Me to that Land
-Bernice Johnson Reagon - Will the Circle Be Unbroken
-Bernice Johnson Reagon - Titanic Blues
-Jean Ritchie & Pete Seeger - Jenny Jenkins
-Jean Ritchie - Shady Grove
-Jean Ritchie - Skip to my Lou

Rainbow Quest Episode 6:

-Malvina Reynolds - No Hole in My Head
-Malvina Reynolds - The Little Red Hen
-Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Pete Seeger, & Malvina Reynolds - Woody's Rag
-Ramblin' Jack Elliott - Talking Merchant Marine

Rainbow Quest Episode 7:

-Bessie Jones and Children from the Downtown Community School - I'm gonna lay down my life for my Lord
-Bessie Jones and Children from the Downtown Community School - Little Johnny Brown
-More with Bessie Jones and Children from the Downtown Community School
-More with Bessie Jones and Children from the Downtown Community School

Rainbow Quest Episode 9:

-The Beers Family - The Connaughtman's Rambles
-The Beers Family - Dumbarton's Drums
-The Beers Family - In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme
-The Beers Family - Lamplighter's Hornpipe
-The Beers Family - Walkie in the Parlor

Rainbow Quest Episode 12:

-Pete Seeger, Doc Watson, Clint Howard, and Fred Price - Careless Love
-Doc Watson, Clint Howard, and Fred Price - Cackling Hen

Rainbow Quest Episode 16:

-Mimi and Richard Fariña - Bold Marauder
-Mimi and Richard Fariña - House Un-American Blues Activity Dream
-Mimi and Richard Fariña - Pack Up Your Sorrows
-Mimi and Richard Farinã - Joy 'Round My Brain

Rainbow Quest Episode 17:

-Roscoe Holcomb - Graveyard Blues
-Roscoe Holcomb - Little Birdie
-Roscoe Holcomb - Little Gray Mule


Pete and Roscoe Holcomb

Rainbow Quest Episode 18:

-Cousin Emmy - You Are My Sunshine
-Dr. Ralph Stanley - The Clinch Mountain Backstep
-Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys

Rainbow Quest Episode 19:

-Sonia Malkine

Rainbow Quest Episode 21:

-Patrick Sky, Separation Blues
-The Pennywhistlers
-The Pennywhistlers - Portland Town
-Pete Seeger, Pat Sky, and the Pennywhistlers - No Sir No

Rainbow Quest Episode 23:

-Reverend Gary Davis - Oh Glory, How Happy I Am
-Reverend Gary Davis - Children of Zion
-Donovan and Shawn Phillips - Guinevere

Rainbow Quest Episode 25:

-Pete Seeger shows how to play "Skip to my Lou" on the banjo
-Mamou Cajun Band
-More with the The Cajun Band

Rainbow Quest Episode 34:

-Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Down by the Riverside
-Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Key to the Highway
-Pete Seeger with Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Cindy / Rock Island Line
-Pete Seeger with Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - In the Evening
-Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Easy Rider
-Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - I Couldn't Believe My Eyes
-Pete Seeger with Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Hootin' the Blues / When the Saints Go Marchin' In

Rainbow Quest Episode 36:

-Mississippi John Hurt - John Henry
-Mississippi John Hurt - Goodnight Irene
-Mississippi John Hurt - Lonesome Valley Blues

Rainbow Quest Episode 37:

-Kim Loy Wong and the Hi-Landers Steel Band
-Herbert Levy

Rainbow Quest Episode 38:

-Buffy Sainte-Marie - Welcome, Welcome Emigrante
-Buffy Sainte-Marie - My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying
-Buffy Sainte-Marie - Little Wheel Spin and Spin
-Buffy Sainte-Marie demonstrates the mouth bow
-Buffy Sainte-Marie & Pete Seeger - Cindy

Almost all the clips above labelled with correct episode number was uploaded by peglegsam. Nice Work.

Clips from episodes:

-Pete Seeger - Had I a Golden Thread
-June Carter and Johnny Cash with Pete Seeger -It Takes a Worried Man
-Johnny Cash - I am a Pilgrim
-Johnny Cash with June Carter and Pete Seeger -As Long as the Grass Shall Grow
-June Carter with Johnny Cash and Pete Seeger - I Am Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes


Johnny Cash's boots.

-Tom Paxton and Pete Seeger -Ramblin' Boy
-Tom Paxton - Buy A Gun For Your Son
-Tom Paxton - Beau John

-Judy Collins - Bob Dylans Dream
-Judy Collins - Turn Turn Turn
-Judy Collins - Russian Love Song
-Judy Collins - Will You Go Lassie Go
-Judy Collins - Daddy You've Been On My Mind

Clip added by BanjoMatthew

-Stanley Brothers - Single Girl, Married Girl (the embedded video above)

Catching the Music

Catching the Music - a film by Jackson Frost and Stephen Wade (1987, 54 minutes, Color). "...Written in 1987 by Stephen Wade, creator of the long-running stage show Banjo Dancing, and produced by WETA’s Jackson Frost, Catching the Music explores a family of musicians tied together not by lines of kinship but by a continuing engagement with the music of the Southern five-string banjo. It begins with Wade who, early on, was drawn to its myriad sounds and its traditional repertory. He learned first from Fleming Brown, a teacher at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music. From the start, Brown advised Wade to concentrate on great performances, advising him, above all, to 'find the people who know how to play the music.' This led Wade to Brown’s teacher, Doc Hopkins, an old-time WLS radio singer from Eastern Kentucky. In tracing Hopkins’ and Brown’s influences and inspirations, the film comes to explore other forebears, other practitioners who also share in the music. Their lessons, set in historical and cultural contexts, lie at the heart of this film."