Asch Recordings / 1939-1945 Volume 2

Asch Recordings – ASCH AA 3

Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation
Country: US
Released: 1967
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
A1 On a Monday: Lead Belly (02:17)
A2 Wayfaring Stranger: Burl Ives (01:16)
A3 The Bold Soldier: Burl Ives (01:30)
A4 Mama, Mama / Once I Knew an Old Lady: Alan Lomax (03:06)
A5 Old Woman and the Devil: Pete Seeger (02:36)
A6 House of the Rising Sun: Woody Guthrie (03:01)
A7 Cryderville Jail: Cisco Houston (03:24)
A8 Betty and Dupree: Brownie McGhee (04:07)
A9 Go Tell Aunt Nancy: Folk Group with Pete Seeger, and Bess and Butch Lomax (02:43)
B1 Polly Wolly Doodle: Folk Group with Pete Seeger, and Bess and Butch Lomax (01:34)
B2 Down in the Valley: Folk Group with Pete Seeger, and Bess and Butch Lomax (02:34)
B3 Number 12 Train: Josh White (03:45)
B4 Born to Lose: Les Paul and Mary Ford (03:18)
B5 Johnson Boys: Frank Warner, Pete Seeger, and Bess Lomax Hawes (01:02)
B6 Down in the Valley: Ralph Page (02:55)
B7 Cowboy Waltz: Woody Guthrie (02:08)
B8 Country Dance Music: Tiny Clark and Mr. and Mrs. Siller (02:33)
B9 Bile Them Cabbage Down: Pick-Up Band (03:00)
[Credits]
Producer and Recorder: Moses Asch, Producer and Liner Notes: Charles Edward Smith, Designer: Ronald Clyne
[Notes]
This compilation of folk ballads from the Moses Asch archives samples songs from many of his favorite singers: Lead Belly, Burl Ives, Alan Lomax, Brownie McGhee, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. Volume 2 continues on FW00AA4.

The Unfortunate Rake: Edited by Kenneth S. Goldstein

Folkways Records – FS 3805

Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation
Country: United States
Released: 1960
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
A01 The Unfortunate Rake: A. L. Lloyd and Alf Edwards (2:59)
A02 The Trooper Cut Down in His Prime: Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger (4:30)
A03 The Young Sailor Cut Down in His Prime: Harry Cox (1:57)
A04 Noo I'm a Young Man Cut Down in My Prime: Willie Mathieson (2:17)
A05 The Bad Girl's Lament: Wade Hemsworth (2:49)
A06 One Morning in May: Hally Wood (2:36)
A07 Bright Summer Morning: Viola Penn (2:24)
A08 The Girl in the Dilger Case: D. K. Wilgus (1:08)
A09 The Cowboy's Lament: Bruce Buckley (2:39)
A10 Streets of Laredo: Harry Jackson (4:59)
B01 St. James Hospital: Alan Lomax (3:33)
B02 Gambler's Blues: Dave Van Ronk (2:44)
B03 I Once Was a Carman in the Big Mountain Con: Guthrie T. "Gus" Meade (1:12)
B04 The Lineman's Hymn: Rosalie Sorrels (1:49)
B05 The Wild Lumberjack: Kenneth S. Goldstein (1:51)
B06 A Sun Valley Song: Jan Brunvand and Ellen Stekert (1:28)
B07 The Ballad of Bloody Thursday: John Greenway (3:44)
B08 Streets of Hamtramck: Bill Friedland, Mark Newman, and Morris Howarth (2:23)
B09 The Ballad of Sherman Wu: Pete Seeger (2:07)
B10 The Professor's Lament: Roger Abrahams (3:25)
[Credits]
Producer and Liner Notes: Kenneth S. Goldstein, Designer: Ronald Clyne
[Notes]
The story is basically this: a soldier is dying, evidently of venereal disease he contracted from a young woman, and he requests a funeral. Hear how this story has been spun over centuries into a whole collection of similarly themed songs, the earliest possibly dating to 1790. In this recording we are essentially witnessing the evolution of the Anglo-Saxon ballad tradition.

Sea Island Folk Festival

Moving Star Hall Singers and Alan Lomax

Folkways Records – FS 3841

Format: Vinyl, LP
Country: US
Released: 1964
Genre: Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk, Gospel
[Tracklist]
A1 Remember Me (2:19)
A2 Meet Me in Galilee (2:10)
A3 Ask the Watchman How Long - New Year's Eve Song (2:24)
A4 See God's Ark A-Moving (3:05)
A5 Talk about the Sea Island Folk Festival / Texas Folk Tale / Texas Hide / Seek Song (10:20)
B1 Ezekial in the Valley (2:17)
B2 Gullah Folk Tale: Barney McCabe (5:58)
B3 Somebody Stole My Henhouse Key (1:43)
B4 Blues (1:24)
B5 Ezekial in the Valley (2:05)
B6 Mary Rolled the Stone Away (1:51)
B7 Moonlight in Glory (2:32)
B8 You Got To Move (1:42)
[Credits]
Alan Lomax (talk) Moving Star Hall Singers (vocals)
Producer, Recorder and Liner Notes: Guy Carawan, Liner Notes: Alan Lomax, Photographer: David Gahr, Designer: Ronald Clyne
[Notes]
In 1964, after five winters living and working with the people of the Sea Islands of South Carolina (helping with adult literacy programs and recording singing traditions), musician and musicologist Guy Carawan organized a folk festival. He aspired to encourage a folk song revival and to provide support to performers such as the Moving Star Hall Singers, who kept the folkways of the Sea Islands alive in spite of poverty and a lack of interest from younger generations. In a rousing speech recorded at the festival, ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax (1915–2002) refers to the islands as "one of the heartlands of American music." Vigorous performances of spirituals, Gullah folk tales, and improvised blues attest to his assessment. Liner notes include notes on the songs, photographs, and articles about the living folk heritage of the Sea Islands by Carawan and Lomax.

There is No Eye: Music for Photographs

Smithsonian Folkways – SFW CD 40091

Format: CD, HDCD, Compilation
Country: US
Released: 2001
Genre: Blues, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Bluegrass, Blues, Folk, Gospel, Country Blues, Celtic
[Tracklist]
01 Thank You Lord: Gospel Church, Harlem (4:29)
02 If I Had My Way: Reverend Gary Davis (4:46)
03 Have You Ever Been Mistreated: Yvonne Hunter (1:39)
04 I Can't Be Satisfied: Muddy Waters (2:44)
05 Roll On John: Bob Dylan (3:26)
06 Man of Constant Sorrow: Roscoe Holcomb (2:59)
07 Hicks Farewell: Doc Watson and Gaither Carlton (4:31)
08 Come All You Tenderhearted: Carter Stanley (3:38)
09 Young But Growing: Mary Townsley (3:29)
10 TB Blues: Alice Gerrard and Hazel Dickens (3:29)
11 John Henry: Bill Monroe (1:34)
12 Sally Goodin: Eck Robertson (3:42)
13 Twin Sisters: Sidna Myers (0:57)
14 Sally Johnson: Wade Ward and Charlie Higgins (2:15)
15 Pull My Daisy: David Amram Quartet (4:33)
16 So Long: Go: Rufus Cohen and Wade Patterson (3:02)
17 Who'll Water My Flowers?: Last Forever (2:36)
18 Oh Babe, It Ain't No Lie: Elizabeth Cotten (2:07)
19 Ramblin' Round: Woody Guthrie (2:17)
20 Love My Darling-O: Alan Lomax (1:56)
21 Buck Creek Girls: The New Lost City Ramblers (3:01)
22 Paloma Blanca: Huayno Stringband (2:20)
23 Kitchen Girl: Sweets Mill Band (The Arkansas Sheiks) (2:42)
[Credits]
Compiler, Producer, Liner Notes and Photographer: John Cohen, Coordinator: Mary Monseur, Designer: Visual Dialogue, Editor: Carla Borden, Engineer: Pete Reiniger
[Notes]
In Music For Photographs, photographer, film maker, folklorist and musician John Cohen (of the New Lost City Ramblers) presents some of the finest American roots recordings ever made. On their own, these songs are authentic and captivating. Yet, they are only one half of a conceptual whole—Cohen has also released a book of photographs, There is No Eye, showcasing the musicians featured here as well as many others. Experienced together, the music and the photographs create new dimensions of possibility in our collective drive to understand and appreciate people's music. Includes unreleased music from Rev. Gary Davis and Bob Dylan, as well as classic tracks from Woody Guthrie, Roscoe Holcomb, Bill Monroe, Carter Stanley, Muddy Waters, and many more. 32-page booklet, exquisite photos, extensive notes, 68 minutes.

Sid Hemphill: Complete Library of Congress Session (1942)

Running Time: 1 hour and 16 minutes

0:00:00 Lomax introduction (AFS 6670 A1)
0:00:53 The Eighth of January (6670A2)
0:03:43 Interview with Sid Hemphill about his father, repertoire, instruments, and the Carrier Line
0:07:51 The Carrier Line (6670 B1)
0:13:37 The Roguish Man (part 1) (6670 B2)
0:18:57 The Roguish Man (part 2) (6670 A4)
0:19:56 Interview with Sid Hemphill about his composition "The Roguish Man" and Jack Castle
0:21:22 Interview with Sid Hemphill about his composition "The Strayhorn Mob."
0:22:30 The Strayhorn Mob (6671 A2)
0:27:25 Boll Weevil (6671 A3)
0:32:46 Arkansas Traveler (6671 B1)
0:38:27 Tunings and demo (guitar, banjo, kazoo) (6671 B2)
0:40:08 Come On, Boys, Let's Go to the Ball (6672 A1)
0:41:55 Come On, Boys, Let's Go to the Ball (6672 A2)
0:43:35 Emmaline, Take Your Time (6672 A3)
0:46:08 The Devil's Dream (6672 A4)
0:49:20 Leather Britches (6672 B1)
0:50:30 Rye Straw (6672 B2)
0:52:38 So Soon I'll Be At Home (6672 B3)
0:54:13 Jesse James (6673 A1)
0:55:57 After the Ball Is Over (6673 A2)
0:57:54 The Sidewalks of New York (6673 A3)
1:00:00 The Death March (6673 A4)
1:01:56 John Henry (6673 A5)
1:05:26 Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy (6673 B1)
1:09:00 Hog Hunt (6673 B2)
1:13:38 Soon In the Morning (6673 B3)
[Credits]
Sid Hemphill (fiddle/quills/fife/vocals) Lucius Smith (banjo/drum) Alec Askew (guitar/quills/vocals) Head (bass drum) unidentified (kazoo)
[Notes]
Alan Lomax and Lewis Jones' complete August 15, 1942 recordings of Sid Hemphill and his band, recorded at (or before) a picnic at the "Funky Fives" (also noted by Lomax as "Po' Whore's Kingdom"), outside of Sledge, Quitman County, Mississippi, made under the auspices of the Library of Congress' Archive of Folk Song and Fisk University. Multi-instrumentalist, band-leader and composer Sid Hemphill (1876-1961) was for decades the musical patriarch of the Mississippi Hill Country. He and his band — comprised of Alec "Turpentine" Askew, Will Head, and Lucius Smith; like Sid, all from Panola County, Miss. — were fixtures at dances, picnics, and frolics throughout the Delta and the Hill Country. Alan Lomax recorded Blind Sid in August 1942, near Sledge, Mississippi, where his band was appearing at a country picnic and banging out their breakdowns, marches, and square-dance tunes, as well as several blues ballads composed by Hemphill himself. By that date hundreds of commercial records had been made of the music of the Delta, and the preponderance of those were of or relating to the blues form, with guitar or piano accompaniment. Lomax's were the first made of the Hill Country's local music, and contributed to a broader perspective of black vernacular instrumentation, with their inclusion of the fiddle and banjo of the string band, the fife and drum ensemble, and the cane panpipes or "quills." Lomax recorded Sid and Lucius again in 1959. Please visit http://bit.ly/1dB7cwe for the complete streaming audio of that session, and for more information about Alan Lomax's collections and the Alan Lomax Archive. (Lomax returned to North Mississippi once more in 1978, when he, Worth Long, and John Bishop filmed a session with Lucius and Sid's granddaughter Jessie Mae Hemphill. Search our channel for some of their performances.)

Virginia Traditions: Ballads from British Tradition

BRI Records BRI-002

Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation
Country: US
Released: 1979
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk, Bluegrass, Old Time
[Tracklist]
A01 Old Ireland (William Hall): Polly Johnson (2:38)
A02 The Three Maids (The Cruel Brother): Polly Johnson (3:41)
A03 The Farmer's Curst Wife: Joe Hubbard (0:53)
A04 As I Walked Over London's Bridge (Geordie): S.F. Russel (3:55)
A05 Little Massie Grove: Ruby Bowman Plemmons (4:31)
A06 Wild Hog in the Woods (Bangum and the Boar): Eunice Yeatts McAlexander (2:30)
A07 Barbara Allen: Dan Tate (2:52)
A08 Wind and Rain (The Two Sisters): Dan Tate (1:58)
A09 Devil's Nine Questions: Texas Gladden (2:32)
A10 The Bad Girl: Texas Gladden (3:23)
B01 The Turkish Rebelee (The Golden Vanity): Horton Barker (3:45)
B02 House Carpenter: Dorothy Rorick (2:38)
B03 Oh Death: Dock Boggs (3:20)
B04 The Three Babes (The Wife of Usher's Well): Spence Moore (2:57)
B05 Queen Sally: Kate Peters Sturgill (2:33)
B06 Froggie Went a'Courtin': Robert Russel (1:41)
B07 Raging Sea, How It Roars (The Mermaid): Ernest V. Stoneman (3:21)
B08 The Jealous Lover: The Stanley Brothers (2:17)
B09 The Butcher's Boy: Kelly Harrell (3:19)
[Credits]
Producer, Engineer and Liner Notes: Blanton Owen, Producers: Roddy Moore, Lornell and Ferrum College, Photographer: Alfreda Peel, Engineer: Charles Ellerton, Recorders: Herbert Halpert, Emory Hamilton, Mike Seeger, Sidney Robertson Cowell, Alan Lomax and Elizabeth Lomax
[Notes]
Few states in this country can boast of more diverse folkways than Virginia. Many of the material objects—such as barns, tools, and furniture—reflect the traditions that shaped the lives of its earliest settlers and the generations of Virginians who followed. The Commonwealth’s performance traditions of songs, tunes, and tales also tell of a shared heritage involving all classes of people in every facet of life. Because traditions naturally change over time, the documentation of Virginia folk culture is an ongoing process essential to our understanding of the past, present, and future. By recording the folkways of Virginia, the Blue Ridge Institute of Ferrum College and its BRI Record label strive to foster a greater appreciation of our folk roots through an array of interpretive programs. The songs on this recording are ballads in the traditional sense, i.e., they tell a story. The singers are all from southwestern Virginia and present in a variety of styles, ranging from strictly traditional to relatively modern with stringband accompaniment.

Roots Of The Blues: Southern Folk Heritage Series by Alan Lomax

Atlantic SD-1348

Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Stereo
Country: United States
Released: 1960
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk, & Blues
[Tracklist]
A1 Jim And John: Lonnie & Ed Young (3:05)
A2 The Wild Ox Moan: Vera Hall (1:03)
A3 Been Drinkin’Water Out Of A Hollow Log: Fred McDowell (2:55)
A4 All Night Long: Miles & Bob Pratcher (2:10)
A5 Shake‘Em On Down: Fred McDowell (3:22)
A6 Levee Camp Reminiscence: Forest City Joe (3:40)
A7 Chevrolet: Lonnie Young (2:45)
B1 Oree: Lonnie & Ed Young (2:37)
B2 Levee Camp Holler: Johnny Lee Moore (2:45)
B3 Eighteen Hammers: Johnny Lee Moore & 12 Mississippi Penitentiary Convicts (2:36)
B4 Train Time: Forest City Joe (4:30)
B5 Freight Train Blues: Fred McDowell (3:03)
B6 Drink On Little Girl: Forest City Joe (2:51)
[Credits]
Liner notes: Gary Kramer, Produce & Photography: Alan Lomax
[Notes]
Southern Folk Heritage Series

Alan Lomax Road Show Oral History

Running Time: 53 minutes

Tom Harvey discusses the music from the collections of Alan Lomax with The Down Hill Strugglers and John Cohen, who play traditional American music they have learned directly from the collections at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.


For transcript, captions, and more information, visit at the Library of Congress Webcast Site

Blue Ridge Mountain Music: Southern Folk Heritage Series by Alan Lomax

Atlantic SD-1347

Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Stereo
Country: United States
Released: 1960
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk, & Bluegrass
[Tracklist]
A1 TCotton Eyed Joe: The Mountain Ramblers* (2:31)
A2 Big Tilda: The Mountain Ramblers (2:10)
A3 Jennie Jenkins: Estil C. Ball & Orna Ball (2:40)
A4 Jimmy Sutton: Spence Moore (2:33)
A5 John Henry: The Mountain Ramblers (3:45)
A6 Rosewood Casket: The Mountain Ramblers (2:59)
A7 Silly Bill: The Mountain Ramblers (2:27)
B1 Big Ball In Boston: The Mountain Ramblers (2:19)
B2 Chilly Winds: Wade Ward (2:11)
B3 The Old Hickory Cane: The Mountain Ramblers (4:27)
B4 John Brown: Hobart Smith (1:50)
B5 Poor Ellen Smith: Hobart Smith (1:58)
B6 Liza Jane: The Mountain Ramblers (3:07)
B7 Shady Grove: The Mountain Ramblers (2:16)
[Credits]
Liner notes: Gary Kramer, Produce: Alan Lomax, Photography: Lee Friedlander
*The Personnel of the Mountain Ramblers is: Cullen Galyen (fiddle/banjo) Charles Hawks (banjo) James Lindsey (guitar) Eldridge Montgomerry (Guitar) Thurman Pugh (bass)
[Notes]
Southern Folk Heritage Series

Sounds Of The South: Southern Folk Heritage Series by Alan Lomax

Atlantic SD-1346

Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Stereo
Country: United States
Released: 1961
Genre: Blues, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk, & Country Blues
[Tracklist]
A1a The Banks Of The Arkansas: Neil Morris (1:59)
A1b Wave The Ocean: Neil Morris & Charlie Everidge (1:57)
A02 Hen Duck: Lonnie Young, Ed Young & Lonnie Young Jr. (3:02)
A03 The Farmer's Curst Wife: Estil C. Ball (2:56)
A04 Boll Weevil Holler: Vera Hall (2:03)
A05 Jesse James: The Mountain Ramblers (2:14)
A06 Jesse James: Neil Morris (4:51)
A07 Kenny Wagner: Bob Carpenter (2:33)
B01 Trouble So Hard: Vera Hall (1:36)
B02 Baptizing Scene: Rev. W. A. Donaldson (1:35)
B03 Is There Anybody Here That Love My Jesus: Viola James & Congregation (2:43)
B04 Windham: Alabama Sacred Harp Singers (1:59)
B05 Keep Your Lamps Trimmed And Burning: Fred McDowell (2:43)
B06 Come On, Boys, Let’s Go To The Ball: Sid Hemphill & Lucius Smith (2:02)
B07 Paddy On The Turnpike: Wade Ward, Charley Higgins & Charley Poe (1:45)
B08 Join The Band: John Davis & Group (1:03)
B09 Lucky Holler: Ed Lewis (2:20)
B10 I Be So Glad When The Sun Goes Down: Ed Lewis & Group (2:30)
[Credits]
Liner notes : Gary Kramer, Produce and photography: Alan Lomax
[Notes]
Southern Folk Heritage Series

Woody Guthrie: Library Of Congress Recordings

Elektra SJET-7994

Format: Vinyl, LP
Country: Japan
Released:
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
A1 Lost Train Blues
A2 Railroad Blues
A3 Old Joe Clark
A4 Beaumont Rag
A5 Greenback Dollar
A6 Boll Weevil Song
A7 Foggy Mountain Top
A8 Worried Man Blues
B1 I Ain't Got No Home
B2 Dust Storm Disaster
B3 Dust Bowl Refugees
B4 Do-Re-Mi
B5 Goin' Down That Road Feeling Bad
B6 So Long, It's Been Good To Know You
[Credits]
Woody Guthrie (guitar/harmonica/vocals) Alan Lomax (interview/chorus) Elizabeth Littleton (interview)
[Notes]
Recorded in Washington, D.C, March 1940 by Alan Lomax. Released on an Elektra Records three-LP set titled Woody Guthrie: Library of Congress Recordings in 1964.
日本盤：エレクトラ・レコード「ウディ・ガスリー／ヒストリカル・レコーディング」（発売：日本ビクター）

BBC Arena - Woody Guthrie (1988)

BBC Arena - Woody Guthrie (1988) from The Hammer Works on Vimeo. 1:07:20

New York City 1943

First transmitted in 1988, Arena presents a documentary programme exploring the life of Woody Guthrie, the travelling American singer-songwriter who paved the way for the likes of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

Born in Okemah, Oklahoma in 1912, Guthrie became a spokesman for a whole generation of downtrodden Americans during the 1930s, with poignant songs like Vigilante Man, Pastures of Plenty and the anthemic, This Land is Your Land.

Pete Seeger: To Hear Your Banjo Play - 1947

Directors: Irving Lerner and Willard Van Dyke, Writer: Alan Lomax.

Folk master Pete Seeger narrates Alan Lomax's documentary on the evolution and appreciation of American folk music. Special cameo performances include Woody Guthrie and Brownie McGhee, amongst many others. Pete Seeger is an American folk singer and an iconic figure in the mid-20th-century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene", which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. Members of The Weavers were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. In the 1960s, he re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, and environmental causes.As a song writer, he is best known as the author or co-author of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", "If I Had a Hammer", and "Turn, Turn, Turn!", which have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement and are still sung throughout the world.

"Flowers" was a hit recording for The Kingston Trio (1962); Marlene Dietrich, who recorded it in English, German and French (1962); and Johnny Rivers (1965). "If I Had a Hammer" was a hit for Peter, Paul & Mary (1962) and Trini Lopez (1963), while The Byrds popularized "Turn, Turn, Turn!" in the mid-1960s, as did Judy Collins in 1964, and The Seekers in 1966. Seeger was one of the folksingers most responsible for popularizing the spiritual "We Shall Overcome" (also recorded by Joan Baez and many other singer-activists) that became the acknowledged anthem of the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement, soon after folk singer and activist Guy Carawan introduced it at the founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960. In the PBS "American Masters" episode Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, Seeger states it was he who changed the lyric from the traditional "We will overcome" to the more singable "We shall overcome".

  See more at: http://www.weirdovideo.com/

Listen to Our Story: Alan Lomax, Folk Producer/Folk Promoter

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Alan Lomax in 1982

Nathan Salsburg of the Association for Cultural Equity explores two key undertakings from this aspect of Lomax's career, his 1959 "Southern Journey" field-recording trip and its later ancillary, the American Patchwork video recording project (1978-1985). He argues that Lomax's technological, curatorial and promotional savvy were fundamental to the success of his mission. He also discusses the outlets that ACE has pursued, since Lomax's retirement in 1998, to further publish and promote his work and that mission, from CDs to LPs to YouTube to site-specific repatriation initiatives. Alan Lomax is known primarily as a folklorist and a documentarian, terms that suggest that his work was largely in service of the archival preservation of traditional and vernacular culture. But Lomax, from the tender age of 17, saw a more activist mission for himself: giving a "voice to the voiceless" by laboring to carve out space in the communication system for "all the submerged cultures" and their specific expressive traditions. Speaker Biography: Nathan Salsburg is curator of the Alan Lomax Archive at the Association for Cultural Equity.

Jean Ritchie 1998 Folk Alliance International Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient

Jean Ritchie: Mountain Born

Jean Ritchie with dulcimer 1976

Jean Ritchie was known as "The Mother of Folk". As well as work songs and ballads, Ritchie knew hymns from the "Old Regular Baptist" church she attended in Jeff, Kentucky. These were sung as "lining out" songs, in a lingering soulful way. One of the songs they sang was "Amazing Grace". She wrote some songs, including one on the effects of strip mining in Kentucky. (Some of Ritchie's late 1950s/early 1960s songs on mining she published under the pseudonym "'Than Hall" to avoid troubling her non-political mother, and believing they might be better received if attributed to a man.) "My Dear Companion" appeared on the album Trio recorded by Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris. Judy Collins not only recorded some of Ritchie's traditional songs, "Tender Ladies" and "Pretty Saro", but used a photograph by George Pickow on the front of her album Golden Apples of the Sun (1962). Ritchie's 50th anniversary album was Mountain Born (1995), which features her two sons, Peter and Jonathan Pickow. In 1954 Ritchie and George Pickow released some of their UK recordings under the name Field Trip. It was re-issued in 2001 on the Greenhays label. It has recordings by Elizabeth Cronin, Seamus Ennis, and others, side by side with Ritchie family versions of the same songs. (via Folk Alliance International on YouTube)

Appalachian Journey by Alan Lomax

Original: 3/4 inch videotape: U-matic 58 minutes, 1991

Alan Lomax

Filmmaker: Alan Lomax
Producer: Mike Dibb, Penny Forster
Cinematographer: Jim Brown, Nicholas Echeverria
Sound: Jack Gordon, Robert Zieniewicz
Editing: Mark Tobin, Howard Sharp with Jenny Campbell
Copyright: 1991, Association for Cultural Equity
Distributor: Media_Generation

Appalachian Journey is one of five films made from footage that Alan Lomax shot between 1978 and 1985 for the PBS American Patchwork series (1991). It offers songs, dances, stories, and religious rituals of the Southern Appalachians. Preachers, singers, fiddlers, banjo pickers, moonshiners, cloggers, and square dancers recount the good times and the hard times of rural life there. Performers include Tommy Jarrell, Janette Carter, Ray and Stanley Hicks, Frank Proffitt Jr., Sheila Kay Adams, Nimrod Workman and Phyllis Boyens, Raymond Fairchild, and others, with a bonus of a few African-Americans from the North Carolina Piedmont. Narrated by Alan Lomax. The Association for Cultural Equity’s Alan Lomax Archive channel on YouTube additionally streams outtakes from this film: other strong performances by Sheila Kay Adams, Dellie Norton, and Cas Wallin, Lawrence Eller, the Hickses, Algia Mae Hinton and John Dee Holeman, Tommy Jarrell, John Doodle”Thrower, and Nimrod Workman.

Folk Songs from the Blue Grass: Earl Taylor & his Stoney Mountain Boys

United Artists Records UAL-3049

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono
Country: United States
Released: 1959
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Bluegrass
[Tracklist]
A1 Cripple Creek (2:00)
A2 Ruby (3:25)
A3 White Dove (3:40)
A4 Ho, Honey, Ho (2:30)
A5 Foggy Mountain Special (2:40)
A6 In The Pines (2:20)
A7 John Henry (2:30)
A8 Mama Blues (2:10)
A9 Little Maggie 2:10
B1 Flint Hill Special (2:30)
B2 The Children Are Cryin' (2:05)
B3 Lee Highway Blues (2:00)
B4 The Prisoner's Song (3:30)
B5 Race Between A Locomotive And A Model T (2:00)
B6 Pretty Polly (2:45)
B7 Rabbit On A Log (2:15)
B8 Molly And Ten Brooks (2:50)
[Credits]
Earl Taylor (mandolin/vocals) Sam Hutchins (guitar/banjo/vocals) Walter Hensley (banjo) Curtis Cody (fiddle) Vernon McIntyre (bass)
Liner Notes: Alan Lomax, Cover Art: Ike Millman
[Notes]
Issued with a 2 p. sheet of notes and lyrics by Alan Lomax. Reissued 1968 by King Records Japan (SR 209)