Seeger Family Concert | Library of Congress

Running Time: 133 minutes Event Date: 2007/03/126

Mike, Peggy, and Pete Seeger with the Short Sisters perform at the Library of Congress March 16, 2007. Forms part of "How Can I Keep From Singing": A Seeger Family Tribute symposium and concert.

African Fiddle & Banjo Echo in Appalachia Concert

Running Time: 18 minutes 59 seconds, Event Date: 2015/10/01

Examples of Appalachian traditional music, with demonstrations from African and Appalachian musicians. Related Resources: American Folklife Center, John W. Kluge Center and African Fiddle & Banjo Echo in Appalachia Lecture.

Cowboy Songs, Ballads, And Cattle Calls From Texas

Library of Congress AFS L28

Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Reissue
Country: US
Released: 1952
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk
[Tracklist]
A1 Colley's Run-I-O (I) (Lumberjack Song): L. Parker Temple
A2 The Buffalo Skinners (II): John A. Lomax
A3 Goodbye, Old Paint (I): Jess Morris
A4 Goodbye, Old Paint (II): Sloan Matthews
A5 The Texas Rangers: Sloan Matthews
A6 Cattle Calls: Starting, Driving, And Night-Herding: Sloan Matthews
A7 The Cowboy's Life Is A Very Dreary Life: Sloan Matthews
B1 The Dying Ranger: Johnny Prude
B2 The Dying Cowboy: Sloan Matthews
B3 The Streets Of Laredo: Johnny Prude
B4 The Zebra Dun: J. M. Waddell
B5 The Dreary Black Hills: Harry Stephens
B6 The Night-Herding Song: Harry Stephens
[Credits]
Editor: Duncan B. M. Emrich, Recorder: Duncan Emrich, John A. Lomax and Rae Korson
[Notes]
Part unaccompanied and part with guitar or fiddle accompaniment. "From the Archive of American Folk Song." Field recordings made at various places in Texas and studio recordings in Washington, D. C. from 1941-1948 by John A. Lomax, Rae Korson, and Duncan Emrich. Program notes and texts (22 p.). Description from audio disc recording, analog, 33 1/3 rpm; 12 in., 1952; reissued in 1974. Digital preservation masters recorded from original master analog tapes by the Library of Congress Recording Laboratory in 2012. Original cutting master for audio disc production for reissue of AAFS L28: COWBOY SONGS, BALLADS, AND CATTLE CALLS FROM TEXAS (MASTER TAPE) 1974, 2 sound tape reels : analog, 15 ips, full track, mono. ; 10 in. RWC 8319, 8320. MAVIS title no.: 162559-3-1; 162559-3-2.

John McCutcheon in Concert at the Library of Congress

Running Time: 116 minutes Event Date: 2018/09/12

John McCutcheon plays music exclusively from the collections of the Library's American Folklife Center, including material from Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger's collections, as well as his own. While in his 20s, McCutcheon traveled to Appalachia, collected folk music and learned from some of the legendary greats of traditional music, such as Roscoe Holcomb, I.D. Stamper and Tommy Hunter. In addition to his own fieldwork, McCutcheon also traveled and collected with traditional musician and folklorist Mike Seeger. Most of this fieldwork is part of the permanent collections of the American Folklife Center.

Speaker Biography: John McCutcheon is an American folksinger, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is regarded as a master of the hammered dulcimer, and is also proficient on many other instruments including guitar, banjo, autoharp, mountain dulcimer, fiddle and jawharp. His eclectic catalog of ballads, historical songs, children's songs, love songs, topical satire, fiddle and hammer dulcimer instrumentals, and even symphonic works, are among the broadest in American folk music. His vast repertoire also includes songs from many other contemporary writers. His own songwriting has been hailed by critics around the world; his song "Christmas in the Trenches" is considered a classic and was recently named one of the 100 Essential Folk Songs by NPR. His 36 albums have earned six Grammy nominations.

  For more information, visit the website of the Library of Congress

From the Mountains to the Sea with Jeff and Gerret Warner

Running Time: 96 minutes Event Date: 2018/07/20

"From the Mountains to the Sea is a two-hour live presentation with multimedia, focusing on the Anne and Frank Warner collection, one of the great treasures in the American Folklife Center archives, containing a wealth of material collected by the husband-and-wife team of folklorists from 1938 to 1966, as they traveled through rural America in search of old songs. This important collection contains such seminal field recordings as North Carolina farmer Frank Proffitt's rendition of the murder ballad "Tom Dooly." This field recording was adapted and recorded in 1958 by The Kingston Trio, whose version became a number one hit, won the very first Grammy in country music, and set off the folk boom of the 1960s. Frank Warner was also a popular folksinger, and the Warners' sons, Jeff and Gerret, got their start as musicians backing up their dad on his recordings and performances. They have been renowned performing musicians for more than 50 years. Career musicians and filmmakers, they created this two-hour live multimedia presentation about the Warner collection, featuring not only their own performances, but also the voices of the singers recorded by their parents across rural America, along with corresponding photographs of the tradition bearers and their homes. It is full of the warmth of the Warners and the country wit of their new friends. Jeff and Gerret grew up listening to the songs and stories of the traditional singers their parents met during their folksong collecting trips, and they offer valuable insights into the lives and adventures of one of the nation's most eminent families of folksong collectors. In so doing, they contribute immensely to our understanding of the Warner collection, one of the most important in the American Folklore Center archives. The event was co-sponsored by the Folklore Society of Greater Washington.

  For more information, visit the website of the Library of Congress

Dolly Parton Interview

Running Time: 8 minutes  Event Date: 2018/02/28

Singer-songwriter Dolly Parton discusses her Imagination Library children's literacy program and her new partnership with the Library of Congress. For transcript and more information, please visit: https://goo.gl/XBptFM

What's The Difference Between A Violin And A Fiddle? A Conversation with David Bromberg

Running Time: 37 minutes Event Date: 2017/05/22

David Bromberg discussed his personal collection of American-made violins with Nancy Groce. They were joined by Kenneth Naito and Nate Growler and showed a violin from the David Bromberg American Violin Collection made in Baltimore by Luther Heiges. During the past 50 years David Bromberg has amassed the largest and most comprehensive collection of American violins. David Bromberg is a prolific performer of Americana music, ranging from the blues and folk to rock. He has collaborated with some of the great artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, and George Harrison. He is a violin collector. He owns and operates David Bromberg Fine Violins in Wilmington Delaware.

  For more information, visit the website of the Library of Congress

The Fairfield Four in Concert

Running Time: 62 minutes Event Date: 2017/09/28

The Fairfield Four in Concert: The Fairfield Four is an African-American gospel quartet that has existed for more than 95 years. The group is best known for its performance in the film "O Brother Where Art Thou" and for collaborations with popular artists such as Dolly Parton, John Fogerty and Vince Gill. As traditional American folk musicians, the quartet has achieved the highest honors possible, including induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, three Grammy Awards and the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. The group was founded as a trio in 1921, but came to be called "The Fairfield Four" becomming a quartet later in the 1920s. Changing lineup through the years, the group has sometimes had more than four members but has kept the name and signature style, traditional African American a capella gospel harmony singing. Today's lineup consists of Larrice Byrd Sr., Bobbye Sherrell, Leveret Allison and Joe Thompson.

  For more information, visit the website of the Library of Congress

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.)

African Fiddle & Banjo Echo in Appalachia Concert

Speaker: Cece Conway  Event Date: 2015/10/01  Running Time: 18 minutes

Alan Lomax Fellow Cece Conway delivers a multimedia presentation on the instrumental and musical history of Appalachian traditional music, with illustration from African and Appalachian musicians, instruments, videos, sounds and images.

  For more information, visit the website of the Library of Congress

Eva Ybarra: Queen of the Accordion

Event Date: 2017/09/13 Running Time: 67 minutes

Eva Ybarra, the "Queen of the Accordion," is one of on.y a few professional women accordionists in conjunto music. Ybarra has specialized in writing and composing original conjunto music while also exploring non-standard chord progressions, advancing the art form's evolution. After receiving her first record deal at age 14, she has performed and recorded many albums with her band, Eva Ybarra y Su Conjunto. Her notable recordings include "A Mi San Antonio" (1993) and "Romance Inolvidable" (1996). She has also served as a music educator and artist in residence at the University of Washington, Palo Alto College (San Antonio) and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. Ybarra is in the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center Conjunto Hall of Fame, the Tejano R.O.O.T.S Hall of Fame, the Univision Salon de Fama and the Tejano Conjunto Music Hall of Fame and Museum. In 2015, she received the South Texas Conjunto Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

  For more information, visit the website of the Library of Congress

Folk-Songs of America: The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection

The Library of Congress AFS-L68

Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation
Country: US
Released: 1978
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk, Ballad
[Tracklist]
A1 Haul The Wood Pile Down/Roll The Old Chariot Along: Singer unknown (Early 1920s)
A2 Old Ninety Seven: Fred Lewe (10/15/1925)
A3 The Old Gray Mare, Hesitation Blues/Not A-Gonna Lay My Religion Down: Bascom Lamar Lunsford (10/19/1925)
A4 Brother Jonas/Georgie: G. Stikeleather (11/11/1925)
A5 Isaac Meddler, Mississippi Sawyer/Sally Goodin: John W. Dillon (10/22/1925)
A6 Old Granny Hare: W. E. Bird (10/28/1925)
A7 Single Girl: Julius Sutton (10/28/1925)
A8 Prisoner's Song: Ernest Helton (11/20/1925)
A9 Let's Go To Bury: A. B. Holly (12/14/1925)
B1 Deep Down In My Heart/Jesus Is My Only Friend/Glory To God, My Son's Come Home: W. M. Givens (4/10/1926)
B2 Ol' Man Satan/Drive Ol' Satan Away/Finger Ring: Mary C. Mann (4/12/1926)
B3 Blow Boys Blow (1)/Blow Boys Blow (2)/Halw Away: J. A. S. Spencer (ca.1930-32)
B4 The Wagon: Ben Harney (9/9/1925)
B5 Milk White Stead/Mulberry Hill: Nellie Galt (ca.1928)
B6 Yes Ma'am/All God's Children Got To Humble Down: Betty Bush Winger (ca.1931-32)
B7 Testing Equipment: Robert W. Gordo (1/?/1932)
B8 Casey Jones: Francis H. Abbot (3/24/1932)
[Notes]
This LP is the first recorded publication of music that Gordon collected on cylinder and disc -- a representative sampling (17 songs) of fiddle tunes, ballads, spirituals, and sea shanties. Through the hiss and crackle that ineradicably mark early field recordings, we get a clear picture of American folklife of this era. Included is a deluxe, illustrated book.

  Folk-Songs of America: The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection, 1922-1932

Dolly Parton Dedicates Her Imagination Library's 100 Millionth Book to the Library of Congress

Running Time: 40 minutes 24 seconds

Dolly Parton, singer-songwriter and founder of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, will be joined by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden for a presentation of the Imagination Library’s 100 millionth book donation to the Library of Congress. The program will feature a reading with school children and an announcement from Parton and Hayden about a new literacy collaboration.

Balla Kouyate & World Vision: Traditional Malian Music from Massachusetts

Running Time: 68 minutes

Balla Kouyate is a griot and virtuoso player of the balaphon. Considered the predecessor of the xylophone and the first Mande instrument, the balafon is made up of wood slats of varying lengths. The slats are secured over two rows of calabash gourds, which serve as natural amplifiers. Each gourd is punctured with small holes over which Balla places thin plastic tape. The vibrating air rattles the plastic to create the desired sound. Were he back home in Mali, Balla would use spider webs (collected from kitchen walls) to cover the holes. The first known balafon dates back to the 13th century and remains under the guardianship of the Kouyate family. It is considered a UNESCO-protected Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Once a year it is brought out and played during a ceremony. In this concert Kouyate performs with singer Adjaratou "Tapani" Demba, Sekou "Pablo" Dembele, Makane Kouyate, Idrissa Kone, Daniel Day, and Raja Kassis.

Speaker Biography: To say that Kouyate was born into a musical family is an understatement. His family lineage goes back over 800 years to Balla Faseke, the first of an unbroken line of djelis, or griots, in the Kouyate clan. The members of this family are regarded as the original praise-singers of the Malinke people, one of the ethnic groups found across much of West Africa. Djelis are the oral historians, musicians and performers who keep alive and celebrate the history of the Mande people of Mali, Guinea and other West African countries. Kouyate frequently performs traditional music at weddings, baptisms, and other domestic ceremonies within the West African immigrant communities of Boston, New York City, and beyond, and also leads the fusion group World Vision. He often accompanies kora master Mamadou Diabate, 2009 Grammy winner in Traditional World Music, and in 2004 joined NEA National Heritage Fellow Sidiki Cond Kouyate for a month-long residency at Carnegie Hall. In 2010, Balla Kouyate was awarded a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in the Traditional Arts.

Concert: Archives Challenge by Various Muisicians

Event Date: 2017/09/20 Running Time: 87 minutes

A variety of Washington D.C.-area folk musicions perform material taken from the Lomax Collection and other collections of the American Folklife Center.

  For more information, visit the website of the Library of Congress

Stevie Wonder Performs "Sketches of a Life"

Running Time: 55 minutes

Singer/songwriter Stevie Wonder, the awardee of the second Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, premieres "Sketches of a Life," a sprawling, hybrid pop-classical concerto, written between 1976 and 1994. The work was unveiled through a commission for the Library of Congress in the Coolidge Auditorium.

Speaker Biography: Born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1950, Stevie Wonder became blind shortly after birth. He learned to play the harmonica, piano and drums by age 9. By the time he was 10, his singing and other musical skills were known throughout his neighborhood, and when the family moved to Detroit, impressed adults made his talents known to the owners of Motown Records, who gave him a recording contract when he was age 12. His early hits included "Fingertips," "Uptight (Everything's All Right)" "For Once in My Life," "My Cherie Amour," "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours," and "If You Really Love Me." He undertook the study of classical piano, and later, music theory, and beginning in 1967, he began writing more of his own material. In the early 1970s, Wonder toured with the Rolling Stones and had major hits with the songs "Superstition" and "You are the Sunshine of My Life." In the mid-70s, his album "Songs in the Key of Life" topped the charts for 14 weeks. Over the years Stevie Wonder has garnered 25 Grammy Awards, as well as the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. He collected an Academy Award for the 1984 hit "I Just Called to Say I Love You" from the film The Woman in Red. In 1989, he was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. In 1999, Stevie became the youngest honoree of the Kennedy Center Honors. He was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame in 2002, and in 2004 he won the Johnny Mercer Award in recognition of a lifetime of outstanding creative work. In 2005, the Library of Congress added Stevie Wonder's 1976 double album "Songs in the Key of Life" to the National Recording Registry, which recognizes recordings that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States."

  For more information, visit the website of the Library of Congress

Ara Dinkjian & Zulal: Traditional Armenian Music & Song

Event Date: 2015/05/28 Running Time: 62 minutes

In Armenian, Zulal means "clear water". Zulal, the New York-based a cappella trio, takes Armenia's village folk melodies and weaves intricate arrangements that pay tribute to the rural roots of the music while introducing contemporary lyricism and energy. The trio celebrates the trials and joys of old Armenian village life: Budding romances in elevated gardens, the disappointments of hapless suitors, secret messages placed upon the western winds, the moonlit faces of shepherd boys and their brides.

  For more information, visit the website of the Library of Congress

Billy McComiskey Family Band

Event Date: 2016/06/28 Runnung Time: 62 minutes

Traditional Irish musician Billy McComiskey is joined in this performance by Myron Bretholz, Josh Dukes, Angela Fee, Catriona Fee, Mikey McComiskey and Patrick McComiskey.

Billy McComiskey is one of the nation's leading players of Irish traditional music. He has won the All-Ireland championship on the button accordion, and is a veteran of bands such as the Irish Tradition, the Green Fields of America, and Trian, He is a native of Brooklyn, New York, and learned to play from Sean McGlynn, a master and proponent of the East Galway style that now characterizes the playing of many of the country's finest Irish accordion players. Billy McComiskey earned a 2016 National Heritage Fellowship Award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

  For more information, visit the website of the Library of Congress

Music with Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer

Event Date: 2016/05/11 Runnung Time: 54 minutes

athy Fink and Marcy Marxer made some big noise in the Young Readers Center. First graders from Leckie Elementary School learned about how music is made with instruments played in their performance such as banjo, mandolin, electric guitar, steel drum, ukulele and even spoons.

  For more information, visit the website of the Library of Congress

Carlos Nunez: Galician Bagpipes & Flutes

Event Date: 2014/08/19 Running Time: 59 minutes

A concert by bagpiper and flutist Carlos Nunez. Galicians trace their ancestry not only to Iberians but also to Celtic peoples, and their musical traditions reflect a connection to Ireland, Scotland, and Brittany. This concert features a special emphasis on the music collected by Alan Lomax in Galicia in the 1950s, which are part of the AFC archives, and which have inspired numerous musicians including Miles Davis. Nunez has visited AFC several times to research this important collection.

Speaker Biography: Carlos Nunez is a world-famous bagpiper and flutist from Galicia in Spain. Nunez is a traditional bagpiper as well as a classically-trained flute and recorder virtuoso. He has played with the Chieftains, Ry Cooder, Altan, Sinead O'Connor, Hector Zazou, Philip Pickett, and Tamiya Terashima, to name only a few. He has also performed with symphony orchestras and classical ensembles, and has appeared on prestigious stages the world over.

  For more information, visit the website of the Library of Congress