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.

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".

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