Week 5 Supplement: Notes on Lomax Recordings of Worksongs & Spirituals

Here's a link to Alan Lomax's notes in the Library of Congress--which issued the Afro-American Spirituals, Worksongs and Ballads CD that was my source for the first 10 songs on the DOWNLOAD for Weeks 4-5. These are Lomax's own field notes--take a look and you'll have a better sense of context for the songs:

 http://www.loc.gov/folklife/LP/AfroAmerSpirtualsL3_opt.pdf

In general, I'd like you to be more adventurous--and more specific--in how you look into the material I'm giving you. For instance, take a song title and artist's names (let's try Lead Me To The Rock, listed as sung by Wash Dennis and Charlie Sims on track data) plug it into google and see where it leads. I just tried this and found several interesting starting points--including discussion of these songs by Alan Lomax.

Track data in iTunes after downloading

Google search for song title & artists' names

 Obviously you can't do this with ALL the material--but following your own path to specifics will add a lot to your understanding--and to the work you do for the class! It's always a balance between getting an broad-range overall view (as in Week 4) and finding ways to follow leads that engage you to something specific about the songs and where they come from... I want you to do some of both!

WEEK V: SPIRITUALS II / Oh Mary Don't You Weep

Charles White, Love Letter II, 1971

READING. From last week, Leroi Jones' Blues People  still very much applies. Let's see some references to the reading in your Digital Notebook posts. And do take a closer look at W.E.B Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, see Sorrow Songs (the last chapter). Online text: Souls of Black Folk.
The new reading for this week: Biblical references in folk songs, particularly the Spirituals. See the passages below (bottom of post) for Mary Don't You Weep. Read and consider these biblical passages carefully. Especially the way they draw on both Old and New Testament sources. How did Black people in the South come to know these passages? Read DuBois. Also: the concordance, and question of biblical translations. Also see notes on writer James Baldwin, below.

SONGS: Continue with songs on Week 3 download (Work Songs / Spirituals / Gospel). Focus on Mary Don't You Weep.

PROJECT. For the coming week I want you to concentrate on Oh Mary Don't You Weep, especially the way verses from both the New Testament (the story of Mary and Martha) are merged with verses from the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible)--and what this merging might have to do with the lives of Black people in the American South in the time of slavery.  

Versions of Mary Don't You Weep. There are different ways of singing this song--indeed, almost two different songs. You'll hear the Black church version in the Swan Silvertones (also on our S&P CD--and Bob Dylan's favorite) and in the beautiful rendition by Inez Andrews (watch her face as she sings.) Leadbelly takes another approach--which I'm assuming became the basis for the Lomax's version in their songbooks. (You can find this in our S&P TAN Songset.) In any  case, the Lomaxes  arranged the lyrics. Mississippi John Hurt (we'll hear more of him later!) basically does this one. It's a beautiful, gentle, lyrical way of singing the song. A classic "folkie" version is the one by Pete Seeger. Then, a couple of wild cards--including Max Romeo's Jamaican version and a local Indy band on an Oakland rooftop...

▶ Swan Silvertones - Mary Don't You Weep - YouTube
  This is the version on S&P CD. Listen carefully to how the lyrics.
▶ Inez Andrews and The Andrewettes -Mary Don't You Weep (LIVE) - YouTube 
▶ Leadbelly - Mary don't you weep - YouTube  (Last Sessions, Folkways Records) with Martha Promise. (Hear the spoons in the background too.)
▶ Mississippi John Hurt - Oh Mary Don't You Weep.wmv - YouTube
John Hurt's versions are unmistakeable!
▶ Pete Seeger - "Oh Mary, Don't You Weep" - YouTube (Bruce Springsteen has covered this version,  more recently.)  This is a Pete Seeger classic, which influenced college kids your age all over the country in the 1960s...  

Here are some wild cards:
▶ Max Romeo - Don't You Weep - Pama Reggae - YouTube  (Kingston, Jamaica, 1971). Why does Max Romeo change the lyrics here--and how does this affect the meaning of the song?
▶ The Gomorrans - Mary Don't you Weep - on a Rooftop in East Oakland - YouTube
What the feeling--and meaning--in this version?

And this one, Trinite 6:7 for a heartfelt contemporary church version:
(▶ Trinitee 5:7 - Oh Mary, Don't You Weep - YouTube)

_______________________

James Baldwin

And finally, from a documentary on the writer James Baldwin, whose early book, Go Tell It On the Mountain (1953) is very much about the themes we're looking at--and listening to--this week:
▶ James Baldwin: the Price of the Ticket - YouTube
Also this, from 1965:
▶ James Baldwin vs. William F. Buckley - YouTube 
Ask yourself: have times changes?

______________________

Charles White, Mary Don't You Weep, 1930's

OH MARY DON'T YOU WEEP--Biblical sources for the lyrics:

Here are two key passages on Mary and Martha from the New Testament. Consider how they entered into the meanings of "Oh Mary Don't You Weep." To find additional biblical references to Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus, make use of a concordance. Following, the verses from Exodus (Hebrew Bible) with the story of the Pharoah's Army at the Red Sea.

MARY & MARTHA.  "Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:38-42).

That's a modern translation. Here's the King James version:

 ³⁸ Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
³⁹ And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.
⁴⁰ But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
⁴¹ And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
⁴² But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

________

"Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus [and the disciples] came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him. Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil" (John 12:1-3)

...and again, the King James version:

12 Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.

² There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.
³ Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. 
______________

PHAROAH'S ARMY at the RED SEA. Here's the source of "Pharoah's army got drownded...," from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) in the  King James translation, EXODUS 14:20-3:

14:20 And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night. 14:21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 14:22 And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. 14:23 And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 14:24 And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, 14:25 And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians. 14:26 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. 14:27 And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 14:28 And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. 14:29 But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. 14:30 Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. 14:31 And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.

Note: This is reprised very beautifully in The Song of the Sea  (Exodus 15: 1-18), attributed to Miriam, sister of Moses: Sus v'rochvo ramah bayam... "The horse and his Chariot he cast into the sea...") It's one of the "oldest" layers in the Biblical text... Consider this, too. 

_____

And a note on the CONCORDANCE. A concordance is basically an elaborate index of biblical verses--one which allows you to look up key terms (names, places, particular words) and find the Biblical verses in which they occur. Before Google, the concordance was crucial to Biblical scholarship. For our purposes, it will help you understand the Biblical roots of many of the songs from the American Southern tradition--particularly those of the Black church--whether from reading the bible (as Mississippi John Hurt did, assiduously) or from hearing the verses repeated in a minister's sermons. Either way, they became a hidden but central part of people's lives. Also--we'll talk about how they work in "explanatory" terms... making meaning of peoples lives, both in the time of slavery and even today...

And remember the hapax legomenon--which is to say, each one of us! (Tony's interpretation.)

WEEK 4: WORK SONGS, SPIRITUALS & GOSPEL

Horace Pippin, Domino Players, oil on board, 1943

Worksongs, Spirituals and Gospel

Download: 
S&P Work Songs / Spirituals / Gospel:
https://berkeley.box.com/s/1t39p985qfw9qju1bjxo
These songs will be important for the rest of the semester and beyond.

Reading: Leroi Jones (Amiri Bakara): Blues People reader pps. 117-146. It's one of the best chapters in the Reader. So give it some time! You should also take a look at W.E.B Dubois, Souls of Black Folk, particularly what he writes about Sorrow Songs--and the Black American experience in general. Published in 1903.  This is an important book. Here's the online text: Souls of Black Folk.
Read Leroy Jones for Week 4, Dubois for Week 5.
Remember, this is a two-week theme, with projects both weeks.

Songs. For our S&P class, the songs themselves are the best introduction. Some are on your original S&P CD, which you've already downloaded, and some on the new download above. Make a playlist--and listen up! Note that the lyrics are all in your tan S&P songset.

Here are the songs I want to be able to sing together (they're all on the downloads just mentioned). I haven't had a chance to make them into links--so you'll need to make playlist from the downloads.

Mary Don't You Weep    (Swan Silvertone's version, on your S&P CD)
Lay My Burden Down    (Mississippi John Hurt's version, on your S&P CD)
Do Lord    (also on S&P CD)

and these four from your new download, above (S&P Work Songs / Spirituals / Gospel):

Balm in Gilead   (Paul Robeson's version)
Swing Low Sweet Chariot    (Paul Robeson's version)
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child    (Paul Robeson's version)
Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen   (Marian Anderson's version)

I want you to listen to all the songs on new download, but concentrate on the ones above for singing.

Project.  For Week 4 (this coming week), I want you to dive into the breadth of this material, as reflected music-wise on the download. Then chose one song in particular for your project. (During Week 5, the following week, we'll concentrate on Mary Don't You Weep--where it comes from, in its many versions, and what it represents. But this first week, listen to the new download, go for range, and then focus on song of your choice.) Note: there are many wonderful songs on the download that you can choose to work from for your project, in addition to the ones above. For example:

Look Down That Lonesome Road  (this is an amazing song, listen carefully to the call and response form, and the poignancy of the verses. Lomax recording, 1930s.)
John the Revelator (Blind Willie Davis version)
If You See My Saviour (the song is by the Reverend Thomas Dorsey, whose version is available on youtube, see below). Here sung by Alex Bradford. This is pure Gospel music.
Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer,  by John Spence, from Andros Island in the Bahamas... A World War II song recast by a powerful Caribbean guitar-playing musician...

YES, this is a lot of material.  I want you to begin to absorb it, and to keep on returning to it over the course of the term. These African American songs will be one of our key sources!
__________

Here are some related YouTube videos:

Spirituals:
 ▶ Negro spirituals - YouTube

Work songs:
 ▶ Work Songs in a Texas Prison - YouTube
 ▶ Gandy Dancers - YouTube

Gospel:
There are also MANY gospel songs on youtube--it's a whole world unto itself. Look up the difference between "spirituals" and "gospel songs" and consider.

Let's start with a example by the Rev. Thomas Dorsey, one of the Gospel song originators, in an audio recording made when he was young (he published the song in 1929):

 ▶ Thomas Dorsey- If You See My Savior - YouTube

Here's the same song, some fifty years later, in a version from the documentary, Say Amen Somebody. (The film is an excellent  treatment of the Rev. Dorsey's life--and of gospel music as a whole--and this segment in particular remains a treasure.) Rev. Thomas Dorsey singing with Miss Sally Martin--you'll hear their real-time conversation, and see their personalities shining through: 

https://berkeley.box.com/s/yp0m9rei0s850nqv5xhtoqzlesr9w1ue

(The YouTube version was deleted--as happens--so I've given you a Box link to the footage.)
_____

And finally, another compelling gospel song in a verison by a young girl in the Adventist Church:  
 ▶ Four Days Late - YouTube   (Alisa) The Story of Jesus and Lazarus. Four Days Late has a backstory which I'll present in class. Also, it will figure again  in Week 4 when we look at Mary Don't You Weep.

Where Do We Come From...?

Paul Gauguin,  
Where Do We Come From, What Are We, Where Are We Going?‏, 
 oil on canvas, 1897

I'm adding this post because of some of the questions  I raised in the review last week. Too abruptly, perhaps. It was certainly not my intention to put you on the spot--or to make anyone feel badly. If I did so, please accept my apologies. Rather, questions of difference--and a sense of where we all come from--are an crucial part of Songs & Places. Hence what follows.

The French artist Paul Gauguin made this painting in Tahiti in 1897, giving it the title, D'où Venons Nous / Que Sommes Nous / Où Allons Nous. Lots of things have been said about Gauguin, about why he left France for the Pacific, about how he saw/envisioned life there--his reasons for painting his characters--Tahitians all--in the way he did. Gauguin left elaborate journals that speak to some of this--and there is a huge amount of Paul Gauguin "lore." Likewise, with today's often critical perspective, much has been made of Gauguin's "romanticism," his idealization of an imagined bucolic life in Tahiti (which he saw it as a kind of Eden) and the ways by which he took advantage of his position as a European (Tahiti was then a French colony). Also, ironically, how much of contemporary Tahitian life he simply ignored. All of these issues are certainly worth our attention--but there remains at the same time the painting itself--what it tells us, and what we make of it. D'où Venons Nous / Que Sommes Nous / Où Allons Nous came at a time of personal crisis for Gauguin. (One reads that he was close to suicide.) His "reaching across" cultures here carries that personal weight.

And given that so many of us at Berkeley come from such a wide range of cultures and backgrounds (all worthwhile, all interesting) it's doubly valuable to realize how works like Gauguin's--ones that that address these differences with such grace (meant in all senses)--can speak to us in an intensely palpable way. So, let me offer it as the beginning  of a conversation (and a continuation of what we touched on in our review last Thursday evening...)

Remember how I told you at the outset that in the run of Songs & Places, there would be more questions than answers...

WEEK 3: YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE

Louisiana Gov. Jimmie Davis

The song for this week--You Are My Sunshine. Listen to the version on S&P download--by Jimmy Davis, former governor of Louisiana, with a prior music career  (you can look into this).

https://berkeley.box.com/s/8yvg04lwanoqngvxkh1n4hn1aepn3ikb

Jimmy Davis sang the song on the campaign trail all over Louisiana in the year 1940. It soon became popular all over the country--and during the war. Bob Dylan at one point said that it was our best song... Why do you think this might be so?

Jimmy Davis
where from
when recorded
the history
precedents (listen to Heavenly Sunshine, see below)

black southern traditions
white southern traditions
their interweaving
learn by finding recordings as specific examples (by date)  

Look into precedents: Laura Henton's Heavenly Sunshine, a gospel song.
Laura Henton- Heavenly Sunshine - YouTube
You can hear  something of Will the Circle be Unbroken in the melody--but also the dynamics of You Are My Sunshine. (It's on youtube--and you can find this on the American Song Archive, under the Resources post on class blog.) Look for other earlier songs that may have influenced Jimmy Davis--that songs that formed his world. And check Smithsonian Global Sound to see what Folkways Records recorded.

Also listen to Ollie Gilbert's "down home" version, on Max Hunter Archive (also on Resources post). What's the difference between Ollie's version and Jimmy Davis? Why? How will this influence your new project?  You Are My Sunshine - Max Hunter Folk Song Collection - Missouri State University

You Are My Sunshine is not precisely about place. Or is it? Where does it take you, place-wise?

NOTE: Your thoughts about the ideas above--how you explore them, what you find, what sense you make of them--should be reflected on your blog sites!

Ollie Gilbert

Reading: Lomax selections in Reader, pps. 1-32. Read for tone as well as content. Look into the Lomax story (John Lomax and his son, Alan--both important--crucial--figures in American folk music.) Alan Lomax collection was published in 1960. John and Alan Lomax collection in 1947. See bibliography (on blog) for full details. As you read, or re-read, ASK THREE QUESTIONS re Lomax--post on your blog, with the beginnings of some answers...

Other versions (from YouTube). This is just a smattering of what's out there. I've followed the 50-year rule, of course--which I want you to do as well:

YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE, BY GOV. JIMMIE DAVIS - YouTube
▶ You Are My Sunshine by Gov Jimmie Davis, Scott Innes & Nelson Blanchard - LMHOF 2012 - YouTube 
▶ Gene Autry: You Are My Sunshine - YouTube

You Are My Sunshine by Mississippi John Hurt - YouTube
John Hurt's versions are a delight. We'll spend more time with all of his music later in the semester!

For a very different take, see Jerry Lee Lewis' original version for Sun Records--its own kind of raunchy classic... Jerry Lee Lewis - You Are My Sunshine - YouTube

Students' Online Notebooks - LINKS

Jean Ritchie teaching one-room school, Cumberland, Kentucky, WWII era

 
Megan Ky-Lan Bradley     http://megankbradley.blogspot.com/
Kim Becerril                       http://kimbecerril.blogspot.com
Lida Asselstine Tunesi       http://tunesandplaces.blogspot.com/
Hannah Danielle Laher      http://hlaher.weebly.com
Austin Reuter                     http://austinreuter.weebly.com/
Miin Choi                           http://seeing-songs.blogspot.com   
Ashley Ding                       http://asherding.blogspot.com/
Sky Whities                       http://mylifeisasky.blogspot.com/
Laila Audelo                      lailaaudelo.blogspot.com
Oguz Gencay                     http://snapshotsofvs185x.blogspot.com/ 
Cindy Gao Zhang               http://cinzheng.blogspot.com/

Carlos Iñigo                        http://vs185xcarlos.blogspot.com
Chris Detjen                        http://songsplaceschris.blogspot.com/
Thomas Agramonte            http://thomasagramonte.blogspot.com
Kiare Tanner                       kdiorable.blogspot.com
Danica Adams                    lifeharmonies.blogspot.com
Gabrielle Nguyen               http://gabienguyen.blogspot.com/

American Song & Smithsonian‏ Archives

Folkways Records, album cover, 1962

After handling the media the way I did during class last week (I do like real-time explorations, but my presentation wasn't at all smooth) I went through the American Song and Smithsonian Global Sound Archives again and selected a few good examples for you. Many of the archive audio examples also come up on you tube. The two resources work together.

Down in the Valley

From Lonesome Valley, a Moe Asch collection, Folkways 1951
http://search.alexanderstreet.com/glmu/view/work/226939
female singer, chorus mixed, nice banjo tremolo
Bess Lomax, Pete Seeger and Tom Glazer

Gene Autry
http://search.alexanderstreet.com/amso/view/work/1406690
Hollywood Cowboy original

Bob Ross:
http://search.alexanderstreet.com/amso/view/work/227685
a version for servicemen during WWII

Frank Proffitt:
http://search.alexanderstreet.com/amso/view/work/227854
banjo version here, true Southern Mountain tradition
Kingston Trio borrowed Tom Doolah from Frank Proffitt...

and on the DRAM Archive:
Birmingham Jail, from 1931 ( Cal Carson [pseudonym of Frank Luther],
http://www.dramonline.org/tracks/birmingham-jail/player
Quite interesting because it takes a traditional song into new Jazz-Age arrangement

Connemara Cradle Song - Down in the Valley

Tommy Makem, Irish Folk Musician, Poet, Storyteller

Tommy Makem version of the Connemara Cradle Song, an old Irish lullaby, which points to an Irish  precedent for Down in the Valley...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHGJu8oWkkE

Birmingham Jail--Mudcat Thread on Darby & Tarlton version

Tom Darby & Jimmie Tarlton, 1920's

 Darby & Tarlton-Birmingham Jail - YouTube  1927
 _____

A post from Mudcat /Digital Tradition on Birmingham Jail: 

Subject: Lyr Add: BIRMINGHAM JAIL (from Darby & Tarlton)
From: Dale Rose
Date: 15 Jan 00 - 05:23 PM

Here are the notes (by Ed Kahn) and lyrics for Birmingham Jail from Darby & Tarlton, Complete Recordings, Bear Family 15764, 1995 ~~ three-CD set. While I don't think they settle the matter of authorship, they do make for interesting reading. They also give insight as to how the recording artists were treated by the companies, and how really "rich" they became as a result of their recordings.

I also think this is one of the best of the old time reissues, with every surviving recording by Tom Darby and Jimmie Tarlton, both together and separately. Highly recommended.

This is a traditional lyric that has been collected throughout the South from Missouri, Kentucky, and Arkansas before Tom and Jimmie ever committed it to wax. But the popularity of their recording was so great that in subsequent years their version turned up with increasing frequency. The problem of traditional material finding its way onto wax and the ensuing copyright problems are illustrated clearly in the details of this song's history.

Tom insists that he wrote the song, although folksong scholarship traces this song back long before Darby & Tarlton. Tom remembers: "I sung Birmingham Jail in World War I and there's some buddies that's living yet that know that I did." Despite exaggerated claims, their recording of this song sold about 200,000 copies, which brought them a total of $37.50, which they split. Shortly before the beginning of the Second World War, Tom visited Lennie Davis, a young attorney in Columbus and claimed that he owned Birmingham Jail, and that his copyright had been violated. Tom had copyrighted the song in his name on June 11, 1930. Columbia replied to Davis' inquiry that this song was a folksong in the public domain and produced a copy of the original contract with Darby & Tarlton in which they promised to sing only folk songs and furthermore agreed that if they did use any original material the rights would go to Columbia.

Davis advised Tom that he should try to break the original contract, contending that, in his opinion, this was a yellow dog contract and that such contracts were illegal. Before Davis was able to proceed, he entered the army. He turned the file over to Tom with the advice to find another attorney. Tom turned the matter over to a collection agency that he read about in an ad in the back of a magazine. Tom says he eventually made some kind of settlement with Columbia, but the details are not known.

What is interesting is that both Tom and Jimmie claim the song. In 1937, Jimmie appeared at a reunion of ex-inmates of the Birmingham Jail and sang 'his' song. The event was covered in the old 'Birmingham Post.' What is interesting is that Jimmie contended that in 1925 he was serving an 85-day sentence for moonshining and that at that time his girlfriend, Bessie, was sick and he wanted to be by her side. The story is that he sang his sad song about Bessie and the prison guards told the warden, who went to the City Fathers who pardoned him. The story goes on to say that Bessie died shortly after Jimmie was released from Birmingham Jail.

What we know is that this is, indeed, a traditional song and that it is possible that either or both men put their personal stamp on it.

BIRMINGHAM JAIL
As sung by Darby & Tarlton, November 10, 1927
Authorship claimed by both, but mostly traditional

Down in the levee, levee so low
Late in the evenin' hear the train blow
Here the train blow love, hear the train blow
Late in the evenin' hear the train blow

Roses love sunshine, violets love dew
Angels in heaven know I love you
Write me a letter, send it by mail
Send it in care of Birmingham Jail
Birmingham Jail love, Birmingham Jail
Send it in care of Birmingham Jail

Bessie my darling, Bessie my dear
Bessie I love you, foolish I do
Down in the meadow, down on my knees
Prayin' to heaven to give my heart ease
Bird in a cage love, bird is so low
Kiss me once more love, then I must go


http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=17109#163367

Resources-- Notes on Use

Alan Jabbour and Carl Fleischhauer record Burl Hammons in West Virginia in 1973.

Notes on RESOURCES

This is a good place to begin to explore some of the course RESOURCES (you'll find all the links together in a post in the Blog Archive, column to right). There are many many different versions of the songs recorded--and the "stream" of these versions constitutes a history in its own right.

Primary are the UC Berkeley Music Library's Streaming Audio and Video Collections--look into these two in particular:

* American Song                                                          
http://search.alexanderstreet.com/amso

* Smithsonian Global Sound                                        
http://search.alexanderstreet.com/glmu

For this week, use "Down in the Valley" and "Birmingham Jail" as search terms. There's some overlap in the archives--and each collection has a different emphasis. That means a lot of thinking  and sorting on your part. No, I don't expect you to listen to everything, but rather to get a good sense of what's there--and to begin to learn to follow you own path. To be discriminating...

Also remember to check the Max Hunter collection for his "front porch" recordings, made on the road in the Ozarks (Arkansas) between 1956-76. Ollie Gilbert remains a favorite.  

* Max Hunter Folk Song Collection

YOU TUBE and the 50 YEAR RULE. There are unlimited number of versions of everything on You Tube, but finding the right version (is there such a thing?) is an increasing challenge. The 50-year-rule can help. Gets you to earlier material. Use google searches to find out about the selections. You need to be creative in your "research" of these songs--who sang them--and why.  I expect you to be articulate and specific about the songs--the versions, background. Ask in class--we'll discuss. For older material, the fact that the visual image is in bl;ack and white can be a tip off. And you can't always trust the publication date--when new collections are made, they have date of publication, not the date of original recording--which one can usually find on google with some poking around.

MUDCAT. Remember that the discussion threads in Mudcat are often a very good resource for how people interested in American Roots Music interpret it collectively. Takes some patience to go through, but what you'll find here can be illuminating. We discussed in class the obscure words in the lyrics for I Ride An Old Paint--muleskinner and cowhand terms from more than a century ago... Fiery and Snuffy... throw the hoolihan... You'll find this discussed on Mudcat.

*  Digital Tradition (Mudcat)

HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU KNOW? The S&P course isn't about the minutiae of dates and titles--however, the fabric of what we're listening to--and singing--has a specific historical character. Which I expect you to know in its main outlines. I'll ask questions in class to see if you're following through. (Remember, the key word on your part is initiative!)

Sample question: What is Elizabeth Cotten's most loved song--how old was she when she wrote it--and what historical associations does it evoke? Or, to turn the question around, Who wrote "Freight Train when she was eleven years old--and what's its historical background (traeted in an eliptical fashion). Also, why did she stop playing music for all those years?

Include your own discussion of what you find on your personal notebook (blog) site...

WEEK 2: DOWN IN THE VALLEY

Walker Evans, Hitchhikers, Vicksburg (vicinity), March 1936

DOWNLOADS. Continue listening to the first three downloads (all the songs in tan songbook and gray songbook). Pick out songs that you'd to do together in class. And sing them so that hyou learn the lyrics...

READING. Start with both the Lomax selections in Reader, pps 1-32. I want you to consider "voice"--who's speaking and why--and (most importantly) how. Don 't be put off by the language from the time when these pieces were written. And don't dismiss it! It tells us a LOT about where the sings come from--that is, how we have them now... The first, Alan Lomax's 1960 book introduction will give you good overview of the "folksong" world as he saw it at the outset of the 1960s folk revival--to which the Lomax's work made an important contribution. (Remember, Alan Lomax and his father, John Lomax made those early field recordings of the songs--that's how we have Leadbelly and many others...)

ONLINE NOTEBOOKS. Several of you have not yet sent me your blog url--active link to your homepage. Get it to me this week without fail. Everyone should post their first project (FIRST SONG) with your own discussion of how you got there. The work in class in many cases was quite good--likewise our group discussion, which should give you some ideas on how to write about your work...

PROJECT.  Down in the Valley, one of the most mysterious of our songs--even though it seems quite straightforward. The verses you have were "assembled" by John and Alan Lomax. Another version of the song goes by the title Birmingham Jail. The Lomax version is a combination of the two.


Make a visual response to the song. Personal component and cultural stream component, as discussed in class. Some of both? Medium is open, but see if you can get at the expressive qualities of the song--the space, the time, the feelings involved...

Let your hand show...

The Cumberland Gap

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The following is a quick sampler to get you started. I expect you to follow your own path using the RESOURCES archives which we got a start with in class.

Darby & Tarlton-Birmingham Jail - YouTube  1927
Burl Ives - 08 - Down in the Valley - YouTube   
The classic folkways master... also an actor--something we should discuss. 1958?
Andy Griffith - Down In The Valley - YouTube  
1950s American tv. Consider... You Angelinos, see also Gene Autry recorded on Okeh...

And here are two Max Hunter Archive recordings (Ollie Gilbert apparently did not record this song):
http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=264  
Rev. Harold Hunter and Max Hunter, Max Hunter Folk Song Collection
http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=489  
Jimmy Morris, Max Hunter Folk Song Collection

And then, from a different perspective entirely...

Down in the Valley, the Ikettes version:  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JK1BaPUT44
That's Tina Turner when she was still with Ike. Ask me for stories on this.

Solomon Burke - Down In The Valley - YouTube 1965
The song returned to it's souce--by the EMPEROR... Solomon Burke passed away two years ago--and a lot of his material is no longer up on YouTube. Nevertheless, his version of the song is really worth paying attention--how he re-incorporated Down In the Valley into his own soul-singer world. He also tells a powerful story about  performing the song in Louisiana at what  turned out to be a Ku Klux Klan event. (Last thing Solomon Burke expected--he told his band--"No matter what happens, just keep on playin'...") Look into this to see another aspect of American social history--a difficult one--and its connection to the music...  Otis Redding does a similar version... And you have the Ikettes, above (Tina Turner). And Leadbelly, of couse, late 1940s.

American Song and Smithsonian Archives. I made a separate most for the Archive material. Following.