Week 10: LEADBELLY

Leadbelly & Woody Guthrie

DOWNLOAD: Leadbelly Songs

https://berkeley.box.com/s/3ps7p4cpsairtjcrro1m

READING: First, read Jas Obrecht on the Lomax Family, Reader pps. 248-49. Then continue with the following selections from John Szwed's Alan Lomax biorgraphy: Introduction (pps. 1-4), and his two Leadbelly chapters: Road Scholars (pps. 31-58) and The Saga of Lead Belly (pps. 59-76). Together these will give you a good understanding the Lomax recordings--and what they went through to make them (including the unwieldy recording set up they carried in the trunk of their car). And the beginnings of an understanding of Huddie Ledbetter himself... (The Szwed book, Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World, is availalble in the UC Libraries (Main and Music). It's also available online--iDocs cureently has it posted: http://www.idoc.co/read/45760/alan-lomax-john-szwed/1 

On the road, 1934--the Lomax car trunk

I kept this week's download a bit more manageable in size, but you'll still need to be selective as to what songs you concentrate on. Remember that our original S&P set has these three (they're basic):

Rock Island Line
Goodnight Irene
Midnight Special


The ones below are in the Leadbelly supplement download for this week. They're all good, of course, but I've picked out a few favorites (in red). In particular, I want you to consider the words Leadbelly uses for Take This Hammer. The sequence of the verses as well...

The Gallis Pole
Duncan And Brady (Acapella)
Take This Hammer  (lyrics in gray songset--give them some thought)
Grey Goose
In The Pines
Bring A Little Water Sylvie (beautiful song to do together)
Corn Bread Rough
We Shall Be Free (with Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston, and Sonny Terry)
Let It Shine On Me
Blind Lemon
Sukey Jump

Leadbelly, cover of Life magazine, 1935

Here are some additional questions/points of departure:

* Consider the chorus in Midnight Special. What WAS the Midnight Special? How did this image figure in Leadbelly's life? Look into this.
* With Rock Island Line, there's some important history: the song was subsequently covered (basically stolen) by the English Skiffle Band figure, Lonnie Donnegan (in the 1950's), who  recorded--and later copyrighted--the song as his own. Look into this. There are videos of the skiffle version on YouTube. (The same thing happened with Elizabeth Cotten's Freight Train--you can look into the details here as well.) We can discuss this phenomenon in general...
* In the Pines and Bring a Little Water, Sylvie are just plain beautiful songs...

Also, and VERY important--as you look for videos of Leadbelly, as always with YouTube it's a question of how to sort through the vast array. Here are three that I think are IMPORTANT to pay close attention to (I WANT YOU ALL TO DO THIS!):

1.  Leadbelly /  segment from the Gordon Parks film (1976)    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG7wpN6Pcfs   
It's well worth watching how Gordon Parks (the distinguished African American photographer and film maker) depicts Leadbelly. There's a lot of "attitude" here--and it's worth paying close attention to. Ask yourselves, why is this film almost impossible to find...?

Leadbelly in Gordon Parks' film version, 1976

2.  The Leadbelly "Newsreel"   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxykqBmUCwk
In which the "story" of Leadbelly is told--with footage of John Lomax and Leadbelly acting their parts, and a narrative which stands in relief to Gordon Parks' treatment. Note that the script here was written by the March of Time newsreel producers, not John Lomax. Consider the audience--in other words, who was this for? Newsreel features were common at the time--shown in theaters before the movies. (The newsreel images are fictional--a picture follows of the actual Angola Penitentiary in a period photo.)  CONCENTRATE ON THIS VIDEO!

Leadbelly and John Lomax, from the 1935 March of Time newsreel

Angola Penitentiary (Angola, LA), period photo

3.  And finally, Leadbelly singing Goodnight Irene (with Martha Promise Ledbetter)   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMarv156mKw&feature=related
I just found this recently--it's a gem. Martha Promise was Leadbelly's wife...! The setting is "set up" of course--how could it not be--but their personalities shine through...

Leadbelly and Martha Promise, Wilton, Conn. 1935

A good question throughout--in fact, the main question I'd like to consider--who WAS Leadbelly? The man himself--and the figure he presented to the world (the several figures). How do we come to our own terms with the question? And in relation to Mississippi John Hurt? They both left what was home--at very different times in their lives, and under very different circumstances. How is this reflected in their characters--and in the character of their songs?

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One more thought: Leadbelly's late recordings, from 1948 (made in  New York, in his apartment with Martha during those last years) are also worth looking into. (Where Woody Guthrie slept on the couch for something like a year.) They may not show Leadbelly in full vigor, but each one has a ranging introduction in his own voice--and these are priceless. Listen to his version of Goodnight Irene here--even just the beginning...

The Last Sessions
You can access these on the Music Library's Streaming Audio Databases, under American Song:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MUSI/audio.html
Search for Leadbell's Last Sessions and you'll find all the recordings. (There's a wealth of earlier Leadbelly material in this archive as well. Poke around!) I'm sure that at least some of it is posted on YouTube as well.

Leadbelly

Week 9: SONGSTER II

Henry Thomas, Ragtime Texas

Preliminary note: Usually we do two full weeks on Mississippi John Hurt. But this semester let's broaden things a bit and focus on more examples from the Songster tradition.

We'll continue this week with the Songster material on your Mississippi John Hurt download (from last week). Including the "Ragtime Texas" Henry Thomas--whose songs also give us a look back into the 19th century (Thomas recorded around 1925, a little earlier than Mississippi John Hurt). His "Fishin' Blues" being one of the great examples. (Listen in particular to the way Thomas plays the reed pipes!) Harry Smith put this song in the final spot of his Anthology of American Folk Music (Folkways, 1952) as we discussed in class--you have Smith's notes as the last chapter in your Reader; see the last entry as you listen, Reader p. 287.) Contemporary blues musician (and much more), Taj Mahal made a well-none cover of the song in 1968 (on his first album De Old Folks at Home), one that became a kind of touchstone of those "return to sources" years.

Henry Thomas - Fishin' Blues - YouTube  (same version as on your download)
Taj Mahal - Fishin' Blues - YouTube (early version-1968)

Note that there are several additional Henry Thomas songs on the same download. Plus Old Dog Blue (a gem) by Jim Jackson (1928).

We'll also listen to Doc Watson, Sittin' on Top of the World, one of his best songs, recorded in about 1960, and borrowed from a jug band original by the Mississippi Sheiks, who first recorded it in 1930. Bob Dylan later did a great version of his own (closer to the Mississippi Sheiks). And I'll give you a video of Sam Chatmon who recorded some of these songs in old age--in 1978--with Alan Lomax. (Sam Chatmon was a member of the original Mississippi Sheiks!) All interesting for the back and forth across time--and across musical cultures...

SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD (1964) by Doc Watson - YouTube 
The Mississippi Sheiks, Sitting On Top Of The World - 1930-YouTube
Sittin' on Top of the World (Remastered) - Bob Dylan - YouTube 
Sam Chatmon: Sittin' On Top of the World (1978) - YouTube

And then there's Reverend Gary Davis (you know his Candy Man) who brought the songster material to New York City. Cocaine Blues, one of his best songs, was also a jugband favorite. See the Memphis Jugband's version, from about 1929. (You already have the Memphis Jug Band's Stealin' Stealin' on Supplements Download, and in Tan songbook.)

Rev. Gary Davis playing "Candyman" - YouTube (This is his guitar playing.) You have the song version on first S&P download.)
Cocaine Blues - Rev. Gary Davis
'Cocaine Habit Blues' THE MEMPHIS JUG BAND (1929) Memphis Blues Legend - YouTube
YouTube - 'Stealin' Stealin' THE MEMPHIS JUG BAND, Memphis Blues Legend  

These fit this week as well...

Candy Man (Rev. Gary Davis version and Mississippi John Hurt version)
San Francisco Bay Blues (Jesse Fuller)
Stealin' Stealin' (Memphis Jug Band)
Elizabeth Cotten's Freight Train would also find a place here.

Your neighborhood jug band

Here are some related terms: Songster / Ragtime /  Old Time Music / Piedmont Blues / Vaudeville / Minstrel / Medicine Show

READING. You can read the Elizabeth Cotten entry, Reader p. 257-262. Use google sources to followup on rest of the above--including Henry Thomas, songster, jug bands, and Reverend Gary Davis...

Week 8: MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT / SONGSTER I

Mississippi John Hurt, 1964, David Gahr photo (detail)

For the next two weeks we'll explore the songster tradition--a wonderful example being the music of Mississippi John Hurt. First, here's a download on box with a selection of his songs:

https://berkeley.box.com/s/ys2pvqpxyluf8hoaz3dj 

Note that the download also includes a handful of songs by other artists (Henry Thomas, and Jim Jackson's Old Dog Blue, for example.) You'll need to add the xml file to your iTunes to see artists' names. However, Mississippi John Hurt's voice and guitar playing are unique--as are Henry Thomas'--so it should also be clear from listening which are which... 

READING. A good biography of MJH by Philip Radcliffe is available in the Music Library. This would be a good time to dip in. Also, you've read Norm Cohen on the folk revival movement, now (at some point) read another version--Eric von Schmidt ("Baby Let Me Follow You Down," Reader pps. 101-116) This was the period (early 1960s) when Mississippi John Hurt, by then in his 70s, became known to a wide audience... But for his story, we need to go back to Mississippi of the 1920s. Here are two very different versions. Read and consider them carefully!

*  Jas Obrecht article:  http://denniste/mjhurt/mjhjas.htm

And, for a more personal (and personally enlightening) view, I'll attach something Betsy (Elisabeth Dubovsky) wrote several years ago. Also a telling of the life of Mississippi John Hurt--as related to us one evening here in Berkeley by musician and poet friend Max Ochs. Max was part of the circle of people from the Washington DC area who located ("rediscovered") John Hurt in the early 1960s, in Avalon, Mississippi, invited him north, and helped introduce him to a wide and receptive new audience. Betsy's piece was published as a small chapbook edition, in 2005.  (Note: To maintain original formatting, you'll need to view online using MS word, or download before reading)


* With Mississippi John Hurt, by Max Ochs:  https://berkeley.box.com/s/oq4vltmialozpysrh0jv 

And listen to John Hurt telling his own telling of this story (a clip from from Pete Seeger's 1960's television show, Rainbow Quest):

* Rainbow Quest: Mississippi John Hurt - Goodnight Irene - YouTube

Songs for the week. All of Mississippi John Hurt's songs are a delight, and for projects you're free to work from the ones you like best. But for singing together, here are three I like in particular:

Make Me A Pallet on Your Floor
Beulah Land (Mississippi John Hurt - Beulah Land - YouTube - not on download)
Louis Collins

The lyrics for these three are in your Gray Songset.
Note: We used to be able to find all of Mississippi John  Hurt lyrics in Ken Whitfield's compiliation from 2008. That link is no longer active, so my suggestion is to search for the lyrics song by song using MJH and song title.

John Hurt and Jessie

Also key: Avalon Blues, recorded by Mississippi John Hurt in one of those early sessions in 1928, and (because it made reference to Avalon, Miss., his hometown),  the route to his rediscover three decades later. It's on your download, but here's a YouTube link for convenience (below). The lyrics are important--you can find them in Ken Whitfield's compilation, in two versions:  MJH Lyrics – Compiled by Ken Whitfield 4-2008.   (If the Whitfield site is down, you can also find them on this Mudcat Thread: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=67223#1187009)   Consider where Mississippi John Hurt locates himself--the song speaks of this--and why. (How he juxtaposes Avalon, Miss. and New York City, where he'd gone for the first time to make the recording.)

* Avalon Blues:  Mississippi John Hurt - Avalon Blues - YouTube

Montage by Ron Anton Rocz

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During the second week, we'll pull the camera back and look at (and listen two!) a wider variety of songster material--and consider how it brought together so many streams from American popular music of an earlier era. More to come...

Supplement: Elvis Costello on American Roots Music

Elvis Costello, 1970s

THIS POST IS A SUPPLEMENT! See post below, Appalachia II for this week's primary work!

The following is from A.O. Scott's interview with Elvis Costello in this week's NY Times Magazine. The question posed here is what were Costello's influences in Liverpool and in London in the early in early 1970's. Note what Costello says about Appalachian music...

What were your influences then? What were you trying to do? I was playing in public when I moved to Liverpool in 1970. In London, you would have traditional singers and contemporary singers in the same clubs. In Liverpool, you didn’t. The traditional clubs were very seriously about traditional music and Irish music. And if you tried to sing your own song, you were out; they didn’t want to know.

I quickly learned that there were only certain places I could play. I wasn’t like Richard Thompson — I never had this rich language of English or even Irish traditional music. I just had the knowledge of the few records my dad had, you know, a Clancy Brothers record and a Chieftains record. And I knew some songs. I knew some ‘‘rebel songs.’’ I just learned them all by osmosis. Later on I got really, really fascinated by Appalachian music. Of course, they are all the same songs, but somehow I heard them more clearly — Doc Watson and these people. From the ’70s through the mid-’80s, I absorbed all the American music, not just country music like Nashville country music or Bakersfield country music, but older, more traditional styles, even the Stanley Brothers and that stuff. Of course, they were all the same roots. Often you trace them back and they actually are Irish or Scottish songs.

Here's a link to the full article:  

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/magazine/elvis-costello-looks-back.html?emc=eta1

Week 7: APPALACHIA II-THE BRITISH BALLADS

Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles, Appalachia ca. 1918

This week we take up British ballad sources--antecedents to Appalachian songs like Banks of the Ohio and Will the Circle be Unbroken. Many were brought to America by the immigrants who first settled Appalachia. That mountain country being so isolated that the songs--and aspects of their Elizabethan language--were preserved relatively intact for some 200 years. Song collectors like Cecil Sharp (and Francis James Child before him) brought this material to a wider public through the collection and publication of the ballads. See notes below on their work. For our class, Cecil Sharp is the more important, because of his collecting trips in Appalachia in the early 20th century.

S&P Ballads download on box:
https://berkeley.box.com/s/p8v1c365iwe449t3lljd  
Listen carefully to these songs--words and music. (Note that this is the same download we began with last week. It takes some repeated listening--this week with a focus on the relation between the British Ballads and their American counterparts.)

The download has examples of Child Ballads, sung in their American versions (see notes on Child Ballads, below):

Barbry Allen (Child 84)  Jean Ritchie
Black Jack Davey (Child 200) Carter Family--and one by Bob Dylan
The House Carpenter (Child 243) Clarence Ashley
Pretty Polly (Child 4)  Doc Boggs version, and one by Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson

And several distinctly American ballads from Appalachia (these have a different feel than the Child ballads--they reflect the American experience):

Omie Wise (G.B. Grayson)
Shady Grove  (Clarence Ashley and Doc Watson ( (Shady Grove includes some Child Ballad lines)
Sugar Baby (Doc Boggs)
The Wagoner's Lad (Buell Kazee)
John Henry (Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley)

There are also a selection of related songs--including more Carter Family material and two from the anthracite coal miners. Plus one beautiful English ballad, The Lowlands of Holland (pay attention to the story--and the experience it reflects).

Roscoe Hocomb's Hands, John Cohen photo, 1959

Recall that some of these songs were included by Harry Smith on his 1952 Folkways Anthology of American Folk music, which brought them to the attention of the 1960s folk revival people. Examples include The Coo Coo (Clarence Ashley), Sugar Baby (Doc Boggs),  Omie Wise (G.B. Grayson), and The Wagoner's Lad  (Buell Kazee).

Reading:
Make sure you've read carefully the Norm Cohen article in Reader pps. 33-56 (background on the folk revival).
Here's Mike Yates excellent and detailed article on Cecil Sharp. This is your main reading for the week. Here's the LINK:  http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/sharp.htm
For the adventurous, at some point: Nick Tosches in Reader, The Twisted Roots of Rock and Roll, pps. 187-204, which takes one song-- Gypsy Davey, and traces it's winding (and fascinating) history. (Here's a wild card: Woody Guthrie's version: Gypsy Davy - Woody Guthrie - YouTube

Three Songs for this week (you already have these in your S&P CD download and Tan Songsheets) KNOW THESE BY HEART! 

Barbara Allen   Barbara Allen (Jean Ritchie)
And here's Ollie Gilbert's version: Barbry Allen

Down by the Sally Garden   Down by the Salley Gardens (The lyrics are by William Butler Yates, from a traditional melody in the West of Ireland)

Comin' Thro' the Rye   Comin' Thro' the Rye  (Julie London, in a non-traditional version)

Topics and people to keep in mind:
Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles (Appalachian collecting trip, 1916-18)
Olive Dame Campbell, American folkorist and song collector)
Francis James Child  The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (1892-1898) (The Child Ballads)
Harry Smith, Anthology of American Folk Music (Folkways Records, 1952)
John Jacob Niles  (The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles, 1960)

Sharp and Karpeles collecting, ca. 1918

Note on Cecil Sharp. Cecil Sharp was an English song collector who did work in Britian and America in the early part of the 20th Century. The old ballads were disappearing in the England of his day, so Sharp made a collecting trip to the Appalachian mountains, where (he reasoned) the songs in something of their original form had been preserved for 200 years by the descendants of the original immigrants. Sharp worked with Maud Karpeles, also from England--and collaborated with Olive Dame Campbell (the American song collector and folklorist). Read Mike Yates article on Cecil Sharp: Here's the link again: http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/sharp.htm

Sharp recorded the the songs, in musical transcription. Karpeles recorded the words. (There was no way of doing field audio recordings at the time.) They both kept diaries, which present a picture of their journey and what they encountered. Here's a good BBC documentary on the recent online publication of the diraries:
* BBC News - Audio slideshow: Cecil Sharp's diaries

Sharp also made photographs, which can be found on this site:
* VWML Online :: Introduction to Cecil Sharp's diaries

Cecil Sharp photo, ca. 1918

Olive Dame Campbell. Another important figure in the early collecting of Appalachachian songs. Originally from Massachusetts, Campbell made a life working with Appalchian folklore. The songs she gathered, first with her husband, John Campbell, were published in Cecil Sharp's English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. Campbell was also involved in educational reform, and founded the Southern Highlands Folk Guild--a model for early development of the American Folklore movement. The contemporary film, Songcatcher (2000) is based loosely on Campbell's work--and her connection with Cecil Sharp.


Note on Francis James Child. Child was also a ballad collector, an American scholar whose work preceeded Sharp. Child worked in the 19th century. He focused on the lyrics of the songs (not the music), studying the relationship between their historical variants in England, Scotland (and America). His collection was eventually organized and published (between 1882-1896) as The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. There are 305 in all, each one numbered (including variants). Child Ballad themes include "romance, supernatural experiences, historical events, morality, riddles, murder, and folk heroes." Many had their beginnings in medieval times--the legends of Robin Hood and the court of King Arthur.

Here are some Child Ballads lyrics: 
* The Elfin Knight (Child 2)   
* Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight  (Child 4)
and the song in a recent YouTube version:  Emilie Faiella - Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight, a Medieval Ballad (with lyrics) - YouTube    
* The Bonnie Earl o' Moray (Child 181)
* The Gypsy Laddie  (Child 200)

Here's more of Jean Ritchie (there are numerous films of Jean Ritchie because she left Kentucky for New York, working in the Settlement House movement and presenting the songs she'd grown up with to a much wider audience. She also made many records of the Kentucky mountain songs--and their British precursors):
* Jean Ritchie--Barbry Allen - YouTube  (also on your S&P CD) (Child 84)
▶ Jean Ritchie - Shady Grove - Rainbow Quest 
▶ JEAN RITCHIE - MY DEAR COMPANION - Alan Lomax Footage - YouTube 
* House Carpenter Jean Ritchie (Child 243) - YouTube
* Jean Ritchie - O Love Is Teasin' - YouTube

Ollie Gilbert versions:
* Pretty Polly Come Go Along With Me - Max Hunter Folk Song Collection  Ollie Gilbert
* Barbry Allen - Max Hunter Folk Song Collection Ollie Gilbert
* House Carpenter - Max Hunter Folk Song Collection - Ollie Gilbert

Cecil Sharp photo, Appalachia, ca. 1918

As we saw in class, Sharp made photographs on his collecting trips in both England and America.  They offer an interesting contrast--consider this. Related to the difference between Child ballads in their European   form and American ballads like Omie Wise or The Wagoner's Lad. Or a later American song like Tom Dula.

Cecil Sharp photo, Devon, England

Child Ballads in British and European versions:
* Emilie Faiella - Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight, a Medieval Ballad (with lyrics) - YouTube
* Steeleye Span - Lady Isobel And The Elf Knight. Live Video - YouTube
* Wearie's Well punk harp version - YouTube
* The Wife of Usher's Well (Child 79) - (Traditional Scottish) - YouTube
* King Orfeo / Skoven Årle Grön ( Child Ballad 19 ) - YouTube
* Child #2: The Elfin Knight - YouTube
* Elspeth Cowie - The Laird O' Elfin - YouTube

Note for class. This is a lot of material. For your project, work from one of the three songs for the  week, together with songs on Ballads download, comparing the Child Ballads with the songs of American origin. Read Mike Yates. The remainder (all worthwhile) you can return to over the next weeks.)
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And finally, from the Carter Family--Wildwood Flower (this well-known song has English precedents as well--it's in your tan songsheets, p. 2).
* The Carter Family - Wildwood Flower - YouTube (An earlier filmed version) 
* Mother Maybelle Carter - Wildwood Flower - YouTube
(An older Maybelle Carter recalling their first recordings, Johnny Cash television show, 1969-71.

Maybelle Carter and Family, 1950s television

 















These two videos are examples of how the Appalachian songs reached a popular audience through the Grand Ole Opry and other radio (and later television) venues. We could compare Garrison Keeler's Prairie Home Companion of today (intended for a quite different popular audience, however).

Supplement: Banks of the Ohio--Note on Other Versions

Banks of the Ohio, Joan Baez Cover

The song is hard to deal with, no doubt about it. I want you to think about why. And what that says about the Appalachian sensibility (mind-set). The lyrics you have are from Clarence Ashley and Doc Watson. There are many others versions. Some give the woman in the song more of a voice, with a stanza including the key words,

"Oh Willy," she cried, "don't murder me--
I'm not prepared for eternity"

Here are some alternate lyrics, as they're sung by

Dolly Parton:
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/dollyparton/banksoftheohio.html

Joan Baez:
http://www.metrolyrics.com/banks-of-ohio-lyrics-joan-baez.html

Johnny Cash:
http://www.metrolyrics.com/banks-of-the-ohio-lyrics-johnny-cash.html

How do they compare with Will the Circle Be Unbroken? What do the two songs share? Where do they differ? What do you think about the two versions I gave you (Carter Family and Clarence Ashley/Doc Watson)? And what about the photo above--found on google, a young woman today doing a Joan Baez cover...

Look into why these songs have the tone they do (resigned)--where it comes from, how it relates to place... or possibly just their strangeness (the cuckoo)...
_____

LATE ENTRY: Here's Doc Watson talking about mountain music. The recording, Am I Born to Die, an old hymn, is sung by Doc Watson,with Gaither Carlton on fiddle. Rosa Lee Carlton, Gaither's daughter, was Doc Watson's wife. Recorded by Ralph Rinzler in the 1960s...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9we5tGOQs5s

Clarence Ashley, Gaither Carlton, Doc and Rosa Lee, ca. 1960

WEEK 6: APPALACHIA

For the coming two weeks we start with APPALACHIA, then look back to the BRITISH BALLADS and how they became part of the American tradition. The two songs for this week (to learn by heart!) are Banks of the Ohio and Will the Circle be Unbroken.  We may also do The Cuckoo. Key figures are Clarence Ashley (voice, banjo and fiddle) and Doc Watson (guitar, finger and flat picking, and singing as well). They're in the videos.  Compare Ollie Gilbert's "front porch" version and remember the distinction between front porch and performance. (Or what John Cohen calls Home Music and Show Performers.) Using Appalachia as a search term in google, and perhaps the singers' names and birthplaces (look them up) and specific dates, see what images come up. Images of PLACE will give you a context for the songs.

Week 6: APPALACHIA

Banks of the Ohio  Clarence Ashley and Doc Watson version, on your S&P download.
Recorded by Ralph Rinzler in North Carolina in about 1960.  (If you're curious, here's a link to the Original Folkways Recording CD.

Then:
 ▶ Clarence Ashley with Doc Watson: The Banks of the Ohio (1961) - YouTube  (filmed by Alan Lomax, in New York, 1961)
 ▶ Banks of the Ohio - Bill Monroe & Doc Watson - YouTube  (This features Blue Grass mandolin of Bill Monroe, with Doc Watson.)
 ▶ Banks of the Ohio - Max Hunter Folk Song Collection - Missouri State University   Ollie Gilbert

Clarence Ashley and Doc Watson, early 1960s

Another of their songs (in your gray song sheets) is "The Cuckoo Bird. Clarence Ashley is the master. He tells his story--and sings the song--here. It's filmed in North Carolina... from the mid-1960s:
 ▶ Clarence Ashley performs "The Cuckoo" - YouTube

You might compare this 1970s version by Townes Van Zandt:
▶ Townes Van Zandt - The Cuckoo - YouTube
_____

For Will the Circle Be Unbroken, the recording is by the Carter Family. (Look them up--see Reader, pps. 240-243.) Compare the Carter Family's version to Clarence Ashley and Doc Watson (both on your original S&P download). The difference is essential. How would you characterize it?
I've included other versions, but concentrate on first one--the Carter Family original. The later ones are stagey, for reasons you can think about. Front porch versus performance.  Nevertheless, you'll find them interesting to watch. And don't miss Ollie Gilbert...she keeps us honest!

The Carter Family, Poor Valley, Virginia, 1929

Will the Circle Be Unbroken
▶ Can the circle be unbroken - The Carter Family - YouTube   (The version on your S&P CD)
▶ Ralph Stanley - Will The Circle Be Unbroken - YouTube
▶ Will The Circle Be Unbroken Vol.2/Nitty Gritty Dirt Band/Johnny Cash/Ricky Skaggs - YouTube
▶ Johnny Cash & Family - Will The Circle Be Unbroken - YouTube
▶ Arlo Guthrie & Willie Nelson/Will The Circle be Unbroken - YouTube
▶ Mavis Staples Will the circle be unbroken (studio version) - YouTube    (This is a very different tradition!)

▶ Circle Be Unbroken - Max Hunter Folk Song Collection - Missouri State UniversityOllie Gilbert

Ollie Gilbert

Ollie Gilbert, Arkansas, 1960s

Also important in the Appalachian tradition: Jean Ritchie, who grew up in Viper, Kentucky (in the  Cumberland Mountains), where these songs were a part of her life. Jean Ritchie sang with a dulcimer, and later made dozens of recordings of both the Kentucky mountain songs and the older British ballads (Pretty Saro, Barbry Allen, House Carpenter, Gypsy Laddie--more on this next week).
Here's her version of the Cuckoo:
 ▶ Jean Ritchie sings the Cuckoo - YouTube

Jean Ritchie, 1950s?

READING. Norman Cohn's Folk Song America will give you background. Get a start on this--pps. 33-56 in the Reader. It's an excellent condensed history. For this week pay particular attention to what he says about Hillbilly and Race records. pps. 42-43. Also read section on The Carter Family, Reader pps. 240-243.

Note: I said in class that you could wait to read this--but in fact it does make a good parallel to the first week with Appalachian songs--and I think you should give it a go. The recordings of Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley took place very much because of the Folk Revival Movement in New York--Ralph Rinzler being a key figure. Along with John Cohen (of The New Lost City Ramblers) and his film, That High Lonesome Sound. If you prefer, skim the reading and watch this this video on Cohen's film instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5EcebrTqMI

DOWNLOAD FOR WEEKS 5 & 6:
S&P Ballads (Appalachian and British)
https://berkeley.box.com/s/p8v1c365iwe449t3lljd
Be sure to import the xml file for track data on iTunes. These songs will be our starting points over the next two weeks.
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Yes, this material is dense--and takes some concentration--but over time the layers will begin to make sense! It's a beautiful and crucial part of the American folk tradition.

Roscoe Holcomb, John Cohen photo