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
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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