1920''s American Roots Blues/Folk music

[threebikesmcginty]

There's a nice sampler CD if you don't want to spend out a lot straight away. It's called RCA Country Legends - the Bristol Sessions Vol 1. Got the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, etc. All 1920s Ralph Peer sessions stuff I think. It's not country as you might think more like folk. If you like that then Kirstie's recommendation of the 'Anthology' is the one to get - keep you busy for a bit!

 

[bobg]

Thanks TBM. all thgis stuff going on my birthay list. Dear old Jimmy R, nice and easy to play but Mrs BG's not impressed by my yodelling

 

[Kirstie]

If you like the music on 'o brother where are thou?' look up the work of song collector/English folk singer Shirley Collins. She was the person who travelled around the US in the 50s recording all of those songs. She's released a book about it and a CD containing the original recordings.

 

[bobg]

If you like the music on 'o brother where are thou?' look up the work of song collector/English folk singer Shirley Collins. She was the person who travelled around the US in the 50s recording all of those songs. She's released a book about it and a CD containing the original recordings.

Did she have a sister Dolly by any chance.. I seem to remember hearing them at a pub in Upminster about a hundred years ago during he 60's folk revival. BTw while we're swopping singers, I just heard a track by Kate and Anna MGarrigle (sp) French Canadian I think, beautiful harmonies, great voices

 

[Kirstie]

Did she have a sister Dolly by any chance.. I seem to remember hearing them at a pub in Upminster about a hundred years ago during he 60's folk revival. BTw while we're swopping singers, I just heard a track by Kate and Anna MGarrigle (sp) French Canadian I think, beautiful harmonies, great voices

Possibly. Have a look and see.

Norma Waterson was one of the great English folk singers from the 60s revival who used to sing with two of her sisters.

 

[LLB]

I love this old time blues stuff

 

[bobg]

Possibly. Have a look and see.

Norma Waterson was one of the great English folk singers from the 60s revival who used to sing with two of her sisters.

What a voice, What a family...

 

[mickle]

Great thread folks!

 

[tdr1nka]

Google 'Woody Guthrie'

 

[Wolf04]

Son House, Robert Johnson, The Carter Family just pure joy!!! Love blues in all it's forms. Also really enjoy that Apalachian folk music. One of the modern artists worth checking out is Gillian Welch and her playing partner David Rawlings, fantastic stuff. As Mickle said great thread.

 

[Fnaar]

Just downloading "Folk America: Birth of a nation" from beeb iPlayer to watch as and when...

 

[cchapman]

Funny that about kids and the blues, I was into Robert Johnson when mine were little and used to sit on the end of the bed singing "hellhound on my trail". If yo're gonna have a nightmare then it might as well be interesting...

Yes, though my daughter found the blues and lonesome country too "boring", we would spend an afternoon copying out the lyrics to Iko-Iko and then singing it together, or she would ask what 'in vain" or "send you down the line" meant. Thank goodness she never asked what "... in the midnight hour, when my love comes tumbling down" meant. She would have had to ask her mother or let it forever remain a mystery.

 

[Bodhbh]

If you like the music on 'o brother where are thou?' look up the work of song collector/English folk singer Shirley Collins. She was the person who travelled around the US in the 50s recording all of those songs. She's released a book about it and a CD containing the original recordings.

Aye she's just amazing. Was working abroad when I first heard her and just made me so homesick ('Sweet England' about shipping off to the colonies). She does have a sister Dolly btw, and I believe they recorded an album together.

Not a card-carrying folkie by any stretch but if you're chasing this stuff from the US it's worth remembering there are British field recordings by people like Joseph Taylor from a similar period.

 

[cchapman]

There is also Jenny Thomas, a contemporary Australian (I think) folk singer who played and sang a new version of the much Graingerised "Botany Bay" which even in primary school I recognised as being insipid.

The Copper family are presumably well known and I remember listening to a radio program about them. After tea they would gather around the table and one would sing a note, The others would recognise the sound and all launch into the song, like the family in Annie Proulx's book of short stories "Heart Songs".

 

[cchapman]

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/musicshow/stories/2004/1102047.htm

see the transcript