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
This recording is the Norman Blake's version. I think we selected it for the original S&P CD because it was closer to country roots than Jimmy Davis Dixieland-flavored original. See below for two Jimmy Davis versions, one with film footage.

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.
Heavenly Sunshine - YouTube - Laura Henton  
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: Folk Song America: A 20th Century Revival, Norm Cohen, pps. 33-56 in the Reader. Will give you a good intro and overview through early 1960s.

Project. Many of you really took off with Down in the Valley. Let's see where the new songs leads!

You Are My Sunshine--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:

This is Jimmy Davis in the 1940 release:
Jimmie Davis - You Are My Sunshine (1940). - YouTube 

▶ You Are My Sunshine by Gov Jimmie Davis, Scott Innes & Nelson Blanchard - LMHOF 2012 - YouTube 

▶ Gene Autry: You Are My Sunshine - YouTube 
(early 1940s)

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! (An early 1960s recording, although he would have known the song from long before)

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
_____

And for the historical particularists in the group, here are some sources on how Jimmy Davis himself came by the song:    http://www.rosemontrecords.com/historical.html   This is an article on the song's history. See the name Oliver Hood. And some pre-Jimmy Davis sides:

Pine Ridge Boys (the original recording--August 1939):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvPolI-pBCw 

Rice Brothers Gang (September 1939):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oqjF-txkZ8

Followed by Jimmy Davis version, which became well known...

Note: In the past decade, since this cls began, an incredible amount of new material (and new historical material) has become available online. So that facts, dates, and versions that were at one time very hard to come by now appear generally available. Like the Pine Ridge Boys, just above. In any case, the availability of all these layers is a kind of bounty...