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 
Also note that there are many other online sources for learning about Leadbelly's life. Explore some of them!

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)
Leadbelly 1976 - YouTube   Concentrate on how Parks presents Leadbelly in the first scenes. (Paramount has the copyright, and this film keeps getting removed from YouTube, but people seem to repost it.)

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...?
It's a little dated--but remains important as a landmark for how Park shows us his vision of Leadbelly... Compare with the "Newsreel" version following.

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?

_____

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. Here's a more direct link:  http://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/be%7Crecorded_cd%7Cli_upc_5050457953904

Leadbelly

Three Questions

Balm in Gilead

Here'a an idea that should add to our in-class discussions in a number of ways. As you're reading/listening/exploring each new Songs & Places theme, write down three questions that strike you as important. One from the reading, one from the music, and one from the life (or cultural milieu) of the performer. How do each of these relate to sense of place?

Bring two copies of your questions to class, each week--one to turn in, so that I can take a look before we start--and a second copy so that you have it available during discussion.

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 (Removed--see audio below))
Sam Chatmon: Sittin' On Top of the World (1978) - YouTube

Here's Dylan doing the song with Big Joe Williams in 1962: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY6Rimo6mb0  
And the audio version from his album, Good As I Been To You (1992):
 https://berkeley.box.com/s/8kgf9l5l6d68v3o7ikyofx3inkphsjsw

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  (THIS VIDEO HAS BEEN REMOVED. But here's Rev. Gary Davis on Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest instead:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=972Dx71AtFA

'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 pps. 257-262. Use google sources to followup on rest of the above--including Henry Thomas, songster, jug bands, and Reverend Gary Davis...

This would also be an excellent time to return to the Reader for a section from Bob Dylan's book, Chronicles, pps. 79-81. He writes beautifully about New York at the beginning of the folk revival--through his own experience.

Week 8: MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT

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

Note for 2016 class: The Jas Obrecht article has been removed.That's a pity. Instead, do an online search--and visit the  Mississippi John Hurt Foundation website  (Bio, Archives and Links). I want you each to know Mississippi John Hurt's story.

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

Note for 2016 class: Unfortunately, this longer version of the Rainbow Quest video (in which John Hurt his story) has also been removed. You can still find the closing minutes of the program, with John Hurt singing Goodnight Irene (with Peter Seeger and Hedy West) here.

So listen to Tom Hoskin's interview with Mississippi John Hurt   It's a little uneven, but if you listen carefully you can glean a lot about John Hurt's life--both from what he says--and even more, from the way in which he says it... In any case, it's wonderful to be able to hear Mississippi John Hurt in his own voice. Note that Tom Hoskins was the original "northerner" to make the trip to Avalon Mississippi to search out John Hurt...early 1960s...

Compare this interview with a second one--Stefan Grossman remembering Mississippi John Hurt and his music... About 10 minutes in Grossman mentions Tom Hoskins and talks about John Hurt in Berkeley. Many other great observations on Grossman's part. Well worth listening to!

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

_______

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...

Week 7 Supplement: Barbara Allen

A very different version by noted cowboy singer, Don Edwards. Compare with how Jean Ritchie handles it in main post below--as Child Ballad #84. Don Edwards' version is a good one to learn for the group--but let's also include the two verses at the end, tucked in from our S&P Songbook, which to my mind remain the heart of the song.

Don Edwards - Barbara Allen - YouTube
 

Barbara Allen 

Don Edwards version          in D

It was in   the month of May

when all things they were bloomin'

Sweet William came   from the western state

and courted Barbry Allen 

It was in the month of June

when the green buds they were fallin’

Sweet William on his death bed lay

For the love of Barbry Allen

Sent his servant to the town

Where Barbara was a dwellin'

My master is sick and he sent for you

If your name be Barbara Allen

Slowly slowly she got up

Slowly she came nigh him

And all she said when she got there

Young man I thinks you’re a dyin’

Yes I’m sick I’m very sick

Death is on me dwellin’

No better no better I never will be 

if I can’t have Barbry Allen

Or yes you’re sick you’re very sick

Death is on you dwellin’

No better no better you never will be 

You can’t have Barbra Allen

She was on her highway home

Spied his corpse a comin’

Lay down lay down that corpse of clay

So that I may look upon him

The more she looked the more she mourned

Till she fell to the ground a crying’

Oh take me up and carry me home

For I   I thinks I’m dyin’ 

Oh father oh father go dig my grave

Go dig it long and narrow

Sweet William died for me today

And I will die for him tomorrow

She was buried in the old church yard

He was buried nigh her

On William’s grave there grew a red rose

On Barbara’s grew a green briar

They grew to the top of the old church wall

Till they could not grow any higher

They lapped and tied in a true lover’s knot

The rose grew round the briar

_______

 

Let's also include these two verses:

Don't you remember the other day 

When we were at the tavern,               

you toasted the ladies all around

And slighted Barbara Allen?

O yes, I remember the other day

When we were in the Tavern,            

I toasted the ladies all around

Gave my love to Barbara Allen.

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:
Look into Cecil Sharp, Francis James Child, and others discussed below. Jean Ritchie's music and writing also works here. (Her recording of Barbry Allen is on your download--a classic--along with a version Pretty Polly in which she plays the dulcimer. Her book, Singing Family of the Cumberlands is one I've mentioned several times in class...)

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)

Also: The Water Is Wide.  On my S&P SONGBOOKS site

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.)
_______

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).