HI L L I N 0 SUNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

PRODUCTION NOTE

University of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign Library

Large-scale Digitization Project, 2007.

ORGAN OF THE CAMPUS

Vol. 2, No. 1

KNOW YOUR OFFICERS

The following people are thissemester's newly elected officersand appointed committee chairmen:

Pres. Pro Tem .... Sam Miller

Treasurer........John Schmidt

Record. Sect.....Joke Walsh

Corres. Sect.....Fritz Plous

Committee Chairmen

Autoharp.........Dick Parkinson

Concerts.........Larry Klingman

Membership.......Joke Walsh

Publicity........Fritz Plous

Seminar..........Jarvis Rich

Sings............Mike Johnson

Workshop.........Bill Becker

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We would like to take this spaceto express our appreciation to all themembers, friends and faculty whohelped build our Club last spring. Wewelcome your current support. It willbe needed to bring traditional singersand performers and academic special-ists in folklore to the University ofIllinois.

FOLKSONG CLUB OF THE UNIVERSITYOF ILLINOIS

FEB 2 1962October 6, 1961

MAILING ADDRESS

All contributions from club mem-bers will be greatly appreciated by.the staff of Autoharp. Anyone havingan unusual song, story, or feature,or perhaps some song history is strong-ly encouraged to mail it to:

AUTOHARPCampus Folksong Club322 Illini UnionUniversity of IllinoisUrbana, Illinois

ATTENTION'

Anyone with newspaper experienceor an interest in working on Auto-harp is asked to contact Dick Parkinson,Fl. 6-7458.

The services for which you areneeded extend from writing shortarticles and typing copy to findingout the background material and authen-ticity of folksongs and folklore.

The WORKSHOP COMMITTEE, under the

direction of Bill Becker, will beoffering instruction in the guitarand banjo. Classes will be held for

both beginners and advanced students.The fee is to be announced at tonight'sFolksing.

The SEMINAR Committee, headed byJarvis Rich, plans a series of facultyand guest lectures, discussions,field trip reports, and tape-talks.It is our hope to supplenent the funat the Sings by deepening the knowledgeof the Club members.

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Now, people of the Eastern towns, its little that you knowAbout the western prairies where the beef you eat does grow,Where the horses they run wild with the mountain sheep and ramAnd the cowboy sleeps contented on the grass of Uncle Sam. /

We go out to the round up to brand the sucking calf.The stranger gets the bucking horse, (you bet then we all laugh.)He flings his arms towards the sky, his legs get in a jam,He turns a flying somersault on the Grass of Uncle Sam.

The Angry bull takes after us with blood in both his eyes;We run, but when his back is turned he gets a big surprise.Our ropes jerk out his legs behind and he goes down kerslam!We drag the fighting'out of him on the grass of Uncle Sam. ;

The horse-thief comes along at night to steal our ponies true.We're always looking out for him and sometimes catch him too.We ask him if he's ready, and when he says, "I am,"The bottcms of his feet they itch for the Grass of Uncle Sam.

And when the round-up's over, to town we go for fun.The dollars we have hoarded up are blown in, every one.Then broke, we hit the trail for camp, but we don't care a damn.Wages are good when the grass is good, the grass of Uncle Sam.

The "grass of Uncle Sam" referred to is, of course, the governmentrange on which the western cattle grazed in the early days before the barb-wire fence. The song was printed in the biography of John Worth, a formercowboy, From Cattle Ranch to College. It was written by Russel Doubleday andprinted in 1904, but Worth himself had learned the song some thirty yearsearlier around various campfires during one of the yearly cattle roundups.This was the only song to appear in the book. The text has been collected fromother sources, but this tune is unique so far as we know. Except for the addi-tion of guitar chords it is given here exactly as printed.

contributed by John Walsh

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A TRIP TO CHICAGO'S MAXWELL STREET

By BOB KOESTER

Maxwell Street is a tourist attraction in its own right, even without the musicplayed by the blues and gospel groups,who line up along that part of the Streetwest of Halsted, or the strolling guitarists who are liable to turn up anywherein the area.

Maxwell Street is one of the last open-air market places in the United States. Youcan buy anything there if you look around long enough--legal and illegal. Gypsyfortune-tellers will drag you into their curtained rooms. Suit-peddlers will grabyou by the sleeve as you walk along the sidewalk and tell you of the enormous bar-gains they have "right on the ground floor". "What are you buying today?"

All the selling isn't done in the street, and probably very few of the goods soldthere are really as "hot" as they'd like you to believe. A man will flash awatch or a ring in the palm of his hand--very dramatic, but he probably has asales-tax number just like the guys with the push-carts, card-tables, and stands.There's a book-store that sells "Snake Root" and "John the Conqueror"; an oldconjur man on the corner of Peoria and Maxwell will tell you how to use it. Isaw a snake charmer once, and a crowd-catcher who bent thick steel constructionrods (after collecting a sizable pot).

The record shops in the area offer days of browsing for old 78's, but the shop-keepers are wise to the value of their wares, and you can frequently get betterbtys from jazz shops. The pushcarts offer better deals. I once found a LonnieJohnson Okeh in the 8800 series for 15 cents, but I've been to Maxwell dozens oftimes.

But the music is what brings me back. And, like the merchandise, it's not all onthe street. The oldest figure in the neighborhood is Daddy Stovepipe (JohnnyWatson) who is 93. He eschews the amplifier (and probably could not afford oneanyway) and plays guitar and harmonica simultaneously. His program consists of"The Tennessee Waltz" and endless retellings of "The Maxwell Street Boogie" .Daddy recorded for Paramount in 1924 and for Vocalion a few years later. Morerecently he recorded for the English "77' label and for Delmar in the summer of'61. He can frequently be found in company with Pork Chop, a limited but enter-taining washboardist who knows and shares the lyrics to "Maxwell Street Boogie".Occasionally a toothless cornet will be added, and "we really make some noisetogether".

The Gospel group at the corner of Peoria and Maxwell Streets (opposite the conjurman) can be heard a block away. Yes, amplified! Too much so, really, but theyget their message across. Blind James Brewer is the singer you want to listen tomost closely. He's really a bluesman and, off the job, can turn out remarkablyfind versions of "Big Road Blues", "Black Snake Moan", or "Key to the Highway" .(Jazz Gillum, the composer of this last blues classic, lives in the neighborhoodbut never sings or plays on the street.) Brewer will be on a Delmar LP withDaddy Stovepipe.

Maxwell Street Jimmy (Charles Thomas) is a disciple of John Lee Hooker. He worksnear a shoeshine stand, and there's usually another guitarist or two assisting.Within fifty feet the "youngsters" work out. Some of these guys are in their earlyteens and often their playing is quite derivative, but certainly derivative fromexcellent sources.

Blind Arvella Gray virtually makes all his money playing in the streets, but hecarries a union card. He's easily spotted by his metal guitar, and he knowsverses of "John Henry" that can be heard nowhere else. He sang and played hisbottle-neck style of blues guitar at the 1961 University of Chicago Folk Festi-val; so now the record companies are competing for his services. Arvella recentlyreturned from Louisville, where he went to catch some money at the Derby. I sawhim for the first time six years ago in St. Louis, playing on a Delmar streetcar.

There are always new singers and new old-timers on Maxwell Street. An intriguingperformer is Guitar Slim who, contrary to his name, plays harmonica. He, too, hasa version of "John Henry", as well as just about any other tune you can name. Heplays his instrument without using his hands; Slim just walks along with the darnthing in his mouth like a banana and makes sounds as gooo as bonny Itrry.

Besides the street-singers and street-musicians, there are quite a few bluesmenwho live in the area. Big Joe Williams keeps his nine-string guitar in a roomnearby. Willie Hatchet is the only blues mandolinist I know of north of YankRachell--Willie was on the famous Speckled Red Bluebird records. Also in thelocale we expect to meet Blind Percy, who plays blues on the bi harmonica. Nodoubt there are others that will turn up eventually on the Street.

So next time you're in Chicago, be sure to go to Maxwell Street. It's about theonly real musical thing you can do in the City on a Sunday afternoon.

Bob Koester, a noted blues collector, is associated with Delmar Records in Chicago.

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A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FOLKLOPE IN PAPERBACKS

In AUTOHARP, as regularly as possible, we plan to offer a bibliography dealingwith folklore. Our listing will include only paperbacks which should be readilyavailable near the campus. We'll try to present as wide a variety as possible,and we hope the brief comments will help you decide how to spend your money. Ifyou have additions to offer, we'd welcome them for consideration. If club mem-bers feel this service is worthwhile, we will compile the entire series at theend of the school year.

Best, Dick and Beth. THE NEW SONG FEST.Crown Publishers, Inc., 1948. illus. $1.95.

This has long been a favorite of college singing groups. It contains300 songs, words and music, "sung by the various outing clubs which comprise theIntercollegiate Outing Club Assn." There are no recognizable boundaries to theselections; in fact, one would be hard-pressed to find a field or type that hasbeen ignored-fiddle tunes, cowboy songs, sea Bhanties, college songs, drinkingsongs--your songs. The book also includes a number of songs of various nationalorigins.

Gerould, Gordon Hall. THE BALLAD OF TPADITION.Galaxy (Oxford), 1957. $1.95.

This top-notch guide to appreciating balladry was first published thirtyyears ago by a Professor of English at Princeton. It defines the ballad and thendiscusses its history and development; it also includes stories, times, and charac-teristics. Gerould treats British, Continental, and American ballads, and has abibliography by country. He also includes lyrics to a dozen specimen ballads ofAmerican origin.

Gummere, Francis B. THE POPULAP BALLAD.Dover, T 548, 1959. $1.65.

First edited in 1907, this book is still widely read and quoted because ofits stress on the communal origin theory in folk song. It contains a great dealof information about English balladry, including analysis and explanations ofchanging forms of the ballad. There are many quotes and citations, about 250ballads, and extensive references.

Hille, Waldemar, ed. THE PEOPLE'S SONG BOOK.Sing Out, Inc., 1959. $1.75.

Alan Lomax, in his foreword, calls it "a big clean wind of a book that willblow the mists of doubt and discouragement right out of your heart", and you canbelieve it. It has four parts--Songs that helped build America, World freedomsongs, Union songs, and Topical political songs--and words and music of songsfrom Spain, Palestine, U.S., China, etc. If you miss this one, you miss a lot.

Compiled by Joe Zderad To be continued

Folkniks: Fact or Fancy?

Soon after Sputnik flashed into the sky, an inspired San Francisco columist

coined the term, beatnik, by altering the current usage, beat generation. Beat-

nik made a facile transition to folknik. Today, the word folknik is both symbol

and stereotype for the far-out singer/performer on a folk-kick, making the scene

in a bohemian coffee house or a slovenly campus pad.

There is some truth in this stereotype, but it is also caricature. It is

as false to draw a single portrait of the "typical" collegiate folksinger as it

is to delineate all students in terms of spring festivals or sports cars. Folk-

nik is a pejorative expression; it demeans and degrades. Yet it is used by

folksong fans themselves within their own group to sum up enthusiasm and intensity

or rivalry and scorn. Why is it used at all?

There is no single meliorative catch-phrase to categorize campus folksingers.

It is significant that in-group neologists confronted by the new phenomena of the

urban folksinger, developed a negative, not a positive, word. Perhaps the neces-

sity of using deprecatory language in connection with pleasurable and rewarding

activity stems from current ambivalence on the academic folk scene.

It is obvious to even the casual listener that the Kingston Trio, Odetta,

Richard Dyer-Bennet, and Susan Reed, are concert singers with no real commitment

to traditional modes or values. It is equally obvious that the uninitiated

listener on first hearing Aunt Molly Jackson, Horton Barker, Maybelle Carter,

and Huddie Ledbetter often responds with disapproval: Harsh, discordant, nasal,

difficult, off-key. Conflict is sensed and the newcomer to folklore is torn

between the poles of popularity and purity. The tension so generated carries

over into attitude towards material. When the singer/performer is unable to cope

with the contradiction between desired role as traditionalist and cultural bounds,

his response may be gauche behavior, odd humor, or slang language. Hence, the

word, folknik, is coined. The extent to which the new symbol fits or misfits

hinges on the campus folksinger's awareness of his own relationship to tradition.