The Sound of Folk Music, 1964

6

Transcript of The Sound of Folk Music, 1964

ERIC ANDERSEN

BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE

ROOSEVELT CHARLES

JACK ELLIOTT THE GREENBRIAR BOYS JOHN HAMMOND IAN AND SYLVIA JIM KWESKIN AND

THE JUG BAND

•** * *&}

■ /&-1 ALMEDA RIDL_tJ§

THE ROOFTOP SINGERS MIKE SEEGER

CLARA WARD AND HER GOSPEL SINGERS

JACKIE WASHINGTON

DOC WATSON THE WEAVERS

HEDY WEST

VOL

THE WEAVERS “When / hear America singing, the Weavers are there.” carl sandburg

THE WEAVERS AT CARNEGIE HALL VRS-9010

THE WEAVERS ON TOUR VRS-9013

THE WEAVERS AT HOME VRS-9024 & VSD-2030*

TRAVELING ON WITH THE WEAVERS

VRS-9043 & VSD-2022*

THE WEAVERS AT CARNEGIE HALL, Vol. 2

VRS-9075 & VSD-2069*

WEAVERS’ ALMANAC VRS-9100 & VSD-2102* THE WEAVERS-REUNION AT CARNEGIE HALL,

1963 VRS-9130 & VSD-2150*

ERIC ANDERSEN

ERIC ANDERSEN VRS-9157 & VSD-79157*

NEW FOLKS (WITH LISA KINDRED, PHIL OCHS

AND ROBERT JONES) VRS-9140 & VSD-79140*

HEDY WEST

“A young musician of many talents . . . There is a lightness and vibrancy in her voice and the directness of a true folk singer.” Henrietta yurchenko,

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE

HEDY WEST VRS-9124

HEDY WEST, Vol. 2 VRS-9162 & VSD-79162*

JIM KWESKIN

“Warm and friendly entertainment, with¬ out a harsh, brittle, slick note in it.”

H. YURCHENKO, MUSICAL AMERICA

JIM KWESKIN AND THE JUG BAND

VRS-9139 & VSD-2158* JIM KWESKIN AND THE JUG BAND, Vol. 2

VRS-9163 & VSD-79163*

ALMEDA RIDDLE

ALMEDA RIDDLE VRS-9158 & VSD-79158

BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE

“A throaty, sensual voice that moves with surety through a wide range of folk songs, traditional or of her own com¬ position . . . one of the most promising new talents on the folk scene.”

R. SHELTON, N. Y. TIMES

IT'S MY WAY! VRS-9142 & VSD-79142*

THE ROOFTOP SINGERS

“Top music from anybody’s viewpoint .. . a series of small works of art.”

E. T. CANBY, AUDIO

WALK RIGHT IN VRS-9123 & VSD-2136*

GOOD TIME VRS-9134 & VSD-79134*

DOC WATSON “There is hardly an artist in folk and/or country music who combines musical in¬ tegrity with such total mastery of tech¬ nique on several instruments, and such warmth and honesty of presentation.”

RALPH RINZLER, SING OUT

DOC WATSON VRS-9152 & VSD-79152*

THE SOUND OF FOLK MUSIC/Vol. 2

K m SIDE ONE I t i:§■ 1. JACK ELLIOTT: SOWING ON THE MOUNTAIN

with Erik Darling, banjo II 2. BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE: NOW THAT THE BUFFALO’S GONE

with Art Davis, bass y 3. THE GREENBRIAR BOYS: DARBY RAM

with Eric Weissberg, bass J 4. JOHN HAMMOND: GOING BACK TO FLORIDA

5. HEDY WEST: THE HONEST FARMER (PANS OF BISCUITS) | 6. IAN AND SYLVIA: KATY DEAR

with John Herald, 2nd guitar; Eric Weissberg, bass 7. JACKIE WASHINGTON: I’VE BEEN A MOONSHINER

, ■ 8. CLARA WARD AND HER SINGERS: TWELVE GATES TO THE CITY

SIDE TWO

1. THE ROOFTOP SINGERS: TOM CAT 2. ROOSEVELT CHARLES: FREIGHT TRAIN BLUES

with Otis Webster, guitar

3. JIM KWESKIN AND THE JUG BAND: JUG BAND MUSIC 4. ERIC ANDERSON: DUSTY BOXCAR WALL 5. MIKE SEEGER: JOHNNY GREY 6. ALMEDA RIDDLE: THE WRECK OF No. 9 7. DOC WATSON: DEEP RIVER BLUES 8. THE WEAVERS: FIGHT ON

B

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r resented here in their favorite songs are sixteen folksingers and groups, most of whom are new arrivals to the Vanguard folk music catalogue. Some have lived with this music since childhood. Others, the majority, are representative of the urban folksong movement that has brought to the cities an awareness of the vast song literature existing in America, old in tradition but stubbornly refusing to die. In fact, in the hands of these dedicated and inde¬ pendent-minded performers, this music shows an eternal youth¬ fulness. It combines the “universal” themes of human joy, lament and urge for freedom with the responsiveness to the challenge of new times and experiences that has always been latent in folk music. Some of the songs here are freely arranged and adapted, others are new creations in the folk vein. All have integrity of word and music.

Jack Elliott has travelled the length and breadth of America with guitar on his back, singing for his own pleasure and the pleasure of whatever people are around. He sings here in typical lusty style a rousing gospel song with words that have taken on fresh significance today: "God give Noah the rainbow sign; won't be water, the fire next time.”

Buffy Sainte-Marie is of American Indian descent, was edu¬ cated at the University of Massachusetts, and often writes her own songs. Now that the Buffalo’s Gone is one of these, a song that leaves no hearer unmoved with its fiery challenge to the American conscience.

The Greenbriar Boys (John Herald, lead voice and guitar; Bob Yellin, tenor voice and banjo; Ralph Rinzler, baritone voice and mandolin) are city-bred northern musicians who have be¬ come prize-winning virtuosi in the style, tunes and instruments of “old time” country music. The Darby Ram is an English-born song which became a New Orleans marching tune, “Oh Didn't He Ramble.”

John Hammond is a young singer and guitarist who has moved thousands at folk song festivals through his profound and crea¬ tive identification with the blues, as shaped by wandering Negro balladeers and folk singers. Going Back to Florida is by “Light¬ ning” Hopkins.

*Stereophonic Disc

*■ VANGUARD STEREOLAB

SRV-140 SD

JOHN HAMMOND “Hammond has captured the tension, rhythmic drive and emotional anguish of the deep blues . . . His voice is a supple, multicolored instrument.”

NEW YORK TIMES

JOHN HAMMOND VRS-9132 & VSD-2148*

BIG CITY BLUES VRS-9153 & VSD-79153*

MIKE SEEGER “Completely at home with the various- styles of more than a generation of country singing . . .He performs these songs with affection and the dedication of a true scholar.”

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE

MIKE SEEGER VRS-9150 & VSD-79150*

JACK ELLIOTT “Jack . . . has slowly made himself into one of the finest pickers and singers and all-around- entertainers I've ever seen on a stage.” pete seeger, sing out

JACK ELLIOTT VRS-9151 & VSD-79151*

Hedy West comes from a long line of country folk in the Jj North Georgia hill country, where her father is a poet and fj teacher. A highly skilled musician, she sings to her own banjo fl accompaniment the songs she knew from childhood, in the tradi- jji tional style all the more affecting because it makes no obvious f| tug at the heartstrings.

Ian Tyson and Sylvia Fricker (Ian and Sylvia) are Canada’s gift to the folksong movement, and a most welcome one, as at- 2/ tested to by their growing popularity and their ebullient rendition v* of Katy Dear. This is a fine urban modernization of an Anglo- ,o: American ballad. fift

Jackie Washington, born John Washington y Landron, centers his folksinging activities in Boston, where he attended college and ||M has taught drama to children. Moonshiner is a lively Irish song fil transplanted and transmuted into a plaintive Appalachian one. IS

Clara Ward and her singers "spread the gospel” in churches |S| and outside of them. These hymns are great music to start with, and the singers’ profound involvement with their message gives ||| the performance a special creative freedom and vitality.

The Rooftop Singers (Erik Darling, Lynne Taylor and Bill Svanoe) have created a vocal-instrumental style in which songs stemming from-a generation ago, like Tom Cat, attain an econ- SJ omy of notes, rhythmic urgency and harmonic strength which the noted critic, E. T. Canby, called “top music from anybody’s |gf viewpoint ... a series of small works of art.”

Roosevelt Charles was born in the farm country of Louisiana Jf| and has never found a secure home in “white man's society.” A motherless and fatherless wanderer from the age of nine, he has f§ seen the inside of jails.'His innate musical gifts and protest against T!; an oppressive environment are apparent in the most earthy form of the blues, speech flowering into song. ;§9

Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band (Geoff Muldauer, Bruno Wolf, S Fritz Richmond, Mel Lyman) are young urbanites who have re- Jf| vived, for sheer fun and “good time” feeling, the kind of instru¬ ments, like harmonica, jug, kazoo, washtub bass, on which a good deal of “country music” was fashioned one and two generations ■ ago. Jug Band Music is the blues, turned plaintive with a touch :jj of whimsy.

Eric Andersen is just past voting age, relinquished a college education to sing and play guitar, and creates his own songs. /§, Dusty Boxcar Wall exemplifies the earnest, powerful and defiant ’Ml spirit which is the hallmark of the best young, independent song ;*S writers. IS

Mike Seeger’s influence has gone far beyond the appeal of his voice and fine instrumental—in this case, banjo—style. Few have j’tf done so much as he to collect and bring to widespread knowledge (Sii the southern “country music” in its most authentic form.

Almeda Riddle, who lives in the Ozarks, is one of those extraor- ; ;;i dinary people whose hoard of remembered songs has been a pj treasurehouse to students of American folksong. Her unaccom- ig panied singing is a revelation of authenticity, with a perfection li, of its own that makes any instrument seem to be an intrusion.

Doc Watson, blind and in his forties, hails from the Blue Ridge |f| mountains. In the last five years his phenomenal talents as a jjgfe singer of “country music,” masterful instrumentalist—here on the ■*); guitar—and witty raconteur have made him a revered and ac- ||g claimed figure at folk music gatherings and festivals.

The Weavers, in their fifteen odd years of existence, have made |js history by giving folk music of uncommercialized honesty the character of a mass movement, shaking the foundations of the 81: popular music industry. The singers here are Lee Hays. Ronnie Jjgj Gilbert, Fred Hellerman and Erik Darling.

This is a Vanguard STEREOLAB stereophonic disc cut by the new Jt5/Jt5 system. The multi-chanvel Vanguard stereophonic recording technique makes it possible to hear for the first time all of the subtle and varied color of the pH music in performance with a roundness, depth and feeling of physical presence ,/P possible to no other disc recording. Especially designed microphones, tape recorders and amplifiers were employed on the basis of acoustically precise calculations to produce a sound of such fidelity and authenticity of presence / that all consciousness vanishes of an intermediary between the listener and the living performance. This disc is playable with any stereophonic cartridge.

VANGUARD STEREOLAB CORP,, NEW YORK PRINTED IN U.S.A.

CLARA WARD AND HER SINGERS Straightforward intensity and fervor.

joy, vitality and meaning in their singing.” JOHN S. WILSON, NEW YORK TIMES

COME IN THE ROOM VRS-9101

CLARA WARD AT THE VILLAGE GATE

VRS-9135 & VSD-2151

IAN AND SYLVIA “A zestful, driving recital... I can think of no other folk team that quite matches them, either in versatility or in the subtlety of vocal shading.”

O. B. BRUMMELL, HIGH FIDELITY

IAN AND SYLVIA VRS-9109 & VSD-2113*

FOUR STRONG WINDS VRS-9133 & VSD-2149*

NORTHERN JOURNEY VRS-9154 & VSD-79154*

JACKIE WASHINGTON “A persuasive and highly personal style . . . achieves a quiet but impressive in¬ tensity.”

ROBERT SHERMAN, SATURDAY REVIEW

JACKIE WASHINGTON VRS-9110

JACKIE WASHINGTON, Vol. 2

VRS-9141 & VSD-79141*

THE GREENBRIAR BOYS “The Greenbriar Boys are tops in their field—instrumental wizards who sing with irrepressible gusto." Saturday review

THE GREENBRIAR BOYS VRS-9104

RAGGED BUT RIGHT VRS-9159 & VSD-79159*

ROOSEVELT CHARLES “A deep, strong, pulsing voice and a powerful beat . . . Mr. Charles is a major discovery.”

N. HENTOFF,HIFl/STEREO

BLUES, PRAYER, WORK AND TROUBLE SONGS

VRS-9136

*Stereophonic Disc

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i^sj E R THE SOUND Of

FOLK MUSIC, 1964 ..- ■

1. JACK ELLIOTT: Sowing on theMountain

C*? 2 BUFFY SA!NTE-MARi E: Now that the Buffalo's ZT ■ Gone (Buffy Sainte-Marie) 2:45 ^ 3. THE GREENBRIAR BOYS:Darby Ram(Trad.) 2.35.

4. JOHN HAMMOND: Going Back to FloridafLightning Hopkins) 2:50 J

” SRV-140 SD-A f ^ SIDE 0NE ^ XSV 94907 E Vanguard Stereophonic Disc

r HFDY WEST- The Honest Former(Pans of Bi scuits) (Hedy ' West) 2:32

6. IAN AND SYLVIA: Katy Dear (Trad.) 2:58 7 JACKIE WASHINGTON: Moonshiner(Trad.) 2.43

8. CLARA WARD AND HER SINGERS: Twelve Gates to the City (Trad.) 2:31

cOv COPYRIGHT 1964;

VANGUARD RECORDING SOCIETY, INC..NEW YORK

RECORDED IN U.S.A.

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