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IN THIS PODCAST YOU CAN LISTEN TO A LOT OF AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC WITH INSIGHTS
Episodes & Posts
Episodes
Posts
12 FEB 2025 · Sounding for Harry Smith: Early Pacific Northwest Influences is a new a book about Smith's Great Depression childhood in Anacortes, Washington.
3 FEB 2025 · Soon after the fatal train collision that killed engineer John Luther Jones (he was nicknamed “Casey” because he was from the town of “Cayce”, Kentucky) on april 30, 1900, heroic tales of his death started to be told across the South. When he was living, Jones already had a growing reputation among railroad folks for his trademark whistle (every engineer at this time could make his own whistle) and for his aptitude at being always on time. After his death, he became a real heroic figure and the song about him helped to carry his memory over the years.Like “Frankie and Albert” , the story of the Casey Jones ballad goes back and forth between the folk and popular music worlds. It originally started with Wallace Saunders, a black engine wiper who worked on a railroad shop in Canton.
3 FEB 2025 · Dylan based the song on the traditional British folk ballad "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaving_of_Liverpool". He first played it for friends in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Village after returning from a two-week trip to London in early January 1963. In "Leaving of Liverpool", the ballad's first verse and chorus tell the tale of someone sailing from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool to California, bound to miss the loved one left behind.
"The Raggle Taggle Gypsy", is a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_music that originated as a Scottish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_ballad, and has been popular throughout Britain, Ireland and North America. It concerns a rich lady who runs off to join the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_Romani_people#Gypsy_and_gipsy (or one gypsy). Common alternative names are "Gypsy Davy", "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies O", "The Gypsy Laddie(s)", "Black Jack David" (or "Davy") and "Seven Yellow Gypsies".
Dylan scholar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Gray_(author) sees a strong parallel between this and the traditional https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_music song "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gypsy_Laddie," which Dylan arranged and recorded for his 1992 album https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_as_I_Been_to_You, and in which footwear "of Spanish leather" also plays a significant role. However, comparisons are more often made between this song and the traditional ballad "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarborough_Fair_(ballad)" (from which Dylan's "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_from_the_North_Country" is also drawn), both regarding melody and lyrics, as it also consists of alternating male and female narrators. Lyrically, "Boots of Spanish Leather" is unusual in that it uses the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistolary_poem format. It has been described as a "restless, forlorn ballad for the ages and sages—a classic Dylan tale of two lovers, a crossroads, and the open sea".The song is written as a dialogue, with the first six stanzas alternating between the two lovers; however, the last three stanzas are given by the lover who has been left behind. Within these nine stanzas, one of the lovers—a woman—goes across the sea. She writes, asking whether her lover would like any gift and he refuses, stating that he only wants her back. Towards the end it becomes clear that she is not returning, and she finally writes saying she may never come back. Her lover comes to realize what has happened and finally gives her a material request: "Spanish boots of Spanish leather".
3 FEB 2025 · “James Alley” is a remarkable early Blues song that tells of the difficult relationships between two lovers
3 FEB 2025 · John Henry is an American https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_hero. An African American https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedman, he is said to have worked as a "steel-driving man"—a man tasked with hammering a steel drill into a rock to make holes for explosives to blast the rock in constructing a railroad tunnel.The story of John Henry is told in a classic blues folk song about his duel against a drilling machine, which exists in many versions, and has been the subject of numerous stories, plays, books, and novels.
3 FEB 2025 · 1 - That Crazy War
2 - I was born 10000 years ago
3 - Soldier's Joy
4 - The Fox
5 - Gipsy Davey
6 - Tennessee Stud
7 - Dink's Song
8 - I had a little rooster
9 - Blackwater Blues
10- Barbara Allen
11- Risin' Sun Blues
12- Transportation
13- Hard Times Come Again No More
14- The Water is Wide
15- Sailor on the deep blue sea
16- Walkin' Boss
17- I wish was a mole in the ground
18- Tom Cat Blues
19- Willie the poor boy
20- Blind Fiddler
3 FEB 2025 · His jug was an empty can of kerosine and the other members of his trio were Ashley Thompson (guitar) and author Noah Lewis (harmonica), Minglewood is a corruption of Noah's birthplace Mengelwood near Dyersburg, TN. There's always been a huge levee camp there, big enough for itinerant musicians to earn a few bucks, especially with a song about the place. The Jug Stompers were the oldest jug band from Memphis, older than the Memphis Jug Band. Gus Cannon was 44 when he cut this (See also: Walk Right In and Prison Wall Blues).
3 FEB 2025 · The lament of a henpecked man. He plans to send his wife back to her mother "next payday".
Opening line - "Got no sugar baby now, I got no honey baby now..."
Chorus - "Who'll rock the cradle, who'll sing the song, when I'm gone?".
3 FEB 2025 · the complete transcript of the interview is in this link:
https://www.angelfire.com/folk/longtimecoming/dockboggs/interview_excerpts.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1db_sngKzdr7H9QwJXS3JODXK7einn0z_D8FAzCUwSvdAMPSym_LFf_0w_aem_DM5A0CzO0GRpTVhftJrxxA
Mike Seeger interviews Dock Boggs, a Virginia coal miner, banjo player and singer of old-time Appalachian mountain music and blues. Boggs once garnered a record deal with Brunswick to record 24 tracks, but he only completed eight before quitting and returning to Virginia during the 1920s. He was all but forgotten as an artist until Seeger rediscovered him in the 1960s.
3 FEB 2025 · the complete transcript of the interview is in this link:
https://www.angelfire.com/folk/longtimecoming/dockboggs/interview_excerpts.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1db_sngKzdr7H9QwJXS3JODXK7einn0z_D8FAzCUwSvdAMPSym_LFf_0w_aem_DM5A0CzO0GRpTVhftJrxxA
Mike Seeger interviews Dock Boggs, a Virginia coal miner, banjo player and singer of old-time Appalachian mountain music and blues. Boggs once garnered a record deal with Brunswick to record 24 tracks, but he only completed eight before quitting and returning to Virginia during the 1920s. He was all but forgotten as an artist until Seeger rediscovered him in the 1960s.
IN THIS PODCAST YOU CAN LISTEN TO A LOT OF AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC WITH INSIGHTS
Information
| Author | Radio Big Pink |
| Organization | Radio Big Pink |
| Categories | Music Commentary , Music History , Music Interviews |
| Website | - |
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