Tag Archives: Folkways

Classic Protest Songs

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Title: Classic Protest Songs from Smithsonian Folkways

Artists:  Various

Label: Smithsonian Folkways

Catalog No.: SFW 40197

Release Date: 2009

War, social injustice, personal plaints, and calls for action have long fueled musical creation and performance—Liner Notes.

Folkways Records, founded by Moses Asch in 1948, emerged on the heels of the social protests of the 1930s and 1940s.  In fact, Asch created something of a haven for left-leaning musicians, both black and white, such as Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and Josh White, who became staples of the famous folk music label.  For this compilation, Jeff Place and Mark Gustafson (Smithsonian Folkways’ staff) selected 22 tracks from the Folkways’ vault, as well as from other labels more recently acquired by Smithsonian Folkways, including Monitor and Paragon (the latter was founded in 1970 to document the music of political movements worldwide).  An effort was made to represent a broad spectrum of the struggles for economic and social justice, from anti-war protests to civil rights anthems to songs used by union organizers and the labor movement. Place and Gustafson also sought to demonstrate that protest songs did not originate with the folk music revival, thus a number of pre-1950 tracks were included.

African American artists are well represented on this compilation.  The disc opens with the “Freedom Now Chant,” sung by participants during a Civil Rights era mass-meeting in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and collected by noted scholar Bernice Johnson Reagon. One of the most famous African American folk singers, Huddie Ledbetter, a.k.a. Lead Belly, is represented by a 1930 recording of “Bourgeois Blues,” inspired by the time (presumably one of many) that he was denied a room in a Washington, D.C. hotel.

Big Bill Broonzy, perhaps equally famous as one of the seminal pre-WWII blues artists, contributes “Black, Brown, and White,” a song so controversial in the U.S. that he ended up recording it in Europe.  For those who aren’t familiar with the song, the refrain is “If you was white, you’re alright / if you’re brown, stick around / but if you’re black, oh brother, get back, get back, get back.”

An even more controversial song, “Strange Fruit,” is provided by Brother John Sellers, a blues and gospel singer who moved to Chicago during the Great Migration. His 1961 arrangement with flute, guitar, and drum accompaniment offers an interesting contrast to the classic Billie Holiday version, though I find that the flute distracts from the haunting lyrics.

One of the gems on the set is a previously unreleased 1946 recording by Champion Jack Dupree, “I’m Going To Write the Governor of Georgia,” referencing the racism he continued to confront upon his return to the U.S. after WWII, and implying that he was treated little better than he had been during his two years as a Japanese P.O.W.  Obviously the song made little difference, for Dupree fled to Europe in the 1950s and didn’t return until shortly before his death in the early ‘90s.

Classic Protest Songs comes with a well-illustrated, well-annotated 29 p. booklet which includes a bibliography and discography of suggested reading/listening.  If you don’t have the original Folkways/Paredon/Monitor recordings, this compilation will make a fine addition to your collection.

Posted by Brenda Nelson-Strauss

Richmond Blues

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Title: Richmond Blues

Artists: Cephas and Wiggins

Label: Smithsonian Folkways

Catalog No.: 40179

Release date: July 29, 2008
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The guitar and harmonica pairing of John Cephas (guitar) and Phil Wiggins (harmonica) is a sound familiar to fans of the great Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, but these days the blues stylings of the Piedmont region (the Appalachian foothills that run from Richmond to Atlanta) get less attention than the electrified virtuosity of Chicago blues players, or the so-called “authentic” allure of Delta Blues players. This could be because Piedmont Blues doesn’t always sound like “the blues.” Sometimes it sounds like country, other times like ragtime, and sometimes like folk balladry, and that’s precisely what makes Richmond Blues so much fun to listen to.

The diversity of sound is not a novelty, nor is it extreme, and a thorough listening will ground the sound of the record in the blues for sure: the blue notes on the guitar, the wailing bends on the harmonica, and AAB blues structure of many of the songs, and the overall down and out theme reminds the listener that this music was born from hard times, but played to ease them. Built around Cephas’s finger picked acoustic guitar and singing, accentuated by a second “voice” of Wiggins’s harp, Richmond Blues rolls along from the opening title track, through blues classic “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad” to the romp “Step It Up and Go,” all the while keeping your foot tapping. In addition to the up-tempo stomps, they slow it down for the plaintive, “Prison Bound Blues,” and a take on the classic “Careless Love” that may break your heart.

Cephas and Wiggins, who have been playing music since they were children, and playing together since the late 1970s, have been a mainstay in the Virginia/D.C. area for years, and have had great exposure at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington. This latest release, their 14th together but the first for Smithsonian Folkways, captures the live spirit that makes you wish you had run across these master musicians busking on the street corners. As described by their long time producer Joe Wilson as “urban acoustic blues,” their music is at once tradition, and thoroughly modern.

Richmond Blues is released through Smithsonian Folkways as part of their new African American Legacy Series, an effort in anticipation of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and shows great promise for future releases of master musicians that exemplify styles and traditions not always recognized by less sophisticated and informed labels. Liner notes are provided by scholar and writer Barry Lee Pearson, whose book Virginia Piedmont Blues chronicled Phil Cephas in great detail. The notes provide information about the performers, their history of learning and playing music, as well as a brief but well written history of the Piedmont Blues tradition. In addition, each track is given a short biography as to who played it before, how it was played, and how it fits into Cephas and Wiggins’ repertoire. As a nice bonus for musicians listening, it also indicated what key each song is played in.

Richmond Blues is a rare treat, and one that transcends the dedicated blues fan-base and could appeal to a great variety of roots music fans, without in any way compromising the music. It’s unfortunate that regional styles like this, played by working musicians are often relegated to the small labels that need some detective work to find. Smithsonian Folkways has once again offered music the broader public might not otherwise hear (like they did with Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, as well as countless others) and should be commended for it.

Posted by Thomas Grant Richardson

Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia

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black_banjo_songsters_ncva.jpgTitle: Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia

Artists: Various

Label: Smithsonian Folkways

Catalog No.: 40079

Date: 1998

Editor’s note: Smithsonian Folkways has received many requests from radio stations for re-servicing Black Banjo Songsters so they can pair it up with Otis Taylor’s CD on their respective radio shows. We thought we’d do the same, just in case you missed this CD when it was originally released back in 1998.

Otis Taylor’s recent release, Recapturing the Banjo, is not only an album, but a statement of musical lineage. And if the banjo is to be “recaptured,” it must be asked who is doing the recapturing: blues players or black players? The banjo has a clear history traceable to Africa via slaves in the American South back through the Middle Passage. Long before anyone heard the lighting-fast, three-finger picking of Earl Scruggs, black musicians had already developed styles of banjo playing quite different from Scruggs speedy arpeggios. There are more recordings of these early banjo styles than most casual listeners might suspect.

One of the seminal collections is the venerable Smithsonian Folkways 1998 release Black Banjo Songsters, which collects thirty-two recordings of banjo songs from North Carolina and Virginia. Most of these songs were recorded in the 1970s or later, and mostly by musicians in the waning years of life. This led to the common conclusion that banjo music in black communities was a dying art form. Whether or not the tradition was dying is irrelevant at this point, because it’s clearly not dead. If we were to allow the commercial recording industry to proclaim what is alive and what is dead, we’d be privy only to a thin slice of the various music that continues to thrive outside the umbrella of commercial acceptance. In many ways this is the principle that has led Smithsonian Folkways to its unparalled success.

The songs on Black Banjo Songsters are anything but commercial and would most likely be of little interest to those who are unaccustomed to the rough hewn sound of field recordings, where pitch correction and over-dubbing are foreign concepts. Black Banjo Songsters is something of an educational project, shedding light on the various aspects of black banjo stylings including percussive claw hammer style as well as the two-fingers, up-picking “complementing” style. The extensive liner notes by banjo scholar Cece Conway and Scott Odell detail the specifics of these different styles.

The collection gives credibility to the diversity of approaches by black players. Just as white players such as Roscoe Holcomb, Earl Scruggs and Bela Fleck found individual sounds with the instrument, familiar songs such as “Coo Coo,” “John Henry,” and “Old Corn Liquor” get individual treatment by lesser known players such as Dink Roberts, Odell Thompson, and John Snipes.

But the education aside, the music is rich and welcoming, showcasing first class talent, many of whom were never offered recording gigs because they didn’t play the one of two genres that fit neatly on “race records.” Most importantly, it reminds us of what is lost when the missing piece of the puzzle goes unnoticed for too long.

Reviewed by Thomas Grant Richardson

Tribute to Ella Jenkins

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jenkins.jpgTitle: cELLAbration: A Tribute to Ella Jenkins Live!
Artists: Various
Label: Smithsonian Folkways
Format: DVD
Number: SFW DV 48007
Date: 2007

“Ella Jenkins is to children’s music what Ella Fitzgerald is to jazz.”
–The Washington Post

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Ella Jenkin’s first recording with Folkways Records (Call and Response: Rhythm Group Singing, 1957), Smithsonian Folkways has released the DVD cELLAbration: A Tribute to Ella Jenkins Live! The footage comes from a special tribute concert held at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland, where the country’s foremost children’s music performers paid their respects to the “First Lady of Children’s Music” (a CD with much of the same repertoire was released in 2004). This DVD would make a wonderful gift for the children and music educators on your holiday list.

Ella Jenkins was born in St. Louis in 1924, but has been living and performing in Chicago for most of her 80 plus years. A legendary figure in children’s music, she has received dozens of awards, including the 2004 GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award and the 1999 ASCAP Lifetime Achievement Award (the first woman recipient), and has made guest appearances on many television shows, including the perennial favorites of the kindergarten set- Mr. Rogers and Barney. Over the years Jenkins has released more than 30 albums and 2 videos on the Smithsonian Folkways label, and her classic album You’ll Sing a Song and I’ll Sing a Song is the best-selling record in the history of Folkways.

The tribute concert features an all-star cast with appearances by Cathy Fink, Red Grammer, Riders in the Sky, Tom Chapin, John McCuthcheon, Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger and Mike Stein, among others- singing covers of Jenkins’ songs as well as their own compositions. Highlights include Sweet Honey in the Rock performing Jenkins’ signature song “Miss Mary Mack” and Ella herself singing “I Know a City Called Okeeehobee,” which demonstrates the style of call and response audience participation that has captivated so many over the years. For the younger set there is an appearance by the Rockin’ Hadrosaur from Hackensack (who is much hipper than Barney!).

In addition to the live concert performance, there are several wonderful bonus features on the DVD. The brief “Slide Show” includes a chronological overview of Jenkins’ life in photos. In “Backstage Greetings” the artists offer personal congratulations to Jenkins on her 50 years in show business. But the most interesting bonus feature is “Conversations with Artists” (recorded 2/5/2006), where the performers weigh in on the many ways that Ella Jenkins has influenced them over the years. Jenkins is also given an opportunity to describe the ways she engages children in the music and her work with the Chicago Public Schools. Another highlight is a conversation with Pete Seeger, who discusses Jenkins’ history with Folkways, her skills as a songwriter, and her incorporation of world languages and cultures. While explaining her multigenerational appeal, Seeger notes: “A beautiful melody will leap language barriers, or religious barriers, or political barriers- but like all good art, even a simple children’s song can mean different things at different times- the songs bounce back new meanings as life gives you new experiences.” This is the key to Jenkins’ success, and the reason her music remains timeless.

“Put Ella Jenkins, children, and some musical instruments together and what you get is pure magic.” –Chicago Sun

Posted by Brenda Nelson-Strauss