In today’s Sunday Times there is a great article about newly released black roots music field recordings compiled by folklorist John Work III. Note in particular the insightful take on the dynamics of Alan Lomax’s field recordings and the ways in which Work III’s acetates involve a shift in perspective.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Newly Unearthed Field Recordings
Posted in Uncategorized on December 2, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
The Very Thought of You
Posted in Uncategorized on November 12, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Made me want to write this.
Rhinestone Cowboy
Posted in Uncategorized on November 2, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
My tribute to Porter Wagoner, from this week’s Independent:
He Just Came To Smell The Flowers
Dolly Parton is said to have joked about her break from duet partner and mentor Porter Wagoner: “we split over creative differences—I was creative, he was different.” As with all things Parton, there’s more substance here than meets the eye. Wagoner [...]
The James Talley Post
Posted in Uncategorized on October 15, 2007 | 1 Comment »
If you were in New York this past summer, and happened to be out with me at the Magician on the Lower East Side one warm evening, then you heard this already. But if you were not or did not happen to be, allow me to introduce, then, four dearest companions of mine, whose acquaintance [...]
The Devil In Bentonia
Posted in Uncategorized on October 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
If you’ve seen the movie Ghost World–or if you read the inaugural post of my previous blog, Idiom Idiots–then you’re at most one degree of separation away from Skip James’s haunting blues masterpiece “Devil Got My Woman.” Seymour, the movie’s awkward country blues-loving protagonist, extols the record, telling his own devil woman, Enid: “…that’s a [...]
Attorney General; Executive Producer
Posted in Uncategorized on September 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
It was the Talk of the Town in this week’s New Yorker that first allerted me to the new Janet Reno executed-produced compilation Song of America, though a few internet searches have since directed me to many other articles addressing the collection. The release of the 50-track recording this Tuesday is a development that can [...]
Killer Country: A Jerry Lee Lewis Biography in Verse (Fragment)
Posted in Uncategorized on September 21, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Always he was still a sinner,
That much, he knew, it was inner.
But after hellfire struck him down,
Mid-stride, rocking music town,
He forsook shaking, balls of fire
To countryside he did retire.
Another time another place,
Led Killer to the penance face.
Filled with guilt and with regret,
Were his yodels, and they met
The twang, the moans, the pedal steel–
Roots redemption held [...]
Dear Readers
Posted in Uncategorized on September 16, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Apologies for the lack of words this week. The man at the Apple store who informed me that my laptop would have to be shipped off for extensive repairs didn’t mean to take the music away, but alas this was the outcome. The ideas are percolating. Rap music as roots music; the new reality TV [...]
Back Door Man
Posted in Uncategorized on September 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I am the blues. So said Willie Dixon, with the title of his 1970 album and later, his 1990 autobiography, and he was right each time. Songwriter, producer, bassist, and occasional singer, Willie Dixon was to electric Chicago blues what Harlan Howard [...]
Long Black Veil
Posted in Movies, Music, Uncategorized on August 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
This morning I was listening to David Gray’s new live covers album when I was suddenly transfixed by his rendition of the oft-recorded country ballad “Long Black Veil.” I was already familiar with the song via the version on Music from Big Pink, the debut record by the Band, but as I listened to Gray’s [...]
