For those who don't know, Starday bought King records from Syd Nathan in the late 60's. At that point, they began reissuing the King bluegrass sides under the Starday imprint. So infact, The Stanley Brothers didn't record their early albums on Starday although it was a highly succesful country label during those same years.The reissued "Banjo In The Hills" is a wonderfully exciting album, with little to no vocals. The focus is strictly on the music and the banjo shredding. And shred they do... I am enjoying this more than the previous post. Everything has been tagged as it should with the Starday reissue but I included the King cover if you want to change it. I have also included a text file with extensive album notes... Enjoy!!!
LP > 24/44.1 wav > 16/44.1 FLAC Yeehaw!!
9 comments:
https://mega.co.nz/#!ExomnaCC!JeBzJV7Zeb1T8uDdL_spbV3JfNs_SaOzT183tgZDEIk
-OR-
http://www55.zippyshare.com/v/60545642/file.html
Many thanks for this one, Poppachubby.
I was hoping for more of that high lonesome sound. Big thanks!
Appreciated as always Poppa, and Feilimid, as are your sentiments on the Americana term. It seems a tragedy that some sort of recent commercially contrived convenient genre label could leave behind this legacy of style and musicianship. My first immersion with Bluegrass was Kentucky Colonels through following a Clarence White thread and then (attempting) some Doc Watson guitar picking. I think these artists took both the Banjo and guitar off into another direction that again spoke of what great instruments they are. It's a deep legacy and something for the US to be proud of, but I am happy if people get there through alt.country or your good self
I always thought Americana was that Eagles-type sound. Rock mixed with country twang. I appreciate the firm smack in the face from Feilimid's loving hand - helping me to become a better, music loving man.
Still not totally immersed in this roots bluegrass ( don't think my Blues soul will ever let me) but this is historically relevant and contains some great melodies throughout - And some great pickin' !
Cheers Chubbs
Thanks, Poppachubby. Nowadays they smear the label Americana, like mayonnaise on white bread, on so much music that lacks soul but bluegrass is really part of our roots music. The record companies have done the same thing to jazz and defined it as a shapeless genre that includes Kenny G at his most banal. Several years ago I was on the subway in D. C. and was sitting next to a young man carrying a trumpet in its case. I asked him what he played and he confidently told me jazz. So, presumptuous me, I asked him what he thought of Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie and whether they had influenced him. He had never heard of them, had only vaguely heard of Wynton Marsalis, and what he called jazz was essentially elevator music with flair. On the other hand, around the same time my middle daughter and I were sitting in the bank next to an older gentlemen. The bank's music system was playing Ellington and my then-nineteen year-old daughter said that she loved his music. The gentleman commented on her taste and asked how she became interested in jazz. As it turns out, we sat there for an hour discussing jazz and he was a local D. C. musician who had played with everyone whoever came through the city, including among many others Charles McPherson. He also played with Gil Scott Heron. Music always leads to interesting conversations in many places.
Bluegrass music is roots music and is classified as a genre of country music but its roots are very mixed and derive from the traditional music of Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and England with influences from jazz (shades of Django Reinhardt) and blues. To me, it's best described as Appalachian blues but then I would define Hank Williams as a white blues singer so others may disagree while my African-American friends in Texas and obviously Ray Charles saw the connection. Listen to Ralph Stanley sing "O Death" or Gillian Welch sing "Make Me A Pallet" and the connection seems obvious to me. For that matter, I regard Mississippi John Hurt as more a roots musician than a blues man. His music came from an earlier time when the differences between African American and European-based roots music were less stark because they were always influencing one another.
Bluegrass legend Bill Monroe characterized bluegrass as follows: Scottish bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin'. It's Methodist and Holiness and Baptist. It's blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound. What it really is is the music of the Scots-Irish and Welsh who settled in the hills and valleys of the Appalachians, worked in the coal mines, or eked out meager livings on dirt farms in hard-living country, and borrowed from the music of African Americans to create a synthesis. As commercial country as Dolly Parton is, when she sings bluegrass she channels Marley's maxim Who Feels It Knows It. She is the daughter of a poor tobacco farmer from Tennessee and she's no slouch when it comes to bluegrass. For that matter, Ricky Skaggs or any other great bluegrass musician playing a breakdown comes about as close to an improvised jazz riff as anything I have heard.
The King once remarked on the Muscle Shoals musicians and writers like Dan Penn working with great soul artists at a time when segregation dominated the south. Having lived in the south for almost half my life and developed a taste for bluegrass,Tejano, Norteno, Texas Swing,and other genres native to the regions in which I have lived, I would say that what is remarkable is the exchange of musical ideas that occurred in such extreme times and despite such rigid social barriers. After all, when Chuck Berry released Maybelline, more than a few folks here thought he was was white country singer. B. B. King singing Leon Russell's "Hummingbird" or Ray Charles singing Hank's "Your Cheating Heart" that's what American music at is most arcane best is to me.
Now I am no musician so I am just observing from my gut (or my ass, depending on one's perspective) and will be the first to admit I may be wrong, but, to me, if one wants to hear Americana, one can start with Harry Smith's legendary Anthology of American Folk Music, a six-album set of American folk, blues and country music recordings that were originally issued from 1927 to 1932. Smith eschewed the definition of folk music as a genre played by college-educated white youth seeking authenticity and understood that folk music was played by just plain folks and American music, at its best, was and remains a synthesis of the music of those who emigrated or were brought against their wills here. As for the Eagles, Tom Waits sang his song "Ol' 55" better than they did and in my opinion John Fogerty at his best in "Green River", "Born On The Bayou", "Down On The Corner", and "Long As I Can See The Light" better epitomized Americana in the nascent stages of its current incarnation. I'll admit my prejudices, but, to me, the Eagles robbed country and rock of their souls and have as much authenticity as Pat Boone singing "Tutti Frutti." Sorry, but I just can't imagine working up a sweat or having chills run up my spine when listening to the Eagles whereas Ralph Stanley's "O Death" is as haunting to me as Skip James' "Devil Got My Woman," and both have the power to leave me staring wide-eyed at the ceiling from my bed in the small hours of the morning as I wonder what forces haunted their souls to produce such music.
Well, Jaysus, Feilimid, I just put my toe in the blog water and look what reared up. You have reached out through the wire and banjo plucked every last vestige of the desperate song I had attempted on the Americana thread, and nailed it. How did you know that I loved Ol' 55 ? Yep, right on the money and all over it. I try not to bag Pat Metheny's Pin~ata. (http://imgur.com/1Kp36cC) and the rest of those "Artists" that leave us cold, it's a downward heartbreak spiral. I heard that jazz comprised 4% of CD sales in the 90's and KG some ridiculous percentage of that. To think of Clifford Brown in that context ? Don't do it to yourself. However,your wonderful thoughts on the extraction and genealogy of roots american music are such a worthy contribution. What might have happened if those hideous racial barriers hadn't existed ? Big Krusty the Clown sigh...............thanks for the smokin' essay.
Post a Comment