Sunday 12 January 2020

Harry Smith ‎– "Anthology Of American Folk Music Volume Three: Songs" (Folkways Records ‎– FP 253) 1952



This one has Dock Boggs on it. There's Blind Lemons,Sleepy Johns,and a few dodgy Cajun's. So we're straddling Boorman's "Deliverance" vision of the arcetypal Hill Billy, with one foot in the mangrove swamps of Walter Hill's "Southern Comfort" and louisiana Cajun oiks;isn't that where The Residents came from?.......Hmmmmm,now i'm beginning to understand.
Living in a part of France that's chockablock with country bumpkins,Boar hunters,moronic farmers,old broken down drunks (Les Vieux Soulards), and other losers like me who can't make it in the big city;I am constantly surprised at the total lack of Folk music in these 'ere parts.There must have been some at some point,because the French inbreds in Louisiana certainly kept it alive,but in America.The evidence is here.
The Frogs go crazy for 'Musique Celtique',or,as we celts call it,Irish pixie dancin' music......excuse the language,but.....Riverdance......or Riverdunce.
But,they are no longer aware that there was,once a folk culture flowing there once;quite like how water once flowed on Mars.
Its been replaced with endless talk about recipes for Ratatouille,and droning on about their incredibly boring unadventurous food.Tragic!
The direct opposite of les Anglais, which incidently is also the french ladies slang term for a 'Period'!
That said, the English,les Anglais, wouldn't have been able to preserve their thriving Folk culture without these inbred white niggers keeping it alive in those isolated shit pits that were untouched by modern civilisation in North America.That folk influence could be heard in those early Beatles tunes,so said Roger McGuinn of the Tyrds.So, one could say the Folk exchange ocurred several times between the english speaking nations leading to the evolution of modern folk music...or, as it is now known since the early sixties....Pop!
Who was this Harry Smith geezer? I got a picture,it was either this or one with Alan Ginsberg.
Harry Smith, proto beatnik numero uno.

Tracklist:


1–Clarence Ashley - The Coo Coo Bird 2:56
2–Buell Kazee - East Virginia 3:01
3–Cannon's Jug Stompers - Minglewood Blues 3:44
4–Didier Herbert - I Woke Up One Morning In May 3:04
5–Richard "Rabbit" Brown - James Alley Blues 3:07
6–Dock Boggs - Sugar Baby 2:58
7–Bascom Lamar Lunsford - I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground 3:21
8–Ernest And Hattie Stoneman - Mountaineer's Courtship 2:44
9–The Stoneman Family - The Spanish Merchant's Daughter 3:18
10–Memphis Jug Band - Bob Lee Junior Blues 3:11
11–The Carter Family - Single Girl, Married Girl 2:47
12–Cleoma Breaux And Joseph Falcon - La Vieux Soulard Et Sa Femme 3:10
13–Blind Lemon Jefferson - Rabbit Foot Blues 2:57
14–Sleepy John Estes And Yank Rachell - Expressman Blues 3:01
15–Ramblin' Thomas - Poor Boy Blues 2:24
16–Cannon's Jug Stompers - Feather Bed 3:16
17–Dock Boggs - Country Blues 2:59
18–Julius Daniels - 99 Year Blues 3:07
19–Blind Lemon Jefferson - Prison Cell Blues 2:47
20–Blind Lemon Jefferson - See That My Grave Is Kept Clean 2:55
21–Cleoma Breaux And Ophy Breaux And Joseph Falcon - C'Est Si Triste Sans Lui 3:01
22–Uncle Dave Macon - Way Down The Old Plank Road 3:01
23–Uncle Dave Macon - Buddy Won't You Roll Down The Line 3:15
24–Mississippi John Hurt - Spike Driver Blues 3:17
25–Memphis Jug Band - K.C. Moan 2:33
26–J.P. Nestor - Train On The Island 3:00
27–Ken Maynard - The Lone Star Trail 3:15
28–Henry Thomas - Fishing Blues 5:17


2 comments:

kevinesse said...

somewhere i've got a book of interviews of harry smith....he's this kind of annoying esoteric bum who's always on the hustle, but is intelligent and interested in unusual stuff...i think after this collection of music, he lost interest and moved on to collecting knots.!......always sleeping on someone's couch....you can kind of smell his socks in the interviews.......any way thanks for sharing this great collection...love it

Anonymous said...

thank you Jonny roll on volume four