Various Artists – "Music Of The Ukraine" (Ethnic Folkways Library – FE 4443) 1951

Its got sleeve art like a Swans album,adorned with a black and white photo of what appears to be soviet Ukrainian relatives of Blitz era Spandau Ballet,yet it sounds like the soundtrack to "O'Brother Where Art Thou? 2", and showcases a glaring error, much repeated by us ignorant Westerners, referring to Ukraine as 'THE' Ukraine....It's just 'Ukraine' in fact, no 'THE' involved,or,indeed, needed.

There must have been a sizable influx of Ukrainians ,fleeing pogroms or revolution to the Appalachians in the first half of the 20th century,as this Ukrainian Folk could easily be some weird bluegrass from Harry Smith's anthology of American Folk. It's just lacking a few Toothless Donbas Dumbass Hillbillies,or some moonshine damaged hick called Blind Lemon Shevchenko dueling balalaika's and banjo's with Dock Boggs. There was certainly no British folk that sounded like this anyhow......not enough senseless slaughter going on in those sceptered isles it seemed, at least up until the potato famine that is; after which the terrors of Irish pixie dancing music were deliberately exported to the fledgling USA by the British governments attempt to starve Irish Dancing out of the empire for good.....then Michael Flatley happened and now its too late to do a Potato Famine two....we're stuck with it!

I'm struggling to locate any contemporary Ukrainian music that isn't generic and western via Moscow leaning.....but this shits weird! Get it before Putin erases the tapes and removed anything vaguely Ukrainian from the planet,while moaning about 'Cancel Culture'. Betraying a very well hidden literary intellect, this jawless,joyless, dwarf,intellectually and physically,desperately accuses the British Government of trying to cancel Harry Potter! That bunch of twerps are responsible for many things, but tragically not cancelling all things J.K.Rowling.They couldn't even get that right!? I honestly despair of them. Tax cuts for the Rich funded by eye watering borrowing requirements,and sweeping welfare cuts for the poor,yet they don't have the balls to cancel Harry Potter!??? What is this world coming to?.......a heavily irradiated ending it seems?.....but at least Harry Potter will cease to exist along with the rest of us? Happily there's a bright side before the Electromagnetic wave of thermonuclear destruction wipes all hard drives and all data that proved we ever existed......but if those who inherit humanities position as super selfish food chain toppers,and string two extra brain cells together, ever find an intact copy of "Music Of Ukraine" hidden in a lead lined nook somewhere....with a record player of course? Then they are gonna have a funny idea that there may have been a mysterious civilization who, once upon a time, left this molten highly radioactive landscape to the next bunch of self-destructive morons.

Just like those mysterious chaps on Easter Island...what was going on there then?

Tracklist:

1. Gutsul Kolomyika Dance-Song – Oleska Suyhodolyak With Bagpipe Acc.
2. Kozachok Dance-Song – Ivan Martishchuk With Bagpipe Acc.
3. Huculka Dance – Carpatho Ukrainian Village Orchestra
4. Country Dances – Carpatho Ukrainian Village Orchestra
5. Wedding Melodies – Hutsul Ensemble Of Folk Musicians
6. Hutsulka And Kozachok Dances – Hutsul Ensemble Of Folk Musicians
7. Folk Song - The Wind From The Field
8. Folk Song - One Half Of The Garden Blossoms

DOWNLOAD the folk music from a people and a place that, according to a certain autocratic dictator,doesn't exist...find proof that it does...HERE!

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

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Harry Smith ‎– "Anthology Of American Folk Music (Volume Two: Social Music)" ( Folkways Records ‎– FP 252) 1952

This is the creepiest of the three anthology volumes.
Its like stumbling over the rehearsals for Rosemarys Baby in a near-by copse,except that its for real, and no mere rehearsal.
Just imagine stumbling over a child sacrifice in a clearing on Walton's Mountain, and recording it.Thats basically what Harry Smith did.It got dat Voodoo.
Hillbillies frighten the living shite out of me,in the same way that Islamic fundamentalists do.They are part of the American Taliban,and in their simple ways exude the very essence of Stupid,but a loveable brand of Stupid.
Just imagine their toothless grins as they stomp merrily on their shack's front porch,pickled on Moonshine whiskey, burning crosses and berating Abe Lincoln.
Why they would want to slag down the memory of President Lincoln for, I dunno.They had so much in common after all?

Actual Abraham Lincoln Quote:

“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.”

Tracklist:

Dances No. 1
A1 –Uncle Bunt Stephens - Sail Away Lady
A2 –J.W. Day - The Wild Wagoner
A3 –Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers - Wake Up Jacob
A4 –Delma Lachney And Blind Uncle Gaspard - La Danseuse
A5 –Andrew And Jim Baxter - Georgia Stomp
A6 –Eck Robertson And Family - Brilliancy Medley
A7 –Floyd Ming And His Pep-Steppers - Indian War Whoop
Dances No. 2
B1 –Henry Thomas - Old Country Stomp
B2 –Jim Jackson - Old Dog Blue
B3 –Columbus Fruge - Saut Crapaud
B4 –Joseph Falcon - Arcadian One Step
B5 –Breaux Freres - Home Sweet Home
B6 –The Cincinnati Jug Band - Newport Blues
B7 –Frank Cloutier And The Victoria Cafe Orchestra - Moonshiner's Dance (Part 1)
Religious No. 1
C1 –Rev. J. M. Gates - Must Be Born Again
C2 –Rev. J. M. Gates - Oh Death Where Is Thy Sting
C3 –Alabama Sacred Harp Singers - Rocky Road
C4 –Alabama Sacred Harp Singers - Present Joys
C5 –Middle Georgia Singing Convention No. 1 - This Song Of Love*
C6 –Rev. Sister Mary Nelson - Judgement
C7 –Memphis Sanctified Singers - He Got Better Things For You
C8 –Elders McIntorsh And Edwards' Sanctified Singers - Since I Laid My Burden Down
Religious No. 2
D1 –Rev. Moses Mason - John The Baptist
D2 –Bascom Lamar Lunsford - Dry Bones
D3 –Blind Willie Johnson - John The Revelator
D4 –The Carter Family - Little Moses
D5 –Ernest Phipps And His Holiness Singers - Shine On Me
D6 –Rev. F. W. McGee - Fifty Miles Of Elbow Room
D7 –Rev. D.C. Rice And His Sanctified Congregation - In The Battle Field For My Lord*

(*) missing track(s) from the file...click to download separatly,or just play the mp3 see if this is your bag or not?

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Harry Smith ‎– "Anthology Of American Folk Music Volume One: Ballads" (Folkways Records ‎– FP 251) 1952

Indeed, you guessed it. One cannot mention the quest for the American Primitive ,and incidently, the birth of record collecting, without Harry Smiths Anthology of American Folk series from the early 50's. A very trendy item for the proto-hippie scene in all major metropolis's,or metropoli, in northern America....but nowhere else I may add.That is until this got re-released in the nineties;when it could always be gauranteed to be seen casually placed atop every ikea coffee table beyond canary wharf,alongside those John Fahey CD's.A particularly heinous form of Poundland sophistication.
Yuk! I can just see Nick Cave salivating,or worse, over this,post Birthday Party around 1983.Carefully taking notes, and actually stealing a few songs for that lamentable 'Murder Ballads' LP, y'know, that one with Kylie Minogue on?
This album (The Anthology not fucking Murder Ballads!) launched a thousand earnest young men with acoustic guitars in those neo-neo-neo-folk singer songwriter revivals throughtout the latter 20th and,criminally,again in the early 21st century.The thing that mutated and finally gave us complete bastards like Ed Sheeran and that inexcusably posh "You're Beautiful" idiot. Posh fuckers shouldn't be anywhere around Folk music, or Football, or playing cockney's in that next Netflix atrocity.
The people who made these murky recordings were certainly NOT posh,but they may well have habored opinions somewhat right of Attila The Hun.
This observation is entirely pieced together from long distance,and from watching the uncut version of John Boorman's "Deliverance". I've never met a Hillbilly,or hardly ever met a Redneck, never mind conversed with one. I did ask a local the direction to Flagstaff in some shithole in Arizona once,....he stared zombie-like at me,as if i had just landed from a small planet somewhere in the vacinity of Betelgeuse.One of those Easy Rider moments.
I had a similar moment in a bar in Nevada,when playing pool, i selected something the local yokels would like to hear, and chose AC/DC's 'Back In Black',which actually turned out to be Culture Club,with Boy George exhaling the words to "I'll Tumble For Ya!"
To escape a severe bumming,i fouled the eight-ball and made for the exit to get back to civilisation in.....er.... Vegas?
On a less prejudiced note,and as a very 'English Englishman', one must thank the peasants of the Appalachian mountains for preserving English Folk culture from destruction,as most of those fine English folk tunes were preserved in moonshine within the minds.....(if 'Minds' is the right word?).....of these very same Hillbillies,filed alongside nigger lynchin' and other such Appalachian pastimes.
They also kept the culture(?) and music of the early Americans deep frozen waiting to be thawed out by such proto-beatnik east coast nascent hippie types as Harry Smith.
Got some cracking,and crackling, tunes about muderers and hangings and stuff on here.Its kind of like listening to an entertaining seance with Smith as the medium calling on the spirits of this long dead mountain scum to sing us a little song.
Is there anybody there?.......NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Tracklist:

Volume One: The Ballads:

1–Dick Justice - Henry Lee 3:28
2–Nelstone's Hawaiians - Fatal Flower Garden 2:58
3–Clarence Ashley - The House Carpenter 3:16
4–Coley Jones - Drunkard's Special 3:16
5–Bill And Belle Reed - Old Lady And The Devil 3:05
6–Buell Kazee - The Butcher's Boy 3:05
7–Buell Kazee - The Wagoner's Lad 3:05
8–Chubby Parker And His Old Time Banjo - King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O 3:09
9–Uncle Eck Dunford - Old Shoes And Leggins 3:01
10–Richard Burnett And Leonard Rutherford - Willie Moore 3:16
11–Buster Carter & Preston Young - A Lazy Farmer Boy 3:00
12–The Carolina Tar Heels - Peg And Awl 2:59
13–G.B. Grayson - Ommie Wise 3:12
14–Kelly Harrell And The Virginia String Band - My Name Is John Johanna* 3:13 (* this one is missing from the file,so click it to download,or play the mp3 to see if this is your bag or not?)
15–Edward L. Crain - Bandit Cole Younger 2:57
16–Kelly Harrell And The Virginia String Band - Charles Giteau 3:05
17–The Carter Family - John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man 2:57
18–The Williamson Brothers And Curry - Gonna Die With My Hammer In My Hand 3:26
19–Frank Hutchison - Stackalee 3:01
20–Charlie Poole And The North Carolina Ramblers - White House Blues 3:31
21–Mississippi John Hurt - Frankie 3:28
22–William And Versey Smith - When That Great Ship Went Down 2:58
23–The Carter Family - Engine 143 3:19
24–Furry Lewis - Kassie Jones 6:16
25–The Bently Boys - Down On Penny's Farm 2:50
26–The Masked Marvel - Mississippi Boweavil Blues 3:09
27–The Carolina Tar Heels - Got The Farm Land Blues 3:17

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