If you sing along, Big Slim the Lone Cowboy won’t be so lonely. The Southern Folklife Collection happily welcomes you to learn the “Secret’s“ of our heart. Another classic from the Southern Folklife Collection Song Folios, 1882-1893 (#30006), FL-247. See the remaining contents below. Special thanks to a new Southern Folklife Collection friend in Australia for leading us to this great collection of songs through a research request from almost 10,000 miles away.
A Friday afternoon treat for you from one of two discs at the Southern Folklife Collection released on La Marr’s Star Records, a Hollywood based regional record label owned and operated by the remarkable Baline La Marr (more on Ms. La Marr in the next post). For now, enjoy Les Anderson’s Melody Wranglers version of “Sad But True” from 78 rpm disc call number 78-9188. Anderson, also known as “Carrot Top,” saw his career take off in 1942 with Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys as the replacement of legendary steel guitarist Leon McAullife who was drafted into the Navy. Anderson travelled to California with the Playboys, and in1946 formed his own Melody Wranglers. He became a regular guest on the western swing radio show “Spade Cooley Time,” before eventually ending up on the classic country television broadcast, “Town Hall Party.” Come back next week for more of Baline La Marr’s Star records.
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It’s Burns Day, and I hope you have been practicing your “Address tae the Haggis.” Folklorist, teacher, author, and friend of the Southern Folklife Collection, Burgin Mathews, hosts a Burns Supper that I will someday be lucky enough to attend, however this year I’ll have to offer the Immortal Memory address to myself in a quiet kitchen. Thankfully I found a wealth of supporting materials in the SFC to assist in my Burns Night activities. The LP pictured above, call no. FC18057, offers a great start with Frederick Worlock reading some of Robert Burns best, including “To a Louse (on seeing one on a lady’s bonnet at church).” Listen to the clip above.
Thanks to inspiration from the SFC’s recent Fiddle Concert and Symposium, I pulled out a record, call no. FC1508, produced by Mark Wilson that features some of his excellent recordings of Cape Breton musician Joseph Cormier. Scottish Violin Music from Cape Breton Island, kicks off with a perfect set of reels for Burns Night, “Haggis; Glennville’s Dirk; Bird’s Nest.” Listen to “Haggis” here:
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Your guests will likely need some source material for their Burns recitations after dinner, so you may want to reference The Merry Muses of Caledonia, call no. PR4322.M42 1965, and possibly copy the glossary for those less familiar with the particulars of Scottish vocabulary. (click images to enlarge)
Finally, no Burns Supper is complete without a rousing rendition of Robert Burns most famous and most misunderstood poems, “Auld Lang Syne.” I never imagined that I would someday offer the following advice, but take a cue from Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians and pour your heart and soul into the song (it may help if you have a cup of “uisge beatha,” aka the “water of life, aka Scotch whisky, in advance). Sing along won’t you?
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For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
Once again a researcher pointed the way to a fascinating item in the Southern Folklife Collection. While most of our attention has been on the fiddle as of late, I happily shifted focus to the autoharp (which we recently learned is also known as the “Idiot Zither”) when I digitized a tape recorded interview of Maybelle Carter, FT11829 from the Betty Blackley Collection (#20282). Conducted September 9 and 10, 1962 by autoharp expert A. Doyle Moore and Archie Green at the home of Earl and Louise Scruggs Madison, TN, the interview offers an in-depth history of the Carter Family’s use of the autoharp and Mother Maybelle’s performance style on the instrument. In the following three clips, she describes her first encounters with the autoharp:
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The conversation continues, reflecting on her career, and eventually to her performance style. After locating the appropriate pick and finding an instrument with the correct tuning, she demonstrates with examples played on one of the multiple autoharps apparently always on hand in Earl and Louise Scruggs’s living room at any given time. The first two clips lead up to the third, which is a wonderfully wobbly and vibrating version of “Gathering Flowers from the Hillside.” She goes on to demonstrate many other songs on side 2 of the tape. Definitely a treat on this gloomy Thursday afternoon.
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Today brings another new (to us) holiday tune from the stacks. This one comes from Zeke Clements, aka The Dixie Yodeler, who penned “Smoke on the Water” (not the Deep Purple version). Of Cherokee descent, Clements was born and raised in Alabama. He recorded with hillbilly string bands and Western Swing ensembles, developing his own unique style of hillbilly rock and boogie. After a few years on the WSM Grand Ole Opry, Clements became a singing cowboy, appearing in several westerns and eventually landing a role as the voice of Bashful in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Here we have a Clements holiday gospel original, “I Dreamed I Spent Christmas in Heaven,” from call no. 78-1468. Clements and his Western Swing Gang recorded the side for Bullet Records out of Nashville, TN, a label started by veteran WSM promoter and early Sun Records investor, Jim Bulleit, along with C. V. Hitchcock.
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We also dug into the Southern Folklife Collection Artist Name Files, collection #30005 to find the song transcribed as part of a 1942 Zeke Clements songbook (which cost 1 1/2 cents to mail from Nashville to Barron, Wisconsin where I am sure Peter Peterson was happy to find it when he opened Box.79 one morning). One last holiday record tomorrow. Any requests?
(as always, click photos to enlarge)
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Another treat from the stacks spinning at 45 rpm. This Capitol promo record, call no. 45-1179, has one of the most famous versions of one of the most famous holiday tunes ever written, appropriately titled “The Christmas Song,” but it’s this b-side that really brings on the tears. Especially as Nat King Cole goes into the spoken word section in the middle of the track.
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We make no apologies for our sentimentality and this tune hits hard. We thank you readers for all your support of the Southern Folklife Collection over the past year. We’re not checking out just yet, still got some work to for the upcoming SFC Fiddle Concert and Symposium, January 11 and 12 (Free tickets available now from the Memorial Hall Box Office), and we still have a few more holiday treats to share. But for now I’ll let Mr. Cole sing us out.
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As promised, a few more holiday treats for the snack table. These come courtesy of the Kitty Wells Cook Book, vol. 1 (1964), from NF2158 in the Southern Folklife Collection Artist Name Files (#30005). Start off the night with a “Pink Quickie,” before enjoying a delicious “Cranberry Christmas Mold” and some “Holiday Fruit Cookies.” A party menu like no other! Perfect for shooting pool with good friends, like Kitty Wells husband, Johnny Wright (pictured below). Come back tomorrow for some more Southern Folklife Collection holiday finds.
Holiday times can be pleasantly quiet times in Wilson Library and the Southern Folklife Collection (unlike the rest of the year when UNC is in session), but the work in the archives never stops.
In the midst of moving in new collections (like the just arrived Russ D. Bernard Collection which includes the archives of Country Music Magazine and the Journal of the American Academy for the Preservation of Old-Time Country Music), planning the upcoming Fiddle Concert and Symposium (free tickets available now), and digitization projects, we pulled a slew of holiday treats from the stacks to share. First up, from call no. 45-2168, the Queen of the Answer Song, Kitty Wells (along with the great Jordanaires) singing “Dasher With the Light Upon His Tail.”
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This isn’t really an answer song, but some bizarre attempt to usurp Rudolph’s status as the lightbringer. It comes as no surprise that this tune did not become part of the American carol canon, but it isn’t without merit. Just listen to the Jordanaires say “Dash Away!”
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The b-side makes up for the lackluster attempt to outshine Rudolph with a classic honky-tonk tearjerker, “Christmas Ain’t Like Christmas Anymore.”
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If any of you have any favorite heartbreak holiday tunes, please do let us know. We’ll be bringing you more holiday treats throughout the week. We might even pull out Kitty Wells recipes for Cranberry Christmas Mold and Holiday Fruit Cookies from the Kitty Wells Cookbook and have a party.
The Digital Southern Folklife Collection continues to add content at a steady rate. One of the recent additions includes the photographs from the Ed Kahn Collection (#20360). Among numerous photos of the Carter Family and Merle Travis is the publicity shot of June Carter, mid-leap, featured above. Also note Ms. Carter’s manager, the Colonel himself, Tom Parker (aka Andreas Cornelis (“Dries”) van Kuijk).
Scholar and folklorist, Ed Kahn (1938-2004) spent much of his life devoted to the study of American folk songs and early country music, conducting extensive field research and writing at length about both Merle Travis and the Carter Family. Kahn was was involved in the creation of the John Edwards Memorial Foundation (JEMF), along with Archie Green, D. K. Wilgus, Fred Hoeptner, and Eugene Earle. He was initially appointed Executive Secretary of the JEMF and was instrumental in starting the JEMF Quarterly newsletter. The collection consists of papers, photographs, and audiovisual materials relating to Kahn’s research documenting American folk songs, Mexican border radio, and early country music and recording history.
Carter Family research materials include personal and professional correspondence; research files related to Ed Kahn‘s dissertation, “The Carter Family: A Reflection of Changes in Society”; transcripts documenting interviews with members of the Carter Family and people associated with them; letters to and from members of the Carter Family and their friends, family, and business associates; and handwritten songs found in a cabin where Sara Carter stayed after divorcing A. P. Carter.
Any ideas on what the autograph says?
