Author Archives: Aaron

June Carter in the Ed Kahn Collection

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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?

SFC Spotlight: Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, 1955

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As the days continue to get shorter and we rarely emerge from the Southern Folklife Collection in time to catch the last light of the day, we welcome a ray of sunshine like this 1955 Asheville Chamber of Commerce informational pamphlet about Bascom Lamar Lunsford and the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival from Folder 368 in the Artus Moser Papers (collection #20005). The map on the inside cover is fantastic (click to enlarge).

Ballad collector, educator, and historian Artus Monroe Moser was born 14 September 1894 in Hickory, N.C., to David Lafayette (Fayette) Moser and Cordelia Elizabeth King Moser. When Artus was two, the family moved to Buckeye Cove, N.C., located in Buncombe County near the Swannanoa Valley, where his mother had grown up and her family still lived. In 1904, Fayette Moser took a job as forester for the Biltmore Estate and moved the family there, where they remained until 1917 when Fayette became the North Carolina State Forest Warden on Mt. Mitchell. The family spent twelve years on Mt. Mitchell, then returned to Swannanoa after Fayette was hired as Warden for the Beacon Blanket Mill watershed.

Growing up in the mountains of Western North Carolina instilled in Artus a deep respect for the traditions of Appalachia, which continued to influence him throughout his life. University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where he studied under historian R. D. W. Connor and received his A.B degree in 1923. During his time in Chapel Hill, Moser began to develop his lifelong interest in North Carolina history and folklore. After serving as principal of Swannanoa High School for two years, he returned to Chapel Hill to pursue an M.A. degree, which he received in 1926. During this time, he also worked as a research assistant under Howard W. Odum in the Institute for Research in Social Science. In the years after leaving Chapel Hill, Artus pursued further graduate work at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Chicago Art Institute, and the Grand Central Art School in New York City. He worked as a professor of English and speech at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville before moving back to the Swannanoa area in 1943, where Artus taught in various schools until his retirement in 1964.

Artus began to collect ballads and folktales during his years in Tennessee, where he had encouraged his students to investigate their own heritage. He also contributed ballads to the collection of University of Tennessee folklorist Edwin C. Kirkland. Back in North Carolina, Artus avidly collected ballads and folktales in and around the western part of the state, recording local singer and storyteller Maud Gentry Long and musicians Jean Ritchie, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, and Pleaz Mobley, among others.

Moser also collected biographical information about prominent Western North Carolinians, including some of the folklorists and ballad singers he recorded. The folder on Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Folder 368, contains information about him as well as about the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival he founded in 1927 in Asheville, N.C. Included it this pamphlet (click images to enlarge). We especially like the contact information for Mr. Lunsford on the final page, “Bascom Lamar Lunsford can be reached at his home, South Turkey Creek, Leicester, N. C., ten miles north of Asheville.”

See one last image below or visit us in Wilson Library and view the whole thing in our reading room. Don’t forget tickets are available for the second event in the Southern Folklife Collection Instrument Series celebrating the fiddle, Friday and Saturday, January 11-12 at UNC. The Friday concert in Memorial Hall features Nashville Bluegrass Band, Byron Berline, Matt Glaser and Bobby Taylor. The Saturday symposium in Wilson Library includes lectures and performances on American Fiddle Styles with Byron Berline, Matt Glaser Bobby Taylor, Paul F. Wells and Mark Wilson. Events are free and open to the public, but concert tickets are required for Friday night and available at Memorial Hall Box Office: 919.843.3333.  

 

Turkey time at the Southern Folklife Collection

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We recognize that some of you might prefer an entrée other than the noble bird when feasting on Thursday. Perhaps, like Curly Ray Cline, you’d rather serve the noble pig and we would not begrudge your decision, just as we would support our vegan folk compatriots with extra helpings of dairy-free pumpkin pie and whip up a casserole for the National Day of Mourning.

I wonder about Curly Ray’s pork preference because he is a personal friend of Dr. Ralph Stanley, and everyone knows, Dr. Stanley can call up some turkeys whenever he pleases. You can learn from the Doctor himself, documented on the record above, call no. FC8559 in the Southern Folklife Collection. Listen:

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Truth is, we at the SFC duly honor the bird (there are at least 148 different versions of “Turkey in the Straw” in the Collection), but perhaps not as much as the legendary steel guitarist, Red Rhodes**, whose “Great American Thunder Turkey” from his 1979 release on Ashire Records Steel Guitar, call no. FC14363, has become the soundtrack to our archival lives.

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**SFC Steel Guitar Symposium and Concert coming up March 25, but before that the Fiddle Symposium and Concert is right around the corner on January 11 and 12. see Link for more details.

SFC Serial of the week: Friday vibes with “Fretts” magazine

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Yet again, a Southern Folklife Collection researcher query pointed me to an unfamiliar item.  Paging through Fretts magazine, “news from the instrument world,” was a treat. We have a number of issues from the magazine’s 10 year publication run. Fretts featured a variety of articles: including profiles of prominent players across the musical spectrum, from classical to country and rock, as well as articles on guitar playing techniques, and technical histories of the instruments themselves. See the full list of issues available at the SFC in the UNC Library online catalog. We especially enjoyed the Fender guitar advertisements like the one below from the back page of vol. 1, 1965. I have never played a Stratocaster while skating, might have to remedy that come Thanksgiving.

Also, the Southern Folklife Collection is pleased to announce the launch of our new homepage. Check it out at the following link and tell us what you think. http://www.lib.unc.edu/wilson/sfc/

 

Gospel Boogie Friday: Red Foley and his Log Cabin Quartet

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It’s always a pleasure when a researcher introduces us to a new tune. These two sides by the great Red Foley are some prime sacred boogie. Featuring members of his band from the 1940s, including Zeb Turner (born William Edward Grishaw, he renamed himself after a favorite piece of music, “The Zeb Turner Stomp”), the group adopted the style of popular African American jubilee gospel quartets. Foley was an extremely versatile musician, moving through old-time, country, blues, and pop with ease, however always maintaining the mellow smoothness that made him a country music star. Enjoy these clips of “Everybody’s Gonna Have a Wonderful Time Up There” and “Ride On, King Jesus” from call no. 78-6737.  See you next week. 

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Listening to John Tchicai in the Southern Folklife Collection

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It is unfortunate that the catalyst for many of my forays into the Southern Folklife Collection archives is the death of an artist. Marion Brown, pictured above, has been on my mind lately because I recently picked up a copy of his brilliant 1973 LP, Geechee Recollections. Between spins I have been reading about Brown’s life and career (Brown died almost two years ago on October 23, 2010), and last night I heard via radio transmission from WXYC Chapel Hill, 89.3 FM, that saxophonist, composer and occasional Brown collaborator John Tchicai (also pictured above) had passed away on October 8.

WXYC human deejay Evan Davis (who occasionally programs the Southern Folklife Collection radio show, “Hell or High Water,” on every Sunday from 1-2PM on WXYC, and whose broadcasts I highly recommend; Davis regularly takes listeners deep down into the rabbit hole and through the other side with some truly innovative programming) hosted an excellent retrospective of Tchicai’s career (see playlist here), featuring some of his collaborations with Europe’s greatest contemporary jazz performers and composers of the 1970s. The loss of another free jazz giant and the sounds shared by Mr. Davis resonated with me and offered the necessary encouragement to look for recordings of Tchicai in the SFC.

John Martin Tchicai was born in Copenhagen in 1936 with a Danish mother and a Congolese father and his musical career reflects the broad scope of his Afro-Danish-American heritage. After moving to New York in 1963, and he quickly became a leading exponent of avant-garde jazz as it developed in the 1960s and 1970s. Tchicai co-founded the New York Contemporary Five with Archie Shepp and Don Cherry, and soon after, the New York Art Quartet. Along with Shepp, Tchicai joined the 1965 ensemble recording session for John Coltrane’s Ascencion, from which the photo above was taken. The SFC has a pristine copy of Ascencion, call number FC21590.

The LP held in the SFC is the original pressing of the album, known as “Edition I.” Edition I is the second recorded take of the composition and was originally released on Impulse in February 1966 (catalog number A-95). Tchicai takes the second solo  on side 2 of the original pressing, Edition I. However Ascension was quickly repressed with “Edition II,” the preferred take of Coltrane. On that version Tichai appears as the first soloist on side 2. Listen to Tchicai’s solo from Edition I here:

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In 1966, Tchicai returned to Denmark. He formed the collective orchestra ”Cadentia Nova Danica”, at one time a 30-piece ensemble, and recorded the groups excellent self titled album in 1968. Tchicai focused on teaching and his own spiritual practice in the 1970s, performing and recording less than the previous decade but still remaining productive. In 1978, Tchicai appeared on his first collaboration with South African bassist/composer Johnny Dyani and tenor saxophonist Dudu Pakwana, Witchdoctor’s Son, SFC call number FC24046. The ensemble’s recording of the traditional South African tune arranged by Dyani, “Magwaza,” remains a highlight of the record. Listen to an excerpt of Tchicai’s first solo below. (Click on photos to enlarge). 

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There are a few other recordings of Tchicai in the SFC but I wanted to close this post with an album he recorded with pianist Cecil Taylor in Italy in October of 1984, Winged Serpent (Sliding Quadrants), SFC call number FC23682. Tchicai plays tenor on this album, forming part of an 11 piece ensemble (including altoist Jimmy Lyons, basoonist Karen Borca, and bassist William Parker) that sounds as colorful and dense as the album’s cover art. A joyful noise indeed. Rest in peace, John Tchicai.

Friday Folios: Brought to you by the Letter “B” and the Southern Folklife Collection

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A few folios for you this Friday. First the famous Bailes Brothers from West Virginia. Only two of the brothers are featured here, although Walter and Kyle were certainly in the group at the time of the publication of this folio in the mid-1940s. That Johnnie and Homer would soon go their separate ways makes the image of them as apparently conjoined twins that much more poignant.

While Johnnie and Homer look happy together, the King of Western Swing, Bob Wills looks downright menacing on the cover of this 1946 folio. While Wills’s iconic grin often gives him the appearance of a mad man (and his happy hollers help to reinforce the diagnosis), here the bright red background an Wills’s laconic eyes makes him look especially dangerous. Featuring some hit songs like “Texas Playboy Rag” and “Faded Love,” along with patriotic propaganda-pop like “G. I. Wish” and heartfelt memorial ballads penned by Wills like “White Cross on Okinawa,” this folio was certainly a hit although it might have given some players pause when they pulled if from their parlor piano bench.

For more fantastical folio flights of fancy see collection #30006, the Southern Folklife Collection Song Folios, circa 1882-1983.

Thursday 10″: Leadbelly*

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* the album title is “Leadbelly,” however, Mr. Ledbetter himself spelled his name as two words, “Lead Belly”

Earlier this week, we had the good fortune of revisiting this remarkable Huddie Ledbetter 10″ LP from the Capitol Records “Classics in Jazz” series, Southern Folklife Collection call number FC14651. Issued in 1953, almost four years after Lead Belly’s death, the album is remarkable not only because of the striking portrait of Ledbetter and his famous 12-string guitar, but also because of Ledbetter’s accompaniment on the recordings. In the liner notes, Paul Mason Howard is credited with playing the zither on “these historic performances.”  The interplay of zither with Ledbetter’s booming 12 string is highly enjoyable and these recordings (made in California in 1944) showcase Ledbetter in top form. Listen to the intro to “Back Water Blues” from side 2:

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Mr. Howard, a pianist and composer who worked in vaudeville and collaborated with Tin Man and Beverly Hillbilly, Buddy Ebsen, before working extensively as a songwriter for the Walt Disney Company, is actually playing the Dolceola. Mr. Howard supplemented his songwriting career performing on hybrid string instruments like the Dolceola and Cithare. These recordings of Lead Belly and Howard are likely the first commercial recordings of the Dolceola. The solo on the duo’s recording of “Ella Speed” highlights the unique tone of the Dolceola:

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It was once thought that legendary Texas gospel singer Washington Phillips performed on the Dolceola, but his instruments were later confirmed to be two Celestaphones, More on Phillips and the Celestaphone another time, but for now we leave you with the final track from the LP, Lead Belly’s arrangement of the classic cowboy tune “Western Plain”. To recap, this is a recording of a performer identified as a blues musician, playing a cowboy song, released on a jazz record…. as another classic cowboy song says “Don’t fence me in.” Come a cow-cow yicky. come a cow-cow yicky, yicky yea.

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* the album title is “Leadbelly,” however, Mr. Ledbetter himself spelled his name as two words, “Lead Belly”