H I L L I N 0 S UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

PRODUCTION NOTE

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Large-scale Digitization Project, 2007.

Number 25 May 1, 1965 UNIVERSITY OF IUINOIS

CLAYTON McMICHEN STARS IN SEMESTER'S FINAL CONCERT JUL 22 1965

The last concert of the current Campus Folksong Club series will feature the famed Clayton McMichen of Louisville, Kentucky. McMichen, the great hillbilly fiddler who cut hundreds of 78 rpm sides with Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers back in the 20's and 30's,will be coming out of retirement to stage his first appearance before a University audience. His only other recent performance was at last year's Newport Folk Festival.

Fans of old-timey Appalachian music remember McMichen as one of the most original and infestious of the Cumberland virtuosi. He not only played fiddle, but in the Tanner organization participated in the skits with which Gid and the boys often opened their numbers. One of his finest fiddling performances is to be found on the new disc Mountain Fiddle Music (County 501) on which Clayton plays his version of "Old Molly Hare" with the Skillet Lickers. This piece, a fantastically difficult example of old-timey fiddling, will probably stand as one of the benchmarks of McMichen's career. Although the County recording is a dub from one of the Skillet Lickers' old 78's, those who have heard McMichen's more recent performances say that he has lost none of the flashing style and grace which distinguished his art in the earlier days. Of special interest to aspiring fiddlers is his highly original use of the bow,with which he obtained effects to which most other fiddlers did not even aspire. More important than his technical accomplishments, however, are the new standards of taste and discrimination in style which McMichen set for hillbilly fiddlers. His fiddle covers a wide range of emotional effects, and in some pieces, such as "Old Molly Hare", he covers many of these effects in the span of a single 78 rpm recording.

McMichen's concert will be held on May 8th at 8:00 p.m. in 112 Gregory Hall. Tickets are priced at $1.50 and are available at the Illini Union box office or may be obtained from members of the executive committee of the Campus Folksong Club. The concert is open to the public. Devotees of genuine old-timey music should not miss this unusual concert--a full two hours of classical old-time music performed by one of its masters. By the same token, our younger memhbers who have not yet decided what "real" traditional music is should come to the concert for a dose of the real thing. pleamo unuamav came

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The Greeks were perhaps more known for their philosophy and mathematics than for their bagpiping, but they played a form of bagpipe at least as early as 100 A.D. The Romans used pipes to accompany their legions on the march and in the present day almost all European countries can boast of some form of bagpipe--the Germans, French, Bulgarians, and Russians all play them and the British Isles alone have at least four distinct kinds of Bagpipes--but to English speaking people the word "bagpipe" usually signifies the Scottish Highland pipe, or piob mor.

The history of these pipes is still subject to debate; Scottish nationalists claim that they came to Scotland from Rome during Caesar's visit to the British Isles and have been the national instrument ever since. Irish nationalists would have us believe that they were developed in Ireland and spread from there to the hinterlands, and furthermore, that they were introduced to Rome by the Irish before Caesar's conquests. The Romans have made no claims in the matter. What is known is that the bagpipe has replaced the harp as the main ceremonial instru- ment in both Ireland and Scotland by the 16th century and that it received its greatest development in the Scotland of the 17th and 18th centuries. During this period, the bagpipes were primarily ceremonial instruments used at clan functions and in battle. The post of clan piper was hereditary; the piper stood second in the chief's retinue, after the chief himself. In line with the important position of the instrument, the music was serious. The primary form of music was called the pibroch, the piece consisting of a theme and several variations. Elaborate theories of composition were developed and were taught as an integral part of piping in the schools of piping which flourished in this time; the resulting music deserves to be called classical in the same sense as does the music of Bach. Other, lighter music was played but was regarded as little more than finger- exercises for the playing of the more important pibrochs.

This period ended with the dispersal of the clans after the rising of 1745. With this change in the social order, the prime reason for the existence of the pipes ended abruptly and the art of piping declined and was almost lost in the next generation. Fortunately, its revival started while some of the clan pipers were still living; so that much of the music was saved and is played to this day.

Much of the credit for the continued interest in the pipes since the break- up of the clans has to go to that supporter of culture; the British army have had pipers unofficially since their formation. They were officially recognized about the second quarter of the 19th century; since then the army has been the prime supporter of, and the main influence on, piping. The pibroohs are solo pieces and the army with its emphasis on pipe bands favors the lighter tunes, marches of course, and dance tunes such as strathspeys, reels and jigs. The military influence on the world of piping is evident from the fact that about half the common pipe-tunes are marches, and the fact that most of the best pipers today either are or have been pipers in the British army.

From this brief outline, it should be clear that the highland pipes, as we know them, have never been a folk instrument in the sense that the banjo is in America or the fiddle is almost everywhere. In the hands of the hereditary clan pipers it was a classical instrument in the same way that the violin (as opposed to the fiddle) was when Paganini played it, and in the hands of the military it was no more a folk instrument than was the bass drum or the tuba. These are the two primary sources of the present tradition of piping. Of course the pipes were played by those who were neither soldiers nor clan pipers; in their hands they might be classed as a folk instrument, but my point is that these people had a negligible influence on the playing of the present-day instrument.

The style of playing a folk instrument varies greatly with the player and with the location. Nobody with an ear for folk-fiddling would mistake an old- timey fiddler for an Irish country fiddler or a Bluegrass fiddler for either. However, the style of playing the highland pipes is substantially the same wherever it is played. This style was developed basically by the clan pipers, notably the MacCrimmons of Skye who rant the most influential school of piping in Scotland from about 1600 to 1770. Actually, a good case can be made for a more ancient origin of this style, in Ireland. It is known that one of the first of the MacCrimmons, Donald M6r, learned his piping in Ireland. Unfortunately, little of the Irish pipe music, or for that matter other Gaelic culture, survived the civilizing influence of His Majesty's soldiers and His Majesty's rifles and cannon, so this remains another question for the Irish and Scottish nationalists to argue about over their Irish and Scotch (respectively) whiskies. Incidentally, bagpipes are played in Ireland now, but since the Irish tradition of piping had been completely lost, it had to be relearned, ironically enough, from the Scots. This style was developed for the playing of pibrochs, and was later adapted to the playing of military marches and other light music, but this adaptation was primarily one of simplification, and I think it is fair to say that the main techniques of playing the pipes haven't changed much since the 18th century. A bigthey reason for this is undoubtedly the standardizing influence of the military, which has trained so many pipers. had i The most evident facet of the style of piping to the casual listener is probably the free use of gracenotes. By the very construction of the pipes, it withis nearly impossible to control the dynamics of the instrument; any attempt to make the pipes louder only succeeds in making them go sharp, and an attempt to soften them causes them to go flat, or stop entirely. With so little dynamic ingrange n at his disposal, the piper has to make free use of embellishments and grace musicnotes in order to get expression into the music. In addition to single grace- notes, each note of the scale has one or more "doublings," a sequence of three or four gracenotes which can be played before it. A couple of bars of a typical march, "The Drunken Piper," look like this when written out:

The doublings and movements in the two measures above are standard, and they take their time value from the succeeding note. The piper thinks of these gracings, such as the four-note combination in the first measure, as a single movement, not as separate notes. The sound is like a ripple before the main melody note, and it takes a good piper to play them sharply and cleanly without halting the flow of music. Notice also the use of dotted sixteenth-thirty-second note combinations. These are actually played a little more severely than written, with the dotted note being held slightly over three times as long as the follow- ing note in order to give the tune the lift which is so characteristic of bagpipe music. Most available recordings are of bands, but it is on the solo records that one can best appreciate the traditional style of piping and a few solo discs are available. Three fine ones are: The Art of the Bagpipe, by Pipe Major John Burgess (Folk-Lyric FL 112); Highland Bagpipes, by Seumas MacNeil (London TW 9121h); and, Scottish Bagpipe Tunes, by Pipe Major James MacColl (Folkways FG 3550). The first of these is a tour-de-force. Burgess has at one time or another won almost every major trophy for piping, and his technique is really impressive; every gracenote is clear and distinct, while even the hardest pieces flow easily. The record includes one pibroch, "The Lament for the Children," by Angus MacKay. It comes with a brochure by Donia Etherington which offers some real insights into the music as well as an outline of the history of the pipes, and the record is almost worth getting on this count alone. Completing the attractiveness of this package is the fact that the cover on some of the copies was designed by that well-known raconteur and autoharpist, A. Doyle Moore.

Seumas MacNeil probably does not quite match Burgess in sheer technique, although he is a first rate player in his own right, but the record is just as enjoyable as Burgess', partly because of the superior recording job done by London, but also because of MacNeil's somewhat more relaxed playing. The first side was devoted to those tunes which take the place of bugle calls in the Scots regiments, from reveille to lights out, including a version of the well-known "Flowers 0' the Forest." The second side contains a selection of marches and dance tunes.

MacColl's record suffers from the infamous Folkways sound, but one learns to ignore the defects of Folkways records in favor of their often considerable virtues. It is worthwhile doing so in this case. MacColl's style is in sharp contrast to that of Burgess and MacNeil, especially that of Burgess. Burgess' playing is very controlled; MacColl plays with less control but with much more gusto. On one hornpipe he starts with a moderate tempo, getting faster and faster, till at the end one has visions of the dancers collapsing in exhaustion. This record also has a pibroch, again the "Lament for the Children." Recordings of pibrochs are scarce, and it's a pity that Burgess and MacColl did not pick different ones to record.

There are a great many good pipe bands around, which means there are also some good recordings. The definitive bands are those of the Scots regiments, of course, but some of the non-military bands are just as good if not better. There are some good bands outside of Scotland, particularly in Ireland and Canada, and even in the U.S. (Few Americans learn the pipes at age five so most of these last contain some ringers. The Kenmure band in New Jersey, for instance, sends scouts to the Highland games in Scotland. When they find a good piper who wants to emigrate, they pay his passage over and see he gets a job--close to the band, of course.) The typical band has from 8 to 16 pipers, a base drummer, two or three tenor drummers, and several snare drummers. The pipes play in unison on most pieces, except on some retreats on which one or two pipes play "seconds," a simple but effective harmony part, while the rest of the pipes play the melody. The bass and tenor drummers play on the beat, leaving it to the snare drummers to point up the subtleties in the rythm. A mediocre band often gives itself away by its drumming--it can play easy tunes within the pipers abilities, but it is harder to disguise poor and unimaginative drumming.

The selections played on most records is a mixture of marches, slow airs and dance tunes, usually played in medleys of three or four. A common combination is a march, strathspey and a reel, played together to contrast the differing rythms. Ths Shotts and Dykehead band is acknowledged to be one of the top Scots bands, and World Champion 'lipes and Drums (London SW 99012) is somewhat of a showpiece. The drumming is particularly impressive--one of the tracks is entirely devoted to a drum salute--and almost, but not quite overshadows their top-notch piping. A horrible contrast to this fine record is given by Pipers on Parade, by the Boston Caledonian Band and the Tyrone Pipers Band (Decca DL 8554). I include this record here by way of warning, as it is the kind of a performance that gives bagpipes a bad name. The Caledonian band is definitely out of tune, often not together, and altogether excruciation. The Tyrone pipers band is considerably better, though this is faint praise indeed. Both bands offer poor and pedestrian drumming, piping inadequate at best, and for lagniappe, poor audio--a must not.

In Pipes and Bugles in Hi-Fi, by the 1st Battalion Highland Light Infantry (Decca DL 8720), an adequate band is sabatoged by the recording engineer who put the mike too close to the snare drums. As a result the pipes are just playing background music to an overpowering drum section. (Incidentally, the drumming is good, and the band as a whole would be too with better balance.) The band is tuned up with a noticeably flat high A which is occasionally annoying. There is one track of sole piping, and the bugles appear briefly on the first and last track of the record.

I find it hard to describe Pipes and Drums of the Edinburgh City Police Pipe Band (London TW 91208), without lapsing into superlatives. The piping and drumming are both excellent, and the recorded sound does them full justice. There are a lot of nice tunes, both recent and traditional, from slow marches to jigs and even a pair of polkas. This is definitely one of the best pipe-band recordings on the market.

The performers on Scottish Pipes, the 1st and 2nd Battalion Scots Guards, the City of Glasgow Police Pipe Band, and Pipe Major Donald Shaw Ramsay (Capitol T 10081), are all first rate, but the record as a whole has an air of being hastily thrown together. Several tunes appear in two different parts of the record, a practice not terribly objectionable but certainly unnecessary. A couple of tracks are gimmicked-up by the addition of a men's chorus and an announcer to add some drama to the sound track. The audio in general is second-rate. There is some good solo piping by Pipe Major Ramsay on two tracks. Drums and Pipes of the 1st 3attalion Royal Irish Fusiliers (Fontana SRF 67533), offers some Irish tunes not ordinarily found in the repertoire of Scots bands, such as "The Dawning of the Day" and "The Irish Washerwoman." I found some of the slow pieces played too fast for my taste, but this is my only complaint on an other- wise good record.

Many records have the pipes sharing the honors with a military brass band. The brass and pipes seldom play together, though this does happen, but more often the brass band plays a few pieces and then the pipes play a track, and so on. About average in this respect is Scots Guards on Parade, The pipes, drums, and regimental band of the Scots Guards (Angel 35337), with four tracks out of ten devoted to pipes. This strikes me as shortchanging an outstanding pipe band, but for those who are interested in the pipes, yet not enthusiastic enough to take a whole LP straight, I cannot think of a better record to start with than this, or its companion record, Hi-Fi in the Highlands (Angel 35464). Scottish Splendor (RCA Victor LPM-1526), with the regimental band, pipes and drums of the bliack Watch, features another of the most famous of the Scots military pipe bands, along with its counterpart in brass. I find it hard to choose between this and the Scots Guards records. All feature excellent pipe and brass bands, and all have roughly the same type of selections, both for the pipes and for the brass.

Of somewhat more specialized interest is another record by the Black Watch, Trooping the Colour (RCA Victor LPM-1527). This is an actual recording of a parade, and is about evenly divided between pipes, brass, and the parade sound effects--shouted cammands, boot heels and rifle butts striking the ground. These parade sounds are often heard while the music is playing. The record catches the color of the kilts swinging, the drums rolling, and the pipes skirling, but unfortunately only at the expense of their music.

The piping on Scottish Soldiers (London TW 91281), with the pipes, drums and massed regimental bands of the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders and the Scots Greys is superb, even better than that recorded on the above four records, but there is much too little of it. Somewhat over two-thirds of the record is devoted to the brass band, leaving the pipes space for only a few tunes. When the pipe band does play, though, it demonstrates how the music should be played-- near flawless piping is backed up by imaginative vet subdued drumming. bringing out all the subtleties of the tunes.

In conclusion, I would say that the interested listener should have little trouble in finding good recordings of pipe music. There are a few real duds on the market, so he should not buy blindly, but the majority of bagpipe recordings are good, with a not-insignificant minority being excellent, which is a good state of affairs in any field.

--John Walsh Princeton, New Jersey

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K>- THE BRITISH FOLK MUSIC SCENE

An artist living in Nottingham, Mr. Harper is an English counterpart of the type of people who authored the folk revival in our own glittering Republic. He is a blood relative of the Stuart Tinker family of Scot- land, and from them he collects some of the most ancient and beautiful of the Anglo-Scottish ballads. He sings these songs and exchanges them on tape with the editor, and has finally rewarded us with a copy of a lecture he delivered recently in his own country. A serious student of balladry and one of the more important figures in the folk revival at Nottingham University, Mr. Harper has eventual plans of coming to these shores and singing for his supper. For the time being he has favored us with this small transcript.

Fifteen years ago it might have been said that there was no future in folk music and that its demise was not only imminent and inevitable, but overdue. Our traditional patterns of oral culture were shattered by the advent of the industrial revolution. With the coming of the professional variety theatre, radio-television and wider facilities for travel there was such a reduction in the community status of the traditional field singer that only a very few old people were left who remembered the old songs of their grandparents, and even these had suffered a decay in style, not only in their ability to sing, but also in their form and content.

It is, then, even more remarkable that we are in the midst of a folk revival, in which hundreds of thousands of people from middle age to youth are involved in varying degrees of complicity. So much so that Tin Pan Alley seems to be forcing its popularity to an apex, very much as it did with the Jazz Revival. So much so that there is a danger that its form will be destroyed, leaving nothing but an empty shell.

It would be safe to say that scholars are more or less agreed as to the reasons for the revival. They are: 1) Fashion: many people come to the music wanting to be with it, without knowing what "it" is. This is an important factor in the music's popularity, but not in its survival. 2) Breakdown in musical forms: in recent years there has been a breakdown in musical forms between the composer and performer on the one hand and the audience on the other. The latter is left very much in a vacuum. In the same way there has been a tendency for poets to write for poets, writers for writers, and for painters to paint for other painters. Folk music is thus providing the identification with the mass not found in the other arts. The listener hears of situations and problems very near to his own life, experience, and environment. 3) The exotic element: this last is again an important factor in the popularity of the music, but not in its ultimate survival.

We must, then, accept the fact that we are living in a community where folk music has been moribund. Accepting this, we must strive to attain even closer relationships between the folk singer and the community. Indeed, in parts of the world where folk singing is still an integral part of everyday life--places like southern India, Eastern and Central Europe, Southern Calabria, we find a constant demand by the audience for better performing STYLE on the part of the singer. It is also the singer's job to raise audience standards so that he and the audience can communicate on higher levels. The musicians of southern India serve as a good example of this. At a very early age they are put under the wing of a journeyman ballad singer, and after the required period they are sent before a committee of their peers to see if they are good enough to become itinerant musicians. They sing not for money, but for food. This is partly a religious sect; the better they sing the better they are worshipping God.

In the same way, according to Bartok, when Central European folk musicians adapt a piece of classical music they chance not so much its musical structure as they impose a new style.

Singing style forms a very important part in the delivery of our own songs and ballads. It is because of this that I believe it very important to separate the air from the words, a lamentable situation which occurs in so many of our own schools. Ballads should have pulse and accent as in Greek verse. Even if we do not separate the air we still make the mistake of presenting the songs with imposed musical forms upon them, e.g., addiction to strict musical tempo.

The aesthetic approach to ballad delivery: The technique of ballad delivery belongs to a much older and complicated musical form than does our own present-day music, with all its dogmatisms. We should have the ability to make lines on the silence between verses for total emotional effect. The folk ballad method of narration is unique. It is emotional, it gives identification to the singer, it involves people in these emotions. It breaks away from grammar; tenses change to meet the song's own ends and time and place change to suit the singer's purpose--sometimes even within the space of a verse.

Communication of religious themes and social welfare: In the ages when illiteracy was rife among the common people, their songs tended to present to them in their own language that which they understood to be some form of social order, primitive though it might have been.

Judas is treated in a 13th century ballad as a man of the people who, having been entrusted by Christ with 30 pieces of silver to buy bread, gambles it away and betrays his master in order not to return empty-handed. Although fictional, and with no substantiation in the gospel (and possibly frowned upon by ecclesiastics), surely this is a most convincing identification on the part of the common folk with the scriptures. Are we not all at some time in our lives guilty of trying to save face over injured pride?

In the same way folksongs treat Christ as a boy very much like any other boy, mischievous and unruly and being chastized by his mother. Could this not be a healthy attitude toward Christ: Is not the fact that Christ was flesh and blood on the cross the basis of Christian belief?

Communication: Thus, we see in folksongs themselves that there is a form of communication with us. The messages they bring are not always antique. Indeed, there are songs which deal with subjects and facets of human behavior which are eternal. Songs about sex which were considered immoral by our Victorian ancestors who operated an evil class system up on these islands are not seen to contain important moralizing verses overlooked by these naive pillars of virtue who believed that if so-called evil was hidden by long curtains and decorated with aspidistras it did not exist.

Supposing you should have a child; it would make you laugh and smile. And supposing you should have another, it will make you think a while. And supposing you should have another, and another one or two-- It will make you leave off them foolish young hicks and think of the foggy dew.

Nor was sex a dirty word to be shunned, and humorous songs carrying a healthy bawdy attitude are not perverted. Other songs about sex and its ritual date far beyond the advent of Christianity and go far back into the misty depths of a pagan Britain with its fertility rites. The musical forms which carry these songs are far older than the modern tonic sol-fah scale of eight notes. These are pentatonic and carry Greek names--Dorian, Myxolidian, modes, etc. The former stems from the Dorian invasion of Mycenian culture in the Peloponnese between 1100 and 100 BC. They symbolic flowers of the northern witch cult are similar to those of ancient Greece.

Political life formed and still forms an integral part of our folk song heritage. In medieval times the knight runs away with the commoner and the commoner chooses her shepherd rather than all her rich suitors. A plot such as this moves through all the ages of folk music, only the characters changing with the various periods in which they live. To an 18-century Britain oppressed by poor-laws, the knight become the squire or gentleman farmer and it is common Jack who steals his lady. To sing about such problems of oppression is not to rub salt into one's own wounds, but to throw mud in the eye of the oppressor without fear of retribution. When punishment came there were songs about that too; songs of trumped up evidence; transportation songs which tell of hardships undergone on the way to penal colonies for stealing a loaf of bread.

Jacobite rebellion: There are songs which were used in the Jacobite rebellion of 17J5 as propaganda. Dates of battles with 45 years difference were changed to proclaim a final Scottish victory when in reality it was an English one. Bonny Prince Charlie was sung about as the Bonny Moorhen so that the English would not discover that the vanquished still nursed his memory or hoped for a return of the Stuarts. The Duke of Monmouth during the Monmouth rebellion was sung about in code as the blackbird. The Shan van Vocht (gaelic for wise old lady) was symbolic of an Independent Ireland during the 18th century.

Then there is the tremendous respect for Nepoleon found in the songs of the country people of that period. I think it is fair to assume that these people who were smarting under a severely ruled Britain thought that it wouldn't be so bad if he did conquer us if he brought with him the benefits of the French Revolution. The rest of Europe felt so too. Scientists have just found out that the Russian winter of 1812 was comparatively mild. I venture to say that it was only when the Russian peasants found out that he was not bringing any form of liberation from the Tsarist feudal system that nationalism prevailed and he was pushed and starved out of Russia. Fortunately, in our case too, nationalism prevailed, for while we respected Napoleon the French were regarded as our natural enemies, e.g.:

Old Bonaparte he threatened war A man who feared not wound or scar Bold Nelson's Praise, Sharp, But still he lost at Trafalgar vol. II, No. 36. 2nd verse Where Britain was victorious. or The deeds of brave Napoleon/Will sing the Bonnie Bunch of Roses, 0 (Britain) Work songs: Today we have songs, political and social, being sung about our own age. Ban the Bomb songs. Songs about the social and political effects of the Christine Keeler affair. Bawdy songs about Miss Keeler. The Irish are still singing about their troubles. Civil rights songs, anti-apartheid songs, anti-Russian songs, songs which extoll, songs which criticize, love songs, laments, amusing songs, songs about drink, trading stamps, telephones, topless dresses, cars, plastics, teddy boys, television, of the Great Train Robbery, in fact, songs about anything. Who knows--in a hundred years a few--very few--will have become folk songs.

--Gillan Harper

THE BOOK OF THE AMERICAN WEST, Jay Monaghan, ed. N.Y.: Julian Messner Inc., 1963, 608 pgs. $22.$0.

This book is an almost encyclopedic attempt to describe the many aspects of the American West, but the result, nevertheless, is a very pleasant one. Ten authors have written specific chapters ranging from the commonplace description of the West's notorious outlaws and early mountain men to some fascinating description of the cowboy's work tools, his wearing apparel, and the names that he used to describe these items such as a "velvet couch" for a bedroll.

Six hundred and eight pages must of necessity condense and omit a great deal of material, but perhaps the only chapter where this becomes annoying is the chapter on wildlife which does not even make a pretense of surveying the animal and bird kingdoms. Perhaps the best feature of the book, and the saving grace for its high cost, is the very extensive use of, and very high quality of, reproductions of the Western artists. Included, for example, is one of the three remaining portrait paintings of Charles King, one of the early artists who travelled so extensively with John Wesley Powell. Bodmer, Seymour, Miller, and of course, Moran, Catlin, and Bierstadt are well represented, as are the over popular Russell and Remington.

The section on folklore and song may disappoint some people in that the songs included are primarily reproduced from other readily available and popular col- lections, but then, the book is not meant for the specialist.

If the price seems a little steep for a college budget, it may still be possible to find the book on a close-out counter for $9.95, but even at full price it is a book well worth owning.

As long as I am on the subject of Western Americana, there is one new, and very excellent source of information that must be mentioned. The Western History Association (which believe it or not, has the University of Illinois as one of its sponsoring members) initiated publication of a quarterly journal, The American West, in the winter of 1964. The journal is very readable and runs the gamut of Western Americana from the subject of "Negro Cowboys in the West" to "The West Through Salt Spray" to "Jim Wardner, Financial Wizard of the West". The journal always manages to include excellent reproductions of Western art, old photographs, along with a very extensive book review section. Subscription price if $8.00 per year, but student discount rates are available.

--Bill Becker BECINNING THE FOLK GUITAR, Jerry Silverman. Oak Pub., 96pgs. $2.95.

THE FOLKSINGER'S GUITAR GUIDE, Vol. II (Advanced), Jerry Silverman. Oak Pub., 96pgs. $2.95.

THE ART OF THE FOLK BLUES GUITAR, Jerry Silverman, Oak Pub., 72pgs. $2.95.

There has been need for a usable folk guitar instruction book ever since folk became the "in" activity. Unfortunately, the many jazz and classical instruction manuals on the market, although excellent within their own idiom, are not very helpful to the beginning folk guitarist. The instructors at the local music store are seldom of any help either, as many an unsuspecting student has discovered.

Some years ago, Oak published a short mannual with an accompanying record to fill this gap. The result was not very successful, primarily due to an attempt to cover too much material. Fortunately, that material has now been revised and ex- panded to a set of 4 books and 3 records, which, if you have the time, money, and patience, will teach you much about the guitar.

All of the books have certain features in common, some good, some bad. The format is large, as is the type, which is a real blessing. (Ever try holding a book six inches from your nose and simultaneously try to play?) Actual layout is about 50 percent instructional material and 50 percent photographs. I'll admit that the photography in general is quite attractive, and certainly makes the books more appealing, but a picture of a no-parking sign or laundry drying on a line is irrelevant to playing the guitar. Silverman attempts to avoid the necessity of learning to read music by the use of two tablature systems written below the customary melody line. A Gitab indicates strum accompaniment, and a Meltab indicates where the melody line notes may be played on the neck of the guitar. However, relative time value within a particular strum is very poorly explained, and time values within Meltab are not explained at all. Hence, a very rudimentary reading knowledge of music from some other sourco will make life far more pleasant. How long will it be before the folkniks decide that a reading knowledge of music is not a cardinal sin? One very good feature of Beginning the Folk Guitar is the very slow pace of the book. Technique is developed at a pace slow enough and in sufficient detail to assure the student that he can extend the technique beyond a particular song mechanically learned from the book. The range of song material treated is very large so everyone from sweet voiced sopranos to the gravel voiced bases can find songs to interest them. The book does assume that the student knows absolutely nothing about the guitar, so don't spend your money if you know a few chords and two or three strums.

Both The Art of the Folk Blues Guitar and The Folksinger's Guitar Guide, V. II, require a basic playing knowledge of the guitar, i.e., that material covered in V. I, but are equivalent in the amount of presupposed material. V. II covers four general areas of playing: 1) Bass runs other than the fah-sol-la-ti-do variety. 2) Simultaneous playing of melody line and rhythm accompaniment. 3) One of the multitude of "3 finger" picking styles. This section could be greatly expanded, and always seems to be the area skimped on in instruction books. You won't sound like Merle Travis or Elizabeth Cotton on the basis of the material presented, but at lease you can sound like Jerry Silverman. 4) The last section of the book is a relatively large section devoted to Latin American and Greek rhythms. The Art of the Folk Blues Guitar develops a few new strums: choking the strings, the boogie bass, some typical blues chord progressions, one more 3-fing'r picking style, a terribly abbreviated section of flat-picking, and a seemingly endless (i.e., 75) number of blues guitar breaks. Song material includes both Negro blues, and white country blues.

Both books are very good buys, and provided the student has the patience to work from a book, can be very rewarding. However, there are some very important areas that have been omitted. Perhaps I am toonaive, but it seems to me that there is more to playing folk-music than mechanically learning a large number of playing styles. I have yet to see a decent discussion and explanation of that mystical item called "taste" in an instruction book.

--Bill Becker

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BLUEGRASS IN JAPAN

Last fall while driving the Blue Sky Boys down to Urbana from the Chicago airport for their college concert debut, Bill Bolick remarked that he had been told of an LP reissue in Japan which contained not only a few of their own early recordings but also some of J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers. I took particular note of this fact at that time for no Mainer 78's had been reissued in the U.S. I was also very curious as to why early U.S. hillbilly music was being reissued in Japan. After the excitement of the Blue Sky Boys concert had passed, which took about 4 weeks (Attn: West Coast readers--The Blue Sky Boys will appear at the UCLA festival this spring, don't miss themi), I began to follow up Bill's lead.

During 1963-4 I had become acquainted with Dr. Toshio Fujita, a visiting professor from Kyoto University. He had recently gone back to Japan so I wrote and asked if he would send this album of reissues to me. Some 5 weeks and 5 dollars later it came. First, let's examine this album by the Victor Company of Japan, and, second, try to determine the reason for its issuance.

Blue Grass Classics (Japanese Victor RA-5220), J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers and The Blue Sky Boys, May 1963.

The title is in English with a sketch of a bluegrass band on the front. The songs are listed in English; however, the rest of the notes are in Japanese. (I wish to thank Dr. and Mrs. Nishikawa for a translation of the liner notes.)

Side 1. J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers (singing by Wade and Zeke).

John Henry was a Little Boy/Gathering Flowers from the Hillside/ Johnson's Old Gray Mule/Maple on the Hill/Ridin' on that Train 45/ Down in the Willow Garden/Life's Evening Sun.

Side 2. The Blue Sky Boys.

Katie Dear/Are You from Dixie/Whispering Hope/Mary of the Wild Moor/ Short Life of Trouble/Down on the Banks of the Ohio/Story of the Knoxville Girl.

Comparison of content with U.S. reissues indicated that in the case of the Blue Sky Boys all of these numbers except "Whispering Hope" can be found on the album The Blue Sky Boys (RCA Camden CAL-797), while a recent recording of "Whispering Hope" can be found on their latest release, Precious Moments (Starday SLP-269).

Side 1, however, does offer material which has not as yet been completely reissued in the U.S. My last review (Autoharp, No. 23) covered Smokey Mountain Ballads (Victor LPV-507), which contained two of the Mainer's numbers, "Ridin' on that Train 45" and "Down in the Willow". (Note: the word "Garden" was left off the U.S. reissue.) The notes to Victor RA-5220 were written by Mr. Hiroyuki Takayama, and the reason for the incongruous title, Blue Grass Classics, was clarified in them. In a rather free interpretation (on my part) Takayama states that the initiate into bluegrass music and its more popular tunes begins to seek out the classics (roots or origins) of bluegrass. The songs on this album are some of these classics. They were all recorded in the mid-1930's and can be strictly classified as mountain or pre-bluegrass music; however, since bluegrass style evolved from this earlier type of music these songs represent the basis (classics) of blue- grass music. This record, therefore, is offered for the advanced fan.

He then states that Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass, was once a member of Mainer's Mountaineers (this is not true), and that the first bluegrass record was published in Japan in March of 1960. And finally, that there has been a lot of enthusiasm about this type of music in Japan.

I began to wonder just how much enthusiam there really was and what the actual status of bluegrass is in Japan. So I wrote Toshio again asking for this information. He talked with several friends, including Mr. Hiroshi Ishuin, one of the best authorities on this subject in Japan. His report follows:

In general the Japanese public doesn't know what bluegrass music is or that it is a part of U.S. folk music. However, of the people interested in U.S. folk music, bluegrass is the most popular. In Kyoto (pop. 1,300,000) there is an American folk music society consisting of around 400 members of which 70-80 nercen+,t reanll lve blu-e ass This s ame situairn is t.ru in Osaka, the second largest city in Japan (pop. 4,000,000-6,000,000 depending upon where one places the city limits). As another index, each bluegrass record appearing in Japan sells around 6,000 copies (this is pretty good considering the fact that few, if any, of the New Lost City Ramblers' records have sold that many copies). The most popular artists are Flatt and Scruggs; Reno and Smiley; and Bill Monroe. There are no professional bands in Japan; however, several non-professional groups are known.

Around 15 years ago the first bluegrass band, Sohei Sano and East Mountain Boys, formed in Kyoto. This group was composed of members of the American folk music society at Ritsumeikan and Doshisha Universities. In those days there were still quite a few U.S. Army bases, and on occasion this group performed for the troops. Since then this band has broken up; however, there are several amateur groups playing today. The "Sunny Mountain Boys" consist of Ritsumeikan University students in Kyoto; the "Ozark Mountaineers" are students at Rikkyo University (St. John's) in Tokyo, and the "Nashville Hilltoppers" are students at Kanseigaguin University in Osaka. Performances are held occasionally and are open to the public (equivalent to folk- sings at Illinois) and the musicians skill is said to be quite good. Higashi of the "Ozark Mountaineers" has attended the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville; however, most of their material comes from records. No professional U.S. bluegrass group has ever toured Japan. I feel that the time is ripe for such a tour. When the Japanese people get excited about something they really get excited as was examplified when the rock and roll craze swept Japan.

So far, some 200-300 bluegrass records, EP's and LP's, have been distributed in Japan, and Toshio feels that interest is on the upswing. It would be very interesting to have some tapes of the student groups or perhaps exchange tapes with them. The main problem of any type of exchange is that of communication, and it is for this reason that I am surprised at the large interest in our folk music in Japan.

I do not recommend that Autoharp readers buy this particular Japanese reissue since the Mainer material will, no doubt, be reissued in the U.S.

--Preston K. Martin Toshio Fujita

It is with regret that we announce Preston Martin's departure from the Urbana campus. Preston, his lovely wife Ettae Mae and their two little daughters will shortly leave Illinois and take-up residence in California, where Preston has been awarded a year-long post-doctoral fellowship in Chemistry.

For over three years Preston Martin has contributed steadily to the fortunes of the Campus Folksong Club. He virtually initiated the record production program which has resulted in the pressing of three long-playing recordings; he has carved out an empire as the Club's reigning expert on bluegrass music; he is almost singlehandedly responsible for the revival of interest in the Blue Sky Boys and for their selection as our concert choice last year; he has contributed for over a year to Autoharp and has aided younger members in developing a disciplined musical taste for blue- grass and country music; he has given at least one formal seminar--an item that was long needed to clarify the numerous problems of traditional music appreciation which undergraduates encountered.

Preston brings a number of high gifts to his work as a musician and critic, and these have not gone unnoticed. They include: a) taste for and sensitivity to good music; b) a stupefying thoroughness in his scholarship, c) devotion to the ideal of cultivating appreciation among college students; d) an almost dismaying drive and energy to get his job done properly; and, e) a warm and unpretentious manner--probably the fruit of his Texas boyhood--which makes him easy to work with and difficult not to like.

We hope that this article is not Preston's last for Autoharp. We also wish to alert our friends at Berkeley that Preston will shortly be among them; they should not miss the opportunity of enjoying his erudition or his friendship. To Preston and his family we wish Godspeed, and hope as well that we will hear from them often and soon.

-- F.K. Plous, Jr. USLI ^D z C

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