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Home , Alan Jabbour, Balalaika, Duane Eddy, Lloyd Loar, Medieval folk rock, Mike Auldridge

American Folklife Center The

Spring 1990

Volume XII, Number 2

The Folklife Center' s 1990 Neptune Plaza Concert Series opened on April 19 with the Lynn Morris , a newly formed group from Winchester, . The concert continues the Folklife Center's custom of beginning the series with bluegrass, and a note on this music and on the second concert in the series appears on page 10. Photo by Jim Higgins THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS EDITOR'S NOTES

Alan Jabbour, Director Ray Dockstader, Deputy Director Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant Jennifer A. Cutting, Program Coordinator Sebastian LoCurto, Program Specialist Lisa Oshins, Program Specialist Folklife Center Reorganizes The is no longer a separate administrative unit Acquisitions Joseph C. Hickerson, Head Although the permanent staff of the within the Center, with a separate American Folklife Center numbers hierarchical structure of its own. The Processing only sixteen, the Center engages in an name of the Archive has been re­ Marsha Maguire, Archivist array of activities, from fieldwork tained, but now refers exclusively to Programs projects of original research to pro­ the famous collection itself. The place Peter T. Bartis, Folklife Researcher grams of lectures, concerts, and pub­ where one comes to do folklife research Mary Hufford, Folklife Specialist lications that "present" American at the Library of Congress is now David A. Taylor, Folklife Specialist folklife, as specified in its enabling called the Folklife Reading Room. Publications legislation. That same legislation also The phone number for folklife refer­ James Hardin, Editor calls for the Center to "preserve" enCe is the one used formerly for the

Public Events American folklife, and in 1978 the Folk Archive. Phone numbers for the Magdalena J annotta, Coordinator Center assumed control of the Archive Center's administrative office and the of Folk Song (renamed the Archive of Federal Cylinder Project remain the Reference Gerald E. Parsons, Reference Librarian Folk Culture), which had been carry­ same. Judith A. Gray, Ethnomusicologist ing out that function within the Gregory K. Jenkins, Staff Assistant Library's Music Division for fifty "Folkways-Roots of Our Administrative Office years. Tel: 202 707-6590 To manage its many tasks more Many Pasts" effectively, including those associated Reference Service with its home institution and its One does not expect to find an endorsement Tel: 202 707-5510 Archive, the Center has a new orga­ of the importance offolklore in so unlikely Federal Cylinder Project nizational structure, devised by direc­ a place as the national budget, but these are Tel: 202 707-1740 tor Alan Jabbour in consultation with strange times. The following paragraphs are the staff. Under the new organization, reprinted from Richard Darman, "Direc­ Board of Trustees each function of the Center has a cor­ tor 's Introduction to the New Budget," Judith McCulloh, Chair, Illinois responding "unit," and there are Budget of the Govern­ William L. Kinney, Jr. , Vice Chair, South Carolina operating units for programs, acqui­ ment: Fiscal Year 1991, Section III.], Nina Archabal, Minnesota sitions, processing, reference, publica­ under the title "Preserving America's Johnnetta Cole, tions, and public events (as indicated Heritage. " J ohn Penn Fix III, Washington in the staff column to the left). Thus arranged, these six units represent the One might ask what "preserving Ex Qfficio Members course of activities and materials as America's cultural heritage" may James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress they are developed and carried out in have to do with investing in America's Robert McCormick Adams, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution projects, processed into the collections, future. To many the connection is not John Frohnmayer, Chairman, used to service public inquiries, and obvious. But the connection is impor­ National Endowment for the Arts made into products for presentation tant nonetheless. To the exteht that Lynne V. Cheney, Chairman, and distribution. investing in the future tends to empha­ National Endowment for the Humanities Alan Jabbour, Director, American Folklife Center Committees have been established size technological advances-as it corresponding to each of the functions, should-there is a need to assure a consisting of a chair and two or three counterbalaocing attention to aesthetic staff members (some from other values. To the extent that it implies a units), for the purpose of considering race through time, there is a need for problems and offering solutions to the a balancing appreciation of history. director. In many ways the new struc­ And to the extent that America's tradi­ ture formalizes and reinforces the col­ tional cultural values have helped legial workings of the small office as make America uniquely strong, it is they have evolved over the years, important that these values be where informal talk among colleagues preserved-in order that they may be has often led to a recommendation for built upon as America continues to a particular action. advance. . ..

2 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS America is a nation of immigrants, more, particularly by those interested vey was to find a comprehensive whose common heritage includes the in folklife. approach to identifying and conserv­ thinking, art and science of the home­ ing America's cultural heritage. While lands of those who have come here and Sincerely, there is legislation to protect the are still coming here. It includes Joshua A. Fishman, Ph.D. natural environment and historic the multiple encounters of these Distinguished University buildings and sites, the intangible cul­ immigrants-with the continent, with Research Professor, ture often associated with these areas each other, and with the "Native Social Sciences, Emeritus and buildings is sometimes ignored. Americans." It includes the historic Ferkauf Graduate School of In 1983 the American Folklife buildings and environments that dot Psychology Center published Cultural Conservation: our urban and rural landscapes and Yeshiva University The Protection oj Cultural Heritage in the record our history and how our fore­ United States (the report ofa study coor­ bears lived. It includes the communi­ Folklife Center Reprints dinated by Ormond Loomis, con­ ties, customs and folkways- the roots Grouse Creek Cultural Survey ducted in cooperation with the of our many pasts. The preservation, National Park Service). Since that understanding and passing on of the D uring July 1985 a team of folk­ time the Center has been concerned best of this heritage is essential if lorists, historians, and architectural with heritage protection and with Americans are to know what it is to specialists conducted field research in bringing together from various sectors, be " American." the community of Grouse Creek, public and private, persons who share Utah, where the Mormon religion and that concern. The effort resulted in the Error in Dov Noy Article cattle ranching in combination have recent Conference on Cultural Con­ determined the built environment and servation: Reconfiguring the Cultural In the following letter to the editor, Profes­the cultural life of the region. Grouse Mission, held at the Library of Con­ sor Fishman is correct in suggesting that the Creek lies in a valley at the boundary gress, May 16-19 (the summer issue error in the article reporting on Prof Dov of Mormon Utah and the Great of Folklife Center News will be devoted Nay's lecture (Folklife Center News, vol. Basin's buckaroo country. Its ranch­ to a report on the conference). XI, no. 4, p. 15) belongs entirely to the ing traditions and architecture resem­ In the interest of keeping available reporter, who thanks him for his cariful ble those of Nevada to the west, while a publication that has come to be iden­ attention to the report and is happy to bring its home and community life resem­ tified with cultural conservation, the his letter to the attention oj newsletter readers. ble that of Utah to the east. Center has reprinted The Grouse Creek The Grouse Creek Cultural Survey: In­Cultural Survey. (The first printing by Dear Friends: tegrating Folklife and Historic Preservation the Government Printing Office sold Field Research, by Thomas Carter and out in less than a year.) Individual I believe there is an error in your C arl Fleischhauer, reports on the copies may be ordered from the Li­ Fall 1989 account of Prof. Dov Noy's specific work of the survey but in brary ofCongress, Sales Shop, Wash­ presentation. addition also discusses how the ethno­ ington, D.C. 20540, for $9 plus $3 .50 It is not the Hebrew word for" car­ graphic information assembled can for postage and handling (orders of rots" (gezer) but the Yiddish word guide government planning. The $20 to $35, add $4.50; $35 to $50, add (mern or meyern, depending on project provides a model for the way $6.50; $50 and over, add $10). For regional dialect) which is homony­ the various disciplines concerned with orders of ten or more copies, contact mous (I am not sure that your desig­ heritage protection can work together, Ray Dockstader at the American Folk­ nation "pun" really conveys this) with and the underlying purpose of the sur- life Center. 0 part of the (Yiddish, not the Hebrew) verb for " to multiply" (as in, to mul­ FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS tiply biologically, i.e., not in arithme­ FOLKLINE tic): " zikh mern." J ames Hardin, Editor Since Professor Noy is thoroughly For timely information on the David A. T aylor, Editorial Advisor familiar with Yiddish folklore, I field offolklore and folklife, includ­ Donald Shomette, Design Consultant ing training and professional oppor­ assume that the error is that of your Folklife Center News publishes articles on the reporter rather than his. The main tunities and news items of national programs and activities of the American point made by the reporter remains interest, a taped announcement is Folklife Center, as well as other articles on correct, ofcourse, namely, that to fully available around the clock, except traditional expressive culture. It is available free of charge from the American Folklife understand and appreciate Jewish during the hours of 9 A.M. until noon (eastern time) each Monday, C enter, Library of Congress, Washington, folklore, one must also be familiar with D.C. 20540. Folklife Center News does not the normative/ rabbinic tradition. when it is updated. Folkline is a publish announcements from other insti­ Nevertheless, since diaspora Jewish joint project of the American Folk­ tutions or reviews of books from publishers vernaculars and their associated folk­ life Center and the American Folk­ other than the Library ofCongress. Readers lore Society. Dial: who would like to comment on Center activi­ lores get so little recognition in that ties or newsletter articles may address their very tradition, I think that the above 202 707-2000 remarks to the editor. correction merits attention all the

SPRING 1990 3 INSTRUMENT OF BLIND MEN AND KINGS: A MINI-HISTORY OF THE

By Joe Wilson

The following article is reprinted from the program notes for Masters of the Steel String Guitar: A National Tour of American Guitar Styles, produced by the National Council for the Traditional Arts, Spring 1990. Copyright 1990Joe Wilson.

I t is ironic that the guitar has become the main musical tool of the American working class, a common denomina­ tor between cowboy and bluesman, jazzman and rocker, hillbilly and ethnic. This instrument has a history that reaches back to antiquity as a tool of royalty and the upper classes, and in the last century was a popular fad of the upper middle class. The administration of a university prohibited guitar playing in 1921 ) thundering that "a guitar is not a class-proletarian instrument and is , indeed, an instrument favored exclu­ sively by the bourgeois and middle classes. ' , The guitar has been assigned other symbolic identifications. In 1963 at the height of the Southern civil rights movement in Alabama, an arch­ conservative John Birch Society news­ paper railed against "outside agitators led by guitar-plinking pinkos." In the last century the guitar was almost exclusively a woman's instrument, but The Reverend Gary Davis, one of several famous guitar players who in our century it has become mainly are blind . Archive of Folk Culture a male instrument and one strongly identified with , the four octaves, over half that of a grand Guitar-shaped instruments called twentieth-century music that is almost . It has a rich tone, it is nifer that date to as early as 1,200 B. C. always unabashedly male III vIew­ responsive to mood and deeply are engraved, painted, and sculpted point. resonant, and it offers rich harmonies. on objects il)Egyptian tombs. A Hit­ The guitar IS the most forgiving It is a paradox, one of the easiest tite instrument from 1,300 B.C. has of instruments. A poor beginning instruments to play, but among the many of the features of a guitar: a flat crooner who knows but three chords most difficult to play really well. top with sound holes, a long fretted can carry it on stage and escape neck that runs the entire length of the without sounding half as terrible as a I t has a rich history. Here are the body, incurved feminine sides on the beginning violinist or pianist would in names of some famous persons who sound box. Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses similar circumstances. But in the played guitar: Socrates, Pythagoras, II (1292- 1225 B.C.) married a Hittite hands of a master player the guitar Alexander, Nero, Henry VIII, Eliza­ princess and erected an obelisk that becomes a small orchestra. Its six beth I, Louis X IV, C harles II, and depicts a guitar-shaped instrument. strings have a compass of more than Benjamin Franklin. The guitar name derives from the

4 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS Greek for the seven string cithara, a to endure for over a century. This never taught anything but how to form of from ancient . It popularity percolated the guitar dance and play the guitar." There is appeared there shortly after the Trojan upward in the social structure to royal so much praise for Louis's playing one War (1193-1184 B.C.) and is found families. Henry VIn of and begins to suspect that he really was a in many Greek myths. The Iliad and his daughter, Elizabeth I, were per­ skilled player, that this praise is not all Odyssey of Homer were originally sung formers on the , a form of gui­ boot-licking by royal sycophants. The with cithara accompaniment. Much tar. The musicians in Romeo andJuliet most incredibly decorated and osten­ later Socrates (469-399 B. C.) per­ were also rebec players. It became so tatious ever created were made formed with the instrument. Pythag­ essential a companion to fashionable in at the time of Louis. His oras, mathematician and genius, young men that when Figaro left his guitar teacher was an Italian, Fran­ helped create an improved fretboard guitar behind in The Barber of Seville, cesco Corbetto, the foremost design. he exclaimed, "I have forgotten my of his time. Corbetto later went to The instrument underwent many guitar! I am losing my wits." The England and gave instruction to changes in its thousand years as chief leading thief in Ben jonson's 1621 Charles II, who became head of a instrument of public games in Greece play, The Gypsies Metamorphosed, calls fashionable guitar clique at his court. and Rome. Nero was not a fiddler, but out, "Give me my gittara: and room a cithara player who had himself for our Chiefe." Colonial and Revolutionary America sculpted in marble with his instru­ But it was Louis XIV of France, the was well-supplied with English ment. It oscillated between being a so-called "Sun King" ballet dancer, and guitars. Benjamin Frank­ man's or woman's instrument in and Charles II, of the English restora­ lin was a guitarist; so was Francis Roman times as in our own. Sculp­ tion ofthe monarchy, that became the Hopkinson, another signer of the tures of instrument-playing ladies­ most exalted royal players of the gui­ Declaration of Independence. Thomas never men-are found among sar­ tar. Of Louis it was said, "he was Jefferson's daughters Polly and Maria cophagus reliefs of early Christian tombs in Rome. Performers from long ago seem less remote when their performances are described. A description of an anony­ mous citharist, written in the tenth century by Ikhwan AI-Safa', shows that the virtuoso is timeless:

He played them (the strings) III a way that made everyone in the assembly laugh. . . . Then he altered them and played them in another way, and made all weep... . Then he altered them agalll . . . and made everyone go to sleep.

Life was not easy for the wandering medieval professional. He had to be instrument-maker as well as per­ former, making his own strings from sheep gut, and usually the oxhide cover for his instrument. Technical improvements in several European guitars in the early sixteenth century luade tl."Ul pupular. They began to push out and lovers retaliated by claiming that the guitar was undignified and associated with debauchery and sensual abandon in the streets. And of course the more the guitar was identified with such things the more popular it became. Soon guitars were in all the new Louis XIV of France, of whom it was said, "he was never taught anything plays and painters were rendering but how to dance and play the guitar." (LC-USZ62-77776) Painting by galore. The painting fad was Hyacinthe Rigaud

SPRING 1990 5 took lessons in France when their a slavish reliance upon written mate­ crease in the number of high-quality father was ambassador, and instru­ rials and trickle-down faddism . They halls. Most of the ments were brought back to Monti­ subjected it to the creativity of the hundreds of thousands who experi­ . Here as in Europe it was an streets and store porches and blended enced concerts by the great master instrument of the upper classes. Yet it with other instruments. Black Andre Segovia probably did not some early guitars were taken to the players were among those who warmly realize that he was as technologically frontier. RachelJackson, wife of Presi­ embraced this new instrument and dependent as a rock and roll guitarist. dent Andrew Jackson, owned a subjected parlor techniques to further He hated electric guitars and thought French-made guitar in middle Ten­ development. It was quickly added to all sound reinforcement an assault on nessee in the 1820s. the minstrel and string bands of rural human hearing, but his career was A tradition of perfor­ whites . made possible by acoustic studies and · mance by young women of wealthy the building of halls that would reflect and upper middle class families started The increase in commerce and scien­ and project sound. This is as much a in Europe in the late 1700s and gained tific advances brought major techni­ technical innovation as the making of momentum in the early 1800s. These cal improvements to the guitar in the an , and in many ways young ladies from the upper crust mid and late 1800s. Among these were a more complex one. It enabled learned light classical and semi­ mechanical tuning machines, im­ Segovia to perform in halls filled with classical items, romantic tunes, and proved strings of a standard length, hundreds and, in some fine halls, as more. These were performed in social and new ways of bracing. many as three thousand, rather than settings for their suitors and family The sound of plucked instruments with dozens of people . members. This fad soon trickled down had traditionally been a one-person Metal-strung guitars have been to the urban and rural middle class sound until this century. It was a around for centuries and have a his­ masses and became a huge popular sound for small rooms and small audi­ tory in several countries, but all the movement. Like other large-scale ences. Parlor styles had become a mass types of steel-string guitars now in use popular fads, it created a commerce, fad in part because the parlor was an are of American origin and were primarily in sheet music publishing ideally suited room for guitar-and developed at the end of the last cen­ and in the sale of new and improved more families had parlors. Other tury or early in this century. They instruments. string instruments were massed and offer greater volume and demand a The fad struck the United States collectivized into , , much stronger bracing of the top. with full force in the post-Civil War , and They are preferred because of their period and had much to do with the orchestras, but not the guitar. sound. creation of better guitars and the Among the technical innovations The two major types of steel-string spread of open tunings. Places as dis­ most beneficial to guitar players at the acoustic guitars are the flat-top and tant from urban centers as rural Mis­ end of the last century was a huge in­ the arch-top. There is a fundamental sissippi and Hawaii felt the parlor fad. Black musicians all over the United States call open D tuning "Vastopol" from " The Siege of Sebastopol, " a parlor sheet music item published in 1880 that celebrates an episode in the Crimean War. White and black musicians in many areas of the country call an "Spanish," for the musical exercise "The Spanish Fandango," by far the most popular of parlor pieces and found even today in living tradi­ tion everywhere in the nation . The movement of the guitar down from the genteel parlor tradition to working class people brought striking changes to performance. Some skills from parlor tradition were retained; for example, the use of the thumb as a steady alternating , marking the main beats of the piece, while other fingers syncopate a melody on the treble strings. Maybelle, A.P., and Sara Carter, the original . Maybelle used But the new players took the instru­ her income from their 1927 Victor recordings to buy this arch-top ment and these techniques away from guitar. Archive of Folk Culture

6 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS acoustic difference in how they oper­ ate. Strings on a flat-top terminate at a that is glued to the top and string vibrations are transferred to the top by a rocking motion of the bridge. Strings on the arch-top pass over the bridge and attach to a tail-piece, and the top is subject primarily to vertical movement. The soundboard of the flat-top needs more bracing to resist the pull of the strings and to distribute vibrations. The flat-top developed from earlier gut-string guitars, but the arch-top h~s always been made for steel strings. , founder of the Gibson Guitar Company early in this century, was the person most responsible for the development of the arch-top. He adapted some -making tech­ niques to guitar construction, includ­ ing carving graduated tops. He said that he was inspired by the workman­ ship of Antonio Stradivari. C.F. Mar­ tin I of the Martin Guitar Company invented the X bracing that made it possible to adapt the flat-top to new responsibilities in this century. The 1920s and 1930s were a heyday for the arch-top guitar and its con­ siderable volume and short sustain During the sixties, the popularity of The Kinston Trio led many college stu­ made it ideal for dance bands and dents to purchase guitars. Archive of Folk Culture orchestras. Played with a pick, it offered an incisive beat for rhythm or vaudeville " Hawaiian" music which, had been working on the volume fast solo runs. in many cases, was not actually from problem, and the application of elec­ The new fl at-tops being made by H awaii . The brothers split from Na­ tricity to the guitar made these instru­ the Martin company were offered in tional in 1928 and formed the ments obsolete. But some players liked a new and larger "D size" that company (the name is a contraction of the tone of these acoustic instruments, emphasized the bass. Martin's shop Dopera brothers) and offered guitars and began liberating them from the workers preferred the older, smaller with wood bodies and metal resona­ hock shops where the vaudeville guitars that better balanced volume tors in 1929. across the tone spectrum and they players had left them. Among players who took up the National steel were jeeringly dubbed these big guitars as The Dobro has a link to the old such great blues performers as Bukka "dreadnaughts" after the big ships of parlor fad. In Hawaii the open-tuned White, Blind Boy Fuller, Memphis the British navy. But the bass empha­ guitar was sometimes played with a Minnie, Tampa Red, and Leroy sis was helpful in the new string band metal bar, the strings not pressed to C arr. ensembles where the new Martin was the , the bar gliding up and down being heard. the strings in a sweeping motion, Among country players who liber­ A third American innovation producing a wavering tone of variable ated from pawnshops were on guitar construction came from the pitch. It was a new and exciting sound Jimmy Tarlton, Howard Dixon, Cliff Dopera brothers, who in 1926 in­ and it came to the mainland in the Carlisle, Beecher Kirby (Brother vented an all-metal resophonic guitar. 1890s and was incorporated into such Oswald), Speedy Krise, Jenks Car­ They were partners in a company shows as the Broadway show Firebird. men, , James Kim­ called National, and these instruments A "Hawaiian" popular music fad was brough, Tut Taylor, Josh G raves, and came to be called "National steel" created that continued until the 1930s. -that is almost the guitars. Actually, the metal was bell whole list of Dobro players from the brass. These instruments had internal Dobro and National steel guitars 1920s until the arrival of a teenaged acoustic speakers that were intended moved from "Hawaiian" music into in the 1970s. Inspired to increase the volume of the instru­ the new forms of country and blues by Josh Graves, Douglas rewrote the ments to serve a popular craze for musics in the 1920s. Other innovators rules.

SPRING 1990 7 The most far-reaching of guitar in­ worhng people, their music came influence reached around the world novations has been the application of from the streets and store porches. behind the recordings of , electricity to the instrument. The Many were handicapped players who Rick Nelson, and others. Portions of ancient problem of volume was left far were wrestling a living on the streets England became musical suburbs of behind. In prior centuries the instru­ with a tin cup. They played in bars Memphis and Chicago. Among those ment had been often overwhelmed by and whorehouses. " Starvation is internalized their lessons was the greater volume of other instru­ father of the blues, " said Knoxville's young Albert Lee in England. H e had ments. But no more. With the micro­ Crippled John. " I know him well. " to play both the electric lead and elec­ phone technology of recording and Among the most famous blues gui­ tric steel leads from the Speedy West sound reinforcement, even the acous­ tar players were blind men: Blind and Jimmy Bryant recordings, not an tic guitar could take solo lead Blake, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind easy task, but no one was there to tell " breaks " with emembles. Willy M cTell, Blind Willy Johnson, him it was impossible, and it led to a Among the innovators who brought Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Gary Davis. discipline and a drive and an excite­ electricity to the guitar was acoustic Some great players had peg legs: ment that has endured in his music. engineer Lloyd Loar, a musician and Furry Lewis, Peg Leg Howell. Many Among pop guitarists there is a very who had earlier helped the bluesmen lived the brawling, drink­ special place that was carved out by Gibson company develop its famous ing, and womanizing lives they sang , guitarist, technician, com­ Mastertone banjo, F-5 mandolin, and about and spent major parts of their poser, inventor. He started in the improved arch-top L-5 guitar. Loar lives in jail. More than a few died 1930s as a country player known as left Gibson in 1924 and helped found young. Among them was Robert Rhubarb Red before moving into jazz the Vivi-Tone Company and intro­ Johnson, possibly the all-time favorite and pop idioms. The first to do multi­ duced several electrics. of blues fans . It was a tough scene for track recordings, he also pioneered in The first electrics seem to have been women and Memphis Minnie was the the creation of solid-body guitars. steel guitars played with a bar and one great female guitarist who left a These instruments have provided lati­ these instruments were to develop in sizable recorded legacy. tude for new forms of showmanship. amazing ways until the 1960s. While " H awaiian" guitar that was Jimi Hendrix based much of his Equipped with two or three necks and not always Hawaiian was being heard act upon tearing his guitar apart­ as many as a dozen pedals, each capa­ as mainland popular music, major stomping it, smashing it, and grind­ ble of retuning the instrument, the changes came to real Hawaiian music. ing it into the floor. " pedal " became a form of The parlor trick of tuning open mechanical largely used in became a basis of slack-key style in the The best guitars ever made are be­ . Islands. A tune was rendered with as ing made right now and right here in It was electricity that moved the jazz many open strings as possible so that the United States. The application of guitarist into the limelight. The player the instrument could resonate freely, electricity to hand tools has created a who first caught the ear of the nation then the strings were "slacked" (re­ of instrument making, was Charlie Christian, performing in tuned) so that the next tune could have and the very best instruments are cus­ Benny Goodman's band. He died of as many open strings as possible. This tom made in small shops. These small tuberculosis at age twenty-three. In picking style has not been heard much shops are found everywhere in the the 1940s French Gypsy Django Rein­ on the mainland, but it has always sur­ country, from Cape Cod to the fine hardt left a strong imprint on jazz gui­ passed slide styles in popularity in little shop near where the road ends tar. During the the idiom was Hawaii. Among the most influential on the north side of Hawaii's Big much enlarged and enriched by a bevy players are Gabby Pahinui, Raymond Island. Rugby, Virginia's Wayne Hen­ of great players who still dominate the Kane, Sonny Chillingsworth, Atta derson is one of this new brand of field : Tal Farlow, Barney Kessel, Isaacs, and Ledward Kaapana. . Asked to name his most im­ Herb Ellis, Johnny Smith, George Country and guitar has portant tool at a 1977 Smithsonian in­ Van Eps, and Kenny Burrell . Charlie heroes that are electric and acoustic. strument workshop, Wayne said it was Christian had used the new access to Among the great acoustic players who his pocketknife and that he wore one volume to put great guitar solos into have been highly influential during the out every year. jazz ensemble playing. The players past fifty years are , These are the guitar elements that listed here enlarged upon his legacy Sam M cGee, Don Reno, George have influenced the creation of the and made a new and Shuffler, Dan Crary, Norman Blake, musics that have ,spread from our exciting idiom that could stand on its Tony Rice, and especially Doc nation to all the world. The iron cur­ own feet. Watson. tain could not shut them out. Their The volume problem had weighed There is a Cajun acoustic super­ working class vitality is intact. Keep heavily upon blues guitar performance picker: David Doucet. The list of elec­ your eye on the guitar. More good until the advent of the new and louder tric country guitar heroes is long: stuff is coming. 0 steel string guitars. Those instruments Merle Travis, Jimmy Bryant, Scotty and electric recording technology set Moore, , Duane Eddy, off a boom of blues recordings in the , Hank Garland, and Joe Wilson is director of the National 1920s. These new performers were Grady Martin, among others. Their Council for the Traditional Arts.

8 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS BURL IVES DONATES HIS GUITAR TO THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

By James Hardin American Folk Song and from Alan celebration of the Archive and served Lomax, who became head of the Ar­ as master of ceremonies for a concert The Hauser, they call it, a guitar chive in 1936. He recorded for the Ar­ held that evening. It will now be made about 1950 for the great Ameri­ chive in 1938 and 1951, and made a housed with the collections of the can balladeer Burl I ves. It is the gui­ donation of recordings, photographs, Library's American Folklife Center, tar he used to serenade Pablo Casals and manuscript materials in 1966 . thus honoring the place that honors in . ("Yes, this is art," Casals I ves first thought of giving his guitar the songs he loves and keeps them safe remarked, after hearing "Wayfaring to the Library in 1978, when he for future generations. 0 Stranger," and he then played a little attended the fiftieth anniversary concert for Burl I ves on the cello.) It is the guitar Ives's friend Carl Sand­ burg loved to hear, the one that is "so much like the voice itself. " This well­ loved Hauser is now at the Library of Congress, presented by Burl and Dorothy Ives after a concert here, Sep­ tember 21, 1989, in honor of the Year of the Young Reader. The concert was sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, which was established by Congress in 1977 to stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the printed word. It is the freshness of a child's first experience of the world that characterizes Burl Ives's rendition of the folksongs he popularized, and he was a natural selection for a con­ cert honoring young readers. It is the simplicity of these"ancient " that has always appealed to him and for many of us it is difficult to think of such songs as " Blue Tail Fly" and "Frog Went a-Courtin'" without hearing his distinctive voice. Burl Ives owned three Hauser gui­ tars like the one he gave to the Library, made by a German master who made only about twenty-eight altogether. (The other two will even­ tually be donated to other institu­ tions.) I ves ordered the second guitar because he liked the first one so much and worried that something might happen to it; he was presented with the third. The gift of the first of the three H ausers commemorates a long and happy association with the Library of Congress. Ives learned songs by doing research in the Library's Archive of Burl I ves in September 1989, rehearsing for his Library of Con gress concert.

SPRING 1990 9 CONCERT SERIES OPENS WITH BLUEGRASS AND KLEZMER

American Bluegrass Is Band Performs Traditional types, meters, and rhythms also re­ International Favorite Klezmer Music veals a wide variety ofinfluences: brisk tunes in 2/4 such as freylekhs (lively By Lee Michael Demsey By Henry Sapoznik and dances), bulgars, and shers (scissor Thea Caemmerer dances), and slower husidl's and ter­ The 1990 Neptune Plaza Concert Series kishes. In triple meter there are both qpened on April 19, with the Lynn Morris Inclement weather forced indoors the second waltzes and horas, also called krimer Band, a newly formed group from Win­ concert in the 1990 Neptune Plaza series, tantsn (limping dances). The free­ chester, Virginia. This year six concerts of Klezmer Plus, a bandfrom New York City metered, subtly improvised doina is a ethnic and regional music and dance will be led by Henry Sapoznik. The group performs form common to both Yiddish and presented on the plaza in front of the klezmer music as it might have been played Romanian instrumentalists. Library 's Thomas JeJferson Building, on the in the United States fifty to seventy jiveyears When Jewish musicians came to third Thursday ofeach month from April to ago. Sapoznik plays tenor banjo,' Pete America they encountered and incor­ October. They include Klezmer, Hungarian, Sokolow, the keyboard; Sid Beckerman, porated the popular music forms of Piedmont Blues, Gospel, and Hispanic. The ; Howie Leess, sax; and David , , and jazz. T he series customarily has opened with bluegrass. Licht, drums. United States also offered expanded venues for these players in the record­ is one of America's The past decade has witnessed a ing industry, Yiddish theater, Catskill great forms. It was born revival of interest in klezmer music, hotels, and Yiddish-language radio nearly fifty years ago, but its tradi­ the traditional of the programs. By the end of World War tional roots go back much further. Yiddish-speaking J ews of Eastern II, with the destruction of the East Yet, a whole new generation of great Europe. The Yiddish word klezmer European breeding ground of Yiddish musicians and vocalists keep the music COlhes from the Hebrew ' 'klei zemer," culture and the rise of Israeli society, thriving and, perhaps, more vibrant which means musical instruments. emphasis shifted from Yiddish to than ever. Klezmer has come to refer to both the Hebrew consciousness, and the skills is the founding father musicians and the music they play. of traditional klezmer musicians were of this music. His blending of moun­ T hough most klezmer musicians are redirected, or in some cases lost. tain music, blues, country, folk, and Jewish, some bands past and present This last decade has seen a dramatic Irish tunes gained popularity have included non-Jewish players. renewal of interest in the study and through the 1940s, primarily in the Klezmer music is played mainly for performance of klezmer music. Across South. T hrough the 1950s the music dancing. It combines synagogue the United States, Europe, and Israel, began to reach a wider audience with prayer modes and local non-Jewish more and more musicians, scholars, big names emerging such as The melodic prototypes in a variety of students, and enthusiastic audiences Stanley Brothers, Lester Flatt, Earl minor, modal, and major scales. Early are insuring the continued presence Scruggs, and Mac Wiseman. In the on, the music was played on instru­ of this traditional form in their com­ 1960s, and ments such as thefidl (violin), baraban munities. 0 other groups toured college campuses (drum), tsimbl (hammered dulcimer), across the country, introducing young andflayt (). people to this acoustic music. In While klezmer uses modes of tradi­ Washington, D .C., in the 1970s, the tional Jewish music, it also borrows Seldom Scene spearheaded a more from the musical traditions of Roma­ contemporary bluegrass sound, and nian Gypsies, Ukrainians, Poles, Rus­ that opened the doors to many young, sians, Greeks, and Turks. Klezmer is adventurous bluegrass pickers who hundreds of years old but has under­ formed their own bands. gone modifications as new dance styles Nowadays, bands (consisting pri­ evolved and new instruments came (right) marily of a banjo, fiddle, mandolin, into use. By the nineteenth century, guitar, and bass) are springing up all instruments such as the clarinet, trum­ Juha Pentikainen at the reception over the world. Bluegrass is very pet, , and marked the following his April 19 lecture at popular in Japan and in many Euro­ increasing influence of martial music the Library of Congress, with Ritva pean countries, and it has a strong cult on the previously more string-oriented Poom, the translator of his book . following in North America. ensembles. The spectrum of tune Kalevala Mythology.

10 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS FINNISH SCHOLAR LECTURES ON THE KALEVALA

By James Hardin hinen, now available in English from sociated with the Kalevala, including Indiana University Press. On April the nation-building myths that have The hundred fiftieth anniversary of 19 , Professor Pentihinen presented a been so important to the nineteenth­ the publication of the Kalevala was lecture at the Library of Congress century creation of a modern Finland. celebrated in 1985, stimulating many entitled "A Shamanistic Interpreta­ The Kalevala was compiled by Elias scholars to review the contributions of tion of the Kalevala .'} A reception Lannrot from the folklore he collected this great epic to the creation of a sponsored by the Embassy of Finland while doing fieldwork during the 1830s Finnish national identity. Among the followed the lecture. and 1840s and published in two edi­ works undertaken at that time was In writing his book, Professor Pen­ tions in 1835 and 1849. The shamanis­ Kalavala Mythology by Juha Penti­ tikiiinen focused on the mythology as- tic point of view Pentikiiinen has employed in examining this body of folklore stresses the importance of the thoughts and dreams of the people (rather than historical and geographi­ cal reality) as crucial in creating a na­ tional identity. Pentikiiinen spoke of the impor­ tance of fieldwork for such a compila­ tion as the Kalevala, and he presented a documentary video he had made in on a field trip of his own. In Siberia, he studied a community of people whose lives are permeated by myth and symbolism, from the ritual killing of reindeer to viewing the stars in the night sky, and he noted that many of the same myths he discovered there are recorded in the Kalevala. The community is guided through its traditional rituals by a shaman, and Pentikiiinen said that shamanism is part of an ethnic revival in the region. Near the end of his lecture, he revealed the poignant irony that the ancient people he studied during his field trip live above one of the richest natural gas deposits ever discovered on this planet. Given this situation, it is hard to imagine that their way of life will be left undisturbed by an energy­ hungry outside world. Juha Pentikiiinen is professor of comparative religion at Helsinki Uni­ versity and docent in folkloristics and comparative religion at the University of Turku. Kalevala Mythology is avail­ able from Indiana University Press, 10th & Morton Streets, Bloomington, Indiana 47405. The price is $25 (there is a special price of $20 for individuals) plus $1. 75 for shipping fourth-class mail or $2 .75 UPS. D

SPRING 1990 11 Selection panel for the American Folklife Center's 1989 edition of and Folklore Recordings) which met at the Library on March 22-23. Around the table from left to right: Mark Slobin, Joe Wilson, Barry Lee Pearson, Neil V. Rosenberg, and CharlotteJ. Frisbie. Standing are project coordinator Jennifer Cutting and assistant Andras Goldfinger. An article on the history of the guitar by panelist Joe Wilson appears on page 4.

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