Illinoi S University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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H ILLINOI S UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN PRODUCTION NOTE University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Large-scale Digitization Project, 2007. Volume 3, No. 2- November 30, 1962 * * "^ / REDPATH CONCERT SATURDAY -. REDPATH SEMINAR THURSDAY Jean Redpath will perform in a Jean Redpath will conduct a rt of traditional Scottish ballads seminar, "The Survival and Revival turday, December 8, 8 p.m., in of Scots Folksong," at 3 p.m. on in Hall Theater. Thursday, December 6, in the Labor and Industrial Relations Building, Room 35. Miss Redpath is a former language ant at the University of Edinburgh. Judy McCulloh, an associate of as head of the Folk Song Society at the Archives of Folk and Primitive Jniversity and a disciple of the Music at Indiana University, will )l of Scottish Studies, noted folk- introduce the guest speaker and serve it, Hamish Henderson. as seminar moderator. Mrs. McCulloh has done extensive folksong collecting Having come to the United States in in the Ozarks, Southern Indiana, and ,she appeared in Gerde's Folk City Kentucky and is also an active member vas hailed in the New York Times for of our Campus Folksong Club. At fast repertoire, vocal brilliance, present, she is writing her doctorate »he charm she communicated about her in the area of Finnish folksongs ;ry, people, language, and music. collected in America. The seminar is open to the public. ] estival in February, 1962. PG&MS RECORD BACK IN PRINT Lthough Miss Redpath's voice at 1 sounds as refined as that of a The first issue (500) of the Club's 3 trained singer, it is a natural, Philo Glee and Mandolin Society record 3 aed instrument. She sings ballads sold out in October. Records are again 1 is "Rantin Laddie," "The Gypsy available. Prices are $3.50 to members ( 1,"and "Barbarry Allan." She is and $4.00 to non-members. .( "ned with Scottish material, not y for nationalistic reasons, but ause she is concerned with the preser- ion of the cultural identity of language spreads like honey over all tland. Miss Redpath considers herself her songs....She is direct, honest, and tly a traditional singer and partly an as intensly alive as the people from erpreter of traditional Scots Songlore. whom she comes." The American Record Guide said of Tickets are on sale now at the Illini s Redpath, "The delightful burr of her Union Box Office. Tickets are $1.25 and $1.75. All seats are reserved. RAMBLERS CONCERT by J. Walsh Old-timey string band music made itself heard on campus Saturday night as the New Lost City Ramblers presented a concert of traditional Southern mountain music in the Lincoln Hall Auditorium. The Ramblers, following in the tradition of such bands as "The Buckle-Busters", "The Fruit-jar Drinkers", and "Gid Tanner's Skillet-Lickers", put on a program of ballads, comic songs, and fiddle-tunes, all songs long popular with rural southern audiences and which are being newly "discovered" by northern college audiences. The New Lost City Ramblers, John Cohen, Mike Seeger, and Tracy Schwarz (who has replaced Tom Paley, the original third member of the group) are boys from the city who became interested in music from the country. Specifically, they play the music that was commercially recorded by string bands in the nineteen twenties and thirties. They play it in the style in which it was originally played: with unexaggerated delivery and unamplified instruments--banjo, fiddle, mandolin, and autoharp. Their aim is to play the music as it was played then, not to interpret or popularize it for the mass audience, and it is largely through their efforts and example that the present revival of this music has such force. On the college campuses, and even high schools, are springing up such groups as the Redwood Canyon Ramblers, the Mad Mountain Ramblers, and the university's own Philo Glee and Mandolin Society, all playing old-timey music. The music itself was commercially recorded on a myriad of different labels in the years from 1923 through the depression. It was often recorded by the simple expedient of setting up a recording studio in a local store or post office and offering ten dollars for every song accepted for publication. The folk of the surrounding area would gather up their banjos and dust off their fiddles and come down to pick up some of that "easy money". The bands who played for the Saturday night dances would come in to show those city slickers how "McLeod's Reel" should really be picked. They would play them the songs they learned from their daddy and their daddy's daddy as well as some songs they just made up, and in this way a lot of folk music was put on record. It was recorded because it sold, not because it was folk music. As people's taste changed and the musicians became more sophisticated and turned to electric guitars and string basses, this music was forgotten or relegated to the attic, the dust, and a few hillbilly record collectors. This was the music which the Ramblers decided to play when they got together several years ago, and this is the music which more and more city and college people are discovering anew, largely through the influence of these same Ramblers. It was easy to see why Saturday night the music was fun to listen to, fun to play, and, as was evident, fun to sing. The songs they presented were representative of their repertoire: fiddle tunes such as "The Wild Horse", ballads like "Blackjack Davy" and "The Man of Constant Sorrow", a good version of "Pretty Polly" sung by Tracy Schwarz, comic songs such as "That Tickled Me" and "There Ain't No Bugs On Me" (There may be bugs on some of you mugs but...), "Sal's Got a Meatskin", and a few songs from modern bluegrass groups, such as "The Little Girl and The Dreadful Snake" written a few years ago by Bill Monroe. The Ramblers have changed a little in the past few years, in outlook as well as in personnel, and the last-named song is an example of this. They have added several songs in the style of the bluegrass bands to their repertoire. Bluegrass represents a more recent style of country music than does the old-timey music they are noted for, and this sometimes presents a jarring note in their otherwise closely integrated style. However, when they stick to their old-time numbers, their performance ranges from the good to the wonderful, such as when John Cohen cranked his banjo into a modal tuning and sang "Country Blues"--the melody was simple, the banjo accompaniment was irregular, and the singing was purposely harsh, yet the total effect was singularly moving. Perhaps the best illustration of the Ramblers' ability to convey the spirit of this music to an audience so far removed from its origin was given by their singing of "The True and Trembling Brakeman". This song is a parlor ballad, and was never meant to be sung on a stage. It records the death of a brakeman beneath the wheels of his train. It's overdone sentimentality verges on stickiness, and its gore- filled descriptions are apt to make present-day audiences break out in uncomfortable laughter. Lesser groups such as the Kingston Trio and the Highwaymen would burlesque it and play it as a comic number. Nevertheless, it is a song which records an actual happening, and was written as a serious ballad by a miner who witnessed the accident. Mike Seeger gave a careful introduction to it and then sang it in a straightforward ballad style, with no attempt to get laughs and no attempt to get tears. At the first description of the brakeman's fall, there was a small expectant burst of laughter as people looked for an indication that the song was really meant to be funny. As Mike continued, people realized that he, at least, was serious, and the song was finished in utter quiet. This is the way the Ramblers approach their music--they could have played for laughs and brought down the house, but they believe that songs should be taken in the spirit in which they were meant and that laughs should be reserved for comic, not serious songs. No Ramblers' concert could end on a sober note, and this was no exception. The concert ended with three sets of encores, including Tracy Schwarz's wild performance of the "Orange Blossom Special", a fiddle showpiece complete with train whistles, a steam engine, and a goat on the tracks; and a version of "Three Men Went a-Hunting" with the last verse learned from the Philo Glee and Mandolin Society: Three Men went a-hunting and something they did find, They came across Champaign, and that they left behind. The Irishman said "Champaign", The Scotsman he said "Nay", The Welshman said, "It's the end of the world, Let's go back the other way." This review was printed in the Daily Illini, October 30, 1962, and with permission is reprinted in expanded form. Chain Gqrn Snrq ¶ -t _Jr^J! _Aor^ I l W (a II) I When you hear my bulldog barkin' Somebody round, baby, somebody round. 2 When you hear my pistol a firin' 'Not'ler man dead, baby, 'nother man dead. 3 Don't you remember last December? Wind blowed cold, baby, wind blowed cold. h If I had me forty one dollars I'd go home, baby, I'd go home. 5 See that white man sittin' on a fence post Wastin' his time, baby, wastin' his time.