“Buck Dancer’s Choice” – A Transcription

Posted on February 4, 2015 by sixstrstories

(To see more Guitar TAB transcriptions, click on Guitar Music in the Categories list!)

Last April, I wrote a This Historic Day In Music post about “Buck Dancer’s Choice” and “The Franklin Blues”: the first Country Music guitar instrumentals to be put on record.

The guitarist on those recordings was 32-year-old Tennessean Samuel Fleming McGee. Sam recorded both pieces on April 14, 1926 in a New York City recording studio. Sam and his brother Kirk, a banjo player and fiddler, were frequent performers on the Grand Ole Opry and long-time members of a Country band led by Uncle Dave Macon called The Fruit Jar Drinkers.

Writing about and listening to “Buck Dancer’s Choice” led me to want to try my hand at playing the piece, so I went looking for a transcription of it. My copy of Fingerpicking Styles for Guitar (Oak Publications, 1966) by Happy Traum had sheet music for “Buck Dancer’s Choice,” but the transcription was taken from a rather different version of the piece that Sam McGee had recorded in 1964. Most of what I found on-line in the “Guitar TAB” websites that I searched turned out to be variations on the Happy Traum transcription.

I soon realized that if I wanted to play the original 1926 version of “Buck Dancer’s Choice,” I was going to have to figure it out for myself.

So, I did.

And, if I wanted to be able to share what I’d figured out with another guitarist, I would have to transcribe it.

So, I did that, too.

Take a look.

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That’s what’s known as Guitar Tablature. Tablature is a system of notation used to write down music for fretted stringed instruments that originated in Europe during the 15th century. The basic concept of tablature is that the horizontal lines represent the strings of the instrument and the numbers on those lines tell the player what fret that string (or strings) should be fingered at to get the desired pitch or note.

If you’re not a guitar player, my transcriptions probably look like they are written in a bizarre, foreign language. TAB transcriptions can sometimes look like that even to someone who does play the guitar!

Here is the recording that started all of this: Sam McGee playing “Buck Dancer’s Choice” as he recorded it on that now-historic day, April 14, 1926. See if you can follow the transcription as you listen!

If you are a TAB-reading guitar player, I hope you’ll take a shot at playing “Buck Dancer’s Choice” from my transcription. (I’m getting better at playing it, but not yet at Sam’s tempo!) Let me know how you think I did transcribing it!

Also, if you have any guitar-playing friends that you think would be interested, please pass a link to this post along to them.

Good music doesn’t get old, especially when it’s this much fun to play or just to listen to.

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January Day

Posted on January 25, 2015 by sixstrstories

Thinkin’ ’bout summer on this January day…

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Can’t believe another storm is on the way.

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These Historic Days In Music: Bringing It All Back Home

Posted on January 18, 2015 by sixstrstories

Three days in January, fifty years ago.

On Wednesday, January 13, 1965, Bob Dylan entered Columbia Records’ Studio A in New York City to begin recording songs for his fifth album. Joining him in the studio that day was producer Tom Wilson and John Sebastian, a fellow Greenwich Village musician, singer/songwriter and, for this session, bass guitarist.

Of the eleven songs Dylan, Sebastian and Wilson recorded on January 13, six of them would appear on the final album, but none in the versions that were cut during this day’s work.

On Thursday, January 14, Dylan was accompanied in Studio A by a band of New York musicians and session players put together by producer Wilson. The members of this group were: Bruce Langhorne, guitar; Bobby Gregg, drums; John Hammond, Jr., guitar; and William Lee, bass guitar.

With Dylan singing, playing harmonica and either acoustic guitar, electric guitar or piano, this ensemble nailed down album-ready versions of five songs: “Love Minus Zero/No Limit,” “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” “Outlaw Blues,” “She Belongs To Me,” and “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream.” Three of those – “Love Minus Zero/No Limit,” “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and “She Belongs To Me,” met with Dylan’s approval after the first take!

For the Friday, January 15 session, producer Wilson assembled a somewhat different group for Dylan to work with. Returning guitarist Langhorne and drummer Gregg were joined by guitarists Al Gorgoni and Kenny Rankin, pianist Paul Griffin and bass guitarist Joseph Macho, Jr. This ensemble started off the day with a quick completion of “Maggie’s Farm” and nine takes of “On The Road Again.”

Dylan then cleared the room and recorded “It’s All Right, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” “Gates of Eden,” “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” with just his acoustic guitar, harmonica and vocals. Bruce Langhorne added a high, jangling second guitar part as the finishing touch to “Mr. Tambourine Man.”

“Subterranean Homesick Blues” b/w “She Belongs To Me” was released on March 8, 1965 as the single from the album. It was Dylan’s first Top 40 hit.

Bringing It All Back Home – Columbia LP: CL 2328 (Mono) and CS 9128 (Stereo) – was released on March 22, 1965.

Side One of the album was the “electric side” with “Subterranean Homesick Blues” as the first track.

 

The “acoustic” Side Two opened with “Mr. Tambourine Man.”

 

In the poem that is part of his liner notes to the album, Dylan wrote: “I am about t sketch You a picture of what goes on around here sometimes. tho I don’t understand too well myself what’s really happening.”

P.S.: John Sebastian was the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist for The Lovin’ Spoonful, a fabulous Folk/Rock band that had seven consecutive Top 10 hit records from 1965 to 1966.

The sources for the information used in this post were: “Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions [1960-1994]” (1995) by Clinton Heylin, “Bob Dylan Complete Discography” (2006) by Brian Hinton and Wikipedia.

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Songster

Posted on January 4, 2015 by sixstrstories

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of “Songster” is: “one that sings.”

The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music (1988) states that a “Songster” is: “A black American musician of the post-Reconstruction era who performed a wide variety of ballads, dance-tunes, reels and minstrel songs, singing to his own banjo or guitar accompaniment. Songsters were sometimes accompanied by ‘musicianers’, or non-singing string players.” (The post-Reconstruction era officially began in 1877.)

In his liner notes for the 2006 Smithsonian Folkways CD Classic African-American Ballads, Barry Lee Pearson writes that “Songster” is a term drawn from black folk speech by early-twentieth-century sociologist and collector of Southern Folk songs, Dr. Howard W. Odum. (Dr. Pearson is an African-American music scholar and member of the English Department at the University of Maryland.)

Howard Washington Odum (1884-1954) first mentions the term “Songster” in his article “Folk-Song and Folk-Poetry as Found in the Secular Songs of the Southern Negro” which was published in the July-September, 1911 edition of The Journal of American Folk-Lore.

In that article, Mr. Odum states: “In general, ‘Songster’ is used to denote any negro who regularly sings or makes songs.”

Paul Oliver, British architectural historian and prolific author on the Blues, once wrote that “Songsters were the entertainers, providing music for every kind of social occasion in the decades before phonographs and radio.”

In his 2010 Oxford University Press book The Blues: A Very Short Introduction, Elijah Wald explains that during the Folk/Blues Revival of the early 1960’s, musicians like Mississippi John Hurt who were “valued for the breadth of their repertoires and their preservation of pre-twentieth-century styles” were categorized as “Songsters.”

Most recently, in her July 1, 2014 article titled “Before There was the Blues Man, There Was the Songster” on Smithsonian.com, Kirstin Fawcett describes the Songster as: “an itinerant performer with the versatility of a jukebox, a man who’s played for so many different audiences that he can now confidently play for all of them.”

Ms. Fawcett’s article helped to herald the release of the new Smithsonian Folkways album Classic African American Songsters. Among the artists featured on this 21-track compilation are Big Bill Broonzy, Lead Belly, Mississippi John Hurt, Brownie McGee, Reverend Gary Davis and Peg Leg Sam. The 60-minute CD comes with a 40-page booklet containing liner notes and annotations by Jeff Place and Barry Lee Pearson.

Although I have not yet picked up a copy of Classic African American Songsters, I did recently purchase Prospect Hill – the outstanding new Music Maker Relief Foundation CD by Dom Flemons, a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who bills himself as “The American Songster.”

I initially became acquainted with Dom Flemons (born August 30, 1982 in Phoenix, Arizona) when he was a member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. I had the very good fortune to see this Grammy Award-winning, contemporary/old-time string band perform twice; once in August, 2012 and again in July, 2013. Both times the Carolina Chocolate Drops were performing at my favorite summertime music venue – the Prescott Park Arts Festival in Portsmouth, NH. (I wrote about their excellent 2012 concert in my August 14, 2012 post titled “August Music, So Far.”)

Dom Flemons, however, left the Carolina Chocolate Drops in November, 2013. Recording sessions for a solo album began on January 28, 2014 – the day after Pete Seeger passed away – and Prospect Hill was released on July 22, 2014. Proclaiming 2014 as “the year of the Folksinger,” Dom Flemons soon took his show on the road.

On Sunday, December 28, 2014, Dom Flemons’ itinerary brought him to The Stone Church in Newmarket, New Hampshire.

During the course of his infectiously joyous and highly entertaining 90-minute performance, Dom sang and accompanied himself not just on acoustic guitar and banjo, but also on harmonica, the quills and the bones.

His talented musicianers for the late-afternoon concert were upright bassist & singer Brian Farrow and drummer, fiddler & singer Dante Pope.

Dom’s wonderful “made” or original songs were among the many highlights of the program. “I Can’t Do It Anymore,” “Too Long (I’ve Been Gone)” – with its Elizabeth Cotten-style fingerpicking accompaniment – and “Hot Chicken” are highlights of Prospect Hill, as well.

Here’s Dom doing his song, “I Can’t Do It Anymore.”

 

All of the material on the set list that afternoon – originals and covers – demonstrated Dom Flemons’ dedication to the preservation of a wide variety of 19th and 20th century styles of music. The elements and flavors of Ragtime, Blues, Country, Traditional Folk, Contemporary Folk, Jazz, Rhythm & Blues, Rock & Roll and String Band music were skillfully woven throughout the musical tapestry of the trio’s marvelous show. In one solo 4-string banjo piece, Dom even quoted two 19th-century Minstrel Show songs: “De Boatman’s Dance” (1843) by Dan Emmett and “Oh! Susannah” (1847) by Stephen Foster!

The cover versions that he presented to the audience that afternoon clearly demonstrated that Dom Flemons is also in possession of a broad and, yes, jukebox-like repertoire of timeless and simply fabulous songs. (I would love to know where one could find a jukebox these days with a selection that included the records of Big Joe Turner, Bob Dylan, Big Bill Broonzy, Eric Anderson, Gus Cannon, Woody Guthrie and Charlie Poole.)

Here’s Dom Flemons & Brian Farrow doing the 1930’s Georgia Tom Dorsey & Tampa Red song “But They Got It Fixed Right On.”

 

On his website, Dom Flemons says “he would like to use the traditional forms of music he has heard and immersed himself in over the years to create new soundscapes that generate interest in old-time folk music.” In the “Thanks to…” section of the liner notes for Prospect Hill, Dom says: “I hope that this recording can inspire others to listen and love music of all types.”

I say, “Thank you, Dom Flemons for proudly carrying on the Songster tradition here in the 21st century.”

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Newfields Road

Posted on December 22, 2014 by sixstrstories

On June 11, 1962, my parents, Francis & Avis Sinclair, took ownership of the buildings and land in the picture below. Purchased from Mr. Charles H. Williams, the house, garage/workshop, and a large barn with an attached carriage shed, were situated on 4 & 1/2 acres of land on the outskirts of Exeter, NH, about half a mile from the Exeter/Newfields town line.

The long-neglected interior of our new house required several weeks of cleaning, repairing and redecorating, but finally, at the beginning of August, just before my ninth birthday, Dad, Mom, my dog Scamp and I moved in.

The original mailing address for the property was R.F.D. 1 – Newmarket Road. Over the years, however, the U. S. Postal Service changed the address several times, leaving my parents and me to refer to our home simply as: Newfields Road.

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Newfields Road was the place.

This was where Music grabbed a hold of my soul and said, “You’re coming with me.”

My life’s journey began in the rooms of that house.

Here are some memories and moments, snapshots, if you will, from Newfields Road.

In my bedroom – all 9′ x 11′ of it; the second floor, front corner room, on the right or “Newfields side” of the house – listening to the Top-40 broadcasts of Boston-based WBZ-AM, delivered to my bedside table by the boxy, black and chrome Philco solid state AM/FM radio that my parents gave me for my tenth birthday.

In the living room – first floor, on the “Exeter side” – sitting on the couch in front of our black & white console television set and watching The Beatles introduce themselves to America on that now-historic Sunday night in February, 1964.

In my bedroom… playing my slowly-growing collection of 45-rpm records – Beatles!, Rolling Stones!, Beach Boys!, Monkees! – on a portable, two-tone beige and brown Magnavox stereo, the kind with one speaker in the detachable lid.

In my bedroom… standing before my blue sparkle snare drum and shiny, bronze-colored cymbal, practicing the rudiments that Mrs. Prebble taught me in my weekly drum lessons.

Evenings in the living room… regularly watching not just the Ed Sullivan Show, but also Shindig!, Hollywood Palace, The Dean Martin Show, The Smothers Brothers’ Comedy Hour and on occasion, to keep my parents company, The Lawrence Welk Show.

Late one night in my bedroom… hearing Dave Maynard on WBZ-AM talk about a new band from San Francisco called The Grateful Dead.

One afternoon in the living room… sitting behind my 4-piece blue sparkle drum set, waiting for Jerry and Ricky, my friends and 7th-grade classmates, to tune their electric guitars. We were rehearsing for our first gig – playing at our school’s annual end-of-the-year party for the graduating 8th graders – and the first order of business was a Ventures-inspired rendition of “Secret Agent Man.”

In my bedroom… immersing myself in each monthly-arriving issue of Down Beat magazine, discovering a world of Jazz and Blues music that I wasn’t hearing on the radio.

In my bedroom… figuring out how to re-wire my Magnavox to drive a pair of larger, bookshelf speakers – Radio Shack Optimus 1‘s – and have a junction box where I could plug in a set of headphones!

In the front hallway… sitting on the white central staircase with Alan, Danny and Jim – my high school friends and bandmates – taking a break from rehearsing to pose for a group picture; my Mom working the Instamatic.

One night in my bedroom… turning on my radio – now tuned to Boston’s WBCN-FM – and stumbling into the middle of a heart-stopping electric guitar solo from a live recording by Blues musician Albert King.

In my bedroom… listening to records through my Radio Shack headphones and playing along on my seven-piece (now upgraded with an all-chrome, Rogers “Dyna-sonic” snare drum) blue sparkle drum set. Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man,” “I Can’t See Nobody” by The Bee Gees and “Psychotic Reaction” by Count Five were among my go-to numbers for these practice sessions.

In my bedroom, towards the end of my junior year in high school… spending a Thursday afternoon sitting on the floor with a borrowed acoustic guitar; coaxing my left hand fingers back and forth across the bronze and steel strings; switching between two chords – E minor to D major to E minor to D major; strumming and singing and trying to mend a broken heart with the one line refrain from a song by The Doors.

In my bedroom… cradling my very own, brand new Harmony acoustic guitar and gradually, after many months of studying and listening to and practicing, over and over, my favorite songs by the songwriters I’d loved for so long, learning how to play that guitar.

Starting to think that maybe, just maybe, I could write some songs of my own.

In my bedroom… perching, guitar in hand, on a tall, wooden stool in front of a microphone plugged into my Kenwood reel-to-reel tape deck, ready to record my latest batch of newly-composed songs. (A tape deck purchased at the Tech Hi-Fi in Cambridge, MA, thanks to a very generous gift from my godparents when I graduated from high school.)

In the living room… watching as a black, second-hand Needham upright piano takes its place along the wall where the couch had always been. On that piano, practicing the little J. S. Bach and Vincent Persichetti pieces I was learning in my piano lessons with Dr. Ruth Edwards at the University of New Hampshire.

Around this time, finally admitting that I really didn’t play them anymore, and sadly selling my set of drums.

Several evenings in the dining room – first floor, right front – chatting at the dinner table with my Dad and my trio-mates, pianist Gary and bass guitarist Andy, waiting for my Mom to serve one of her now-famous pre-rehearsal home-cooked meals. (These weekly feasts and rehearsals occurred throughout the first semester of my senior year at UNH.)

After graduating from UNH… getting my first job teaching music at the Lincoln St. Elementary School in Exeter.

As easy and comfortable as it was living with my parents at Newfields Road, I wanted a place of my own. So, in the Fall of 1975, I moved into a four-rooms-with-a-river-view apartment over a paint and wallpaper store on Water St. in downtown Exeter. My guitars, my stereo system, my record collection, my stack of sheet music and songbooks and my piano moved in with me.

My parents continued to live at Newfields Road for another twenty years. The memories that I, my wife and our children have of the many times we spent during those years at Newfields Road with Nana and Grampa are among the most cherished and dearest in our hearts.

When the time came and we needed to sell the property, Newfields Road was purchased by a developer who had already bought the house next door and much of the land behind the original 4 & 1/2 acres.

Today, Newfields Road is owned and being lovingly restored and rejuvenated by a determined and enthusiastic couple with three teenage children.

The photograph that started this piece – an original hand-tinted, black & white print – was taken and sold by a company called Maine Air Views from West Brook, Maine. After extensive detective work through old family photo albums, I have narrowed the date of the photo to sometime in the summer of 1965 or 1966.

Finally, the aqua oval just to the left of center in the photograph is an umbrella that provided shade to our picnic table. My Mother and I always thought that the little light gray patch, barely visible under the umbrella, is a newspaper being held up and read by my Father.

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This Historic Day In Music: Little Richard

Posted on December 5, 2014 by sixstrstories

There aren’t many songs that hit the ground running and roar off into the stratosphere with a better opening line than: “Gonna tell Aunt Mary ’bout Uncle John, he claims he had the mis’ry but he had a lot of fun, oh baby…”

And there aren’t many hook lines – if any – that are so much fun to belt out at the top of your lungs and never fail to bring the house down like: “Have some fun tonight!”

What song is this, you might be asking?

“Long Tall Sally.”

Don’t believe me? Ask Paul McCartney and Robert Plant. They know.

“Long Tall Sally” was the A-side of Little Richard’s second release for the Los Angeles-based record label Specialty Records.

“Long Tall Sally” was written by Little Richard, Robert Blackwell and Enotris Johnson. (Robert “Bumps” Blackwell was Little Richard’s record producer at Specialty Records. Enotris Johnson was Little Richard’s adoptive father.)

Little Richard recorded “Long Tall Sally” at J&M Studios in New Orleans, LA on February 10, 1956. Richard sang and played piano on the recording and was accompanied by J&M Studio’s top in-house session players: Edgar Blanchard, guitar; Frank Fields, bass; Earl Palmer, drums; Lee Allen, tenor saxophone; and Alvin Tyler, baritone saxophone.

Specialty Records released “Long Tall Sally” b/w “Slppin’ and Slidin” in March, 1956. Sales of the 45-rpm single kept “Long Tall Sally” in the #1 position on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues chart for six weeks.

Within a year or so, “Long Tall Sally” was being covered by a wide variety of American musicians including Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran & Wanda Jackson. In 1964, two British Invasion bands – The Kinks and The Beatles – each recorded and released their version of the song.

The Beatles, who were big fans of Little Richard, had been performing “Long Tall Sally” for some time before they recorded it for a 4-song EP in the spring of 1964. “Long Tall Sally” was the last song of The Beatles first American concert, held at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C. on February 11, 1964. It was also the last song of their last official public concert, held at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, CA on August 29, 1966.

The British Rock band Led Zeppelin used “Long Tall Sally” as a high-energy encore number in many of their concerts from 1968 into the early 1970’s.

Here, for your listening pleasure, is Little Richard’s original recording.

By the way, if you listen to this and don’t move at least some part of your body, you better call an ambulance and get yourself to a doctor right away.

 

Little Richard was born Richard Wayne Penniman in Macon, Georgia on this day, December 5, in 1932. He was the third child of Leva Mae & Charles Penniman.

He started his performing career at the age of 14 with the help of Sister Rosetta Tharpe. From 1949-1950, he sang with his first band, Buster Brown’s Orchestra. Little Richard cut his first records with RCA Victor in 1951. He recorded his first hit record – “Tutti Frutti” – for Specialty Records in September of 1955.

Little Richard was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

Little Richard announced his retirement from the music business in September, 2013.

Happy 82nd Birthday, Little Richard!

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Happy Thanksgiving

Posted on November 27, 2014 by sixstrstories

Oh how diff’rent the view that my camera did capture

From my window this morning here in southeast New Hampshire.

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Best wishes to you and yours for a Happy Thanksgiving and/or a Splendid November 27!

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As Autumn Ambles Along

Posted on November 9, 2014 by sixstrstories

Out back, the dogwood, oak and birches have long since surrendered.

But as of this morning, the maple in my front yard is still a contender.

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This Historic Day In Music: Guy Clark

Posted on November 6, 2014 by sixstrstories

Guy Clark was born today, November 6, in the year 1941 in Monihans, Texas.

Guy Clark is a songwriter, singer, guitarist, performer, recording artist and a luthier.

His first album, Old No. 1 came out in 1975. Thirty-eight years later, in July, 2013, Guy released his 15th album, My Favorite Picture Of You. On January 26, 2014, at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, My Favorite Picture Of You was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album of 2013.

On November 6, 2010, I published my first post about Guy Clark. I thought this old one was worth playing again. And this time, it has a Guy Clark song in it for your listening pleasure.

In September, 1995, author Joyce Maynard published her new novel, Where Love Goes, with something extra: a CD. The hardcover first edition of the book came with a 19-track mix CD of Maynard’s favorite songs from the albums and artists she’d listened to and been inspired by as she wrote the book.

Seeing as my wife was a big fan of Joyce Maynard, I purchased a copy as a Christmas present for her. In January, I made a cassette tape copy of the CD, editing out the two or three songs that were too “Country” for my wife’s tastes, and that collection got pretty regular airplay around the house and in the car right on through the whole rest of the year.

One song in particular became a favorite of mine: “Baby Took A Limo To Memphis.”

The song was by Guy Clark.

 

In October, 1997, Acoustic Guitar magazine had a feature article about Guy Clark that included a rave review of his newest CD: Keepers – A Live Recording. Writer John Herndon starts the article by saying: “Guy Clark is one of the very few songwriters for whom the term poet should be reserved.” He ends the article like this: “For Guy Clark, the simple folk song is an art form every bit as moving and significant as any of the great works of Western civilization.”

Keepers was the very next CD I purchased. It was, and is, an album full of wondrous songs.

On March 28, 2003, my friend, Jim, and I went into Boston for a concert at the Orpheum Theatre. It was billed as “An Evening with Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, Guy Clark and Joe Ely.” It consisted of over two hours of the four singer/songwriter/guitarists sitting in a row of chairs across the stage, taking turns singing songs and spinning stories. Spellbinding, to say the least. But all throughout the show, Lyle, John and Joe paid their respects to the man who sat at the right hand end of the row: Guy Clark.

One of the songs Guy Clark played that night was called “Stuff That Works” and I was so taken buy it, that the next day I was on the computer, searching out what CD of his it was on. Before too long Dublin Blues (1995) was spinning in my player, amazing my ears and I was adding “Stuff That Works” to my performing repertoire.

Over the following years, my Guy Clark CD collection continued to grow: Cold Dog Soup (1999); The Dark (2002); The Essential Guy Clark (1997); and Somedays The Song Writes You (2009). From album to album, track to track, Guy’s songs are never less than great and some are absolutely devastating.

In August, 2009, my wife and I saw Guy Clark, with his dear friend, singer/songwriter/guitarist Verlon Thompson, perform at that summer’s version of the Newport (RI) Folk Festival.

At first on that Sunday afternoon, it seemed that Guy was not having the best of days. He had great difficulty climbing the short staircase up to the stage and as he stood, awaiting his introduction, he appeared to be in pain. At one point during the show, he even ackowledged his discomfort saying that he was dealing with “an old songwriting injury.”

But for nearly an hour he played his guitar and sang his songs. His words and music and stories filled the tent and long, warm, loving applause rolled up to embrace and support him song after gorgeous song. Among his last numbers, he performed “Stuff That Works” and “Dublin Blues.” 

At the beginning of that set, Guy Clark spoke the best lines I heard from a performer all weekend. He looked across the packed Fort Stage area and said: “We have come here today to sing you some songs we’ve written. Some we know. We don’t use a set list. We just kind of wing this and, ah, we have no agenda, we have no clue, but we have no fear.”

If you’ve never heard any of Guy Clark’s music, I recommend the CD Dublin Blues as the best place to start with Cold Dog Soup, Keepers and My Favorite Picture Of You as very close seconds.

Happy Birthday, Guy. All the best.

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Quotations Marked 4

Posted on November 2, 2014 by sixstrstories

“The real musician is not the one who can knock your eyeballs out with fast, difficult runs. A real musician can make the simple songs vibrate and sparkle with the life that is within them.”

That quote has been posted on the door of my teaching studio for some time now.

I found it on page 9 of my copy of the 1964 Oak Publication: The Folksinger’s Guide To The 12-String Guitar As Played By Leadbelly: An Instruction Manual” by Julius Lester & Pete Seeger.

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Page 9 is where Julius & Pete introduce the first song in the manual: “Skip To My Lou.”

As simple as a Folk song can be, there aren’t many that are simpler – or as much fun to play and sing – than this play-party song from America’s frontier days. A guitar player needs to only know two chords and a bit of basic strumming technique to provide a perfectly acceptable accompaniment and even the most melodically-challenged singer can easily master the catchy tune that both the chorus and verses are set to.

“Lost my partner, what’ll I do?

Lost my partner, what’ll I do?

Lost my partner, what’ll I do?

Skip to my lou, my darling.”

See what I mean?

(At one time, by the way, the word lou meant “sweetheart.” It was derived from loo, a Scottish term meaning “love.”)

So if even a musical novice can manage to pull off an adequate rendition of “Skip To My Lou,” what do you get when a “real musician” takes on this little number?

Vibrations and sparkles, of course. Vibrations and sparkles.

Hear for yourself.

 

That was recorded in New York City in July, 1941 for Asch Records. “Skip To My Lou” was first released as one of six songs on a set of three 78 rpm discs. This “album” was called Play Parties in Song and Dance as Sung by Lead Belly. Lead Belly accompanies his vocals on that recording with his 12-string acoustic guitar.

The song “Skip To My Lou” has its roots in the American West of the mid-19th century. According to the liner notes by Jeff Place and Guy Logsdon from Pete Seeger’s American Favorite Ballads – Volume 1 CD (Smithsonian/Folkways, 2002), the main source of entertainment for young and old alike in those days out on the frontier was something called the “play-party.”  Clapping and singing along to “Skip To My Lou” and other songs provided the “musical fun and frolic” in puritanical communities “where dancing was a sin” and “the fiddle, other musical instruments, and the dance caller were forbidden.”

Here’s Pete Seeger’s version of “Skip To My Lou” from that Smithsonian/Folkways collection. Pete cut this track in 1957 for the original American Favorite Ballads series on Folkways Records. He accompanies his vocals on this recording with his long-neck, 5-string banjo.

 

Clearly, to again quote Mr. Place and Dr. Logsdon, “Pete’s banjo accompaniment would not have been acceptable at a frontier play-party.”

There you go: Pete Seeger, Lead Belly, two versions of “Skip To My Lou,” a little American history and, in this post’s featured quote, the truth.

Say it again.

“The real musician is not the one who can knock your eyeballs out with fast, difficult runs. A real musician can make the simple songs vibrate and sparkle with the life that is within them.”   

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