Paul Clayton was an American folksinger and folksong collector, notable for being part of the Greenich Village folk scene in the '50's until his death in 1967.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Tom Paley - Sue Cow 1969
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Roger Welsch - Postcards From Nebraska- March 8, 1976
I am assuming that the interview I transferred is called Postcards From Nebraska. I became interested in him when my buddy Drew who does the Democracy for the Cartoons blog did a radio show and included one of his songs in it. Below is the Wikipedia post on him. below that is a biographical page link. As with the Utah Phillips Interview, this is not music, but an interview. I thought it was interesting, so I decided to post it. You can download his album "Sweet Nebraska Land" at the Smithsonian Folkways website.
Roger Welsch (born November 6, 1936) is a senior correspondent on the CBS News Sunday morning program, and was featured in a segment called "Postcards from Nebraska". An author, humorist and folklorist, Welsch was born in Lincoln Nebraska, and today lives outside of Dannebrog, Nebraska. Welsch was the 2005 winner of the Henry Fonda Award, from the State of Nebraska Travel and Tourism Division.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Folk and Country Songs of the FDR Years
This album consists of performers Roy Berkeley and Tim Woodbridge.
I'm not trying to plagiarize, but I do not know the original source of this bio Berkeley, but felt I should include it:
Roy Berkeley was involved in the 50's and 60's New York folk scene along with the likes of performers such as Dave Van Ronk and the NewLost City Ramblers (NLCR). Roy Berkeley was a mainstay in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s New York City folk scene along with Dave Van Ronk, The New Lost City Ramblers and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and played flatpick country/folk guitar and sounded like a cross between
Jimmie Rodgers and Woody Guthrie. During these years, along with Van Ronk and others, he wrote a parody of the well known leftist songbook The People’s Songbook that he called The Bosses’ Songbook and Roy was also a political activist who moved from the Trotskyist movement (like Van Ronk he was anti-Stalinist) and later became deputy sheriff in his town of Shaftsbury, Vermont. Unfortunately, Berkeley passed away this last May, but left an indelible mark in the history of the folk movement of the world.
As far as i could tell, he recorded two albums with Woodbridge for two different labels; Longview and Green Linnet. Both seem to be out of print.
In addition to recording this album, Berkeley combined efforts with Artie Rose and NLCR's Tom Paley in the formation of the Old Reliable String Band (Available on Smithsonian Folkways). A side note to this being that Tom Paley left NLCR because he did not wish to perform as frequently as John Cohen and Mike Seeger intended to. The liner notes are free on the Folkways website and are worth looking into.
I couldn't find any images of the album cover or liner notes. I transferred this sometime last spring and neglected to do so then when i had the album. If anyone can help with this, it would be greatly appreciated. Anyways, here is a download link:
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Bruce "Utah" Phillips
This may not exactly be old-time but it's Utah Phillips so it's in the old folk-tale/songster tradition. This is a radio Interview done in Spokane on the KXBX-FM radio station. I am not sure exactly what year it took place, but it is on cassette so it's fairly old I'm assuming. Here are the notes that came with the audio cassette:
Bruce "Utah" Phillips tells his own story best:
"I am six-foot-two, well preserved, have a steady gaze, firm hand, and very regular teeth. Our family moved from Cleveland, Ohio, in 1947 and settled in Utah where I lived till late 1969. Briefly, I have washed dishes in Yellowstone, worked building a hospital on the Navajo Reservation, been to Korea and back, tramped and boomed the western freights, worked as a printer, warehouseman and archivist, assisted in the management of a house for migrants and bums, done a stretch as a neighborhood organizer, joined the Industrial Workers of the World and, in 1968, I ran either for or from the U.S. Senate on the Peace and Freedom ticket.
I won.
". . . After the political campaign [Utah] became very different to live in. So I took me and several thousand songs I didn't make up and a hundred or so that I did and went East to see if I couldn't make enough money to stay alive and pay off some old debts."
"I don't really have a great voice . . . Mostly I guess my voice sounds like the places I've been and the people I've stayed with. I sing songs about trains, coal mines, Unions, factories, working people, lazy people, the old and new West, bums, politicians, and the different things that happen to you when you're in love. And I tell stories and try to get people laughing and singing together. You know, most of the songs I sing really belong to those people -- they just don't know it yet. That's what I do."
Bibliography
Book
Starlight on the Road, Wooden Shoe Press.
Records
Good, Though, Philo no. 1004
El Capitan, Philo no. 1016
All Used Up, Philo no. 1050
We Have Fed You All for a Thousand Years, Oral Tradition, Vancouver, B.C.
Silly Songs and Modern Lullabies, Sierra Records
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