Jimmy "Driftwood" Morris

I came across the Max Hunter Folk Song Collection when I noticed Gadaya included some songs from the archive for compilations on his Old Weird America site. Max Hunter was a traveling salesman from Springfield, Missouri who took a reel-to-reel recorder through yonder Ozarks between 1956-1976. He came across many great folk artists along the way, but one in particular caught my attention while browsing. On this site I found Driftwood Morris, but at the time I did not realize that it was the same Driftwood Morris that wrote Tennessee Stud and the Battle of New Orleans. This was mainly due to the fact that on the first track he was playing what I'm sure is a mountain dulcimer and sounds like he hasn't left his home in years by the way he tell his stories. Also he is only accompanied by his own instrumentals without a back-up band which I have been used to hearing him play with in the past. Anyways, I would highly recommend checking this out. My personal favorite is the last one listed called My Name is Dan Martin. Just scroll down on the webpage to his name.

http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/indexsinger.aspx?Letter=J

Dave Van Ronk - Ragtime Jug Stompers 1964

This is one of my favorite Van Ronk albums cause theres a ton of mandolin in it. Conveniently someone uploaded this one as well. Let me know if the link dies and I will upload it myself.

Track List:

1. Everybody Loves My Baby
2. Stealin'
3. Take It Slow And Easy
4. St. Louis Tickle
5. Sister Kate
6. Moritat
7. Diggin' My Potatoes
8. Temptation Rag
9. Shake That Thing
10. K. C. Moan
11. Georgia Camp Meeting
12. You're A Viper

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Dave Van Ronk - Songs for Ageing Children 1973

I was going to upload this one but noticed that there is already a blog with a link to download it.

Track List:

1. Duncan and Brady
2. As You Make Your Bed
3. Teddy Bear's Picnic
4. Song For Joni
5. Work With Me Annie
6. River
7. My Little Grass Shack (in Kealakekua, Hawaii)
8. Sail Away
9. Candy Man
10. Last Call

VINYL FATIGUE

Dave Van Ronk - Van Ronk 1971

Track Listing:

Side 1:

1. Bird On The Wire

2. Fox's Minstrel Show

3. Port Of Amsterdam

4. Fat Old John

5. Urge For Going

Side 2:

6. Random Canyon

7. I Think It's Going To Rain Today

8. Gaslight Rag

9. Honey Hair

10. Legend Of The Dead Soldier

11. Ac-Cent-tchu-Ate The Positive

Dave Van Ronk, the Mayor of MacDougal Street, was a key figure in the New York folk scene known as Greenwich Village. He was one of the first to join the scene. He started out as a session jazz musician but once he decided that this scene was dead he found a new home in the folk revival. He was mainly known as a ragtime and blues guitarist, but was not limited to these styles. In his memoir "The Mayor of MacDougal Street" he talks about how, at first when he heard fingerpicking guitar, he thought that there were two people playing at the same time. It was not until he was walking through Washington Square Park where he spotted a man fingerpicking his guitar that he realized what was really going on. He then feverishly learned and even spoke of Tom Paley showing him some fundamentals of the style. Along with Robert Zimmerman, other Greenwich Village contemporaries included the Holy Modal Rounders (two of the tracks on this album are Stampfel covers), Joni Mitchell (covered one track on this album), members of the New Lost City Ramblers, Karen Dalton (Light in The Attic Records just re-released some of her material), Paul Clayton, and I'm sure that I am missing several others. When he died in 2002 Dave Van Ronk left this world, but also left his legacy, influencing countless musicians and likely many more to come.

There were no liner notes is the copy I purchased, but there was a picture with this printed on the back:

IN CONDITIONAL SUPPORT OF BEAUTY

Abstract an object from a process on the run

A poem, a play

The turn your back upon it when the damn thin's done

And walk away

To seize a second's beauty and to understand

And let it go

Perhaps you could have held it always in your hand

You'll never know

We either hold a momentand then let it slip

Or we try

To keep a pleasing thing forever in our grip

And watch it die

Now cover up perfection's grave and quickened lime

Or is it better

To grouse among cinders of another time

And call them forever

A poem means just what it says-sometimes it's a bluff

Sometimes it's true

But good bad or indifferent I have said enough

What else is new?

DAVE VAN RONK - Obscure Music, Inc.

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Paul Clayton - Timber-r-r!

Track Listing

Side 1: Side 2:

1. Lumberman's Alphabet 8. Canaday

2. Jerry's Rock 9. Jack Haggerty

3. Little Brown Bull 10. Rackets Around Blue

4. Harry Dunn Mountain Lake
5. James Whalen 11. Backwoodsman
6. Wild Mustard River 12. Lost Jimmie
7. Banks of the Little Eau Plaine 13. Peter Emberly
14. Harry Bale
15. Jolly Shantyboys

Special thanks to Drew Christie who hosts the Democracy for the Cartoons blog. He found this album at a record store we went to in Astoria, Oregon called Mallternative. He and I were out there for a festival called Batwater that included the amazing Michael Hurley and also the talented Freak Mountain Ramblers. I did not get a chance to go this year because I moved to Alaska this summer. Drew is currently working with some people on animation parts for a documentary or Snockumentary if you will, which I believe will be entitled something like Doc Snock and the Land of Lo-Fi. I have a good feeling it should be awesome and I can't wait for it to come out.

The album itself is really good, but there is some surface noise. I still feel it is enjoyable and it kind of gives it a rustic feel, so I would still recommend downloading it.

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Old-Time Ballads From the Southern Mountains

Hello once again. I do not have the liner notes or track listing for this particular album. However, I personally enjoy it... so i thought I'd share anyhow. A couple of the tracks sound scratchy, but for the most part the quality is good. Whelps enjoy. 

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Martin Bogan and Armstrongs - Barnyard Dance (1972)

Track List

Side One: Side Two:

Lady be Good French Blues

Carl's Blues Mean Mistreatin' Mama

Corrina, Corrina Old Man Mose

Barnyard Dance Alice Blue Gown

Cacklin' Hen Knox County Stomp

Sweet Georgia Brown

Carl Martin-Mandolin

Ted Bogan-Guitar

Howard Armstrong-Violin

L.C. Armstrong-Bass

I found out about Howard Armstrong from an instructional blues mandolin DVD taught by Steve James . My interest was further piqued when I purchased a blues mandolin book written by Rich DelGrosso. I next found a movie soundtrack from a Terry Zwigoff documentary featuring Howard Armstrong and Ted Bogan. The movie itself was up on Youtube for a while, but Zwigoff had it taken down. I was lucky enough to obtain a copy of the movie myself. If you would like information on where to find it shoot me out an email. It is thoroughly entertaining and I'd say inspiring as well.

I found this particular album at the library and could not find anywhere to purchase it online, so i transferred it to MP3 format. I know that Rounder Records has the rights to it, but I do not believe that it is still in print. Sooo... Enjoy at least for now.

If you end up liking this album, another really good one is an album Carl Martin did called Crow Jane Blues. You can download this album at Muddy Sava Riverbank. Link

Liner Notes:

Carl Martin, Ted Bogan and Howard Armstrong, the core members of the Four Keys which originated in Huntington, West Virginia in 1931, played all throughout the Southeast and North for radio broadcasts, square dances, churches, picnics, weddings, and taverns. They played the tunes most often requested, including many popular songs of the '20s and '30s, the blues and old-timey fiddle tunes. Either the fiddle or mandolin would take the lead, while the other would play around the melody. The guitar would play backup rhythm while the bass was usually bowed.

Carl Martin was born April 15, 1906, in Big Stone Gap in the coal-mining region of virginia, one of 13 children. His father was a stone mason who played the violin, and was known as Fiddling Martin. Carl took up guitar at an early age, and recalls the first tune he played was John Henry. At 17 he moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he first met his brother Rolan, some 30 years older than Carl. Rolan had lost his sight to glaucoma while working as a barber, and by the time Carl met him he had taken up fiddle and formed a string band. Carl played guitar and bowed bass with Rolan's band, and although Carl didn't take up the violin until several years later, Rolan's fiddling had a strong influence on him: fiddle tunes like Sourwood Mountain, Downfall of Paris, Cumberland Gap, Cacklin' Hen; blues tunes like Hesitation Blues, Railroad BLues, St. Louis Blues and Wang Dang Blues.

While playing with Rolan's Band, Carl met Howard Armstrong who was 14 at the time and played mandolin, violin and guitar. Carl and Howard broadcast over WNOX in Knoxville for awhile, and then went on the road with an herb medicine show. On returning to knoxville they met Ted Bogan, formed a group and went to Bristol, Virginia, where they broadcast over WOPI. The radio station featured live broadcasts with a studio audience and phoned-in requests. The request they most often received was Nobody Know when You're Down and Out. After playing Bristol several months, they played many towns in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia before forming the Four Keys.

TedBogan was born May 10, 1910, in Spartenberg, South Carolina. He learned to finger pick guitar and picked up techniques listening to Blind Blake and Leroy Carr records. HE played in a medicine show run by a Canadian who called himself Dr. Mines. Besides Musicians, the show hired comedians, including Bozo Brown, Ham Bone and Leroy. Two of the dances popular then were Bucking Wing and the Possum Walk. After playing the medicine show several months, Ted started broadcasting over WSPC in Spartenberg.

When Ted moved to Knoxville where he met Carl and started playing with a group, he took up flatpicking the guitar. He developed a stye using chords he called octahaves, with the first and sixth strings the basic notes of the chord. He makes use of minor ninths to elaborate on the chord structure of his songs. and example on this album is Lady Be Good:

G, /, Dm9, G, Cm9, ///, G, /////, F#m9, /

Dm9, ///////, G, /, Em, /, Am, /, D7, /

G, Dm9, G, Cm9, ///, G, /////, F#m9,/

Dm9, ///////, G, /, C, Cm, G, / G7, /

C, ///, Gdim, ///, G, /////, Gaug, /

Em6, ///, A7,///, Dm9, ///////

G, /, Dm9, G, Cm9, ///, G, /////, Ddim, /

Dm9, /////, D7, /, G, ///////

Howard Armstrong was born in Lafayette, Tennessee, and began playing violin at an early age. Howard recalls his mother insisting he play hymns and spirituals, soft and slow, but when she left the house he'd pick up the tempo and add a few blue notes until he got it to where it was sounding really good. He showed an interest in all musical instruments, and could play anything that had string on it. He also learned fiddle tunes from Rolan Martin, such as Cacklin' Hen on this album, and to this day one of the best compliment he could receive when he gets the fiddle singing is that he "sounds like old Rolan on the fiddle.

Howard took to music and went on the road at 16. He's self-educated and speaks some seven different languages, including Mandarin Chinese.

Also and artist, he has contributed the front cover of this album.

L.C. Armstrong, Howard's Brother, was born in Lafayette, Tennessee, and plays guitar and bass. He has played popular music and jazz with several bands, and for many years was the leader of his own highly successful jazz group which broke up only a few years ago. L.C. still plays whenever he gets the chance. He currently lives in Detroit, Michigan.