Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Old-Time Ballads From the Southern Mountains
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Martin Bogan and Armstrongs - Barnyard Dance (1972)
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.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Paul Clayton - Wanted for Murder
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.
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:
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