jimmie blue yodel #3

“Blue Yodel #3 (Evening Sun)” by Jimmie Rodgers

My friend also told me that he had watched a television documentary about yodeling (you can find anything on cable these days) and it made absolutely no mention of country yodeling. Rodgers’ singing style, of course, was one of the most influential to come out of the depression era, and you can hear it in generations of performers since, from later legends like Lefty Frizell (who did a tribute album in 1951) and Merle Haggard (whose tribute album came out a couple decades later) to the Cactus Blossoms’ Page Burkum, who can yodel awfully fine himself, although he doesn’t do it very often.

There are, unfortunately, no yodels on the Cactus Blossoms’ first album (hear it here). Maybe there will be on their next album. The song I’d like to hear them play would be “My Lovin’ Gal Lucille” (ie “Blue Yodel #2). Here’s a recording from the 30s by the Rhythm Wreckers.

blue yodel #2 (lucille)

“Blue Yodel #2 (My Lovin Gal Lucille)” by the Rhythm Wreckers

Jimmie Rodgers’ “Blue Yodels” are a national treasure, as much a part of our cultural heritage as the bullshit they made you memorize in junior high school about minutemen or the Boston tea party. Jimmie Rodgers is high culture now, in one of the most ironic of ironic transformations.

What could possibly be more ridiculous than hipsters looking for Jimmie Rodgers records…
Maybe this…

George Barnes is credited with the first recorded performance on the electric guitar, playing the new instrument on two tracks by Big Bill Broonzy. His performance predated Eddie Durham’s recording with Count Basie’s Kansas City Five by fifteen days – a stupid distinction because Durham’s recording is so much more interesting. In fact, the very best of the early innovators in the history of the electric guitar were jazz musicians, most of all Charlie Christian who was first recorded six years later.

wholly cats

(“Wholly Cats” by the Benny Goodman Sextet)

Amplification shifted the guitarist from the rhythm section to the forefront of the jazz ensemble, but Charlie Christian’s few recordings are remarkable because he was already ahead of the new fold, preforming a primordial bebop on the guitar before the horns had even imagined it.

Charlie Christian, taken by tuberculosis at the age of twenty-five, finally got his due in the early 70s when Columbia compiled his best solos into a double disc set called Solo Flight: The Genius of Charlie Christian. The set exemplified all the best of 70s archival LP releases – great sound, great selections, great notes. It also highlighted a previously overlooked innovator in the short-lived Christian, who was taken by tuberculosis at the age of 25 in 1941.

Representing Christian’s contribution to the development of the electric guitar are “Wholly Cats” from a 1940 Benny Goodman session that also featured Count Basie on piano (up above) and a roarin’ take on “I Got Rhythm”, which Charlie Christian recorded with a quintet here in Minneapolis in 1940:

i got rhythm

(“I Got Rhythm” by the Charlie Christian Quintet)

Electric Sitar

Dozens of bands – from Yes and Genesis to the Clash and Van Halen – have used an electric sitar for color and effect. The instrument is actually closer to a guitar than a sitar, being built and fretted in a way familiar to guitarists. Most still have a “buzz bridge” to help recreate the sitar’s distinctive sound, and many also retain the sitar’s “sympathetic strings” although the electric sitar does not generate enough resonance to create the rich sound “sympathetic strings” add to a traditional sitar’s tableau.

dont you try to be my baby moonquake

(“Don’t You Try to be my Baby” by Moonquake)

Joe South played an electric sitar on “Games People Play”. He is one of the most underrated innovators of his era, and we’ve already written about his awesome-ness before (click here to read it) – so I chose a track by the short-lived prog group Moonquake instead. The electric sitar is played by Havaness Hagopian,

Electric Saxophone

listen here

(“Listen Here” by Eddie Harris)

Eddie Harris is heard here performing on the Veritone, an electronically amplified saxophone introduced by Selmer in 1965. Controls put a variety of effects at the performers fingertips, including an echo, tone control and – significant in this recording – an octave divider.

Harris reworked “Listen Here” several times in the several years that followed the success of The Electrifying Eddie Harris – My favorite record by Eddie Harris, The Reason I’m Talking Shit, features some great work on the instrument (sampled by De La Soul in “I Be Blowin’” years later – although most of the album is actually Eddie Harris talking shit).

Electric Cello

The Twin Cities own Aaron Kerr (the Sleeper Pins, the Swallows, JazZen) performs as often on the electric cello as on acoustic instruments, and often in unique settings.

His instrumental collaboration with the Swallows, Dissonant Creatures, captures the surprisingly big sound that comes from the small instrument.

05 Track 05

(“Doctor Phibes” by Aaron Kerr and Swallows)

Electric Violin

It’s not really fair to everyone else to end with a track from this album – Violinski’s first album was distinguished on the cover for it’s inclusion of ELO’s Mik Kaminski, but it’s not really as awesome as an ELO album. Here is the title track, “No Cause for Alarm” – Kaminski is featured on the Barcus-Berry electric violin, which I think was actually blue.

no cause for alarm

i love onions

“I Love Onions” by Susan Christie

i love tortillas

“I Love Tortillas” by La Banda de Ray Camacho

banana what a crazy fruit

“Banana, What a Crazy Fruit” by Rusty Canyon

baking soda

“Baking Soda” by John Hartford

a cup of coffee, a sandwich and you

“A Cup of Coffee, a Sandwich and You” by Vera Gilaroff

Of course, the name suggests the music on Smith’s legendary collection of 78s from the 1920s (primarily) through the early 1940s is dead and forgotten. This was surely the case when the first three volumes were issued by Folkways Records in 1952, but less so today – American roots music is enjoying a healthy renaissance in recent years, and the Twin Cities has been more than welcoming to the trend. Many songs from the period, on and off the Anthology, have been adopted by local artists, and as Corpse Reviver proves, they have a robust relevance still today.

So this awesome trio with ties to so many other other local favorites of ours – including Steve Kaul’s Brass Kings, Pert Near Sandstone, Charlie Parr, the Brian Just Band and the Blackberry Brandy Boys, to name a few – has been folk, blues and country tunes off the Anthology for a while now, and just finished recording an album at Underwood Studio this spring.

They played a set at Trampled by Turtles’ anniversary extravaganza at First Avenue a couple weeks ago, and brought with them a limited, numbered edition (of only twenty-five!) of their not-yet released album, Volume 1: I’ll be Rested When the Roll is Called. You can hear the entire record on their bandcamp page here or by using the handy player below. They are planning a full release of the album for this summer, or perhaps the fall if they decide to press LPs (yes, contact ‘em through that Bandcamp page and tell ‘em you’d buy an album!).

Mikkel Beckmen was kind enough to bring a couple copies of the disc to the shop, where it has taken up a residency in our CD player. We thought a fun way to introduce the album would be to present it above, and then collect the ten original recordings from the Folkways compilations below.

What is the Anthology of American Folk Music?

The Anthology of American Folk Music is a 1952 compilation album (actually a series of three double LP sets) culled from an incredible stash of shellac collected by Harry Smith. The eighty-four songs split over its six records had been commercially released on 78 rpm discs between 1927 and 1932, but were for all intents lost to the listeners even just two decades later. The range was chosen because it captures music created between the dawn of electronic recording and the substantial dip in country, folk and blues recordings that is caused by the Depression.

Smith is variously described as a Bohemian, an experimental filmmaker, an ethno-musicologist, and an eccentric (and he was all of these things), but his great contribution to the ages was as the coolest record nerd of his generation. Smith amassed blues, folk and country 78s at a time when they were considered worthless relics. Fortunately Folkways founder Moses Asche shared his feeling, and the label issued what is essentially the first and most awesome mixtape anybody ever made. The three sets were originally issued with identical covers – a sixteenth century engraving by Theodore de Bry – but have also appeared with other covers and packaging. Our own collection is on CD and has long since lost it’s original packaging, so all that is left is a series of plain-looking double disc sets.

Original lps are fairly rare these days but the liner notes alone are worth the price of admission – Smith cut and pasted together his elaborate, idiosyncratic notes in a manner equal parts post-modern art and high school fanzine. His synopses for each track are thorough, insightful and witty. In all our years of collecting records we’ve found few examples of better, more compelling liner notes than Smith’s.

The Anthology is credited as the single strongest catalyst of the folk revival that began in the early 60s, making its release a watershed moment in the history of traditional American music. Many musicians who had long ago laid aside their guitars and banjos were re-discovered by enthusiasts after their recordings were heard on the Anthology, most famously Mississippi John Hurt, who’s 1928 recording of “Frankie” was included. Collectors found a 78 of his recording of “Avalon” shortly thereafter, and using its lyric “Avalon, my home town” tracked Hurt down, then give or take seventy years old, near Avalon, Mississippi. He recorded and toured for the remaining three years of his life.

Many musicians were inspired to launch their folk and blues careers by the music on the Anthology, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Dave van Ronk and others from the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early 60s. The music enjoyed an additional revival in the 90s when alt-country bands began to cover the songs – and others from the same time period. One of our favorite bands from that time is Uncle Tupelo, whose recording of “No Depression” by the Carter Family, led that song title to become a sort-lived buzzword for their genre and a healthy antidote to the woeful doom n’ gloom of grunge rock.

A fourth volume of the Anthology was created in collaboration with the Harry Smith Archive in 2000, nine years after his death. It included music from a later period (records from as late as 1940) but followed the original collections’ unique system of organization. Each volume had a distinct theme – the first three were Ballads, Social Music and Songs (usually about everyday subjects). Volume 4 took the theme Labor Songs. It also followed Smith’s correlation of each volume with a classic alchemical element – water, air, fire and earth (volume 4 correlating to earth). Many songs on the fourth volume had already become revived favorites, and others have since. Volume 4 is currently out of print, which is sort of ironic when you think about it.

Corpse Reviver Volume 1: I’ll be Rested When the Roll is Called

For your listening pleasure we have sequenced the ten songs selected by Corpse Reviver in their original form below. The intention isn’t to compare them, but to provide a context and for those unfamiliar with the Anthology of American Folk Music an introduction.

Corpse Reviver have created exciting and new interpretations of each. Adam Kiesling and Jillian Rae perform the topical songs from the fourth volume with humor and warmth, and the ballads are approached with characteristic drive and fervor. Kiesling’s playing throughout is subtle and evocative, just as it had been on his solo album, Unclouded Day, one of our picks for the top 10 albums of 2012. Jillian Rae steals the show in several numbers, including compelling solos in  “John Johanna” and “East Virginia.” Our favorite track on the album is “Wagoner’s Lad” in which Kiesling’s clean and sparse banjo picking is matched by Rae’s rich and soulful voice, a perfect combination made all the better by Mikkel Beckmen’s hypnotic rhythm.

Beckmen originally conceived the project, and in tracks like “Wagoner’s Lad” his contribution is quiet but essential. At times his percussion sounds almost like a drum machine, having been expertly recorded and mixed by engineer Mark Stockert. At other times Beckmen strums and picks his washboard with the energy we’ve come to expect from his work with Steve Kaul’s Brass Kings and Charlie Parr. Throughout, I’ll be Rested When the Roll is Called, is one of the most enjoyable percussive albums we’ve heard in a long time.

These original recordings are from our CDs and LPs of the Anthology of American Folk Music. Most are from 1928 to 1932, but a few were recorded a little later. Several may be familiar to you, or contain lines or melodies you recognize from other sources. We hope you enjoy them, as well as the new recordings by Corpse Reviver.

how can

“How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live” by Blind Alfred Reed

Old Shoes & Leggins

“Old Shoes and Leggins” by Uncle Eck Dunford

The Wagoner’s Lad

“The Wagoner’s Lad” by Buell Kazee

My Name Is John Johanna

“My Name is John Johanna” by Kelly Harrell

Drunkard’s Special

“Drunkard’s Special” by Coley Jones

no depression

“No Depression in Heaven” by the Carter Family

Country Blues

“Country Blues” by Dock Boggs

East Virginia

“East Virginia” by Buell Kazee

2-11 Down On Penny’s Farm

“Down on Penny’s Farm” by The Bently Boys

i’ll be rested

“I’ll be Rested when the Roll is Called” by Blind Roosevelt Graves and Brother

youre just a female hound dog

“You’re Just a Female Hound Dog” by Charlie Gore and Louis Innis

Answer songs (or reply songs) are the most common form of sequel songs, and usually take the form of a silly rephrasing to a popular hit. ) Sequel songs parts 1 and 2 feature several such examples (here and here) but most are rhythm and blues tracks. Today we have a couple classic country answer songs.

Charlie Gore’s rockabilly reply to “Hound Dog” is a gem, especially for Louis Innis’ fine guitar pickin’. Innis was a member of Hank Penny’s Radio Cowboys, but mostly played bass in that group (backing accomplished guitarists Noel Boggs and Merle Travis on “Steel Guitar Rag,” and also playing on the band’s classic “Bloodshot Eyes”).

Rudy Hansen was a rockabilly singer from Cincinnati best remembered for his rare, self-released single “Saturday Jump” (you can hear it here). As Rockin’ Rudy Hansen he also recorded a hillbilly novelty for X Record called “The Mambo Queen.” In the 1950s he was a regular performer on WLW’s Midwestern Hayride, a radio program (and by Hansen’s era a nationally-broadcasted television program) that was a “hayseed humor” precursor to Hee Haw.

He recorded “Don’t Think I’ll Fall to Pieces” for Decca Records, the same label that issued Patsy Cline’s #1 country hit and crossover breakthrough. We couldn’t find any information about the recording of Hansen’s answer song, but it seems possible it was recorded in the same studio and with some of the same musicians as Patsy Cline’s original song. It is certainly the most polished recording of Rudy Hansen, sort of a regional rockabilly superstar,  we’ve heard.

don’t think i’ll fall to pieces

“Don’t Think I’ll Fall to Pieces” by Rudy Hansen

And last today we have the original and the re-make of a jazz classic, “Killer Joe.” Saxophonist Benny Golson is one of a couple jazz artists captured in Art Kane’s legendary 1958 photograph taken on the steps of a brownstone in Harlem who is still alive (click here if you’re not sure what we’re talking about). Although he spent several key years working outside of jazz as a film and television composer, Golson was in the late 50s and early 60s very successful and influential with a group he co-led with trumpeter Art Farmer, the Jazztet.

Golson introduced listeners to Killer Joe on the Jazztet’s first album in 1962.

killer joe

“Killer Joe”

Golson re-visited his famous scamp in the title track to his second album after coming back to jazz. The ensuing fifteen years had brought many fashion changes, but at heart Killer Joe was still the same.

the new killer joe

“The New Killer Joe”

“Built for Comfort” by Howlin’ Wolf (written by Willie Dixon)

04 fat man

“Fat Man” by Jethro Tull

fat lady

“Fat Lady” by the Spidels

big fat woman

“Big Fat Woman” by Bobby Freeman

put some meat on them bones

“Put Some Meat on them Bones” by Jimmy Murphy

05 i dont want no skinny woman

“I Don’t Want no Skinny Woman” by Blind Boy Fuller

03 happy being fat

“Happy Being Fat” by Big Dee Irwin

1 – “I Lost on Jeopardy”

Nobody remembers “Jeopardy” (when I was seven years old, ie “Weird” Al’s target demographic, I didn’t even know this was a parody of a pop song) because the thing that make this In 3-D track interesting – a sense of narrative tension – are completely lacking in the original song. I actually feel bad for the guy who lost on Jeopardy, but I could care less about Greg Kihn’s broken heart. “Jeopardy” is a song that has fortunately fallen into the middle 80s ‘memory hole,’ being too bad for retro DJ nights like Transmission and too good for oldies radio.

jeopardfy

2 – “King of Suede”

Another song I couldn’t have identified as a parody when it was new in 1989. Just as I was the prime age for “Weird” Al fandom, I fell just outside the Police’s snare. They were too old (read: too “adult contemporary”) to be cool – consider the 1988 GQ cover photo of Sting at the left if you’re skeptical – and all the while not old enough to be as awesome as the American punk and new wave band they followed. Given the choice between Ramones heartbreakers like “The KKK Took my Baby Away” and Sting’s overwrought metaphorical seagulls with broken backs, I went with the former.

By the time the Police released Synchronicity there was more than enough hand-wringing on the radio – you’d think the Mayan apocalypse was actually due in 1992. What became lost were the genuine stories of everyday people, like for instance the tailor located next to Willie’s Fun Acrade, a second grade dropout who faces tough competition but has remained in business for more than thirty years. Was it his first choice to be the “King of Suede”? Hard to say. Is it a daily grind? Surely (“It’s the same old sale as yesterday”).

Look, I’m not a complete idiot. I recognize that “King of Pain” was Sting’s masterpiece, but its easy enough to make people cry over relenting tragedy. Just put a butterfly in a spider web and you’re halfway there. To find a little humor and grace in the everyday and ordinary, on the other hand, is a rare skill.

king of pain

“King of Suede”

3 – “Yoda”

The Kink’s power chord driven pub rock classic “Lola” is one of the oldest tracks parodied by “Weird” Al in his 80s albums, and his Star Wars story set to its melody languished unlicensed for years before its release on Dare to be Stupid in 1985.

“Lola” is a great song, but “Yoda” sits high in an entirely different oeuvre: the Star Wars lampoon. From Ernie Fosselius’ thirteen minute masterpiece, Hardware Wars in 1977, to the irrepressibly funny and endearing Robot Chicken Star Wars series, there are thousands of Star Wars parodies to delight fans.

The Kinks song, like a lot of their tracks, is so unrelentingly English an American teenager couldn’t make it a verse without missing something. You met her where? What kind of voice? It’s hard to remember most of the lyrics, even if the story is familiar – “Yoda” on the other hand, has such memorable lines as “I know Darth Vader’s really got you annoyed, but remember if you kill him you’ll be unemployed.”

Live performances of “Yoda” have evolved to include what fans call “The Yoda Chant”:

Weird Al Yankovic – Yoda

2 & 1 – “Stop Dragging my Car Around” and “She Drives Like Crazy”

“Weird” Al’s catalog has been reissued in a couple fun compilations – The Food Album and the TV Album – but never the car album, even though there’s a few classics. These two early tracks, one from his first album and one from the UHF soundtrack, are his best car/driving songs. Both are based on forgettable 80s pop songs. In fact, “She Drives Like Crazy” is a better pop song altogether than “She Drives me Crazy” by Fine Young Cannibals, a band whose albums pretty much never sell here at Hymie’s.

Prince famously refused “Weird” Al’s suggestions for a parody of “Let’s Go Crazy,” and ever suggestion since. It’s no surprise, since if he’d allowed the parody we’d probably have forgotten who wrote the original song in the first place.

stop dragging

she drives like crazy

Adam Keisling and Jillian Rae (2/3 of the awesome local trio, Corpse Reviver, who perform songs found on the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music) will play a set, along with Mother Banjo, whose last album, The Devil Hasn’t Won, includes all kinds of classic American gospel songs. The third guest set will be by another duo, Sherry Minnick & Jackson Buxton, old friends of the Pocahontas boys and exceptional interpreters of classic bluegrass and country. It’s going to be an awesome evening of traditional American gospel music, and Dave’s looking forward to spinning some of his favorite gospel records between sets.

It’s not that often you get to spin a lot of gospel records at a show (although Dave did just that during Charlie Parr’s two night stand at the Cedar at the beginning of February), but its the wellspring of all kinds of American pop music like rock and roll and soul music.

jesus is sweeter than honey

“Jesus is Sweeter than Honey” by Reverend Oris Mays

13 i’ll fly away

“I’ll Fly Away” by the Trumpeters

16 come see about me

“Come See About Me” by the Dixie Hummingbirds

01 strange man

“Strange Man” by Dorothy Love Coates

Theme Time Turf Club starts on Easter Sunday at 7pm. There will be a free CD of classic gospel records recorded from 45s and LPs like the ones you hear here (usually limited to ten or fifteen copies) and a whole night’s worth of awesome music. Hope to see you there!

Last year around this time we were with a friend when one of his songs was played on the radio for the first time (actually, only one of us was with him – the other one was at the radio station doing the playing). It was sort of a magical moment, like something out of a movie. It’s a shame the corporate structure of today’s airwaves makes something magical like that so extraordinarily rare.

radio radio

“Radio Radio” by Elvis Costello & the Attractions

can’t say crap on the radio

“You Can’t Say Crap on the Radio” by Stiff Little Fingers

capitol radio

“Capitol Radio” by the Clash

One of the most beloved K-Tel collections is 20 Great Truck Drivin’ Songs, which features classics like “Six Days on the Road” by Dave Dudley and “Juke Box Charlie” by Johnny Paycheck along side goofy truckin’ tracks. For instance:

truck drivin cat with nine wives

“Truck Driving Cat with Nine Wives” by Jim Nesbitt

truck drivin country music promoter

“Truck Drivin’ Country Music Promoter” by Lavon Lile

And that got us to thinking about the 70s truck drivin’ song, and some of the sillier examples.

giddy up go

“Giddy Up Go” by Red Sovine

the flying saucer man and the truck driver red simpson

“The Flying Saucer Man and the Truck Driver” by Red Simpson

who’s gonna run the truck stop

“Who’s Gonna Run the Truck Stop in Tuba City When I’m Gone” by Dolan Ellis

cb savage

“CB Savage” by Rod Hart

cb widow

“CB Widow” by Linda Casady