Spinning Tales:

"C'mon in. Let's Spin A Tale or Two!"

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:08:00 +0000

Human beings have made music and spun stories throughout our history on this planet. In many ways, these songs and stories tell us a lot about who we are, where we've been and where we are going.

Spinning Tales is a two hour weekly radio show that embraces both music--with an emphasis on archival early recordings and contemporary music performed in these traditional or "roots" styles--and stories ranging from the recordings of traditional storytellers to stories collected from local people.

In this day of multi-media presentations and multi-layered digital studio productions, we hope you'll enjoy this return to simpler fare; music often recorded live by a group of musicians gathered around a single microphone, stories shared over a cup of coffee with a neighbor.

The show is written and produced by Michael Pollitt, who hosts the show, broadcasting live from WMCB lp FM in downtown Greenfield, MA USA each week. Co-producer Lance Smith produces its website and YouTube channel and helps out with other production tasks. On occasion Michael gets lonely and drags Lance into the studio and puts a microphone in front of him. (Our research hasn't clarified whether this enhances or detracts from the show.)

Now that the show streams live (and is rebroadcast 3 times a week on the web), we've found that there is a keen interest in the roots of American music in Europe. So, in many ways producing this show has turned out to be a some sort of Star Trekky Space-Time Machine journey, taking us from the earliest days of the 20th century's fledgling recording industry through satellite internet feeds across the world in the 21st. Who could have imagined?

"C'mon in. Let's Spin A Tale or Two!"This Week

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 10:17:00 +0000

{Michael originally wrote this after attending the Lowell Folk Festival in 2009. For the next couple of weeks, he'll be sharing music from this year's festival.}

The Lowell Folk Festival has happened one weekend in the month of July annually for 23 years. And yes it happens each year in Lowell, Massachusetts, a mill town built on the Merrimack River to catch the river's current to power the making of cloth from cotton thread until that industry moved down south.

In the years after the Vietnam War, a large number of immigrants from Southeast Asia were settled in Lowell with government help. In a continuation of its history,
Lowell is a town that welcomes people from many places. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was Germans, Irish, Swedes, Lithuanians, Jews from Eastern Europe, French Canadians. Today it is Nigerians, Colombians, Filipinos, Laotians, Vietnamese, Cambodians. The list could go on and on. It is truly a melting pot. And as a result Lowell has experienced a re-awakening of its spirit, like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, to become a lively destination for arts, crafts and cultural activities.

So on a Friday evening, all day and evening Saturday, and Sunday till 6, usually on the last full weekend in July each year, Lowell thrives with people and music, master craftspeople and many different ethnic foods made by local citizens for the most part. The streets are alive with kids and families, visitors of all ages and backgrounds. And all against the backdrop of beautiful mill town brick. Oh and did I mention that this festival is free? It's actually the largest free folk festival in the U.S. And it moves with about a thousand volunteers.
And let me not forget to tell you about the composting program at the festival. Each of the food vendors supplies their hungry customers with plates, cups, knives and forks that are compostable. All this material is collected and composted and each year you can pick up a bag of the previous year's festival garbage now turned to earth. Cans and bottles etc. are also collected and recycled.

Over the years it seems to me it has become more and more of a world music (and world food) festival even though most of the performers (and cooks) live in the United States. And it is folk music in the sense of traditional music. The musicians (and dancers at times) perform from out of their own backgrounds, their ancestry, whether its Jewish, Senegaleze, Greek, French-Canadian, appalachian, Brazilian, Cambodian, Native American, Balkan, Armenian, Southern blues, tex-mex and on and on.
There are 6 stages set up on the streets and plazas around town and so for two and a half days there is a continual walking to and back between the stages and food courts to catch the different acts and eat the different foods. There is also lively dancing in several of the music locations. Shattuck is a street full of kids games and activities. There are cafes and restaurants with tables and music outside. Street musicians entertain passers-by. There are great museums and art galleries to visit. One of them not to be missed is the New England Quilt Museum with an astounding collection and special displays of older and contemporary quilts. This year they exhibited quilts discovered all over Massachusetts by the Massachusetts Documentation Project.

This year's Lowell Folk Festival, the 25th, will take place July 29-31, 2011.
For more information: Lowell Folk Festival

This Month on Spinning Tales

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 18:37:00 +0000

The American Musical Melting Pot:

The Unique Sounds of Norteño and Cajun Music!

After a couple of weeks of vacation and rebroadcast, with Mother Nature gliding into summer here in Western Massachusetts, Spinning Tales has left the Blues behind us and continues on with two other unique forms of American music that emerged in the cauldron of the American culture: the Norteño music of South Texas and the Cajun music of Louisiana.

Just as the Blues was an amalgam of African and Anglo-Saxon music born in the Americas, Norteño and Cajun music were also products of America's Melting Pot. In each case, the musical traditions of those who came from the European colonial countries of Spain and France were influenced dramatically by the introduction of the accordion and the music brought to the New World by German, Czech and Polish immigrants in the later part of the 19th century. And as polka and redova met the bolero and corrido, as the mazurka met the Arcadian ballads and waltzes of the descendants of the French colonists expelled from the Maritime Provinces of Canada by the victorious British in the mid-18th century, the musicians of each community performed their alchemy.

By the time the burgeoning recording industry emerged in the 1920's the corridos, racheros and boleros of traditional Mexican music were evolving into the distinctive Norteño music of South Texas, and Cajun music, much of it two step or Cajun waltz, was a vibrant part of the Cajun culture of Louisiana. In both cases, this music wasn't primarily concert music, it was dance music, the life and breath of fete and fiesta.

And as radio broadcasting emerged in the 1930's the airwaves of each region were alive with the pulsing dance rhythms of this music, with vocalists crooning lyrics in Tejano Spanish and Cajun French as live dance music became part and parcel of the radio programming of that era.

Here in 2011, Spinning Tales can't bring you this music live on the airwaves or on the web, but we can share and enjoy the music that flowed through the veins of each of these cultures in the early decades of the 20th century and pick up on some it still played in those styles by artists to this day. It'll be a rich month. We hope you'll enjoy it as much as we do!

This Month on Spinning Tales

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Thu, 05 May 2011 16:12:00 +0000

The American Musical Melting Pot:

The Unique Sounds of Norteño and Cajun Music!

Although Mother Nature seems to be an absolute tease, bringing us a dazzling sunsparkler one day and plunging us down toward freezing the next, it's definitely Spring here in Western Massachusetts! So, it's time to leave the Blues behind us and move on to two other unique traditions of music that emerged in the cauldron of the American culture: the Norteño music of South Texas and the Cajun music of Louisiana.

This Week's Show: April 29-May 2

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 10:41:00 +0000

"Sweet Home, Chicago...Detroit...Los Angeles...!"
The Blues Moves to the City: Part II

Most of us are familiar with the classic poster of Rosie the Riveter, the iconic portrayal of women moving into the workforce of America during World War Two. Fewer folks are aware that beginning in 1941 an estimated 5 million African Americans left the South and emigrated to the industrial cites of the Midwest and West in what some historians call "the Second Great Migration", an exodus that lasted for the next three decades.

Leaving the overt discrimination of the South for good paying jobs, first in the defense industry, then in the burgeoning automobile industry, this migration continued the urbanization of the African American culture as Detroit and Los Angeles joined Chicago in hosting vibrant blues scenes. With the introduction of the electric guitar, Little Walter's creative use of amplified distortion to recreate the blues harmonica, and the continued development of combos including piano, saxophone and trap drums, country blues
continued to evolve throughout the 1940's toward the modern, urban sound.

"Little Walter" Jacobs

This week Spinning Tales will focus in on the rich transitional blues scene of those years, hearing early recordings from well known bluesmen like John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Little Walter, all of who continued to perform for decades and became part of the folk and blues revivals of the 1960's.

We'll also hear from a host of others, perhaps, lesser known, bluesmen like L.C Green, Playboy Fuller, Calvin Frazier, Sampson Pittman as we listen to the acoustic country blues meet the electric guitar head-on in the city clubs and recording studios of urban America in the 1940's. We'll hear blues piano from Sunnyland Slim, Roosevelt Sykes and others, too, as we move through blues of this era toward our next destination on Spinning Tales.

It was an electrifying time in the world of the blues, as the rawness of the country blues merged with modern technology to create a new palette of sound to express those ancient feelings. We hope you'll tune in to enjoy it with us.

This Week's Show: April 22-25

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 09:30:00 +0000

"Sweet Home, Chicago!"
The Blues Moves to the City

Between 1910 and 1930, two million African Americans left the economic deprivation and Jim Crow laws of the South and migrated to the cities of the Northeast and Midwest. In this era, known as the Great Migration, Black America was transformed from a predominantly rural society to an urban culture--and the Blues reflected this transition. What had been a music relying on individual performers sharing sometimes quite idiosyncratic rhythms and songs having to do with country life more and more began to rely groups of musicians, more regular rhythms, and songs about the themes of "modern life" in the city.

This week Spinning Tales will focus on the music of those blues players that were part of this transition, folks like Big Bill Broonzy, Tampa Red, Lonnie Johnson and Memphis Minnie who not only emigrated to Chicago, but also began to develop the modern blues riffs, the call and response single note leads of the modern blues guitar that would form the basis of the "blues sound" once the guitar was electrified. We'll hear from LeRoy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell, whose "cool" vocal styles and combination of piano and guitar would influence countless blues players--although LeRoy Carr, like Robert Johnson, would die before his 31st birthday. We'll also hear from John Lee Curtis "Sonny Boy" Williamson who brought his country boy harmonica and vocals north and began to develop what became the blues harmonica style that influenced players like Little Walter, Junior Wells and, later, Paul Butterfield.

Female vocalists Clara Smith, Lucille Bogan and others were also part of the blues as it moved to the City. We'll hear from them and more as we move with the Blues to the City--and set the stage for introduction of the electric guitar, the amplified harmonica, and the emergence of the "jump blues" as Spinning Tales wraps up our tour through the Blues. We hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have!

This Week's Show: April 15-18

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 00:36:00 +0000

Beale Street and Beyond:
Jug Band Music, the Blues --and All That Jazz!

Although the prominence of the the Memphis Jug Band, Cannon's Jug Stompers, and Jed Davenport's Beale Street Jug Band brings Memphis to mind when a lot of us think of jug band music, it appears that the first jug band actually appeared further north in another river town, Louiseville, Ky. In fact, anecdotal tales have it that Gus Cannon, who had already recorded as "Banjo Joe" (backed by Blind Blake) decided to rig up a jug on a homemade rack so he could play it with his banjo and gather a couple of other musicians to play jug band music "like they did upriver". Already, the use of a jug (or jugs) to cover a percussive bass line and the use of several instruments to provide texture and tone to the blues was opening up other musical possibilites in a rich and fertile time for musicians in the African American community.

Upriver, the Cy Anderson Jug Band had appeared just after the turn of the century on the streets of Louiseville and had quickly become quite popular, eventually playing riverboats, carnivals and at huge parties throughout the region. One of it's members, Earl McDonald was a skilled promoter and by the time that a young violin player, Clifford Hayes got involved in 1914, McDonald had formed his own group and had booked dates in Chicago and New York. By 1924 they were in the studio backing Sara Martin on ten cuts as "her Jug Band". That same year Buford Threlkeld's Whistler and his Jug Band was also in the studio.

Cifford Hayes went on to form a number of his own groups. A skilled composer and organizer he formed several groups for various recording sessions, including the Old Southern Jug Band, the Louiseville Jug Band, and the Dixieland Jug Blowers which drew in such artists as Johnny Dodds on clarinet (one of Louis Armstrong's Hot Five) and Earl Hines, who is often cited as one of the primary forces in the development of jazz, on the piano. Needless to say, the repertoire of Clifford Hayes in that era ranged from a country blues to Dixieland.

So this week we'll take a tour through the blues as it intersected jazz and the popular music of the 1920's and 1930's, hearing from a number of these jug bands--and spending a bit of time with Ma Rainey, billed as "The Mother of the Blues", too. She had emerged from the minstrel show circuit and vaudeville to be the first black woman to record. Wintering in New Orleans, she met King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Sydney Bechet, and Pops Foster, and her blues often was accompanied by a quartet or quintet of dixieland style musicians. As the Jug Band craze peaked in the late 20's (even Chicago guitarist Tampa Red recorded with his own Jug Band in 1930), Ma Rainey recorded a number of cuts with Ma Rainey's Tub Washboard Band. Like the rich music of the Jug Bands of the era, Rainey melded the rawness of the southern delta blues and folk instruments with the sophistication of professional musicians in a time that saw the blues and jazz, both uniquely American musical forms, merge and emerge into the world through the technology of the recording industry.

We may catch up with it again in the 60's with Jim Kweshin's Jug Band before all is said and done this week. Enjoy!!

This Week's Show April 8-11

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 01:45:00 +0000

Blowing the Blues:

The Magicians of the Blues Harp

Although a variety of free reed instruments were common throughout Asia, the harmonica didn't make its appearance until the 1820's in Vienna. When a German clockmaker named Mattias Hohner (yes, that Hohner) began mass producing the harmonica in 1857, shipping some to his relatives in the United States, I wonder if he could have imagined that it would become enormously popular in this country, that it would provide solace to both the Union and Confederate armies in the Civil War--and eventually gain it's greatest popularity in the hands of African American blues players? Could this 19th century German businessman even conceive of the haunting wails, the percussive rhythm chops, and the stirring human sounding moans and groans that emerged from this instrument as the magicians of the blues harp made it their own?

This week, Spinning Tales will take a tour through the early years of the blues harmonica as it was recorded in the heyday of blues recording in the later 1920's and 1930's. Although recordings artists like DeFord Bailey (1926), Palmer McCabee (1929) and others used their uncanny ability to make the recently developed diatonic harmonica replicate the sounds of a locomotive, the blues harmonica as we know it began its development as a central part of the the popular "jug band" ensembles of that era and other combinations of guitar and vocals.

During the show, we'll hear from harp players like Will Shade of the Memphis Jug Band, Noah Webster of Cannon's Jug Stompers, Jaybird Coleman and the Birmingham Jug Band, and Jed Davenport and his Beale Street Jug Band; artists who often provided both vocals and harmonica leads over a rhythm section of guitars, jugs, washboards and assorted hand claps. We'll also hear from the likes of Eddie Mapp and Buddy Moss who provided harmonica accompaniments in the recordings of the Georgia Cotton Pickers and the Georgia Browns with Barbecue Bob, Curley Weaver and others in their historic sessions in 1929 and 1930. Some of these players like Noah Webster went on to form their own groups, others went on to record their own cuts, or accompanied other blues players in on the road and in studio sessions.

Like in the case of other blues players of that era, little is known about some of these magicians of the harmonica. Some, like Eddie Mapp and Sonny Boy Williams I (John Lee Curtis Williamson), who many folks cite as the "father of the modern blues harp", died all too young, victims of violence as the blues moved from the country into the urban areas. Others, like Sonny Boy Williamson II (Aleck "Rice" Miller) and Sonny Terry played their blues through long careers. To be sure all of them laid the foundations for the likes of Junior Wells, Little Walter and Paul Butterfield to work with well into the era of electrified blues and rock.

I thought it was quite interesting to read that another harp player from the early days, Robert Lee McCoy, after playing with the Memphis jug band then played with Big Joe Williams, Henry Townsend and others before picking up the slide guitar and, after electrification, resumed a career playing and recording as Robert Nighthawk on the Aristocrat and Chess labels in the 1940's and 50's! As I thought about it though, that didn't really surprise me. The slide guitar, electrified, is perhaps the only instrument that could come close to the human sounding moans and wails of the harmonica as it was played by these magicians of the blues harp!

RETURN HOME

This Week's Show: April 1-4, 2011

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 04:49:00 +0000

Barrelhouse, Boogie Woogie and the Blues!

     This week Spinning Tales will be taking a tour through the raucous, upbeat piano blues that had emerged as dance music in the barrelhouses and juke joints of the south at the end of the 19th century and had found its way into the bars and dancehalls of the urban north as the recording industry took off in the 1920's.
     Often played in the same 12 bar chord structure as the guitar based blues, what became known as the boogie woogie, had a distinctive percussive quality, relying on a strong left hand bass line and distinctive treble embellishments on the piano.
      That may sound awfully technical, but if you tune into the show or take a spin through a few of this week's YouTube selections you'll catch the drift. It'll sound quite familiar. Whether these artist are labeled barrelhouse players or masters of the boogie woogie--and some are called both by various writers--to folks of my age, (Michael's too) it sounds a whole lot like the "rock and roll" that we heard as kids from the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis and Bill Haley. A rose is a rose is a rose.
     Boogie Woogie, which became incredibly popular after producer John Hammond's legendary From Spirituals to Swing 1938 Carnegie Hall concert featuring Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis , got it's name from the 1928 Vocalion recording by Clarence "Pinetop" Smith, "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie", but George and Hersal Thomas's 1921 composition, "The Fives" seems to be the first published version.
     As we'll hear this week from artists like Blind LeRoy Garnett, Roosevelt Sykes, Charlie Spand who first recorded in 1929 with Blind Blake, Louise Johnson (who recorded with Charlie Patton, Son House, and Willie Brown), Little Brother Montgomery, Charles Avery and others, Boogie Woogie piano was pretty widespread and quite popular in the world of African American musicians long before it became the "craze" it did in the larger society in the late 30's and 40's.
   Early on, this piano based up-beat blues also became the heart of small combos of musicians. Horn players, sax players, drummers and bass players added texture--and volume--to the music as it was played in larger and larger clubs in the burgeoning African American populations in the urban north and midwest.
     Albert Ammons formed a group The Jazz Kings, (one music historian characterized Boogie Woogie as a "jazzy blues") and as the music gained in popularity Wild Bill Moore brought the saxophone to prominence with what some folks characterized the "jump blues", Jay McShann assembled a big band introducing a young saxophonist named Charlie Parker to the world of recordings. Then after his service in World War Two, McShann pared it back to smaller groups with "blues shouter" Jimmy Witherspoon and saxophonist Ben Webster.
     By the time the Boogie Woogie "craze" started to recede as the recording market started to shift to a "new" musical form called "rock and roll", marketing it to a young white audience in the mid 1950's, Albert Ammons had played at Harry Truman's Presidential inauguration in 1949, Count Basie's "Boogie" was one of his signature songs, Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra's big band rendition of "Boogie Woogie" was their biggest record with 5 million copies sold--and Kansas City had joined New Orleans, Memphis and Chicago as music annals of music history.
    Clarence "Pinetop" Smith, didn't live to see this all happen. He died at age 24 in 1929, the day before a scheduled second recording session for Vocalion. But, another boogie woogie pianist, Joseph William Perkins, who became known as "Pinetop" after recording Smith's song in the early 1950's continued to entertain audiences, playing with the Earl Hooker, Muddy Waters and others and winning a Grammy at age 97 a month before passing away on March 21 of this year. (See his bio in the right hand column, page one)

This Week's Show: March 25-28

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:01:00 +0000

Georgia on My Mind:
The Blues Men and Women of Georgia

When you bring up the history of the blues, many folks will immediately envision the Mississippi delta, or perhaps, depending on the era, refer to the cities of Memphis or Chicago. But throughout the years, from the early recordings of Barbeque Bob to the sizzlin' blues rock of the Allman Brothers Band, the red clay roads of rural and small town Georgia and the city streets of Atlanta have provided the world with a wealth of the blues.

"Barbecue Bob" Hicks

This week Spinning Tales has Georgia on its mind as we hear from blues artists like Robert "Barbecue Bob" Hicks. Hicks, his brother Charlie and Curley Weaver were taught to play the guitar by Curley's mother, Savannah "Dip" Weaver, a highly regarded pianist and guitar player and his 1927 recording "Barbecue Blues" made him Columbia's best selling artist at the time. By the time of his untimely death in 1931 (at age 29)
of TB and pneumonia brought on during an influenza epidemic, he had recorded 68 songs, some of them collaborations with his brother Charlie or others, including Nellie Florence. His final recordings in 1930 were done as a member of the Georgia Cotton Pickers, with Curley Weaver also playing guitar and singing-- and a 16 year old Buddy Moss playing harmonica. We'll also hear more from Weaver and Moss who would go on to record solo, as members of the Georgia Browns, and with other musicians over the years including Josh White, Blind Willie McTell and Fred McMullen . (Weaver's daughter, Cora Mae Bryant would continue father's legacy as Atlanta's "Empress of the Blues" until her death in 2008.)

Wrapped around our two stories this week, we'll also hear early recordings of Blind Willie McTell, Lowe Stokes and His North Georgians, Tom Darby and Jimmy Tarlton, Fiddlin' John Carson, Peg Leg Howell and others, focusing for a bit on Cecil Barfield, the rural bluesmen that George Martin discovered in 1976. An example of the blues played throughout rural Georgia far from the recording studios of the big cities, Barfield (aka William Robertson) had been playing the blues since he rigged up a cooking oil can with a single string at age 5, frailing and singing at parties, frolics and other events over the years as he lived a life of rural poverty "plowing mules and tractors."

Many of this week's artists didn't come by the blues easily, it emerged from lives sometimes marred with stretches in prison, dire poverty and heartbreak. Some like Barbecue Bob lived short lives. Others like Frank Edwards died at age 93 in South Carolina as he was being driven back to his home in Atlanta after what became his final recording session in 2002. Some, like Blind Willie McTell, apparently ended their lives in alcoholism, again playing on the streets for change. Others like Georgia Tom Dorsey, "the father of black gospel music" had long and successful professional careers.

Yet, as diverse as their lives may have been, they were united in their passion for playing the blues. For them--and for us--this music sings of something essentially human. And through the magic of technology it is ours again this week on Spinning Tales.

This Weeks Stories:

This week we'll rejoin Kendry on her eight month journey from Cairo to South Africa at around 4:30 and then hear another Native American story "The Passing of the Buffalo" from Nancy Andry's CD, Winter Lodge, at 5:30 or so. Join us for these tales and--as always--the music!

This Week's Show: March 18-21

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 01:01:00 +0000

Rosetta Records:
Independent Women's Blues

When Rosetta Reitz set out with $10,000 of borrowed money in 1979, she seemed to have a clear vision of what she wished to accomplish. In founding Rosetta Records, she was out to set the record straight. It was clear to Ms Reitz that, as had often happened in a patriarchal society, the contributions of the women who had created the blues and jazz of the 1920's and 30's had often been overlooked and discounted. Although many male blues musicians, as well as a few female singers had been "rediscovered" in the 60's folk revival, she had a deep sense that the true story was yet to be told. (see the biography of Rosetta Reitz to the right)
Eighteen albums later,
the wealth of music she found, remastered and reissued; and the research compiled in her extensive liner notes, have given us a deeper and broader understanding of the central role that many women played in the emergence of the blues and jazz in the early part of the 20th century--and the rich legacy of music they left.

This week Spinning Tales will focus on the women brought to us on Rosetta Records. As we'll hear on the show (or on our YouTube channel this week), these were not just women lamenting their fate, the stereotypical victimized women. In fact, a number of these artist's, like Lil Armstrong and Georgia White had a broad range of material and were major forces in the music world. They wrote extensively, did their own arrangements, and led their own bands at various points in their careers. Ida Cox managed "Ida Cox and Her Raisin' Cain Company", her own vaudeville troupe, as did Maggie Jones. Victoria Spivey who moved from the recording studio to the Hollywood and Broadway stage, then founded a record label and enlisted a young folksinger named Bob Dylan as a backup musician on guitar and harmonica in a 1962 recording she did with Big Joe Williams.

To be sure, Rosetta Records also brought to a new audience women artists like Bernice Edwards and Mary Dixon who, like their male counterparts, disappeared from sight after a few recording sessions. Rosetta Reitz had a passion for having their voices heard. Yet, as the album Mean Mothers: Independent Women's Blues demonstrated, she was intent on bringing to light the work of women who, in her own words, "were strong, not to be trifled with." She highlighted women who were ready to break with the conventional norms and expectations, like Lesbian Gladys Bentley, and other's like Georgia White who weren't afraid to sing their praises of marijuana and sex. Rather than just singing of lost loves, they were just as likely to proclaim, as did Rosa Henderson in her 1923 Vocalion recording, "So Long to You and the Blues"--and show the man unwilling to treat her with love and respect the door!

So, enjoy the tales and tunes this week as we continue in our celebration of National Women's History Month with the life and work of Roberta Reitz and these "Mean Mothers", the women of Rosetta Records.

This Week's Stories:

Our first tale this week is quite special. Hazel Dawkins, a Greenfield resident, was a longtime friend of Rosetta Reitz, having first met her as the editor Reitz's book, Menopause: A Positive Approach. Through her words we get a better picture of Rosetta Reitz and her legacy. Her story is both inspiring--and troubling.

Then, at about 5:30, we'll continue with the Native American stories of Nancy Andry, this one a Seneca tale, "Turtle Rescues Beaver".

This Week's Show: March 11-14

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:05:00 +0000

Ma Rainey

Man! Those Women Could Sing--and Play-- the Blues!!

A few days ago the world celebrated the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day as we here in the United States continue through Women's History Month. So, it seems a perfect time to turn our attention to the important contributions made by women blues artists to the music that, as Michael says, "can remind us that we are all in it together!

(To be perfectly honest we had actually planned to focus shows in March on the blues women artists before we realized this month was an epicenter for women's celebrations. It seems The Goddess knows what She's doing--even as Michael and I continue to bumble along.)

To be sure, women have been at the heart--and soul--of blues music all along. "Crazy Blues" by Mamie Smith in 1920 was the first recorded blues vocal and some sources cite the prolific Gertrude "Ma" Rainey as having coined the term the blues in the first place as she added a song lamenting the loss of her man to her repertoire in 1902.
So, this week Spinning Tales will take a tour through the early blues as only women could sing it, through the recordings of Ma Rainey, Bessie Jackson, Elvie Thomas, Emma Wright, Geeshie Wiley, Lottie Kimbrough, Lulu Jackson, Mae Glover and others, dallying a bit to focus on the incomparable Memphis Minnie who was considered by many of her contemporary blues artists to be one of the finest guitar players around , a pivotal force in the development of the "electrified" blues and the blues combo.

Some of these women, went on to perform for years, yet many of these talented women, like their male counterparts, disappeared from view after a few sessions. All we have is their music to hold onto, to help us through the later stages of a long winter. And we'll do just that this week.

As Michael says, "Hold onto your hearts and feel the blues and the lives lived in a way that only women can sing about!"

This Week's Stories:
At about 4:30pm we'll continue our journey with Kendy a, following along with her as she travels in East Africa from Cairo, following the Rift Valley, to South Africa.

At 5:30 we hear the next in the series of Native American stories spoken by Nancy Andry, a Nonotuck tale, "Raven and Octopus."

This Week's Show: March 4-7, 2011

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:15:00 +0000

The Blues Meets Rock and Roll

It was too good to pass up!

Last week, I stumbled across Henry Thomas's "Bulldoze Blues" as I was researching the itinerant blues musicians who had made their way into recording studios in the 20's and 30's--and when I heard the melody line that Thomas played on the quills, I immediately recognized Canned Heat's "Going Up Country", one of my favorites from the movie Woodstock!

Maybe we're showing our age (Michael is 61, I'll be 65 later this month), but Michael and I made a quick decision at that point: This week Spinning Tales is going to Rock the Blues! (You might say we'll be caught between a hard rock and a blues place???)

So, for two hours, wrapping around a couple of interesting tales, we'll be doing just that, pairing up some of the original recordings of the blues from Robert Johnson, Henry Thomas, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Willie McTell and others with covers and adaptations from some of our favorite Rockers; the Cream, Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, Eric Burdon and the Animals--maybe even the Beatles--and more!

It should be a rocking time. Join Us!

This Week's Stories

At about 4:30pm we join Kendy again, following along with her travels in East Africa from Cairo, following the Rift Valley, to South Africa.

At 5:30 we hear the next in the series of Native American stories as told by Nancy Andry.

This Week's Show: Feb 25-28, 2011

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 04:24:00 +0000

"Poor Boy, Long Way From Home"

---------from Poor Boy Blues by Willard "Ramblin' Thomas

This week Spinning Tales will focus on the itinerant blues musicians who spent much of their lives wandering; playing on the streets and in the juke joints of the rural south, traveling to play for the emerging African American communities of the urban north, and then at one point walking into a recording "studio"--sometimes not much more than a makeshift set-up in a rented hotel room--where the magic of technology allowed their music to continue the journey to be enjoyed by us today.

Traveling as solo songsters, or as members of the ever shifting personnel of minstrel shows or string bands, often mastering the popular songs of the day to appeal to white audiences, these musicians weren't the only people on the road in the early part of the 20th century.

From about 1910 into the years of the Depression, the Great Migration saw an estimated 2 million African Americans leave the south to escape racism and seek employment in the growing industrial cities of the mid west, northeast and west. The blues followed along.

Like Robert Johnson, we know of some of these itinerant musicians. They made it into recording sessions in the late 20's and early 30's as the recording industry peaked in the years before the Depression and the Blues became popular. Many of them then drifted into obscurity for decades only to be rediscovered years later during the folk revival of the 1960's--either in person or through recordings brought back to life and re-issued.

This week we'll feature the music of one of these wanderers, Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas, and we'll listen to a number of his contemporaries, hearing songs from Tommy Johnson, Ramblin' Thomas, Kid Bailey, Ishman Bracey, Hambone Willie Newbern, King Solomon Hill (aka Joe Holmes), Blind Willie McTell, Nehemiah "Skip" James, Buck Turner, Coley Jones, Big Joe Williams, Bukka White and others.

In some cases, the lives of these artists are fairly well chronicled. Some of these players returned to perform to appreciative audiences in the US and Europe in the 1960's before they died. Yet, all to often, as in the case of Henry Thomas, one of these wanderers appears to have recorded a number of songs, picked up his instrument, then left the studio and disappeared down the road--leaving only the haunting melodies and rhythms of his recorded works echoing to us through the years.

This Week's Stories:
Today at 4:30pm we have a story from another place in the world where the culture is very different. Daniela Borghesi, born, bred and living in Italy tells of a painful episode in her life and the life of her family. It is an eye-opener or should I say ear-opener, don't miss it.

At 5:30 we'll hear the next in the series of Native American stories spoken by Nancy Andry. This one, a Lakota tale, will be "The Seven Sisters".

This Week's Show: February 18, 2011

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 00:56:00 +0000

Robert Johnson: "The Man, the Myth, the Music!"

When Michael decided to focus in on Robert Johnson this week, asserting in his email that "NO blues show, that's right NO blues show, can NOT do a show on Robert Johnson", I grinned, nodded enthusiastically, and immediately created a title for this week's web posting: Robert Johnson: "The Man, the Myth, the Music."--and set about to do "just a little bit" of research. I thought, "Heck, I should be able to shed a little light on the subject, separate the man from the myth, etc."

What was I thinking?

The cast of characters involved in those early years of recorded blues in the late 1920's and early '30's, the legion of apocryphal stories surrounding the bluesmen who sometimes played and drank together; who sometimes collaborated, sometimes squabbled; who sometimes borrowed, covered--or stole--one another's songs in those days includes other blues icons like
Charlie Patton, Willie Brown, Skip James, Johnny Temple and Son House, all of who lived in Mississippi at one point. It also includes others who lived and played elsewhere yet obviously heard--and were heard by-- Robert Johnson in his travels either in person, or through the new magic of vinyl recordings; musicians like Henry Thomas, Hambone Willie Newbern, Scrapper Blackwell, LeRoy Carr and the various members of groups like the Mississippi Shieks. To make matters even more complicated, that cast of characters also includes the likes of Kid Bailey, Gittlefiddle Jim, and others who may have only existed as pseudonyms for musicians moonlighting on other labels; it includes a number of famous bootleggers; and--if you believe some accounts--it includes the Devil himself!

So, during this week's show, Michael will spin a lot of great music--and we'll try to sort it out a bit. You'll hear a wealth of Robert Johnson's blues, and the music of some of the other artists who influenced--and were themselves influenced by--this legendary bluesman in the early years of recorded blues. Although on previous shows some of the music played on Spinning Tales may have been labeled "blues lite" by a few folks, this week there probably won't be any debate. As Michael tells it, "this week we'll meet the Blues head-on!"

This Week's Stories

With events still unfolding in Egypt, will continue with Kendy's amazing tale of her travels at about 4:30. Hopefully you'll be able to can sit back comfortably on a wintery day and enjoy the warmth of her journey as she travels through Egypt.

At about 5:30 we'll hear the next story by Nancy Andry from her collection of traditional stories from Turtle Island. This one a Lakota story called "Sisters Who Married Stars, Star Boy".

As always, we hope you enjoy the show AND would love to hear from you!

This Week's Show: February 11, 2011

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 02:17:00 +0000

Bo Carter

Over a month ago, Spinning Tales proclaimed we'd have the blues all winter long. With two feet or more of snow adorning the fields here in western Massachusetts, it's obvious we've got a lot more blues to play.

This week we'll start with 4 cuts from Columbia's Roots 'n' Blues, Retrospective 1925-1950 featuring Tom Darby and Jimmie Tarlton, Whistlin' Alex Moore, Bo Carter, and Lonnie Johnson. We'll then continue on with a few by blues guitarist Bukka White on the Arhoolie label and more by Lonnie Johnson, sometimes considered the father of jazz guitar, on Smithsonian Folkways. (This week's first story will actually be a tale by Bukka White!)

We'll then focus in for a bit on Son House, who is often considered to be one the true masters of blues guitar. We'll hear a couple of his songs, then listen to interpretations of those same songs by contemporary blueswoman Rory Block from her 1988 CD "Blues Walking Like a Man: A Tribute to Son House"

Son House

In Rory Block's words Eddie James "Son" House "was the boulder on which the Cathedral was built." A musical partner of blues icons Charley Patton and Willie Brown, Son House says he taught Robert Johnson to play. It's clear he was a role model for the legendary slide guitar of Muddy Waters. Like Mississippi John Hurt, Son House had faded from public view for decades, working for the New York Central Railroad until he was "rediscovered" in the folk blues revival of the 1960's. In 1980 he was in the first class of inductees into the Blues Foundation's Blues Hall of Fame.

Then, after the Son set, we'll move from the guitar to the piano and enjoy more blues, ranging through barrelhouse and boogie woogie with Whistlin' Alex Moore on Arhoolie, then Roosevelt Sykes, Champion Jack Dupree and Little Brother Montgomery on the Smithsonian Folkways label.

This Week's Stories

As promised, we'll hear a "shaggy dog" blues story by bluesman Bukka White at around 4:30. Then we'll continue through Nancy Andry's CD, Winter Lodge, with another Native American tale.

This Week's Show: February 4, 2011

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 23:21:00 +0000

""What Exactly--or Inexactly--is the Blues?"

Frank Hutchison

For the past two weeks Spinning Tales has featured the blues as played by white artists ranging from the earliest days of recorded music through the decades to some contemporary musicians. Along
the way the two of us have sometimes wondered if a certain cut qualifies as "the Blues". Maybe some folks out there thought that we'd not drawn the line crisply enough and let something that was not "The Blues" in through the backdoor. Was some of this merely Blues Lite?

So for this week's show, Lance threw the above question into the hopper at a great on-line site, The Blindman's Blues Forum. Of course, the old-timers there must of rolled their eyes a bit. However posed, it's not the most original question to hit the board. A few cringed alluding to ancient battles that somehow turned into issues of black vs. white. But the thread rolled out with a couple of hundred views and about 30 comments by the next afternoon. Define the blues? It seems that Inexactly is about the best you can hope for.   As Sassy put it: "I think the thing is that if you ask 5000+/- members here, you'll get
5000+/- different answers."

Although it seems that part of any sort of definition would involve the music that emerged in the African American population at the end of the 19th century and was eventually widely disseminated in the US by both black and white musicians through a number of characteristic musical
structures, it seems there is an ephemeral quality involving a certain set of feelings arising from the human condition that is part and parcel of the music we call the blues. Maybe, as Michael says "there's The Blues on the one hand, and something called Blues Music on the other?" Yet, there seems to be something special that unites them. What exactly that is, and how various musicians
communicate and evoke certain feelings in
those who listen is, perhaps, the realm of art more than science or scholarly criticism.

As Lightning Hopkins put it: "The blues comes so many different ways until it's kind of hard to explain, but whensoever you got the sad feeling, you can tell the whole round world you got nothing but the blues."

So, this week after we continue our spin through Columbia's Roots 'n' Blues with great archival recordings of Pink Anderson and Simmie Dooley; Roosevelt Sykes; the Hokum Boys;and W.T. Narmour and S. W. Smith we'll be doing something a little bit different. Michael has collected a number of songs with versions by different blues musicians.

Our take on it is that musicians from both the African American and European American communities listened--and heard--one another all along. And all along, individuals crafted and created variations on similar themes from a combination of their own artistry and experiences--and the common experience of being a human being facing the various adversities of life. So have a listen to "Worried Blues", "Jelly Roll Blues", "KC Moan"--and a lot more! What do you think? Does Spinning Tales have the Blues?

This Week's Stories:

Our first story, at around 4:30 will be a replay of a story told on Spinning Tales in 2008 by Lindsey French about her trip to Egypt a number of years ago . With the current turmoil in Cairo, Lindsey's story may give us a little insight into the people that are in the streets of this ancient country, what we may see happen in the future.

At about 5:30 we'll again turn to Nancy Andry for a story, this one from the Cree Nation, "The Moose and the Pipe",

This Week's Show: January 28, 2011

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 10:37:00 +0000

This week we continue to bring you the blues as recorded by white musicians influenced by the blues as it emerged from the African American community. The blues, a truly American music, had its beginnings in field hollers, "arhoolies", prison songs, and work chants and was carried, shared and passed on by itinerant black musicians, railroad workers, farmworkers and others throughout the south in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

As you'll hear, among musicians the walls of segregation were more permeable than in the general population. The music and the musicians influenced one another all along the way. This is the way of music and its magic. Much of what you will hear this week
has both country-folk and blues tonalities and structures rather than being the straight ahead blues that we may be more familiar with. Yet it was stemmed from the blues and returned to the blues as the music progressed through the years, re-emerging as "rockabilly" and, eventually rock and roll!

During the show, we'll hear the blues in early recordings of Jimmie Rodgers, often considered the father of what became commercial country and western music. We'll also hear music that was first recorded in the famous field recordings of Alan Lomax with Wade & Fields Ward. We'll listen to songs by The Two Poor Boys and the Allen Brothers; Hobart Smith; Frank Proffitt; Lloyd Chandler; maybe some by Arthur Smith and his Dixieliners and the Delmore Brothers; more by Roscoe Holcolm. We'll also hear some by Doc Watson and Jean Ritchie, two of today's more familiar folk artists playing in the traditional style of this strain of the blues,

But first we'll continue wending our way through Columbia's Roots 'n' Blues series with Mamie Smith who is often credited as the first African American to actually record the blues, Papa Too Sweet & Harry Jones, Blues Birdhead, and a 1928 Okeh recording of Mississippi John Hurt, who was "rediscovered" during the folk music craze of the early 1960's at the age of 70!

This Week's Stories: "Woodstock!!? Our first story is our third and last from Pattie Waters of Shelburne Falls. It is a story about Woodstock--but not what you might guess. Tune in at about 4:30.

Then at about 5:30, we'll have the second story of the new series from Nancy Andry's self-published CD, "Winter Lodge." Nancy, storyteller and educator, will tell a Cherokee tale called "Why The Possum Has No Tale".

As always, we hope you enjoy the show. Drop us a line and let us know!!

This Week's Show: January 21, 2011

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:05:00 +0000

This week we'll move from the blues as it traveled from black church meetings and family gatherings, through "juke joints" and bars, and into the recording studios of Harlem and Chicago--to the blues as it developed in the hills of white Appalachia.

From the very beginning, the Blues reflected--and transcended--America's racial divide. Arising first in the
African American community sometime during the later part of the 19th century, it melded the call and response work chants of west Africa with the music brought to America by its European immigrants in a truly unique way . And although many of the settings in which it was played through the years mirrored the segregation of American society, all along the way it was obvious that that the musicians from the two communities listened to--and heard--one another clearly!

The blues emerging from Appalachia also traveled throughout a growing country. It was passed along by families and friends, was performed by duets and string bands, appeared in early field recordings and then made it into the studios of a fledgling recording industry in the early part of the 20th century. We'll hear the 1927 recording of Frank Hutchison's "Worried Blues", recordings by Kid Williams, Roy Martin, Bill Morgan, the Texas Mud Splashers, Lewis McDaniel and Gid Smith, Larry Hensley, Cobb & Underwood, the Dixie Ramblers, Frankie Martin, Bob Willis and the Texas Playboys, Roscoe Holcomb, and Hobart Smith as the music evolved through the years--both in and out of the studio--and hear it today as it is performed by the Pearly Snaps and Flat Mountain Girls.

But first we'll continue wending our way through Columbia's Roots 'n' Blues series with Elizabeth Johnson, the South Georgia Highballers, and Clarence Green.

Our first story, aired at about 4:30pm, is our second one from Pattie Waters of Shelburne Falls. This time she shares the story of her trip to Cuba in 2000. Patti, who told us of of her becoming a vegetarian last week, was deli manager at the Coop on Main Street in Greenfield at the time--but she made this memorable journey as a musician!

At about 5:30, we'll begin a new series of stories from Nancy Andry's self-published CD, "Winter Lodge." Nancy, known by many as "Grandmother", says "these are not my stories!" Over the next few weeks, She'll bring us a number of tales from the first peoples of Turtle Island--a country known by many of us as America. Today's story, "The Rabbit Dance", comes from the Mohawk nation.

We hope you enjoy it all!

This Week's Show: January 14, 2011

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 07:37:00 +0000

Before the amplified guitar many juke joints and bars had a house piano because its sound could carry even the most boisterous room. And in the 1920s and 1930s it was often women who belted out the blues standing alongside that piano--or playing it themselves.

This week we'll continue our blues journey with more from Bessie Smith, Alberta Hunter, Mama Yancey, Nina Simone and Katie Webster, as well as songs by Georgia White, Hociel Thomas, Bernice Edwards, Hazel Scott, Una Mae Carlisle, Victoria Spivey, Hadda Brooks and Rory Block. But first, we'll hear four more selections from Columbia's Roots 'n' Blues series, songs by Whistler and His Jug Band, Barbecue Bob, The Allen Brothers, and Gladys Bentley.

Our first story will be told by Pattie Waters of Shelburne Falls at about 4:30pm The pathways to becoming a vegetarian are many and diverse. Michael went over to Pattie's house in Shelburne Falls recently

and she told him the tale of how she became a vegetarian during her adolescent years. She hasn't looked back since. And the meal they shared that day was delicious!

Then at about 5:30 we'll complete our journey through the recorded stories of Jaime de Angulo. As always, we hope you enjoy the show!

This Week's Show: January 7, 2011

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 22:11:00 +0000

This week we'll start our winter journey through the blues with Frank Hutchison, Hersal Thomas, Reverand J.M. Gates and Dora Carr. Then, woven around today's two stories, we'll hear the blues by women vocalists accompanied by the piano, songs by Bessie Smith, Louise Johnson, Alberta Hunter, Mama Yancey, Hattie Hudson, Lizzie Miles, Hazel Scott Nellie Lutcher, Nina Simone, Katie Webster, Odetta and Rory Block.

Today's first story, aired about 4:30 will be by Pattie Waters. It seems the pathways to becoming a vegetarian are many and diverse. I went over to Pattie's house in Shelburne Falls recently
and she told me how she became a vegetarian during her adolescent years. She hasn't looked back since. What Pattie brought to the table that day was delicious.

For today's second story we'll continue on with the tales of Jaime deAngulo. If this is your first time for his stories, be prepared to suspend judgment--perhaps even suspend belief in the world as we know it!

As always, I'd love to hear from you! Give me a call in the studio on Friday's as the stories and songs spin at (413) 376-4266 or drop me a line at OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com 376-4266 376-4266

This Week's Show: December 31, 2010

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:32:00 +0000

This week Greenfield storyteller Jay Goldspinner returns to Spinning Tales. On past shows Jay has told the traditional stories of different cultures and spun tales full of myth and archetype. This time, though, she shares a remarkable story about her own experiences just this past Thanksgiving. Perhaps, it isn't the usual holiday fare. Yet it reminds us, once again, what is important to so many of us: family, community and deep connection.

Jay's story will air at 4:30pm or thereabouts.

Jaime De Angulo's next Indian Tale comes your way at about 5:30.

And weaving in and out of the stories, as always, is the music-- a continuation of our months-long project of bringing to you the songs, rhythms, and feeling of older music inspired by religious belief and expression. It is the music that has inspired musicians through the decades--and is still heard in today's blues, soul, country, bluegrass, rhythm 'n' blues, jazz, folk, and perhaps even rap.

The program you hear this Friday is a re-broadcast of the December 17th show. Due to the holiday closing of the WMCB studio, this show will also be rebroadcast Sunday, January 2, 2011 at 1-3 PM on WMCB and the web. It will be rebroadcast exclusively on the web on January 1 at 4-6 AM for you Early Birds, and January 3 at 1-3 AM for you Nite Owls! We will return with a live broadcast on January 7th, 2011 to kick off our "Winter Blues" series!! Enjoy the holidays!

Mike Seeger Remembered!

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:40:00 +0000

Originally Posted on September 27, 2009
Mike Seeger died in his home under hospice care on August 7, 2009 at age 75. One way or another, I and so many others can be thankful and grateful for his work in preserving and making available the songs, stories, dances and instrumental playing styles that are so much a part of the history and continuing evolution of the music we hear today. There are not many shows of Spinning Tales From All Walks of Life on which I do not play music by Mr. Seeger or by musicians that he introduced, re-introduced or in some way helped make known to us.

Mr. Seeger searched for musicians whose music he had heard - musicians that had gone into obscurity once music became 'professional', was recorded in hi-tech studios and had to appeal to a larger radio audience. He brought these musicians and others he came across onto stages and into festivals all around the U.S.. He recorded their music and stories on portable tape players that he carried into their homes and to wherever they were. And he brought the musicians into the recording studios to put there songs onto LPs and CDs for Asch Recordings, Folkways Records, Smithsonian Folkways, Rounder Records and probably others as well.
He also learned to sing and play the old-time songs and ways of playing from old 78s and from the musicians that he met along the way, mostly in the Southern Appalachians. He played their songs on many instruments: banjo, fiddle, guitar, trump (Jews Harp), harmonica, quills (panpipes), lap dulcimer, mandolin and autoharp. And he taught what he learned in workshops and schools.
The music, hard to categorize but often called 'Old-Time', Mike Seeger called the 'True Vine' of American music. This True Vine of American music has led to what we know today as Bluegrass, Country, Cajun, Zydeco, Blues, Rock & Roll and Folk music. And the True Vine continues to do what vines do - grow into, around, over, through - just like water flows, just like music does.
The New Lost City Ramblers was a folk group dedicated to the older songs and ways of playing that Mike Seeger co-founded with Tom Paley and John Cohen in 1958. They played as a group well into the 1970s.
He recorded almost 40 albums, solo and with other musicians, and has been nominated for grammys three times. For a haunting banjo accompaniment to Bob Dylan's song The Ballad of Hollis Brown listen to the 1994 Rounder release titled Third Annual Farewell Reunion- Dylan does the singing.

Mr. Seeger came from the very musical Seeger family of Ruth Crawford Seeger and Charles Seeger and was a half brother to Pete Seeger and full brother to Peggy, Barbara and Penny. And he has a nephew, Anthony Seeger, who continues the ethnomusicalogical work today that has been so much a part of that family.

Following are some web site links you can go to to learn more:
wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Seeger -has some great links to other sites; www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111690155 for some audio clips; http://mikeseeger.info/; http://www.folkways.si.edu/explore_folkways/mike_seeger.aspx -for great music & audio clips.

Last Friday the 25th of September I aired a show to remember a little of what he brought to us. As I get time I will put that show on this blog as an audio clip if I can figure out how to do it so that any one of you unfamiliar with his music can get to know it a little.

Mike Seeger remembered

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:30:00 +0000

Mike Seeger died in his home under hospice care on August 7, 2009 at age 75. One way or another, I and so many others can be thankful and grateful for his work in preserving and making available the songs, stories, dances and instrumental playing styles that are so much a part of the history and continuing evolution of the music we hear today. There are not many shows of Spinning Tales From All Walks of Life on which I do not play music by Mr. Seeger or by musicians that he introduced, re-introduced or in some way helped make known to us.

Mr. Seeger searched for musicians whose music he had heard - musicians that had gone into obscurity once music became 'professional', was recorded in hi-tech studios and had to appeal to a larger radio audience. He brought these musicians and others he came across onto stages and into festivals all around the U.S.. He recorded their music and stories on portable tape players that he carried into their homes and to wherever they were. And he brought the musicians into the recording studios to put there songs onto LPs and CDs for Asch Recordings, Folkways Records, Smithsonian Folkways, Rounder Records and probably others as well.
He also learned to sing and play the old-time songs and ways of playing from old 78s and from the musicians that he met along the way, mostly in the Southern Appalachians. He played their songs on many instruments: banjo, fiddle, guitar, trump (Jews Harp), harmonica, quills (panpipes), lap dulcimer, mandolin and autoharp. And he taught what he learned in workshops and schools.
The music, hard to categorize but often called 'Old-Time', Mike Seeger called the 'True Vine' of American music. This True Vine of American music has led to what we know today as Bluegrass, Country, Cajun, Zydeco, Blues, Rock & Roll and Folk music. And the True Vine continues to do what vines do - grow into, around, over, through - just like water flows, just like music does.
The New Lost City Ramblers was a folk group dedicated to the older songs and ways of playing that Mike Seeger co-founded with Tom Paley and John Cohen in 1958. They played as a group well into the 1970s.
He recorded almost 40 albums, solo and with other musicians, and has been nominated for grammys three times. For a haunting banjo accompaniment to Bob Dylan's song The Ballad of Hollis Brown listen to the 1994 Rounder release titled Third Annual Farewell Reunion- Dylan does the singing.

Mr. Seeger came from the very musical Seeger family of Ruth Crawford Seeger and Charles Seeger and was a half brother to Pete Seeger and full brother to Peggy, Barbara and Penny. And he has a nephew, Anthony Seeger, who continues the ethnomusicalogical work today that has been so much a part of that family.

Following are some web site links you can go to to learn more:
wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Seeger -has some great links to other sites; www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111690155 for some audio clips; http://mikeseeger.info/; http://www.folkways.si.edu/explore_folkways/mike_seeger.aspx -for great music & audio clips.

Last Friday the 25th of September I aired a show to remember a little of what he brought to us. As I get time I will put that show on this blog as an audio clip if I can figure out how to do it so that any one of you unfamiliar with his music can get to know it a little.

Lowell Folk Festival

OurSongsAndStories@gmail.com (Spinning Tales) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:52:00 +0000

In the years after the Vietnam War, a large number of immigrants from Southeast Asia were settled in Lowell with government help. Lowell became a town that welcomes people from many places: Nigeria, Columbia, Cameroon, Puerto Rico, Philipines, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia - the list could go on. It is truly a melting pot. And as a result Lowell has experienced a re-awakening of its spirit, like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, to become a lively destination for arts, crafts and cultural activities.

So on a Friday evening, all day and evening Saturday, and Sunday till 6, usually on the last full weekend in July each year, Lowell thrives with people and music, master craftspeople and many different ethnic foods made by local citizens for the most part. The streets are alive with kids and families, visitors of all ages and backgrounds. And all against the backdrop of beautiful mill town brick. Oh and did I mention that this festival is free. It's actually the largest free folk festival in the U.S. And it moves with about a thousand volunteers.

And let me not forget to tell you about the composting program at the festival. Each of the food vendors supplies their hungry customers with plates, cups, knives and forks that are compostable. All this material is collected and composted and each year you can pick up a bag of the previous year's festival garbage now turned to earth. Cans and bottles etc. are also collected and recycled.

Over the years it seems to me it has become more and more of a world music (and world food) festival even though most of the performers (and cooks) live in the United States. And it is folk music in the sense of traditional music. The musicians (and dancers at times) perform from out of their own backgrounds, their ancestry, whether its Jewish, Senegaleze, Greek, French-Canadian, appalachian, Brazilian, Cambodian, Native American, Balkan, Armenian, Southern blues, tex-mex and on and on.

There are 6 stages set up on the streets and plazas around town and so for two and a half days there is a continual walking to and back between the stages and food courts to catch the different acts and eat the different foods. There is also lively dancing in several of the music locations. Shattuck is a street full of kids games and activities. There are cafes and restaurants with tables and music outside. Street musicians entertain passers-by. There are great museums and art galleries to visit. One of them not to be missed is the New England Quilt Museum with an astounding collection and special displays of older and contemporary quilts. This year they exhibited quilts discovered all over Massachusetts by the Massachusetts Documentation Project.

Following is a list of the performers at this year's festival. And if you want to see and know more, clik on the link to the Lowell Folk Festival website.

Alash
Tuvan Throat Singing

Alex the Jester
One-man physical comedy

Boston Bhangra
South Asian Punjabi dance

Branches Steel Orchestra
Caribbean American steel pan ensemble

Glen David Andrews Band
New Orleans R&B and brass band

The Brotherhood Singers
African American A Cappella Gospel

D.L. Menard with Terry Huval and the Jambalaya Cajun Band
Cajun

Double Vision
Juggling, Mime

Capoeira Luanda
Brazilian capoeira dance

Eddie Forman Orchestra
Polka

Genticorum
Quebecois

Sierra Hull and Highway 111
Bluegrass

Rosie Ledet and the Zydeco Playboys - CANCELLED
Zydeco

Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All-Stars
Klezmer

Grupo Canela
Puerto Rican jìbaro

The Lucky Stars
Western Swing and Honky Tonk

Trudy Lynn
Blues and R&B

Maeandros Ensemble
Greek

Wayne Martin
Puppeteer

Niamh Ni Charra
Irish

Samba Ngo
Congolese dance music

Yomo Toro
Puerto Rican cuatro master

Sana NDiaye
Senegalese ekonting

Two Fiddles and The Sugar River String Band with Bob McQuillen
Old-time New England barn dances

Dr. Michael White and the Original Liberty Jazz Band
Traditional New Orleans Jazz