#roscoe holcomb

[evergreensounds]

Based off Coney isle by Roscoe Holcomb

[menandwomanofhistory]

[vinylfromthevault]

“Mountain Music of Kentucky” 1960. Folkways Records. Compiled by John Cohen of The New Lost City Ramblers, it’s a compilation of folk music and musicians, featuring several artists, most prominently banjoist Roscoe Holcomb, whose style inspired prominent 60′s bluegrass and folk-revivalist singers including Bob Dylan. From Southern Spaces, “On a muggy Sunday afternoon in June of 1959, John Cohen wandered the winding mountain roads of eastern Kentucky searching for old-time musicians. Neon, Bulan, Vicco, Viper, Daisy, Defiance — tiny coal and timber towns with sonorous names popped up around each bend before giving way to the Cumberland Mountains. Cohen had come to Kentucky from New York City to find songs about "hard times" that would fill out the repertoire of his old-time music group, the New Lost City Ramblers. "In order to experience an economic depression firsthand, I visited eastern Kentucky and made photos and field recordings for six weeks in 1959," he recalled. "The United States was quite prosperous at that point, but east Kentucky wasn't and I had heard about that. . . . And I said, 'Maybe I can find some music about the depression, experience the depression, and understand it more and maybe photograph it, maybe record music.'" The music is plaintive, haunting, sparse. Songs like “Amazing Grace” (with a call-and-response probably recorded in a country church), “Foreign Lander” (Martha Hall), “The Spring of ‘65″ (James B. Cornett) and “Wayfaring Stranger” (Roscoe Holcomb) are hill-country blues and old-time music that ooze sadness. Even upbeat pickers like “Blackeyed Susie” (Roscoe Holcomb) are tinged with melancholy, mostly due to the “high, lonesome sound" of the mountain music singers’ voices. 

This record comes from my parents’ collection (we culled it a few months ago). They were super-into the folk-revivalist movement in the 60′s and early 70′s and when I was little I remember them gathering with friends to play acoustic guitars, banjos, harmonicas and autoharps, singing songs similar to the ones on this LP. It’s not generally music I listen to, but it feels super-appropriate in this time of quarantine and world anxiety/depression. 

[kudzuqueer]

Howdy, Y'all!

Hey there Tumblr! It's been a while since I've used this site for anything other than random scrolling. However, I think that being more active on here can be a great way to get to know folx with similar interests.

If you are interested in all things Appalachia, traditional/country music, herbalism, farming, baking, reproductive rights, sex education, LGBTQ+ Activism, cooking, and adventuring, let's be friends!

[revoltedstates]

Hills of Mexico - Meredith Moon

[zachbellissimo]

The family tree with all the caricatures was JD’s idea.  He wanted all of his long dead influences sprouting from his head.  I hadn’t done any caricatures in a while so this was a return to form for me.  My favorites are Calloway, Bolger, Wells and Lux.

Watch the FULL VIDEO HERE!

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Vanessa Rossetto

Vanessa Rossetto has been based variously in Texas and New York, but the most important location is whatever place her recordings reveal from second to second. She uses field recordings, snatches of found dialogue, the voices of her and a few confederates, and a viola to make long form sound expositions that bristle with expressed emotion and revealed texture. Since 2007 Rossetto has recorded on her own and in duos with Steve Flato, Lee Patterson, and Matthew Revert. Her most recent releases are the hour-long Rocinante, which is available as a Bandcamp download and a limited-run CD-r from Hologram, and Fashion Tape, a cassette from No Rent.

About the list

Often people who only know me through my work are surprised by the type of music I most often actually listen to. They aren't all I enjoy, of course, but some of the main types of music I have always been drawn to are early blues and country because of the emotive power of those genres as well as the strong narrative threads that run through the songs, especially when contrasted with much of more aesthetic-based (versus content-based) "experimental" music, so there's a lot of that sort of thing in here. Descriptions of each of my selections will be pretty brief, because sometimes it feels hard enough liking things at all without explaining why you do.

"When The Moon Shines Bright On Charlie Chaplin" (Anti-Chaplin WWI Novelty Song) - 1918

This is one of the primary songs I remember being sung to me by my grandmother, usually while having my hair brushed out. I listen to it on repeat a lot when I am waiting for large files to bounce down.

Roscoe Holcomb – “I am a man of constant sorrow”

Not sure if listening to this as often as I do contributes to me being a giant bummer or if my love of it is a symptom of that. Regardless, it hits me right in my heart. Holcomb, a shit-hot banjo player, elected to record this one without instrumental accompaniment which I think makes it even more poignant and impactful.

Nugrape Twins – “I Got Your Ice Cold Nugrape”

Christy & Launa Burroughs – “Swamp Guinea Legend & Been To Swamp Guinea”

Possibly, no, definitely my favorite song of all time. There is nothing about it I do not love. There's very little known about these guys, other than that their names were Matthew and Mark Little, they were actual twins and were from Georgia. This track is utter perfection to me.

In a similar Southern advertising jingle vein

Washington Phillips – “Paul and Silas in Jail”

A totally different song from the commonly covered "Paul and Silas Bound in Jail," this is just a beautiful track with lovely, delicate instrumentation. Poor Washington died from a fall down a flight of stairs, which is a fate I fret over pretty often.

Jacki Apple – The Mexican Tapes

This is not a lot like most of the other things I'm including here, but if I could make something one tenth as engaging and fascinating as this I think I could be happy forever.

Joseph Spence – “I'm Going to Live That Life”

The best advice, delivered impeccably.

Geeshie Wiley – “Last Kind Words”

No known photos of Geeshie Wiley are extant, which doesn't sound like such an awful legacy, left to represented only by your work. Such a great vocal performance on this, defiant and yearning all at once.

Texas Gladden

This has been a hugely important song to me for most of my life. It's pretty much perfect, in my estimation.

Child Ballads taught me how to live. Another from Texas Gladden, this is a particularly cheeky version of the Farmer's Curst Wife.

"The old woman went whistling over the hill, said the devil won't have me I wonder who will?"

Tita Merello – “Se Dice de Mi”

I couldn't not include this, with its supercharming delivery and some of the best lyrics ever, conveniently translated.

Dock Boggs – “Oh Death”

There are SO many good versions of this song, but this one is probably my favorite of them. 

Sweet Emma Barrett – “I Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None Of My Jellyroll”

Sissy Nobby – “Girl From The Gutter Like Me”

Sweet Emma Barrett puts you in your place.

And fellow New Orleanian Sissy Nobby does too...

[countryhixes]

Roscoe Holcomb - "Moonshiner" [Official Audio]

'Roscoe Holcomb's "Moonshiner" from the 1962 album 'Music of Roscoe Holcomb and Wade Ward' on Smithsonian Folkways. This album presents two musicians whose experiences are similar—both play banjo, usually locally at community social functions, and come from farming backgrounds—but whose playing styles are noticeably different. Holcomb (from Daisy, Kentucky) plays wilder music, while Ward (from Independence, Virginia) has developed a smoother style.'