Music Of Coal - Various Artists (Lonesome Records & Publishing CD 071); two CDs with 70 page book, released in 2007

The work of coal miners has long been commemorated in song, disasters have led to contemporaneous ballad type songs and personal acquaintance with victims of the industry has led to intense, heart-rending insights into the side-effects of working below ground. Many songs have been found during song-catcher expeditions - some of those recording are found here, others have been written by those with a social conscience as a form of protest at times of strife. As well as embracing the social ramifications, political, historic and economic aspects of life in coal mining communities.

The industry ‘captured’ labour at a very young age and the picture of a disheveled youngster on the cover is a evidence of that. It’s a refection of the level of poverty for the often big families that boys had to go to work in the mines to help boost their father’s income. There has seemingly been very little scope for avoiding the pits. Not many people have been able to follow Ron Short’s advice in Set Yourself Free.

The collection is sub-titled Mining Songs From The Appalachian Coalfields and, in fact, the music chosen is pared down to music from southern Appalachia and to that by local talent. There is a mixture of styles - big band, jazz, old-time (in its various sub-sets, including string band), traditional country, bluegrass, folk, blues, boogie-woogie and choral.

Also, the performances are by people from a variety of classes; miners, labour organisers, activists, religious leaders and professional musicians. The quality of these vary, just as the sound quality of the recordings themselves vary, but some tracks do feature well known pickers; Mike Seeger, Jimmy Gaudreau, Jim Watson, Wayne Benson, Robert Bowlin, Glen Duncan, Mike Bubb, Jamie Johnson and Jimmy Mattingly included.

The recordings themselves span a century, beginning with the opening song on the first disc - Down In A Coal Mine an excerpt from The Edison Concert Band and made in 1908. Other recordings from the early part of the last century include Mining Camp Blues by Trixie Smith (1925); He’s Only A Miner Killed In The Ground -Ted Chestnut (1928); Coal Miner’s Blues - The Carter Family (1938) and Sprinkle Coal Dust On My Grave - Orville Jenks (1940), sung to the same melody as Sunny Side Of The Mountain. (more…)

Mel Bay has a new book of banjo transcriptions, American Banjo: Three-Finger and Scruggs Style, taken from the classic Folkways field recordings released under the same title.

Originally released in 1956, the LP version of these recordings, taken by musician and folklorist Mike Seeger, includes dozens of tracks of simple, basic - one might even say primitive - examples of the 3 finger style which had only recently been popularized by Earl Scruggs. They include recordings of Snuffy Jenkins, who is believed to have been a strong influence on the young Scruggs, Earl’s brother Junie Scruggs, Smiley Hobbs, Larry Richardson, Roni Stoneman and several others.

Folkways re-issued these recordings in 1990, adding 16 previously unreleased tracks. It is still available from Folkways, with 43 tracks on 2 CDs. Audio samples and download purchases are available via Smithsonian Global Sound.

The Mel Bay book contains 80 pages of tablature taken from the CD,  transcribed by Steve Garner. Anyone interested in the early history of 3 finger banjo will find plenty to chew on here.

Ry Cooder is an artist who has been impossible to peg.

One project may be an affectionate, audiophile reexamination of 1920’s American jazz, and the next a recreation of 1950s dance music. He has recently emerged as a champion of Cuban and Chicano music, and is recognized by guitarists worldwide as among the instrument’s most skillful and creative practitioners.

His newest project, due this month (3/07) from Nonesuch Records, has him recording with a number of prominent old time, bluegrass and Celtic musicians. Mandolinist Roland White, banjo players Mike and Pete Seeger, and piper Paddy Maloney appear as guest artists.

My Name Is Buddy, is an allegorical concept piece, with animal characters Buddy Red Cat, Lefty Mouse and Reverend Tom Toad voicing Cooder’s dark vision of life among rural workers in the “American west of yesteryear.”

The CD also includes short stories Cooder composed for each song, illustrated by noted Texas muralist, Vincent Valdez. Depending on your political leaning, the stories may find you nodding in agreement, or rolling your eyes, but the music and production on My Name Is Buddy are up to Cooder’s high standards.

There are a few audio samples available on the Nonesuch site, with samples from each track at Amazon.com.

The 3rd annual Midwest Banjo Camp is set for June 1-3, 2007 on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI. The faculty includes many of the biggest names in bluegrass and old time banjo, such as Alan Munde, Bill Evans, Murphy Henry, Ken Perlman, Mike Seeger and Clarke Buehling.

The camp sets up a large number of highly specialized classes, with tracks for beginning, intermediate and advanced players. The instruction is designed to offer a mix of hands-on workshops and demonstrations of specific styles and techniques. Two faculty concerts are also on the schedule.

The full list of instructors is quite impressive:

• Old-time: Cathy Barton-Para, Clarke Buehling, Cathy Fink, Joe Newberry, Michael Miles, Ken Perlman and Mike Seeger.
• Bluegrass: Danny Barnes, Janet Beazley, Greg Cahill, Bill Evans, Murphy Henry, Gerald Jones, Ned Luberecki, Alan Munde and Mike Sumner
• Accompanists: Peter Knupfer (bluegrass fiddle) and Ron McKeever (bluegrass guitar)

Midwest banjo Camp is operated under the direction of Ken Perlman. Full details can be found on the MBC web site.

Marion, VA is a town you might miss, unless you are traveling on I-81 through Virginia’s Blue Ridge mountains. The area has a rich musical heritage, however, and is now the home of Song Of The Mountains, a live concert series which is recorded for broadcast television from Marion’s restored Lincoln Theater.

The show is the brainchild of Tim White, a well-known performer and radio personality in East Tennessee (Troublesome Hollow and The VW Boys), and Andre Burroughs, Production Manager at Blue Ridge Public Television in Roanoke, VA. They launched in the summer of 2005, drawing a local audience and filming several of the shows for airing on BRPTV.

These shows were also offered to PBS affiliates all over the US, and 26 picked the show up over the course of that first season. In 2006, shows were recorded for the 2007 broadcast season, and the show received a Telly Award for their work in season one.

The 2007 broadcast season will include live shows featuring Jesse McReynolds & The Virginia Boys, The Lost & Found, Roni Stoneman, The VW Boys with special guest “Tater” Tate, Mike Seeger, Paul Williams & the Victory Trio, Randy Waller & the Country Gentlemen, Wayne Henderson & Jeff Little, Heather Berry & Dominion Grass and many others.

Tim White tells us that they have 50 PBS affiliate stations carrying the show now, and that it is distributed for broadcast to members of the National Educational Telecommunications Association through the NETA Program Service.

Stations wishing to contact Tim for more information can do so by email.

The popular Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival in NY is celebrating their 30th Anniversary this year by joining forces with FestivaLink to make audio from this year’s fest available for online purchase. These will be full-length recordings which can be purchased for download, or on audio CDs, and will be available shortly after the festival concludes. Grey Fox 2006 runs July 13-18.

FestivaLink also recorded a number of sets at this year’s MerleFest. Audio from Doc Watson, John Cowan, Nashville Bluegrass Band, Hot Tuna, Mike Seeger and others can be purchased online. Prices range from approximately $10 for MP3 downloads to $17 for an audio CD of each set.