Deltachord

After Mayo Williams rescued Josh from the ill treatment of Taggert, he had two more years of recording experience in Chicago. After this, he had the funds to go home to Greenville, South Carolina to care for his mother and siblings.

What would become Columbia Records, then ARC Records in the latter part of 1930 sent two talent scouts hunting for Josh White. ARC wanted to signup the young man that as a boy had been an excellent sessions guitarist, and more importantly had guided the main blind street singers of an era across the U.S.A. He had memorized their collection of  Negro music—a grass roots repertoire of spirituals, folk songs, and blues.

The talent scouts probed the country for months and located him at home with his mother and siblings. Josh was still underage and his mother only agreed to sign the contract with the stipulation he didn’t record the blues, but only spirituals. The contract for $100.00 gave ARC the rights to all of the religious music he had learned. When he turned eighteen he signed a contract to record the blues. He used the name Pinewood Tom for these recordings. As 1933 round around he had become a huge success.

A week after he recorded “When the Sun Goes down” in 1936 he was involved in a bar brawl and slammed his fist through a glass door. He developed gangrene in his picking hand and though advised to amputate he wouldn’t, but his hand was useless. He couldn’t move his fingers at all.

Josh didn’t want to sing without playing guitar. He stopped his recording career and starting working mundane jobs: elevator operator, dockworker, and building superintendent. Still, from 1928-1936 he had a phenomenal recording output of race records, which was the legitimate name of these recordings as defined by the black community. During this era he had recorded as a session guitarist with Buddy Moss, The Carver Boys, Lucille Bogan and others.

To be continued…

References:

JoshWhite
JW

CD

Josh at Midnight: Sings Ballads & Blues

Josh White was a protest songwriter before it became more popularized in the sixties. He portrayed a style more along the lines of a workingman’s protester of skinflint businesses. He is like Woody Guthrie in being a workingman’s voice, but playing a country blues and gospel oriented style. His music branched out into other realms like jazz, cabaret, folk, and Tin Pan Alley.

White’s recordings were prolific on labels like Vocalion Records and Emerson Records, which were black record labels doing business in the 1920’s and 30’s. In the McCarthy era White ended up on a list of people believed to be communists because of his protest songs. Many of his songs were anti-segregationists and concerning human rights.

Josh White had a definite influence on future generations of musicians and singers like Eartha Kitt, Bob Dylan, Odetta, Mike Bloomfield, Merle Travis, Pete Seeger, Richie Havens and numerous others. The unique voicings and styling of his guitar playing has captured the imagination of many guitarists.

Josh White came from a Christian home; he was the son of Reverend Dennis White and Daisy White. They lived in Greenville, North Carolina. He was born in 1914. His parents named him after an important figure in the Bible named Joshua. After his father suffered injustices and was put into a mental institution and then died in 1930…young Josh White felt the grave responsibility of stepping into his father’s shoes.

After his father had been deceased for two months, he started roaming the southern musical circuit with Blind Man Arnold a street performer. Josh soon became adept at singing, dancing, playing the tambourine, and then the guitar.

He collected the money for Arnold who sent Joshua’s mother a sum of $2.00 per week and there were four children at home. He worked with Arnold for eight years; during that time Arnold farmed Josh out to sixty-six different performers who were blind. Two of these artists were Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Joe Taggart. Josh and the blind artists walked wherever they went such as Chicago, Dallas, and Miami.

While working in Chicago in 1927, his genius as a guitarist caught the attention of Mayo Williams of Paramount Records. Williams gave him a job as a session’s guitarist. But Taggart and Arnold held him under their thumbs until Williams forced them to free him in 1928 by saying he would report them to the cops for mistreating Josh. They still had him sleeping in a horse stable and not allowed to wear long pants or shoes in the cold. Williams made Arnold buy Josh shoes and a suit and he moved Josh into a hotel. He also had to start paying Josh for his recordings. Josh had already had a hit with Taggart called “Scandalous and Ashamed.”

To be Continued…

References:

JoshWhitePiedmontBlues
JoshWhite

CD’s
Josh White Sings The Blues & Sings Volumes 1 & 2

Sings Ballads - Blues

Todd Christoffel says that he never knew if he sang very well or badly when he sang Christmas carols to his grandfather because his grandfather cried. But these days Todd and his group play melodic folk/rock. He and Cris Faget play guitar, Kevin Johnston on bass or Jim Fink, and Doug Aslin plays drums. Todd and Cris had formed String Theory in the beginning of the nineties and their ideas was to perform and record original music.

Doug joined in 1996 and the name of the group changed to Don’t Ask. He was one of the traveling musicians that occasionally played with Todd and Crispin. More recently, Todd’s wife, Jill, has gotten into the groove and is now singing and playing small hand percussion with the band. They play gigs in the Seattle area.

Todd been heavily influenced in his musical tastes and thinking by melodic artists like: The Beatles, Paul Simon, and Elton John. The group has two CD’s out: Nothing and There’s a Monkey In My Grape.

The Angels Cry (There’s A Monkey In My Grape) opened with strong acoustic guitar and then Chris on vocals, this melancholy song gave me chills. The cymbals added a rich dramatic effect. By the Light of a Distance Fire begins with a cricket sound and bongos… it is filled with good harmony and Chris’ clear voice…great drumming of which goes into a march beat at one point when the lyrics are talking about war.

Texas Barbecue blasts off with hard-hitting drums–great beat and bouncy…it has a fun feel with serious lyrics…some Willie Nelson like over the border guitar licks. Nice finger picking opening leading into smooth strumming and the bass sliding a note with the drums kicking in…good background vocals in Sailing on the Moment (Nothing). The Cold Stars Dance is a touching soft ballad. The song is based around poetic lyrics about suffering children and loving fathers.

The musicians on the CD’s are Todd Christoffel, Cris Faget, Doug Aslin, and Dan Mohler (bass). Kevin Johnston and other bassists are gig musicians. You can hear more of Don’t Ask at CD Baby and come over to http://deltachordsmusicnetwork.ning.com/ and join. Then you can get acquainted with Chris Christoffel and meet other musicians.

Ok, Woody Guthrie fans, I told you that more posts about Woody would be coming up on Deltachord’s Blog; especially posts about which artists have-written music for his lyrics that he didn’t compose music for. And here goes. First we’ll explore what the Dropkick Murphys have done with some of Woody’s lyrics. Dropkick Murphy fans are also welcome to explore.

But first, a little about The Dropkick Murphys…they originally played for kicks in Boston in a basement under a barber shop. They have recorded Cd’s with quite a few groups like Oxymoron, the Business, Face To Face, Agnostic Front, Bruisers, Anti Heroes, and the Ducky Boys.

On Blackout, which came out in 2003 they recorded “Gonna Be a Blackout Tonight” and they did a video for the song. Woody actually wrote the “Blackout” lyrics about WWII blackouts in London. According to Rolling Stone writer John D. Luerssen the band’s guitarist Ken Casey said they wanted to do the song they made “Blackout” the most hard driving song on the album because they wanted it to be very different from what Woody’s approach would have been.

“The record still contains rousing tunes rooted in Irish music & American Folk (Black Velvet Band & The Dirty Glass) and destined to be a Boston Bruins call to arms classic called “Time To Go”.” (Epitaph Records) Blackout is their fourth album. Which was also released on 10″ vinyl boasting 5 songs.

Bruce Springsteen is a Dropkick Murphys fan because they are so loyal to their fans in that they have built a community of people that they consider friends. This aspect is part of their roots in the working class and Irish heritage appeal and they live it. They are from Quincy, a suburb of Boston. The Dropkick Murphys play punk that includes bagpipes and tin whistles. Their repertoire includes political songs, friendship ballads, and bar songs.

Dropkick Murphys Video

Murphys’ Video

Hear the Dropkick Murphys

Dropkick Murphys

Woody Guthrie

Woody

Contemporary Artists Playing Historical American Music

I heard some great songs on Acoustic Cafe on 92zew last Sunday and I thought I’d share the music, so to speak. The ones that were most interesting from a 50-song, 3-CD set called Song of America.

This project was the brainchild of Janet Reno, which surprised me, but hey, the music is good and the historical songs are done by contemporary artists. It is a wonderful thing that these artists were interested in this music.

In the words of Janet Reno:

“The historical detail of the songs fascinated me and I suggested that Ed Pettersen record a whole album of songs focusing on key periods in American history, in order to tell our story to young people who might find joy in learning history through music.”

The Artists and Songs

Earl Bullhead - “Lakota Dream Song”
Julie Lee - “Once More Our God Vouchesafe To Shine”
Blind Boys of Alabama - “Let Us Break Bread Together”
John Wesley Harding - “God Save the King”
Elizabeth Foster - “Young Ladies in Town”
Malcolm Holcombe - “The Old Woman Taught Wisdom”
Ed Pettersen - “The Liberty Song”
Harper Simon - “Yankee Doodle”
The Wilders - “Jefferson & Liberty”
Steven Kowalczyk-Santoro - “Hail Columbia”
Take 6 - “Star Spangled Banner”
Beth Nielsen Chapman - “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child”
Freedy Johnston - “Peg and Awl”
BR549 - “Sweet Betsy From Pike”
Will Hill and Jehnean Day Washington - “Trail of Tears”
Minton Sparks and Pat Flynn - “Declaration of Sentiments”
Fisk Jubilee Singers - “Go Down Moses”
Mavericks [ft. Thad Cockrell] - “Dixie’s Land”
Marah - “John Brown’s Body”
Joanna Smith - “Battle Hymn of the Republic”
Janis Ian - “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye”
Tim O’Brien - “Thousands Are Sailing to Amerikay”
Otis Gibbs - “The Farmer Is the Man”
Joni Harms - “Home on the Range”
Jake Shimabukuro - “Stars & Stripes Forever”
Jen Chapin - “Over There”
Andrew Bird - “How You Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm”
Karen Parks - “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
Danielson - “Happy Days Are Here Again”
Andy Bey - “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?”
Jim Lauderdale - “Seven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat”
Old Crow Medicine Show - “Deportee”
Suzy Bogguss - “Rosie the Riveter”
Folk Family Robinson (Black Crowes with Stan Robinson) - “Reuben James”
Scott Kempner - “Apache Tears”
Elizabeth Cook and the Grascals - “The Great Atomic Power”
Devendra Banhart - “Little Boxes”
The Del McCoury Band - “The Times They Are A-Changin’”
Kim Richey - “Get Together”
The Dynamites / Charles Walker - “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud”
Ben Taylor - “Ohio”
Anthony David - “What’s Going On”
Martha Wainwright - “I Am Woman”
Matthew Ryan - “Youngstown”
Bettye LaVette - “Streets of Philadelphia”
Gary Heffern / Chris Eckman - “Wave”
Shortee - “The Message”
Judith Edelman / Neilson Hubbard - “Sleep, My Child (Schlof Mayn Kind)”
The Wrights - “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning”
John Mellencamp - “This Land Is Your Land”

Song of America at MySpace

At Amazon

References:
http://www.myspace.com/songofamerica
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/
92zew