[78-L] A Folk Music Playlist covering ALL recording formats! WORTH reading!
David Lennick
dlennick at sympatico.ca
Mon Sep 7 06:36:48 PDT 2009
Gotcha..I hadn't read the original posting and the later link led only to the
track list.
dl
Michael Biel wrote:
>>From Duane Goldman
>>> I think you may have mistaken the intent of this particular show.
>>> As I heard the intro, it was to demonstrate examples of the popular
>>> commercial musical formats using recordings picking from "a box
>>> thrown together for the show". There was no intent to be exhaustive
>>> nor any expectation on the part of regular listeners.
>
>>From David Lenneck
>> What am I missing here? Very little reference to recording formats
>> in the playlist at this link, other than 1909 cylinder, 1972 private
>> tape and a couple of others. dl
>
>
> What both of you are missing is what Stampler put in his ORIGINAL
> posting that Steve re-posted which DID discuss different formats and
> stated that this was the outcome of discussions in the Graduate Media
> Communications course he is taking which is covering "all the various
> media forms out there." He stated "I got, I think, every popular music
> delivery technology in except 8-track tapes." But he DIDN'T, and I
> think the problem is that his college instructor has left out a LOT of
> formats. His original posting seemed to indicate that a lot of thought
> and preparation was put int it -- it was not "picking from 'a box thrown
> together for the show.'" If he said that he got in every popular music
> delivery technology except 8-track, he DID mean for it to be an
> "exhaustive" listing. I'm not blaming him, I am tentatively blaming his
> college instructor who might be thinking that he got the subject covered
> but he doesn't -- or he has oversimplified without telling the students.
> It might also be a fault in the text book or other sources being used
> for this course. I know how many lousy media textbooks there are out
> there, and we all know how faulty a lot of internet sources are.
>
> In case you had deleted the original posting with all the details I was
> commenting about, here it is.
>
> Mike Biel mbiel at mbiel.com
>
>
>
> In a message dated 9/4/2009 11:00:39 P.M. EDT,
> LISTSERV at lists.psu.edu writes:
> Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2009 20:16:57 -0500
> From: Paul Stamler <
>
> Subject: Playlist "No Time to Tarry Here" 8/30/09
>
> Hi folks:
>
> This was a fun show to put together. I'm taking a course in Media
> Communications (beginning a Master's degree, actually), and we're
> discussing all the various media forms out there. So I thought it'd be
> fun to play music from as many different media that have been used to
> store music as I could find. I got, I think, every popular music
> delivery technology in except 8-track tapes.
>
> I didn't plan to go chronologically, but after the first set, that's
> how
> it wound up, more or less. Also, I cheated: everything went through a
> stage of CD, so I could play it on air.
>
>
> Phil Cooper & Margaret Nelson - No Time to Tarry Here - - private tape
>
> Pete Seeger - One Percent Phosphorous Banjo Riff - At 89 - Appleseed
> [fun stuff from pete's new cd]
>
> -----
>
> Matys Bros. - Who Stole the Keeshka? - - Select 45, 1962
> [surprisingly, i don't have a whole lot from 45s that'd be suitable for
>
> this program, but i found this, which was a minor hit in its time]
>
> VA/Doc Roberts - And the Cat Came Back - Kentucky Mountain Music -
> Yazoo
> [originally a gennett 78, either from 1925 or 1927, electrically
> recorded]
>
> New Lost City Ramblers - Long Lonesome Road - Boxed set, vol. 3 -
> Smithsonian/Folkways
> [from an lp, in stereo, released in the 1960s. the guy's having an
> exceptional bad day; he's lonesome, his girl's left him, he didn't
> listen to his mother, he's eating bad food, and he's in jail]
>
> Tom T. Hall - A Week in a Country Jail - Homecoming - Mercury
> [ditto, recorded multi-track in nashville, 1970s, and one of my
> favorites of his recordings]
>
> -----
>
>
> [some acoustical recordings:]
>
> Polk Miller & the Old South Quartette - Jerusalem Mournin' - Music of
> the Old South - Flaherty
> [from an edison blue amberol cylinder, recorded 1909 -- these were a
> type of celluloid, layered over plaster, and a major improvement over
> the previous wax cylinders. polk miller was a case-and-a-half; he was a
>
> southern white gentleman who deeply disapproved of emancipation,
> thought
> black people were way better off as slaves, and said so. he also deeply
>
> enjoyed and respected the traditional music of black people, and wanted
>
> to share it with his fellow whites as well as blacks. to that end, he
> formed a quartet of black musicians and toured with them, sometimes
> running into major hostility for integrating the stage. the material
> was
> a blend of minstrel material and black tradition; this song has the
> distinction of being the first known appearance of the
> 'boom-boom-boom-boom' descending bass line common in gospel quartet
> singing. polk miller -- an odd man indeed]
>
> Ennis, Morrison & Muller - Irish Jig Medley I - - Columbia 78, 1922
> [an acoustically-recorded 78 with some fine piping and fiddling from
> ennis and morrison, and barely-audible piano from muller; acoustical
> recordings couldn't capture anything below about 200Hz, which is about
> G
> below middle C. that's the equivalent of a three-string guitar, with
> the
> bottom three missing. still wonderful music]
>
> Alexander Prince - Scotch Reels - - Edison cylinder, 1909
> [played on concertina; again an acoustical recording, this time a
> standard wax cylinder]
>
> The Happy 4 - Te Kako Koritsi (The Naughty Girl) - - Victor 78, n.d.
> [a greek polka -- did you know they had polkas in greece? neither did i
>
> until i found this acoustical 78]
>
> Sara Martin - Don't Quit Me, Daddy - - OKeh 78, 1924
> [and now for something completely different: sara martin and her jug
> band]
>
> -----
>
> [going electric:]
>
> Patrick Gaffney - Jerry Daly's Hornpipe - - Columbia 78, 1925
> [electrical recordings from here on. another irish 78; i played it to
> show the contrast with acoustical recordings. here, you can actually
> hear the piano, and the fiddle is a lot clearer as well. from the first
>
> month after columbia signed a contract with western electric to license
>
> their new electrical recording system, which used a microphone and
> electrical cutter head instead of a horn]
>
> Jules Allen - Days of 49 - - Victor 78, 1928
> [a cowboy song from a couple of years later -- thanks to jim nelson for
>
> lending the 78]
>
> Carl T. Sprague - The Cowboy's Meditation - - Montgomery Ward 78, 1935;
>
> rec. 1930
> [ditto; cowboy science fiction, to quote robert waltz's description]
>
> VA/Jean Kalafayi (Congo) - Nalimbisi Yo - Secret Museum of Mankind, v.
> 3
> - Yazoo
> [recording companies made a specialty, from early days, of recording
> the music of indigenous people so the companies could then sell it back
>
> to them. it worked, and we got some wonderful music on discs in the
> bargain]
>
> VA/Luther Mack, Tommy Miller, William Long & Julius Harmon - I Sure
> Can't Stand It Long - Deep River of Song: South Carolina - Rounder
> [a field recording of a work song, made at reid state farm, south
> carolina in 1934. john and alan lomax made the recording using a
> custom-built disc recorder that dug the groove into the surface of an
> aluminum disc. it was about the size of a washing machine, and ran off
> a
> car's electrical system. a far cry from the pocket-sized portable
> recorders of today]
>
> VA/Unidentified group, Nassau - All Day, All Night Long - Deep River of
>
> Song: Bahamas 1935 - Rounder
> [in 1935 alan lomax took similar portable equipment to the bahamas for
> the first recordings on those musically rich islands]
>
> -----
>
> [jumping ahead to the lp, first in mono...]
>
> Horton Barker - The Turkish Rebilee - Traditional Singer - Folkways,
> rec. 1961
> [barker came from america's 'folklore province', the corner where north
>
> carolina, virginia, tennessee and kentucky come together, and he was a
> marvellous singer. he recorded for the library of congress in the
> 1940s,
> and again for sandy paton in the late 1950s. he was a good deal older,
> but had perfect voice control and a compelling style of a capella
> singing. give the disc a try; it's easy to just play the 'novelty'
> songs
> from the album, but the serious ones are well worth hearing too. oh,
> this is a triple-score format: recorded on reel-to-reel tape, issued on
>
> lp, but downloaded as a flac file, which has full audio quality without
>
> losing information]
>
> Pete Seeger - John Riley - Champlain Valley Songs - Folkways, 1960
> [from one of pete's records, made for moe asch when pete was afraid of
> going to prison and not coming back. during the time between when he
> was
> tried and convicted -- for essentially telling the committee on
> un-american activities that they had no business prying into his
> associations -- and the time when his conviction was reversed on a
> technicality, he averaged a new album every two months, trying to get
> as
> much repertoire onto records as possible. pete used a splendid tune for
>
> this 'broken-token' ballad]
>
> VA/Caldiera Trio (Sicily) - Tarantella di li Mafiusi - Folk Music of
> the
> Mediterranean - Folkways, 1952
> [one might want to be circumspect about playing this piece, no?
> released on lp, probably recorded on a very early tape recorder]
>
> Young Tradition - Banks of the Nile - Galleries - Transatlantic
> [from 1968 -- and now we're in stereo, probably two microphones direct
> to two track analog tape and thence to lp, and another of my favorite
> albums]
>
> -----
>
> [some recordings made on multi-track analog tape, beginning with two
> where a single person overdubs multiple parts, a la les paul -- may he
> rest in peace:]
>
> John Kirkpatrick - The Jolly Ploughboys - Jump at the Sun - Trailer
> [a capella vocal, in several parts, all john, from his first lp]
>
> Robin Williamson - Greensleeves Morris / Green Groweth the Holly / The
> Eagle's Whistle - Winter's Turning - Flying Fish
> [robin williamson is another who, from back in the incredible string
> band days to now, has used multi-tracking to fine artistic ends]
>
> Kapelye - In Shtetl Nikolaev - Future and Past - Flying Fish
> [probably direct to multi-track, still in the analog era, beautiful
> sound and wonderful playing and singing. my favorite of their albums,
> originally lp, now cd]
>
> Tina Chancey - Tom Billy's Jig Set -- Boys of the Lough - The Versatile
>
> Viol - self
> [more multi-tracked, but this time clearly digital, and a very fine
> album too from this member of hesperus]
>
> Pyewackett - The Limousine - 7 to Midnight - Familiar
> [this came out on cassette -- okay, lp too, but i got it on cassette.
> my mother heard them play in the lobby at the royal shakespeare theatre
>
> in london, and thought i would like them. boy, was she right. the album
>
> is mostly english country dance tunes, but this one is french]
>
> -----
>
> [miscellany, in content and in format:]
>
> William Tuson - Esquimaux Dance - - NJ Phonograph Cylinder Co, 1892
> [a recording of ghastly quality -- it was a cylinder, digitized, then
> downloaded in streaming audio. still, how many pieces can you find that
>
> are scored for clarinet, piano, anvil and dog?]
>
> Sydney Stripling - Alabama Red - - Download from Library of Congress,
> American Memory website
> [another download, from john a. lomax's 1939 field recording trip from
> texas to washington, dc; the recordings can be downloaded for free, in
> .wav format or .mp3]
>
> Tom Lehrer - I'm a Very Quiet Hound - - private tape
> [this was recorded in 1972 on reel-to-reel tape. lehrer was touring to
> raise money for george mcgovern's campaign, and played at a house near
> washington university. this was a song he's never recorded
> commercially,
> to my knowledge; it was written for 'the electric company', a kids'
> show
> on pbs]
>
> Walter Harp & Band - Square Dance to Chicken Reel - - Library of
> Congress download, 1939
> [recorded in california by sidney robertson cowell, probably on
> aluminum disc but it may have been a wire recorder. i had a request for
>
> a chicken song, dedicated to the listener's chickens; i obliged. that's
>
> another thing you don't get to do too often on air]
>
> -----
>
> Bart Veerman - Bunkyo - - Download from artist's website
> [finally, i ended with an .mp3 download, of a really nice banjo
> instrumental. according to the player, it conjures up a neighborhood in
>
> tokyo where they sell really good yakitori]
>
>
> So that was the program; comments and questions welcome as always. Next
>
> week, a program of guitar music. "No Time to Tarry Here" airs Sundays
> from 2 - 4 pm central daylight time (1900-2100 GMT) on KDHX-St. Louis,
> 88.1 FM, and over the net via RealAudio at www.kdhx.org . Programs are
> archived for two weeks after air.
>
> Peace,
> Paul
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [78-L] A Folk Music Playlist covering ALL recording formats!
> WORTH reading!
> From: Steve Ramm <steveramm78l at hotmail.com>
> Date: Sat, September 05, 2009 5:40 pm
> To: 78-l 78-l <78-l at 78online.com>
>
>
> There was an interesting posting on a Folk Music DJ list yesterday
> which I thought was interesting enough to share with you. I asked the
> poster if it was okay and he agreed.
>
> Paul Stampler is a a DJ with a show in St. Louis. His show on 8/30/
> covered the whole range of recorded sound formats except 8-track. I'll
> copy his full post which, again, I think you'll enjoy. Paul let me know
> that the show is still available for a few more days as a stream (I'm
> heading there new to listen) but it will be deleted. BTW, the Alexander
> Prince cylinder was taken from the UCSB website.
>
> So read on and enjoy! I found Paul to be really creative with this
> playlist.
>
> Here is the direct link to HEAR the stream:http://tinyurl.com/ysckyo
>
> Steve Ramm
>
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