*There Is No Eye, Indeed- John Cohen’s Music For Photographs

Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of The New Lost City Ramblers Performing "The Soldier And The Lady".

CD (Plus Booklet Of Photographs) Review

There Is No Eye: Music For Photographs, music by various performers and photographs by John Cohen, Smithsonian/Folkways (Of course), 2001

Recently I was asked by a commenter on one of my blog sites how this current rash of reviews of mountain music, roots music or what have you that I have been frantically writing relates to the general theme of my work, reviews and comments on the history of the left in America and our current propaganda tasks. Good question. Hidden away in the recesses of trying to understand our common plebeian political history and why we have been on the political defensive for almost one hundred years now in our efforts to bring some social justice to this beleaguered country and establish some sense of working class consciousness is a rich, if underappreciated, body of cultural work, including musical, artistic and literary work, trying, one way or another, to do just that thing.

Those cultural efforts may not have always been, consciously or not, on the order of what is necessary to turn the capitalist regime out. They may not have always been made to order for our more thoroughly thought out theories of social struggle. And, certainly, the works and their creators or performers may not have always been “politically correct” and we may be forced to create an every day policy akin to the American military’s policy on the question of gays in the service- “don’t ask, don’t tell” in regard to some of the musical characters that are given space here but this is our common history- warts and all. The point to move on from there.

All of the above is by way of introducing a very interesting piece of Americana put out in 2001 by, one could almost say naturally, by Smithsonian/Folkways. As the headline to this review indicates this CD combines roots music and photographs by John Cohen of the performers in question to accompany that music. For those not familiar with the folk revival of the 1960’s John Cohen was already waiting at the gate for the young folkies to arrive at Greenwich Village. He, along with Tom Paley and Mike Seeger (venerable Pete’s half-brother), had already formed The New Lost City Ramblers who were an important catalyst in finding and “discovering” much roots music- just because they thought it was important to keep that tradition alive. Well, what do you think about that?

Almost every one familiar with roots music knows of the work of Pete Seeger’s father in going out into the field to record or listen to roots music back in the day. As many, perhaps, know of Pete’s own work in this area. Moreover, it is almost impossible to be interested in this genre and not know the work of John and then his son Alan Lomax (and to a much lesser extent Harry Smith). Many fewer, including this reviewer, knew of the field work of John Cohen, as least in taking pictures of musicians in the field. There is a 36 page booklet that accompanies this CD filled with liner notes and some of those photographs. This, my friends, is part of our history. Yes, part of our American left history.

For those non-believers let me just give a few examples to whet your appetite. How about Reverend Gary Davis, a country blues guitar virtuoso who has been the subject of more than one review in this space doing.” If I Had My Way”. Of course from the urban blue genre an early Muddy Waters doing “I Can’t Be Satisfied”. Or a very young Bob Dylan doing a song (on a radio show) that even an aficionado like me had not previously heard, “Roll On John”. How about Roscoe Holcomb, another name mentioned more than once in this space, doing “Man Of Constant Sorrow”. He is a man of Appalachia who I was thinking of when I mentioned that don’t ask, don’t tell policy above. You just know that he is one of those God-fearing good old boys. The same with Eck Robinson here doing the classic (and much covered) “Sally Goodin”. Needless to say no compilation in the modern era can skip over the work of North Carolina’s Elizabeth Cotten here performing “Oh Babe , It Ain’t No Lie”. Or, for that matter Woody Guthrie (whose pensive, I think as I am not sure of the date of the picture, photograph graces the cover of this CD) doing “Ramblin’ Round”. Of course, as mentioned above Brother Cohen gives a nod, rightly so, to his own work with The New Lost City Ramblers here doing “Buck Creek Girl”.

Now if all of this is not enough to make my point about the interconnection between our leftist sensibilities and our common musical roots heritage then this last point will have to do. One of the selections here seems out of kilter. That is a modern jazzy piece by the David Amram Quartet doing a scat called ‘Pull My Daisy”. For those, again, not familiar with the New York scene in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s this is also the name of film that “Beats” Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassidy (the model for the Dean Moriarty character in Kerouac’s “On The Road”) and Allen Ginsberg wrote, acted in, and produced. One may question the leftist (or any political) credentials of the ‘‘beats” but one cannot gainsay their seeking for American roots. There is a definite line from the Walt Whitman of “Leaves of Grass” arguably the first serious literary search for an American road to the “‘beats”. That, however, is best left for another day. Enough for now, except roots music and photos. Kudos Brother Cohen. Better check this one out.