Click On Title Page To Link To YouTube's Instrumental Version Of "Sally Anne". Sorry that I could not locate film clips of the artists mentioned below but such items are either non-existent or not readily available. There are, after all, limits even to today's technological possibilities of recovering the past.
CD Review
Going Out To The Hollows and Hills Of Appalachia
Southern Journey: Ballads And Breakdowns, Volume 2, various artists and Alan Lomax, Rounder Records, 1997
I have spent a fair amount of time recently reviewing, individually and on various artist compilations, performers from the 1960’s urban folk revival. You know Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Dave Van Ronk, Eric Von Schmidt and the like. I have also reviewed the earlier performers who influenced them on the more traditional folk side like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. There was, however, another component of that search for roots that entailed heading south to the Mississippi Delta, the Georgia Sea Islands, and the hills and hollows of Southern Appalachia to get ‘religion’ on the rural roots musical scene.
I mentioned in a review of the performers who influenced the 1960’s urban folk scene that it did not fall from the sky but had been transmitted by earlier performers. That, my friends, applies as well to the search for roots music. I also mentioned that we all, later when we understood things better, appreciated that John and Allan Lomax (here in this series carrying on his father’s work in the late 1950’s) did yeomen’s service to roots music by their travels into the hinterlands in the 1930’s and 1940’s (and had Pete Seeger tag along for a year and thus serve as a little transmission belt to the latter generation) to find blues, mountain and other types of American traditional music. However, most of us got our country blues infusion second-hand through our addiction to local coffeehouses and the performers who provided us entertainment. They, in turn, learned their material from the masters who populate this CD.
So what sticks out here in this CD that concentrates on the southern mountain regions of Virginia and environs? I would first note the hard Protestant spirit, if not Calvinism, of much of the music, as this compilation is about rural whites, their trials, and tribulations and struggles to eke out an existence on hard-scrabble land. I would also note the fair amount of a cappella work here. And that instrumentation is simple and clean, especially on the ubiquitous fiddle and the occasional banjo. That said, a nice version of “John Henry” works (a song that I have probably heard in twenty or so forms). As does a great rousing rendition of “Sally Anne” (also known under other names) and yet another variation on “The Banks Of The Ohio” (what doesn’t change in the versions is the murderous assault and the unrequited love of the story line). ‘The Little Schoolboy” by Hobart Smith, one of the stars of this CD is an interesting take on lost and death, a not infrequent theme is these ballads. If you want to hear fiddling done old style and get a feel for an important, if somewhat neglected part of the American experience then listen here.
BANKS OF THE OHIO (trad.)
Song lyrics on these pages only for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis
Bill and Charlie Monroe originally recorded this song on June 21, 1936, and show it as public domain on the Bluebird recording; although interestingly enough when Bill recorded it with the Blue Grass Boys on March 14, 1972 [BILL MONROE & JAMES MONROE, "FATHER & SON," MCA-310], he indicated that his version was adapted and arranged by B. Welch and J. Farrar [Blue Gum Music, Inc.].
The version done by Doc and Bill is obviously reminiscent of the Monroe Brothers' recording.
RALPH RINZLER, liner notes for Bill Monroe & Doc Watson, "LIVE DUET RECORDINGS 1963-1980" (SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS SF 40064, 1993)
I asked my love to take a walk,
Just a little way's with me.
An' as we walked,
Then we would talk
All about our wedding day.
CHORUS:
"Darlin', say that you'll be mine;
In our home we'll happy be,
Down beside where the waters flow,
On the banks of the Ohio."
I took her by her pretty white hand,
I led her down the banks of sand,
I plunged her in
Where she would drown,
An' watched her as she floated down.
CHORUS:
"Darlin', say that you'll be mine;
In our home we'll happy be,
Down beside where the waters flow,
On the banks of the Ohio."
Returnin' home between twelve and one,
Thinkin', Lord, what a deed I've done;
I'd killed the girl
I love, you see,
Because she would not marry me.
The very next day, at half past four,
The sheriff walked right to my door;
He says, "Young man,
Don't try to run.
You'll pay for this awful crime you've don."
CHORUS:
"Darlin', say that you'll be mine;
In our home we'll happy be,
Down beside where the waters flow,
On the banks of the Ohio."
CD Review
Going Out To The Hollows and Hills Of Appalachia
Southern Journey: Ballads And Breakdowns, Volume 2, various artists and Alan Lomax, Rounder Records, 1997
I have spent a fair amount of time recently reviewing, individually and on various artist compilations, performers from the 1960’s urban folk revival. You know Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Dave Van Ronk, Eric Von Schmidt and the like. I have also reviewed the earlier performers who influenced them on the more traditional folk side like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. There was, however, another component of that search for roots that entailed heading south to the Mississippi Delta, the Georgia Sea Islands, and the hills and hollows of Southern Appalachia to get ‘religion’ on the rural roots musical scene.
I mentioned in a review of the performers who influenced the 1960’s urban folk scene that it did not fall from the sky but had been transmitted by earlier performers. That, my friends, applies as well to the search for roots music. I also mentioned that we all, later when we understood things better, appreciated that John and Allan Lomax (here in this series carrying on his father’s work in the late 1950’s) did yeomen’s service to roots music by their travels into the hinterlands in the 1930’s and 1940’s (and had Pete Seeger tag along for a year and thus serve as a little transmission belt to the latter generation) to find blues, mountain and other types of American traditional music. However, most of us got our country blues infusion second-hand through our addiction to local coffeehouses and the performers who provided us entertainment. They, in turn, learned their material from the masters who populate this CD.
So what sticks out here in this CD that concentrates on the southern mountain regions of Virginia and environs? I would first note the hard Protestant spirit, if not Calvinism, of much of the music, as this compilation is about rural whites, their trials, and tribulations and struggles to eke out an existence on hard-scrabble land. I would also note the fair amount of a cappella work here. And that instrumentation is simple and clean, especially on the ubiquitous fiddle and the occasional banjo. That said, a nice version of “John Henry” works (a song that I have probably heard in twenty or so forms). As does a great rousing rendition of “Sally Anne” (also known under other names) and yet another variation on “The Banks Of The Ohio” (what doesn’t change in the versions is the murderous assault and the unrequited love of the story line). ‘The Little Schoolboy” by Hobart Smith, one of the stars of this CD is an interesting take on lost and death, a not infrequent theme is these ballads. If you want to hear fiddling done old style and get a feel for an important, if somewhat neglected part of the American experience then listen here.
BANKS OF THE OHIO (trad.)
Song lyrics on these pages only for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis
Bill and Charlie Monroe originally recorded this song on June 21, 1936, and show it as public domain on the Bluebird recording; although interestingly enough when Bill recorded it with the Blue Grass Boys on March 14, 1972 [BILL MONROE & JAMES MONROE, "FATHER & SON," MCA-310], he indicated that his version was adapted and arranged by B. Welch and J. Farrar [Blue Gum Music, Inc.].
The version done by Doc and Bill is obviously reminiscent of the Monroe Brothers' recording.
RALPH RINZLER, liner notes for Bill Monroe & Doc Watson, "LIVE DUET RECORDINGS 1963-1980" (SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS SF 40064, 1993)
I asked my love to take a walk,
Just a little way's with me.
An' as we walked,
Then we would talk
All about our wedding day.
CHORUS:
"Darlin', say that you'll be mine;
In our home we'll happy be,
Down beside where the waters flow,
On the banks of the Ohio."
I took her by her pretty white hand,
I led her down the banks of sand,
I plunged her in
Where she would drown,
An' watched her as she floated down.
CHORUS:
"Darlin', say that you'll be mine;
In our home we'll happy be,
Down beside where the waters flow,
On the banks of the Ohio."
Returnin' home between twelve and one,
Thinkin', Lord, what a deed I've done;
I'd killed the girl
I love, you see,
Because she would not marry me.
The very next day, at half past four,
The sheriff walked right to my door;
He says, "Young man,
Don't try to run.
You'll pay for this awful crime you've don."
CHORUS:
"Darlin', say that you'll be mine;
In our home we'll happy be,
Down beside where the waters flow,
On the banks of the Ohio."
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