Click on the title to link to a presentation by the artist or of the song listed in the headline.
The year 2009 has turned into something a year of review of the folk revival of the 1960s. In November I featured a posting of many of the episodes (via “YouTube”) of Pete Seeger’s classic folk television show from the 1960s, “Rainbow Quest”. I propose to do the same here to end out the year with as many of the selections from Harry Smith’s seminal “Anthology Of American Folk Music,” in one place, as I was able to find material for, either lyrics or "YouTube" performances (not necessarily by the original performer). This is down at the roots, for sure.
5 “Old lady & the devil” by Bill & Belle Reed
Bill & Belle Reed’s world
The 17th of October 1928, in Johnston City, Tennessee, Mr and Mrs Reed recorded one session for Columbia. They were probably coming from the nearby regions of Virginia or Kentucky along with other people coming to record this day. Like many before and after them, they would go back to their regulary life, after having fixed their home-made folk music on disc for posterity…
-Apart from their version of “The old lady and the devil” that was included on the Anthology, i know of only one other side from them. It’s called “You shall be free” , which will become “We shall be free” interpreted by Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly and “I shall be free” with Bob Dylan’s version…
So, here they are:
1.You Shall be free by Bill & Belle Reed MP3
2.We shall be free by Woody Guthrie & Leadbelly (from ”The Original Vision” on Folkways) MP3
3.I shall be free by Bob Dylan (from “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan) MP3
Listening to this three tracks side by side , it revealed before me the great picture of american folk music on record, the three generations that shaped its tradition. First, you have the “real folks”, people that were recorded in the twenties and thirties, but carried with them a long oral tradition that predates the recording industry. Then came Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly, the two greatest figures of the folk movement of the forties, that was more involved with social issues and politics, already on the marge of the recording industry and “popular music”. And finally, you have Bob Dylan and the “folk revival” of the fifties and sixties, that reflects the heritage of what came before him and represented the new conscience of young people in America and all over the world in search of an alternative to the mass-entertainement culture and an authentic tradition to hang on to.
Hoping that one day, You, We, I shall be free…
The old lady and the devil Variations
After “The Drunkard’s Special”,and to stay in the comic register, Harry Smith put another americanized verison of a “Child Ballad” called “The Farmer’s Curst Wife”. Here, a bad lady is taken to hell by the devil but she’s so mean that the devil take her back to her husband. Child noticed that you can find similar songs all over the world… All the versions seems to share a nonsense refrain or a whistling part.
-Go here for the lyrics of Bill & Belle Reed’s version
-My compilation of twenty variations includes lots of traditionnal american and english versions but i managed to find unusual ones like the psychadelic folk of Gryphon and the punk-rock of The Mules. My personnal favorites are Terry Callier’s ,Texas Gladden with her brother Hobart Smith on guitar and as usual, the John Jacob Niles version is terrific…
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