In The Time Of The Second Mountain Music Revival- A Songcatcher Classic Song- "Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies"-Maybelle Carter-Style

Happy Birthday To You-

By Lester Lannon

I am devoted to a local folk station WUMB which is run out of the campus of U/Mass-Boston over near Boston Harbor. At one time this station was an independent one based in Cambridge but went under when their significant demographic base deserted or just passed on once the remnant of the folk minute really did sink below the horizon.

So much for radio folk history except to say that the DJs on many of the programs go out of their ways to commemorate or celebrate the birthdays of many folk, rock, blues and related genre artists. So many and so often that I have had a hard time keeping up with noting those occurrences in this space which after all is dedicated to such happening along the historical continuum.

To “solve” this problem I have decided to send birthday to that grouping of musicians on an arbitrary basis as I come across their names in other contents or as someone here has written about them and we have them in the archives. This may not be the best way to acknowledge them, but it does do so in a respectful manner.   

Click on title to link to a classic "Songcatcher"-type song from deep in the mountains, "Come All You Fair And Tender Ladies". According to my sources Cecil Sharpe (a British musicologist in the manner of Francis Child and Charles Seeger)"discovered" the song in 1916 in Kentucky. Of course my first connection to the song was long ago in my ill-spent youth listening to a late Sunday night folk radio show and hearing Dave Van Ronk doing his version of the song. Quite different from the Maybelle Carter effort here. I'll say.


COME ALL YE FAIR AND TENDER LADIES
(A.P. Carter)

The Carter Family - 1932
The Kingston Trio - 1961
Osborne Brothers - 1962
Anita Carter - 1963
Glen Campbell - 1963
The Browns - 1964
George Hamilton IV - 1964
Makem & Clancy - 1964
Clive Palmer - 1967
The Manhattan Transfer - 1969
Dave Van Ronk - 1969
The Hillmen - 1970
Herb Pedersen - 1977
Charlie McCoy - 1978
Mary McCaslin - 1981
Gene Clark & Carla Olson - 1987
The Rankin Family - 1992
The Whites - 2000

Also recorded by: June Carter; Rosanne Cash; Merle Travis;
Bread & Bones; Cherish The Ladies; Golden Delicious; Danú;
Murray Head; Country Gentlemen; Pete Seeger; Ian & Sylvia;
George Elliott; Black Twigs; Craig Herbertson; Tim O'Brien;
The Peasall Sisters:........and others.



Come all ye fair and tender ladies
Take warning how you court young men
They're like a bright star on a cloudy morning
They will first appear and then they're gone

They'll tell to you some loving story
To make you think that they love you true
Straightway they'll go and court some other
Oh that's the love that they have for you

Do you remember our days of courting
When your head lay upon my breast
You could make me believe with the falling of your arm
That the sun rose in the West

I wish I were some little sparrow
And I had wings and I could fly
I would fly away to my false true lover
And while he'll talk I would sit and cry

But I am not some little sparrow
I have no wings nor can I fly
So I'll sit down here in grief and sorrow
And try to pass my troubles by

I wish I had known before I courted
That love had been so hard to gain
I'd of locked my heart in a box of golden
And fastened it down with a silver chain

Young men never cast your eye on beauty
For beauty is a thing that will decay
For the prettiest flowers that grow in the garden
How soon they'll wither, will wither and fade away


******


ALTERNATE VERSION:


Come all ye fair and tender ladies
Take warning how you court young men
They're like a star on summer morning
They first appear and then they're gone

They'll tell to you some loving story
And make you think they love you so well
Then away they'll go and court some other
And leave you there in grief to dwell

I wish I was on some tall mountain
Where the ivy rocks are black as ink
I'd write a letter to my lost true lover
Whose cheeks are like the morning pink

For love is handsome, love is charming
And love is pretty while it's new
But love grows cold as love grows old
And fades away like the mornin' dew
And fades away like the mornin' dew

The Centennial Of Pete Seeger’s Birthday (1919-2014)- *In Honor The Late Ralph Stanley- Of Once Again, On The 1960s Folk Revival- The Roots Is The Toots

CD Review

Folk Classics: Roots of American Folk Music, various artists, CBS Records, 1989




Okay, so I have gone through Harry Smith's "Anthology of American Folk Music" in this space. I have also spent no little time touting Pete Seeger's 1960s television folk series, "Rainbow Quest" here as well. I have written about the troubadours, male and female, young and old, who hung around New York City's Washington Square in the early 1960s trying to develop a play list that would get them through a night of 'open mikes' at some subterranean venue. The only thing I haven't done is to provide a resume of what your average hungry folk artist sought to 'discover' during the high side of the folk revival. Well, I make amends here.


This little CD contains more staple material from the mountains, from the old time Child ballads, from the Lomax cowboy song book than you can shake a stick at. If one looks at the list on this CD you will find all the material that you need to start you off on a folk singing career. Of course, it will help if you can sing and play like Johnny Cash and the Carter Family or sing and play like the Beer family or work it out like you were really cowboy like Ramblin' Jack Elliot. But that is the subject of another commentary.


Although everything here is classic not everything may be to your liking. Here are my "likings": “Jesse James”, Pete Seeger and friends (although Pete, remember Jesse was on the wrong side in the Civil War and had the funny habit of continuing that war after it was formally over by robbing Northern banks; “The Streets Of Laredo”, Harry Jackson; “Pretty Polly”, The Stanley Brothers (ouch on the lyrics here-who said love was all roses and sweetness); “The Banks Of The Ohio”, The Carter Family With Johnny Cash (same as Pretty Polly comment); “Black Is The Color”, Orriel Smith; “Matty Groves”, The Beers Family (Francis Child knew how to collect ballads with a cautionary tale to tell); and, “Worried Man Blues”, Scruggs and Flatt with Maybelle Carter.


The Streets of Laredo
arranged & adapted by Arlo Guthrie

As I walked out in the streets of Laredo
As I walked out in Laredo one day
I spied a poor cowboy wrapped up in white linen
All wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay

"I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy"
These words he did say as I proudly stepped by
"Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story
I'm shot in the breast and I know I must die

"'Twas once in the saddle I used to go ridin'
Once in the saddle I used to go gay
First lead to drinkin', and then to card-playing
I'm shot in the breast and I'm dying today

"Let six jolly cowboys come carry my coffin
Let six pretty gals come to carry my pall
Throw bunches of roses all over my coffin
Throw roses to deaden the clods as they fall

"Oh, beat the drum slowly, and play the fife lowly
And play the dead march as you carry me along
Take me to the green valley and lay the earth o'er me
For I'm a poor cowboy and I know I've done wrong"

We beat the drum slowly and played the fife lowly
And bitterly wept as we carried him along
For we all loved our comrade, so brave, young and handsome
We all loved our comrade although he done wrong

©1991 Arloco Music Inc
All Rights Reserved.

Pretty Polly Lyrics

Polly, pretty Polly, would you think me unkind

Polly, pretty Polly, would you think me unkind

if I sat down beside you and told you my mind



My mind is to marry and never to part

My mind is to marry and never to part,

The first time I saw you it wounded my heart



Polly, pretty Polly, come and go along with me

Polly, pretty Polly, come and go along with me

Before we get married some pleasure to seek



He led her over mountains and valleys so deep

He led her over mountains and valleys so deep

Polly misjudged him and she began to weep



Sayin' "Willie, Oh Willie, I'm afraid of your ways"

Willie, Oh Willie, I'm afraid of your ways"

The way you've been ramblin' you'd lead me astray



He said "Polly, pretty Polly, your guess is about right.

Polly, pretty Polly, your guess is about right,

I dug on your grave the best part of last night



She followed him a little farther and what did she find

She followed him a little farther and what did she find

A new dug grave and a spade lyin' by



She knelt down before him and begged for her life

She knelt down before him and begged for her life

Sayin' "Let me be a single girl if I can't be your wife"



"Polly, pretty polly that never could be.

Polly, pretty polly that never could be,

Your fast reputation's been trouble to me



He stabbed her through the heart and her heart's blood did flow

He stabbed her through the heart and her heart's blood did flow

And into the grave Pretty Polly did go.


He went to the jailhouse and what did he say

He went to the jailhouse and what did he say

I've killed pretty Polly and I'm tryin' to get away

Jesse James

Jesse James, living in St. Joseph, Missouri under his pseudonym "Thomas Howard" was shot by Robert Ford on April 4, 1882. Robert Ford was a member of Jesse's gang whom Jesse regarded as a friend. Ford shot Jesse in the back while Jesse was hanging a picture. According to Randolph the song became popular throughout the Midwest almost immediately after Jesse's death. Ford himself was shot in 1892 by another member of Jesse's gang.


Jesse James was a lad who killed many a man
He robbed the Glendale train;
He stole from the rich and he gave to the poor
He'd a hand and a heart and a brain.
Poor Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life,
Three children, they were brave;
But that dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard
Has laid poor Jesse in his grave.

It was Robert Ford, that dirty little coward;
I wonder how he does feel
For he ate of Jesse's bread and he slept in Jesse's bed
Then laid poor Jesse in his grave.
Poor Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life,
Three children, they were brave;
But that dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard
Has laid poor Jesse in his grave.

Jesse was a man, a friend to the poor
He never would see a man suffer pain,
And with his brother Frank he robbed the Chicago bank,
And stopped the Glendale train.
Poor Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life,
Three children, they were brave;
But that dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard
Has laid poor Jesse in his grave.

It was his brother Frank that robbed the Gallatin bank,
And carried the money from the town;
It was in this very place that they had a little race,
For they shot Captain Sheets to the ground.
Poor Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life,
Three children, they were brave;
But that dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard
Has laid poor Jesse in his grave.

They went to the crossing not very far from there,
And there they did the same;
With the agent on his knees, he delivered up the keys
To the outlaws, Frank and Jesse James.
Poor Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life,
Three children, they were brave;
But that dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard
Has laid poor Jesse in his grave.

It was on Saturday night, Jesse was at home
Talking with his family brave,
Robert Ford came along like a thief in the night
And laid poor Jesse in his grave.
Poor Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life,
Three children, they were brave;
But that dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard
Has laid poor Jesse in his grave.

The people held their breath
When they heard of Jesse's death
And wondered how he ever came to die.
It was one of the gang called little Robert Ford
He shot poor Jesse on the sly.
Poor Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life,
Three children, they were brave;
But that dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard
Has laid poor Jesse in his grave.

This song was made by Billy Gashade,
As soon as the news did arrive;
He said there was no man with the law in his hand
Who could take Jesse James when alive.
Poor Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life,
Three children, they were brave;
But that dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard
Has laid poor Jesse in his grave.

In The Time Of The Second Mountain Music Revival- A Songcatcher Classic Song- "Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies"-Maybelle Carter-Style

In The Time Of The Second Mountain Music Revival- A Songcatcher Classic Song- "Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies"-Maybelle Carter-Style

As told to Si Lannon

A YouTube film clip of a classic Song-Catcher-type song from deep in the mountains, Come All You Fair And Tender Ladies. According to my sources Cecil Sharpe (a British musicologist in the manner of Francis Child with his ballads, Charles Seeger, and the Lomaxes, father and son when they headed south and west to fink the “people’s music”)"discovered" the song in 1916 in Kentucky. Of course my first connection to the song had nothing to do with the mountains, or mountain origins, or so I though at the time but was heard the first time long ago in my ill-spent 1960s youth listening to a late Sunday night folk radio show on WBZ in Boston hosted by Dick Summer (who is featured on the 2012 Tom Rush documentary No Regrets about Tom’s life in the early 1960s Boston folk scene) and hearing the late gravelly-voiced folksinger Dave Van Ronk like some latter-day Jehovah doing his version of the song. I know the next day I rushed over to the now exiled out in Utah somewhere Allan Jackson’s house and asked him if he had heard the song the previous night. He said hell no. This before he became a serious folk aficionado and was still hung up on some lollipop music that all the neighborhood high school girls were going crazy over, a bunch of Bobbies, I forget the last names, and so required some attention if he was to get anywhere with Diana Nelson. 

But that was high school dream stuff so I let it go then. A couple of years later when he was in college at Boston University he took a date to the long gone Club Nana over in Harvard Square to hear Dave Von Ronk play and where he did the song. He called me the next saying that he finally got it. By the way the way that Club Nana date came about was that his date was crazy for Dave Von Ronk. Some things never changed. In all quite a bit different from the Maybelle Carter effort here. I'll say.

[By the way that “or so I thought” about mountain music later turned out to be not quite true. My father from coal country Hazard, Kentucky out by the hills and hollows (I refuse to write “hollas”) and my mother left Boston for a time to go back to his growing up home to see if they could make a go of it there after World War II. They could not but that was a separate story while they were there I was conceived and being carried in my mothers’ womb so it turned out the damn stuff was in my DNA. Go figure, right.]     

COME ALL YE FAIR AND TENDER LADIES
(A.P. Carter)

The Carter Family - 1932

Come all ye fair and tender ladies

Take warning how you court young men

They're like a bright star on a cloudy morning

They will first appear and then they're gone

They'll tell to you some loving story

To make you think that they love you true

Straightway they'll go and court some other

Oh that's the love that they have for you

Do you remember our days of courting

When your head lay upon my breast

You could make me believe with the falling of your arm

That the sun rose in the West

I wish I were some little sparrow

And I had wings and I could fly

I would fly away to my false true lover

And while he'll talk I would sit and cry

But I am not some little sparrow

I have no wings nor can I fly

So I'll sit down here in grief and sorrow

And try to pass my troubles by

I wish I had known before I courted

That love had been so hard to gain

I'd of locked my heart in a box of golden

And fastened it down with a silver chain

Young men never cast your eye on beauty

For beauty is a thing that will decay

For the prettiest flowers that grow in the garden

How soon they'll wither, will wither and fade away

******

ALTERNATE VERSION:

Come all ye fair and tender ladies

Take warning how you court young men

They're like a star on summer morning

They first appear and then they're gone

They'll tell to you some loving story

And make you think they love you so well

Then away they'll go and court some other

And leave you there in grief to dwell

I wish I was on some tall mountain

Where the ivy rocks are black as ink

I'd write a letter to my lost true lover

Whose cheeks are like the morning pink

For love is handsome, love is charming

And love is pretty while it's new

But love grows cold as love grows old

And fades away like the mornin' dew

And fades away like the mornin' dew

Old Time Music, Indeed!-Part Three

Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Maybelle Carter Performing "Cannonball Blues".

CD Review

Friends Of Old Time Music, various artists, 3CD set, Smithsonian/Folkways Recordings, 2006


This three disc compilation (including an incredibly informative booklet giving a mother lode of material, including photographs, about the how, when and why of bringing the mainly Southern, mainly rural talents to New York City in the early 1960s) will give the new generation and many older aficionados, in one place, a primer of great value. If you want to know the details of this part of the folk revival puzzle you certainly have to start here. For the beginner or the aficionado this is a worthwhile addition to the store of our common musical heritage.

Rather than repeat information that is readily available in the booklet and on the discs I’ll finish up here with some recommendations of songs that I believe you should be sure to listen to:

Disc Three: Jesse Fuller on “Guitar Lesson” and “Cincinnati Blues,” Maybelle Carter on “He’s Solid Gone" and “Sugar Hill," Roscoe Holcomb on “Rising Sun Blues,” Mississippi John Hurt on “Frankie And Albert,”
and The Clarence Ashley Group on “Amazing Grace”.

Note: I should mention that all five of Maybelle Carter’s tracks on this compilation have made my recommendations list. I might add that her performances here (in 1965, and accompanied by members of The New Lost City Ramblers) make me wonder out loud, very out loud, what the heck she was doing all those years as merely one member of the Carter Family trio. Off these performances I now know who held that operation together musically. Not just her well-regarded and influential country guitar work and her use of the auto harp but her finely-etched voice that comes out very nicely on something like “Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow”.


He's Solid Gone

One day I am happy
The next day I am blue
Now I’m so lonely
I don’t know what to do
He’s gone, he’s solid gone

Down here a crying cause he’s gone
Wish that I was dying cause he’s gone, he’s solid gone

Washed his jumper, starched his overalls
He caught that train they call the Cannonball
From Buffalo to Washington

Down here a crying cause he’s gone
Wish that I was dying cause he’s gone, he’s solid gone

Listen to that train
Coming down the track
Carried him away
But it ain’t going to bring him back
He’s gone, he’s solid gone

Down here a crying cause he’s gone
Wish that I was dying cause he’s gone, he’s solid gone

My baby left me
He even took my shoes
Enough to give a gal the doggone worried blues
He’s gone, he’s solid gone

Down here a crying cause he’s gone
Wish that I was dying cause he’s gone, he’s solid gone

Old Time Music, Indeed!-Part Two

Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Maybelle Carter Performing "The Storms Are On The Ocean".

CD Review

Friends Of Old Time Music, various artists, 3CD set, Smithsonian/Folkways Recordings, 2006

This three disc compilation (including an incredibly informative booklet giving a mother lode of material, including photographs, about the how, when and why of bringing the mainly Southern, mainly rural talents to New York City in the early 1960s) will give the new generation and many older aficionados, in one place, a primer of great value. If you want to know the details of this part of the folk revival puzzle you certainly have to start here. For the beginner or the aficionado this is a worthwhile addition to the store of our common musical heritage.

Rather than repeat information that is readily available in the booklet and on the discs I’ll finish up here with some recommendations of songs that I believe you should be sure to listen to:

Disc Two: Maybelle Carter on "Foggy Mountain Top” and “Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow,” Jesse Fuller on “San Francisco Bay Blues,” Roscoe Holcomb on “John Henry,” and Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers on “Before This Time Another Year”


Foggy Mountain Top

If I had listened to what mama said
I would not have been here today
Wishing for thing I'll never have
And weeping my sweet life away

If I was on some foggy mountain top
I'd sail way out to the west
I'd sail all around this old wide world
To the girl I love the best

You caused me to weep, you caused me to mourn
You caused me to leave my home
Oh that lonesome pine and the good old times
I'm on my way back home

Oh when you see that two-faced blonde
There is something you can tell her
She need not fool her time away
A-tryin' to steal my feller

Oh when you come to court me
Put on your navy blue
That long tail "roust-about" you wear
Don't do a thing for you

Old Time Music, Indeed!

Click On Title To Link To YouTube's Film Clip Of Dock Boggs Performing "Sugar Baby".

CD Review

Friends Of Old Time Music, various artists, 3CD set, Smithsonian/Folkways Recordings, 2006

Okay, maybe the now somewhat eclipsed mountain music and country blues revival of the early 2000s driven by George Clooney’s “Brother, Where Art Thou?” and “Songcatcher” revived some names from those traditions like The Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys and Maybelle Carter (although her connection with the Carter Family and Johnny Cash probably would have made her well-known in any case). But how about Kentucky banjo/fiddler (and much else) Roscoe Holcomb? Or Hobart Smith? Or Dock Boggs? Or…. I could go on but, hopefully, you get my drift.

What I am talking about is the lesser lights of these genres and the acknowledgement of their proper place in the American Songbook. That, my friends, comes from the “rediscovery” of these last-mentioned performers as part of the general trend back to roots music that drove the overall folk revival of the early 1960’s. The producers of this outstanding three-disc compilation are at pains to separate these genres out from the other doings of that time such as the search for the roots of the blues and the creation of a new up-to-date folk idiom by a wave of singer/songwriters who were thick as fleas in those days crowding New York City for recognition. One name, Bob Dylan, can, arbitrarily, serve as the symbol for that trend.

For lack of a better term, Friend of Old Time Music (FOTM), served as a transmission belt to bring this particular form of music to the roots hungry, urban young longing for a different musical sound. From personal knowledge this reviewer, and many from his generation, were desperately seeking music not provided in the precincts of Tin Pan Alley and other safe havens that had emasculated the rockabilly and rock and roll that drove our teen years. We may not have been able to articulate it exactly that way but we knew we did not want a continual diet of Sandra Dee and Bobby Vee.

This three disc compilation (including an incredibly informative booklet giving a mother lode of material, including photographs, about the how, when and why of bringing the mainly Southern, mainly rural talents to New York City in the early 1960s) will give the new generation and many older aficionados, in one place, a primer of great value. If you want to know the details of this part of the folk revival puzzle you certainly have to start here. For the beginner or the aficionado this is a worthwhile addition to the store of our common musical heritage.

Rather than repeat information that is readily available in the booklet and on the discs I’ll finish up here with some recommendations of songs that I believe you should be sure to listen to:

Disc One: Dock Boggs on “The Country Blues," Mississippi Fred McDowell on “Going Down The River,” Roscoe Holcomb on “East Virginia Blues,” Hobart Smith on “Soldier’s Joy,” Mississippi John Hurt on “Coffee Blues,” Maybelle Carter on “The Storms Are On The Ocean,” and Jesse Fuller on “Buck And Wing”

Disc Two: Maybelle Carter on "Foggy Mountain Top” and “Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow,” Jesse Fuller on “San Francisco Bay Blues,” Roscoe Holcomb on “John Henry,” and Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers on “Before This Time Another Year”

Disc Three: Jesse Fuller on “Guitar Lesson” and “Cincinnati Blues,” Maybelle Carter on “He’s Solid Gone" and “Sugar Hill," Roscoe Holcomb on “Rising Sun Blues,” Mississippi John Hurt on “Frankie And Albert,”
and The Clarence Ashley Group on “Amazing Grace”.

Note: I should mention that all five of Maybelle Carter’s tracks on this compilation have made my recommendations list. I might add that her performances here (in 1965, and accompanied by members of The New Lost City Ramblers) make me wonder out loud, very out loud, what the heck she was doing all those years as merely one member of the Carter Family trio. Off these performances I now know who held that operation together musically. Not just her well-regarded and influential country guitar work and her use of the auto harp but her finely-etched voice that comes out very nicely on something like “Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow”.


"The Storms Are On The Ocean"

I'm going away to leave you love
I'm going away for a while
But I'll return to see you sometime
If I go ten thousand miles

The storms are on the ocean
The heavens may cease to be
This world may lose it's motion love
If I prove false to thee

Oh who will dress your pretty little feet
And who will glove your hand
Oh who will kiss your rosy red cheeks
When I'm in a foreign land

Papa will dress my pretty little feet
And Mama will glove my hand
You may kiss my rosy red cheeks
When you return again

Have you seen those mournful doves
Flying from pine to pine
A-mournin' for their own true love
Just like I mourn for mine

I'll never go back on the ocean love
I'll never go back on the sea
I'll never go back on my blue-eyed girl
'Til she goes back on me

"Hello Central, Give Me Heaven"

Hello central give me heaven
For I know my mother's there
And you'll find her with the angels
Over on the golden stair

She'll be glad it's me a speaking
Wont you call her for me please
For I surely want to tell her
That we're sad without her here

Hello central give me heaven
For I know my mother's there
You will find her with the angels
Over on the golden stair

Poppa dear is said and lonely
Sobbed the tearful little child
Since momma's gone to heaven
Poppa dear you do not smile

I will speak to her and tell her
That we want her to come home
You just listen while I call her
Call her through the telephone

I will answer just to please her
Yes dear heart I'll soon come home
Kiss me momma it's your darling
Kiss me through the telephone

*Walking The Line-At The End- The Carter Family’s June Carter Cash Bids Adieu

Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of June Carter Cash performing the original Carter Family classic "Will You Miss Me When I Am Gone?

CD Review

Wildwood Flower, June Carter Cash, Johnny Cash, Norman and Nancy Blake and various artists, produced by John Carter Cash, Dueltone Records, 2003

Recently I did a series of DVD reviews of legendary folklorist Pete Seeger’s old television show “Rainbow Quest” in which, on one of the segments, June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash were featured. Here is part of what I had to say there:

“In a year that has featured various 90th birthday celebrations it is very appropriate to review some of the 1960’s television work of Pete Seeger, one of the premier folk anthologists, singers, transmitters of the tradition and “keeper” of the folk flame. This DVD is a “must see” for anyone who is interested in the history of the folk revival of the 1960’s, the earnest, folksy style of Pete Seeger or the work of the also tradition-oriented , although that fact was previously unknown to me, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash (she of the famous Carter Family tribe. How is that for traditional bloodlines?). This is not only a musical treat seeing the real subjects of the hit movie of a few years ago, “Walk The Line” that got me interested, at least somewhat, in Johnny Cash’s music but filled with information about the Carter Family that I have been interested in for a long time. Pete, by the way, couldn’t be more pleased in working with this pair and they regale us with some old Carter Family songs like “Worried Man Blues”. “

As a result of that experience I went back and reviewed the film “Walk The Line” and here is what I had to say, in part, there:

“I am reviewing this nicely done commercial effort to delve into parts of the lives of the legendary singers Johnny Cash and his (eventual) wife June Carter Cash (of the famous mountain music Carter Family bloodlines. Her mother was the incredible vocalist and guitarist Maybelle Carter) in reverse order. Although I saw the this film for the first time when it was released in theaters (and have viewed it several times on DVD) several years ago I am reviewing now after having just seen the real Johnny Cash and June Carter on one of the segments of Pete Seeger’s black and white television programs from the mid-1960s, “Rainbow Quest” where they appeared. And knocked me, and I think Pete, over with their renditions of Carter Family material and information about that clan.

Okay, here is the skinny. If you want to get the glamorous, sexy romance and a fetching June Carter (Reese Witherspoon), the heartache and longing of pain in the butt Johnny Cash and the eventual joining together of two great musical talents story then this is the place to start. But, if you want the reason why this film was made in the first place, the legendary musical talent, warts and all, then watch them go through their paces along with old Pete Seeger. Both are worth the time. “

Well, my friends, excuse this roundabout way to get to the CD under review but the points made above will stand for my thoughts on this last June Carter Cash CD. I can only add that when you listen to it you will feel the Appalachian mountain breeze, the sound from the hollows below but most of all you will hear the voice of Maybelle Carter come back to life in daughter June in 2002. And with the likes of Norman and Nancy Blake as backup where is there anything to find wrong with here? The tops here are two classic Carter Family songs, a soulful “Storms Are On The Ocean” and a cryptic (under the circumstance as she way dying at the time) “Will You Miss Me When I Gone?” with the whole gang, including Johnny joining in. Whoa, what a send off!

Storms are on the ocean

I'm go[C]ing a[F]way to [C]leave you, love, I'm going a[G]way for a[C]while,

but I'll re[F]turn to [C]you some time, if I go ten thou[G]sand [ C]miles.

CH

The [F]storms are on the [C]ocean, the [F]heavens may [G]cease to [C]be,

this [F]world may lose its [C]motion, love, if I prove [G]false to [C]thee.



Oh, who will dress your pretty little feet, oh, who will glove your hand.

Oh, who will kiss your rosy red cheek, when I'm in a far off land?



The storms are on the ocean, the heavens may cease to be,

this world may lose its motion, love, if I prove false to thee.



3.Oh,Poppa will dress my pretty little feet,and Momma will glove my hand.

You can kiss my rosy red cheeks, when you return again.

CH


Oh, have you seen those mournful doves, flying from pine to pine,

a-mourning for their own true love just like I mourn for mine.

CH


I'll never go back on the ocean, love, I'll never go back on the sea,

I'll never go back from the blue-eyed girl, till she goes back on me.

CH

WILL YOU MISS ME WHEN I’M GONE
D
1. When death shall close these eyelids,
G D
and this heart shall cease to beat,

and they lay me down to rest
A A7 D
in some flowery-bound retreat.
D
Will you miss me (miss me when I'm gone) ?
G D
Will you miss me (miss me when I'm gone) ?

Will you miss me (miss me when I'm gone) ?
A A7 D
Will you miss me when I'm gone ?

D
2. Perhaps you'll plant a flower
G D
on my poor, unworthy grave.

Come and sit alone beside me,
A A7 D
when the roses nod and wave. + CHORUS
D
3. One sweet thought my soul shall cherish,
G D
when this fleeting life has flown,

this sweet thought will cheer when dying,
A A7 D
will you miss me when I'm gone. + CHORUS
D
4. When these lips shall never more
G D
press a kiss upon thy brow,

but lie cold and still in death,
A A7 D
will you love me then as now. + CHORUS

(capo 2 nd) (The Carter Family)