A journal about the songs, musicians and performances I love, Old Time, Bluegrass, Folk and Blues, Rock n Roll and occasional Mongolian Throat Singing....
Bill Keith passed away, too soon. I remember back in the 70's he created a sensation in bluegrass circles by using the fifth string in a way that had never been done before. It used to be that the fifth string was almost never fretted and used mainly as a drone string to keep the rhythm going. But Bill decided to play way up on the neck of the banjo and use the fifth string to carry the melody as well as chromatic runs up and down the scales. Eventually the "chromatic" or "melodic" style (or "Keith" style) came to recognized as its own style, different from the Old Time that we play in West Virginia or the Scruggs style played in Kentucky Bluegrass. The first time I heard Keith style banjo played was at Jd LaBash's music store in Berea Ohio. I was awed by Devils Dream and other songs and I even learned to play a few songs. Bill influenced an entire generation of banjo players. I never met him, but from all I have heard he was modest and unassuming despite the fact that he was idolized as a folk icon.
On Christmas Day 1895, "Stack" Lee Shelton fatally shot William Lyons in Bill Curtis' saloon after an argument in which Shelton first crushed Lyons' hat, after which Lyons retaliated by snatching Shelton's Stetson. After shooting Lyons, Shelton simply picked up his hat and left. Later, however, he was arrested, and convicted after a sensational trial which was widely covered in the press.
From this tragedy, several songs were written, including this version by Mississippi John Hurt. Mississippi John Hurt was an interesting story in his own right. He was known to music historians like John and Alan Lomax, who had included a few of his songs recorded in the 1920s, in their 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music. No one knew what had happened to old John, but in 1963, a music historian by the name of Tom Hoskins decided to travel to a rural town called Avalon Mississippi, since Mississippi John had recorded the "Avalon Blues." Perhaps people in Avalon might know something about the enigmatic musician. Amazingly, not only did people remember John Hurt, but he was still alive, making a modest living by farming. Not only that, but John Hurt had a broad repetoire of songs that no one had ever heard before, and to top it off he was a warm, funny "country philosopher" of sorts, and an absolutely terrific performer that crowds of paying customers adored. In his last years he was finally given some of the acclaim he richly deserved. Mississippi John tells a fanciful story about Shelton and Lyons, which is recored on youtube (John Hurt's story about Stacker Lee). In John's account, the confrontation between the two men occurred at a card game after robbing a coal mine, perhaps even inside the coal mine itself. Initially Lyons did not initially recognize Stacker Lee Shelton, but at some point realized that he was about to be killed and begged for his life. From the standpoint of historicity, the account of Mississippi John Hurt is further removed from the historical event that the newspaper and trial records, but it makes for a good song. As far as the name is concerned, the song is known under a variety of permutations, includding Stagolee, Stack O'Lee and dozens of others. But there is little down that Lee Shelton was a historical person, and moreover it was the opinion of the Lomaxes (who were the pre-eminent American folk music historians of the past century) that he took his nickname after a riverboat, the Stack Lee, which was notorious as a house of prostitution. Doubtless the other permutations occurred later on, especially because the rhythm of the song demands a two syllable first name. He was a bad man, Stack Lee. Mister Police Officer, how can it be? You arrested everybody but you never got Stack O' Lee That bad man, oh, cruel Stack O' Lee Billy de Lyon told Stack O' Lee, "Please don't take my life, I got two little babies, and a darlin' lovin' wife" That bad man, oh, cruel Stack O' Lee "What I care about you little babies, your darlin' lovin' wife? You done stole my Stetson hat, I'm bound to take your life" That bad man, cruel Stack O' Lee Boom Boom. Boom Boom with the forty-four When I spied Billy de Lyon, he was lyin' down on the floor That bad man, oh cruel Stack O' Lee "Gentlemen of the jury, what do you think of that? Stack O' Lee killed Billy de Lyon over a five-dollar Stetson hat" That bad man, oh, cruel Stack O' Lee And all they gathered, hands way up high, at twelve o'clock they killed him, they's all glad to see him die That bad man, oh, cruel Stack O' Lee
Dance You Hippy (Hippie) Dance is a delightful song concocted by Tim O'Brien and Jesse Lamb, well known to the Morgantown Old Time scene for his other sogs such as "Let's Go Hunting," most famously performed by Keith McManus and crew at the Wednesday Night Jam at the Morgantown Brewing Company. Dance You Hippy Dance is based upon an old fiddle tune known variously as Brown Eyed Rabbit or Big Eyed Rabbit. Doubtless it comes to us from Scotland or Ireland as a foot-stomping fiddle melody and probably the lyrics were added in America in the 19th or early 20th century, but I have no direct proof of that process.
Tim and Jesse have created a great variant, with a catchy refrain. I can imagine that at a wedding or bar setting, this song might get everyone up and dancing, kind of an Old Time version of the Electric Boogie. The video shows shows both young and old playing music, dancing and having fun. It's not some kind of fantastic clever dance, just a simple improvised shuffle that virtually anyone can do That really is the way that this music and dance are passed down from one generation to the next. At our jam there are at least 4 families with multigenerational representation (the Shanks with Bob and Robert; the Eddy's with papa Richard and daughters Rachel and Libby; the Halls with Mike and Mitch; and the McManuses with Keith and Shane). You see? The family what plays Old Time together, stays together! Where else do you find kids and parents partying together like this? That is part of the unique appeal of Appalachian music and culture. If Tim and Jesse will permit me one editorial suggestion, however, I would sing "Dance you hippies dance" which in other words encourages everyone to dance, just like in the video. If there is just one "hippie" we are left to imagine that there may be only one particular guy being asked to dance. But okay. Another thing that I thought was cool about the video is the bagpipes player. In Old Time music, we usually do not have a bagpipes player, but somehow, musically speaking, we all have Scottish Irish ancestry, and there seems to be some dormant gene that is activated by bringing in a bagpipes. On rare occasion we have been fortunate enough to have a bagpipe player in the Morgantown jam. It brings an audience to its feet, absolutely spectacular if done well. A Part: A A A D D A A E E A B Part: A E E A A E E A
Little Georgia Rose is a Bill Monroe song which tells the story of a beautiful young lady who lived in Georgia. It is really a great bluegrass song if you can forgive the somewhat unenlightened view of adoption portrayed in the lyrics.
Most of the versions that I sampled on line are in a higher key than G usually around B-flat to C. People like to emulate Bill Monroe's fabulous tenor singing voice and style. For example, I like the way he slides up to the pitch on "way dow---wn in the Blue Ridge Mountains." Bill Monroe's version . That to me is a characteristic of Bill's vocal style.
I believe that at the Tuesday Bluegrass jam at McClafferty's, we play this song in the key of G, which makes it a little easier for most of us.
My Little Georgia Rose Written and recorded by Bill Monroe G C G Now come and listen to my story D7 A story that I know is true G C G About a rose that blooms in Georgia D7 G With a hair of gold and a heart so true
C G Way down in the Blue Ridge Mountains D7 Way down where the tall pines grow G C Lives my sweetheart of the mountains G D7 G She's my little Georgia rose C G Her mother left her with another D7 A care free life she had planned G C G The baby now is a lady D7 G The one her mother could not stand Repeat #3 C G We'd often sing those songs together D7 I watch her do her little part G C G She'd smile at me when I would tell her D7 G That she was my own sweetheart Repeat #3
In Old Time Music we generally like to stick to the traditional lyrics for a song. But what do we do when there are lyrics that are really, truly objectionable?
There are many, many song lyrics that deal with committing murder. Not to pick on an American Institution, but one prominent set that comes to mind is from Blue Yodel No 1 (T for Texas):
I'm gonna buy me a pistol
Just as long as I'm tall, Lawd, Lawd
I'm gonna buy me a pistol
Just as long as I'm tall
I'm gonna shoot poor Thelma
Just to see her jump and fall.
Now if these songs were from a rap song we might go wild and write a nastygram to the radio station for playing it, but this is an industry standard song, one of the (otherwise) greatest songs in history. Or how about the Bill Monroe standard, Banks of the Ohio:
I held a knife against her breast
As into my arms she pressed
She said Willie "Don't you murder me
I'm unprepared for eternity."
I took her by her lily white hand,
And dragged her down that bank of sand
There I throwed her in to drown.
I watched her as she floated down.
Less objectionable to me are lyrics that are about repentance. Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues comes to mind:
When I was just a baby,
My mama told me, Son
Always be a good boy,
Don't ever play with guns.
But I shot a man in Reno
Just to watch him die.
When I heard that whistle blowing,
I hang my head and cry
So, performers are faced with the decision about whether to keep the traditional lyrics or drop those that seem to promote insidious evil.
What is the purpose of putting these lyrics in a song? Indeed, there is kind of a tradition that says a good performing set should include a Civil War song, a train song, a love song and a murder song. I'm not sure why that is, but many bands deliberately compose song sets that contain at least one murder song.
I don't think that Jimmie Rodgers or Bill Monroe or any of the others wanted to inspire a generation of women killers. Perhaps it is intended to be a sort of catharsis, much like a Shakespearean murder play such as MacBeth or Hamlet. By experiencing horrible crimes in a song, perhaps the listeners will be warned to avoid it in the future. But is that really the way it works?
I don't know of any scientific study that says listening to this song or others like it will increase the probability that the listener will resort to gun violence. Nevertheless, I think advertisers will vouch for the power of song in advertising, and if you create songs about, for example, eating at McDonalds, and get enough people to listen to it, you will create a higher chance that people will actually eat at McDonalds. So it makes sense that if you have a tremendously popular song about offing your girlfriend, there is a risk that such crimes will increase.
For that reason my preference would be to avoid lyrics that seem to promote behaviors that would be considered felonies, especially when they seem unrepentant. For example, in "T for Texas" after murdering Thelma in cold blood, the guy gets a shotgun to do in Thelma's new boyfriend as well.
In the Morgantown Wednesday Night Jam, the lead singer has been known to tweak the lyrics when they suggest wrongdoing or violence to women. It's just a little thing, but to me the world is just a bit better place when the lyrics about violence or wrongdoing are left out.
But I can kind of understand why people feel the need to sing about murder and other almost unspeakable crimes, since unfortunately it is a part of our everyday lives. There is no clear cut answer, but I would like to ask my performer friends to at least reflect on the lyrics before automatically going with them. You never know what influence you might have on someone.
Sail Away Ladies is an incredible song, but one which for some reason few people have ever heard of. Vinnie Farsetta performs this as a banjo solo and it is also a mainstay for the Morgantown Brewing Company Wednesday Night Jam.
Sail Away Ladies has a leader/response format, in which the leader (Vinnie) sings a line, and the group sings back a response ("Sail away ladies, sail away."). In the recording from the Gardner festival below, Vinnie sings both parts.
Vinnie Farsetta at the Gardner Worley Music Festival. Thank you Kathryn Madison for the shoot.
In Morgantown, every time Vinnie does this song it about brings the house down. Some people might assume that it is a modern composition, but in fact it has a distinguished history. Uncle Dave Macon recorded a great version of the song back in 1927. I don't know where Dave picked it up; however, his family operated the old Broadway Hotel in Nashville, which housed many travelling entertainers including Vaudeville performers and minstrel show performers. No doubt this was a perfect place to pick up banjo songs, and perhaps this is where he might have heard Sail Away Ladies. According to the Fiddler's Companion (Andrew Kuntz) Uncle Bunt Stevens won the title of World Champion Fiddler in 1926 playing this tune beating 1,876 other fiddlers in auto magnate Henry Ford’s series of contests, held at dealerships through the East and Midwest.
Paul Wells of Middle Tennessee State University believes that the song dates from at least the turn of the 20th century and seems to have been common to both black and white traditions. Nobody is really sure what is meant by the refrain "Don't you rock him Daddio" and there are many variants. Some early versions were known as "Dineo" or "Dideo" in the Sesotho language, which kind of makes sense since one of the primary verses is about gifting a house to the singer's son. The call/response structure to the song also suggests African structure.
Uncle Dave Macon produced an inspired version of Sail Away back in 1927. The lyrics from the Vinnie version are transcribed below. Note that Vinnie often skips singing the first "Don't you rock my Daddy-o" but plays it on the banjo. You need to have all four lines for it to come out right :). ***Postscript*** I originally wrote this blog circa 2014, but more recently (2019) I found another version that I really like, from Nobody's Darlin, an all-female band that unfortunately is inactive these days as far as I know. At first I couldn't figure out why it sounded different, but then I realized, this is syncopated!
That is, it is just four chords, four beats each, G C G D but you start the sequence on beat 3, not on 1. So the rhythm is boom chick a diddle boom chick boom, but each chord is played boom chick boom, boom chick a diddle.
Vinnie's version:
Sail Away Ladies
G C G
If ever I get my new house done,
G D G
(Sail away ladies, sail away)
G C G
I'll give the old one to my son,
G D G
(Sail away ladies, sail away)
G C
Don't you rock my dad-dy-0,
G
Don't you rock my dad-dy-0
D
Don't you rock my dad-dy-0
G
Sail away ladies sail away.
I’ll chew my tobacco and spit that juice
(Sail away ladies, sail away)
I love my woman, but it aint no use
(Sail away ladies, sail away).
Don't you rock him dad-dy-0,
Don't you rock him dad-dy-0
Sail away ladies sail away.
If ever I get my new house done,
(Sail away ladies, sail away)
I'll give the old one to my son,
(Sail away ladies, sail away)
Don't you rock him dad-dy-0,
Don't you rock him dad-dy-0
Sail away ladies sail away.
Don't you rock him dad-dy-0,
Don't you rock him dad-dy-0
Ratings for American Idol are far below what they were a few years ago. A number of theories have been put forward to explain that. One is that they miss the sarcastic but talented and witty Simon Cowell. Another is that the show has lost its edge--they no longer insult the less talented contestants as they used to.
"Ha! I knew Idol wouldn't be as big a success without me!"
But I don't think all those theories are off the mark. I think the judges (Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez and Harry Connick Jr) are incredibly talented. And the contestants are way better than back in the day.
I think that the audience is the problem. Over the years, the show has managed to program them, so that they have become typecast and campy, totally predictable and dull. Every time a contestant takes the stage, the audience treats him/her like they are a new singing sensation, a la Susan Boyle. The have this mindless dull cheer: "Waaaaaaahhhhhh!!"
Then one of the judges says something nice, "You have an impressive star quality. I really like you."
"Waaaaaaahhhhhh!!"
"You're just what this show is looking for!"
"Waaaaaaahhhhhh!!"
If, on the other hand, a judge says something not quite complimentary, the audience has a corresponding canned boo.
"I didn't think this was a good song choice for you."
"Booooooooooooo!!"
"This key might have been a little too high for your voice."
"Booooooooooooo!!"
It doesn't seem to matter which contestant it is, the audience reaction is basically the same. It seems totally preprogrammed and dull.
Has the American Idol audience lost its edge? Yup.
I would like to see the audience having some more important role with the show rather than mindless cheering and booing. Perhaps they could be given some kind of on-the-air voting responsibility so that the live audience reaction could be compared with the at-home audience. The judges can probably do a better job if each negative comment is not booed, even if it means not cheering for each positive comment.
I think it might be more interesting if the live audience reaction were a little less predictable.
