Let's listen to some old (time) religious music

While we're working on our Jamboree stuff, I'd like to open up another box of roots music goodies, namely gospel/religious music. There are three major reasons for heading into this:

• Most of music we've been listening to is either solo or in small groups; a lot (but not all) religious music in performed by groups, often large groups.
  
• Religious music is wonderfully eclectic in terms of styles; the set I've picked out includes blues, country, choirs, quartets, and sermons.
• (Early) religious music features a significantly higher percentage of female performers than the blues and country we've been listening to; religious music was a more socially acceptable (and safer) venue for women.

Note that religion itself is not the point of this. While it was obviously important to (many) of the people that made this music, we don't need to like or dislike, agree or disagree with the religious views, anymore than we have to agree or disagree with the views expressed in any of the other music we've listened to in order to explore and discuss it.

I've created two roughly hour long listening lists of religious music in my iTunes library, and I'd like everyone to come up to the classroom (evenings or weekends) to listen to them over the next few weeks. Let's plan on listening to the first set by next Tuesday (14 Nov), and the second by the following Tuesday (21 Nov).

The sets contain music by a lot of names that should be familiar by now (Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Skip James, the Carter Family, Hank Williams), lots of important people that you may not be familiar with (Mahalia Jackson, Fisk Jubilee Singers, Dorothy Coates), as well as lots of really obscure people that I know little or nothing about.

This leans more to the vocal than the instrumental, and there are some amazing bits of singing (solo and group) in these sets. (I only wish I could sing like that!) There are also some remarkable sermons. African-American sermons were commonly recorded and released in the 20s and 30s, and they demonstrate some wonderful relationships between speech and music in those churches. Most of these sermon recordings are old, but there are two from the 60s from the great Long road to freedom collection. One combines a song with an excerpt from a speech by MLK (nicely illustrating the important connection between gospel music and the Civil Rights Movement), while the other is a completely creepy re-creation of a slave church service combining "Amazing grace" with a most unsettling sermon (you have been warned).

While most of the songs are old (the bulk is pre-1940), I've also included a few contemporary songs. There are three variations of "Ain't no grave", one of which is quite recent, and there's a wonderful song by Lyle Lovett that combines country song writing with gospel performance style in a great way.

As you listen to each group, pick out a song to blog about. As well as writing about your general response to and thoughts on the music, I'd like everyone to say a little about one specific song and how it relates (preferably in a substantive way) to something else we've listened to, read about, or discussed in the class.

It's great music - enjoy!

Thanks for coming over last night

I'd like to thank the 10 or so FYS students that came over for the movie night last night. It was a nice excuse to watch O brother, where art thou? again, and you folks were wonderful guests. Thanks for making the time to join us!

John Hanson (the former FYS student that came a bit late and sat towards the back) stayed for quite a while after the movie while we listened to music and chatted. One of the things we talked about was the way they set up the two gubernatorial candidates. Pappy (the incumbent) might not be the "bad guy" at the beginning, but he's hardly the "good guy" and the reform candidate comes across pretty well (esp. if you ignore the slightly disturbing bit with the midget). Yet by the end we learn that the reform candidate is clearly major creepy bad news and that Pappy, while perhaps more opportunist than idealist, is a whole row better than his opponent. (I still remember how surprised I was when I first saw it and got to the part where we discover how awful the reform candidate truly is.)

One of the things I really love about that movie is the amazing breadth of the music they've included. There are lots of movies featuring lost of blues, or country, or gospel, etc., but the Coen brothers and T-Bone Burnett pulled together a really wonderfully broad collection of great music here. Great stuff!

It's also worth pointing out that the places they mention in the movie are real, and many of those cities/towns will pass by in our readings now and then. Tommy Johnson (the name of the African-American guitarist) was a real blues guitarist who (along with people like Robert Johnson) did claim some sort of deal with the devil. And watching Pappy dancing and then leading everyone in song at the end may have seemed far-fetched, but there were in fact more than one southern governor that had a significant music career either before or after being governor.

Songs for our initial Pandora radio playlist

Tomorrow in class we'll go over how to set up an account on Pandora and create "radio stations" based on a set of seed music. For our first such radio station, I would like everyone to create a station containing the following songs:

• "Got my mojo working" by Muddy Waters
• "Death letter blues" by Son House
• "Lord, I just can't keep from crying" by Blind Willie Johnson
  
• "Wreck of the Old 97" by Pink Anderson
• "Death cell blues" by Blind Willie McTell
• "Sitting on top of the world" by Mississippi Shieks
• "My Oklahoma blowed away" by Pete Seeger
• "Stand by me" by Sister Matthews
• "Jesus is a mighty good leader" by Skip James
• "Feather bed" by Memphis Jug Band
• "Worried man blues" by The Original Carter Family
• "Midnight special" by Leadbelly
• "Parchman Farm blues" by Bukka White
• "Jump the boogie" by Boozoo Chavis
• "Wabash cannonball" by Roy Acuff
• "A spoonful blues" by Charlie Patton
• "This land is your land" by Woody Guthrie
• "Oh happy day" by The Edwin Hawkins Singers
• "Move on up a little higher" by Mahalia Jackson
• "Cross road blues" by Robert Johnson
• "Cold, cold heart" by Hank Williams
• "Uncle Pen" by Bill Monroe
• "Wildwood flower" by The Carter Family
• "Waiting for a train" by Jimmie Rodgers
  

You should then listen to this station. I don't know for sure what will come up. If you keep listening, you'll get eventually get quite a few of these to come up, but there are no guarantees as to what will play and when. I would encourage at least two kinds of listening. First, do some background listening just to run through a lot of different songs and get a sense of the breadth and range of these many types of music. Second, do some more detailed listening where you really paying attention to all the songs, taking some notes, marking what you like, and writing some remarks on your blog about things that particular struck you (good, bad, confusing, amazing). And bring some of these things up in class!

I'm hopeful that this use of Pandora will be both cool and convenient. You'll have to let me know how it works for you. Thanks!

Hello, Babylon!

I just got an amazing 6 CD set of old gospel music (mostly from the 1920's and 30's, but some up to 1960) called Goodbye, Babylon on the very cool Dust-to-digital label. I ended up babbling on about it way too long on my blog, and rather than repeat all that here, I'll provide a thoroughly over the top quote and the link, and let you chase it down if you feel inclined.

There are some beloved old treasures ("Present joys", Blind Willie Johnson's devastating "Lord, I just can't keep from crying", and Carter Family gems) as well as tons of great stuff I've never heard before. One of the most impressive things about it is the sheer diversity and scope of the collection. Most collections tend to be fairly focused, but here Mahalia rubs shoulders with the Louvins (literally - one her songs immediately follows one of theirs) and the Stonemans share space with the Holy Ghost Sanctified Singers (an African-American gospel jug band!). I become incoherent in the face of all this wonderful music...