O to Have Been Born in Appalachia!
Tribe
Kerry Blech
>
> NY Times article on Gillian Welch at
> http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/08/arts/music/08WELC.html
Can't get to it, it needs a subscriber-ID and password.
Carl Baron
Kerry Blech wrote:
>
> Can't get to it, it needs a subscriber-ID and password.
It doesn't cost anything to subscribe to the site.
Carl
Lyle & Elizabeth Lofgren
>Kerry Blech wrote:
The only downside is they send you a long e-mail once a month or so
telling you how great they are. You can always delete that without
reading it.
Erik Newman
>
>The only downside is they send you a long e-mail once a month or so
>telling you how great they are. You can always delete that without
>reading it.
>
Don't give them your real email address. My favorite address to use
anytime someone asks for one but doesn't need it is "webmaster@<site>.com"
and then mark all of the spam-me-till-it-hurts checkboxes, but
nytimes.com won't let me submit the webmaster@ address.
They're on to me.
--
Erik Newman Department of Civil Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations,
if you live near him." -- J. R. R. Tolkein
Carl Baron
Lyle & Elizabeth Lofgren wrote:
> The only downside is they send you a long e-mail once a month or so
> telling you how great they are. You can always delete that without
> reading it.
I usually do that.
Carl
Andy Alexis
You know, I keep on waiting in vain for success to ruin Gillian Welch.
Fortunately, that has not happened, and her new CD is as good if not
better as the other 2. The banjo is still there, as are the moody
dark songs, and the songs straight out of Tennessee 1930.
And David Rawling's guitar playing fits like a hand in glove.
Somebody buy them two a fiddle!
Dan Dante Tenenbaum
I have been a subscriber for many years and never received one of
these. Maybe it's because I signed up with a fake email address, I
can't remember. In any event:
August 8, 2001
POP REVIEW | GILLIAN WELCH
O to Have Been Born in Appalachia!
By JON PARELES
The hoary advice to authors, "Write what you know," doesn't apply to
Gillian Welch, the songwriter who performed on Thursday night at Town
Hall. As one of countless city folks who fell in love with older rural
music, Ms. Welch writes with terse empathy about events and situations
far from her own experience: moonshining, hard luck, mountain flowers
and murder.
Ms. Welch was born in Manhattan, grew up in Los Angeles and met her
songwriting partner and lead guitarist, David Rawlings, at the Berklee
College of Music in Boston. They have lived in Nashville since 1992.
Ms. Welch and Mr. Rawlings perform as an acoustic duo, harmonizing in
the style of hillbilly brother groups, with Ms. Welch playing guitar
or banjo.
She sings in a plaintive deadpan, and often strums chords that sound
like the Carter Family's autoharp, while Mr. Rawlings's light-fingered
leads hint at bluegrass mandolin. Their best songs sound much older
than they are, concisely telling stories or professing faith in Jesus.
She and Mr. Rawlings anticipated the longing for rural purity that
made a No. 1 album of the soundtrack for "O Brother, Where Art Thou"
(Mercury), on which she appears.
But on songs from her new album, "Time (the Revelator)" (Acony Bell),
Ms. Welch turned to her own life for material. In "My First Lover,"
she recalled breaking up to a Steve Miller Band song; in "April the
14th Part 1," she romanticized a rock band playing a dead-end bar gig.
"Everything Is Free" ruminated on a musical career in the Napster era:
"I can get a tip jar, gas up the car/ Try to make a little change down
at the bar."
The musical style switched from old Appalachia to Neil Young ballads.
But while those songs may be closer to Ms. Welch's actual roots, they
were also a letdown. The slow tempos sounded mannered rather than
inevitable, and she traded stoicism for moping.
She was better off with her invented roots, longing for a "Red Clay
Halo" after death or using a mountain-gospel style to proclaim "I Want
to Sing That Rock and Roll," as if rock were sensational and new. Ms.
Welch and Mr. Rawlings are apparently making a transition, and with
any luck, they'll find a way to take the imagination of their
old-timey songs into the present.
Greg Brown, a mainstay on the folk circuit, opened the concert moments
after arriving from the airport. Never taking off his floppy
fisherman's hat, he picked his guitar and fondly growled through a
selection of songs about love, weather and wrong turns. Despite an
occasional telling line, he chose too many talky songs, not earning
many new fans. He returned to sing with Ms. Welch and Mr. Rawlings,
harmonizing in "Long Black Veil" like the pedals of a church organ.
Jack Aldrich
Robert Palasek
>
> I have been a subscriber for many years and never received one of
> these. Maybe it's because I signed up with a fake email address, I
> can't remember. In any event:
I have subscribed several times in the past 5 years from work and
from home. Probably the last time was 6 or so months ago from
home. I often do not have to go through a log in procedure, there
must be a cookie somewhere on my system. I do not recall having
received any junk mail from them.
Also, are they the news organ who if you access the article on
the first day (it's not in the archives) you do not have
to log in? And did I hear that they gave up on trying to
make money on it?
Bob
Tribe
"Robert Palasek" wrote:
> I have subscribed several times in the past 5 years from work and
> from home. Probably the last time was 6 or so months ago from
> home. I often do not have to go through a log in procedure, there
> must be a cookie somewhere on my system. I do not recall having
> received any junk mail from them.
>
> Also, are they the news organ who if you access the article on
> the first day (it's not in the archives) you do not have
> to log in? And did I hear that they gave up on trying to
> make money on it?
I've subscribed on line to the NY Times for years now.....only had to do it
once. Yeah, they do release a cookie....so you pretty much have to log in
once and that's it forever....unless you do one of those regular delete to
all cookies, then you log back in and so on. The only junk mail I get from
there is a weekly baseball newlstter that they have....but I asked to be put
on the mailing list.
There has never been a subscription fee.....only if you want to get the
crossword puzzles, which just went up to something like $20 a year....a
great price if you're into NYTimes crosswords.
Kerry Blech is just too ornery to subscribe!:)
Tribe
Robert Palasek
It does seem like over kill to require an ID and a password
just to read some quasi-public web page.
In cases like this, I use a trivial password that is easy
to remember, but does not reveal anything about me or
other important passwords, e.g., nytimes. And I opt
out of all the stuff they want to send me. And I tell
them my income is low, way low, so that advertisers
do not want to bother to send me anything.
Still I get some junk email that suggests that
I should have lied about my age. Not sure if its source
was NYTIMES or somewhere else. Discounts on hundredweights
of Niagara.
O.T. content:
I thought Gillian Welch was a California girl, but I see
from the article that she was born in Manhattan.
I smile when I think that NYC may be the cradle of all
sorts of fine folk musicians and fiddlers. First there was
Jack Elliot. Then John Hartford and Jody Stecher and
Jay Unger and Bruce Molsky and Kevin Wimmer. And who
knows what others may be added to this list. E.g.,
right off hand I can think of PVC and Tom Paley, etc.,
but I do not really know for sure if they were born in NYC.
Paul Mitchell
> I smile when I think that NYC may be the cradle of all
> sorts of fine folk musicians and fiddlers. First there was
> Jack Elliot. Then John Hartford and Jody Stecher and
> Jay Unger and Bruce Molsky and Kevin Wimmer. And who
> knows what others may be added to this list. E.g.,
> right off hand I can think of PVC and Tom Paley, etc.,
> but I do not really know for sure if they were born in NYC.
Fiddlin' Bob Larkin.
Michele duBorgel
> http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/08/arts/music/08WELC.html
>
> Tribe
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings will be here in Greenville, SC on
September 27, 2001 at The Handlebar, 204 Stone Avenue.
Robert Palasek
> > NYC may be the cradle of all
> > sorts of fine folk musicians and fiddlers.
Paul Mitchell:
> Fiddlin' Bob Larkin.
Had to look it up. And then listen again.
http://www.sover.net/~edzski/Pioneers/blarkin.htm
http://members.tripod.com/~takeo3/county.htm#co519
So County Sales is in western Virginia, but
looking at an old County album, I see that
they too are originally from NYC, 10016.
Or at least that's where they were in 1970.
Anyone have any stories about that.
Joel Shimberg
> > Fiddlin' Bob Larkin.
As in "The Women Wear No Clothes At All"?
Bob Palasek:
> So County Sales is in western Virginia, but
> looking at an old County album, I see that
> they too are originally from NYC, 10016.
> Or at least that's where they were in 1970.
>
> Anyone have any stories about that.
No stories, really, but they (he, really) were somewhere around the high 30s
on the East Side, as I recall. I think that Dave Freeman was probably
strongly influenced by Moe Asch and the Anthology, which I think was the
first 78-reissue project that wasn't some major reissuing its own 78s. I
remember putting together my first order of County records -- there must
have been 20 of them -- and getting a note from Dave with the records that
told me to pick out some number of others for free, as he had this policy of
discounts for large orders. What a gas! I thought that Santa Claus was for
real, and after hearing the records I got I seriously considered
re-evaluating my position on God. People starting on the path in the past
decade are sure lucky!
Joel
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John Wright
there. And since I know that John Cohen of the Ramblers, etc., lived in
Sunnyside in Queens, I assume he was born in NYC. Sunnyside was known
as the place where Greenwich Village couples moved when they started
having kids; I'm particularly conscious of it not just because I was
raised there myself (till the age of 7) but because my grandfather,
Henry Wright, a well known city planner, designed and built it in the
1920s. I wonder if any of these other musicians lived there?
John Wright
--
John Wright
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. USA
jhwr...@merle.acns.nwu.edu
Dan Dante Tenenbaum
> O.T. content:
> I thought Gillian Welch was a California girl, but I see
> from the article that she was born in Manhattan.
>
> I smile when I think that NYC may be the cradle of all
> sorts of fine folk musicians and fiddlers. First there was
> Jack Elliot. Then John Hartford and Jody Stecher and
> Jay Unger and Bruce Molsky and Kevin Wimmer. And who
> knows what others may be added to this list. E.g.,
> right off hand I can think of PVC and Tom Paley, etc.,
> but I do not really know for sure if they were born in NYC.
Gillian may have been born in Manhattan but she was raised in Los
Angeles. Her parents were songwriters for the Carol Burnett show among
others.
I knew Gillian in elementary school. We went to the "hippie
alternative" elementary school that she credits in interviews with
getting her into traditional kinds of music. We did have a "sing"
every Friday and sang lots of songs of the kum ba ya variety but also
some other songs of traditional origin. I still have the songbook
somewhere.
To give you an idea, the official school song was these words, sung to
the melody of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy":
Everyone of every color
Every race and every creed
Should be equal to each other
Brotherhood we're all agreed
None alone we need each other
Join us in our work and play
We can share this world together
And look towards a better day
It was a good school, though, and lots of fun. If my unreliable memory
is reliable, Gillian even then was playing guitar. I spoke to her at a
show once and was jealous/ashamed that she seemed to be in better
touch with our mutual classmates than I had been.
This school may have played a part in getting my sister, and later
myself, into old time music. For Gillian it was definitely a big
factor in pointing her in the direction she's in.
Gus Garelick
Robert Palasek wrote:
>
> I thought Gillian Welch was a California girl, but I see
> from the article that she was born in Manhattan.
>
> I smile when I think that NYC may be the cradle of all
> sorts of fine folk musicians and fiddlers. First there was
> Jack Elliot. Then John Hartford and Jody Stecher and
> Jay Unger and Bruce Molsky and Kevin Wimmer. And who
> knows what others may be added to this list. E.g.,
> right off hand I can think of PVC and Tom Paley, etc.,
> but I do not really know for sure if they were born in NYC.
Then there is David Grisman (alright, nearby New Jersey). And isn't
Arlo Guthrie originally from Brooklyn? Alan Senuake was from Queens.
Kenny Kosek, Andy Statman, Stacy Phillips (?). Not sure about Pete
Wernick, but I thought he was from New York. .
Interesting article about Ralph Stanley in the latest New Yorker. Never
thought Bluegrass would ever make the pages of that magazine.
Apparently, Ralph Stanley didn't think much of Bluegrass players from
anywhere north of the Mason Dixon. Had a sense that only Southern born
and bred could really play his music. I remember hearing Tony Rice in
an interview saying much the same thing; the Southern inflection,
rhythm, cultural attitude could not be duplicated by any of us Yankees.
I don't believe Bill Monroe shared that view, as he went through a lot
of non-Southern musicians.
GUS GARELICK
ted samsel
> Interesting article about Ralph Stanley in the latest New Yorker. Never
> thought Bluegrass would ever make the pages of that magazine.
Not to mention the R Crumb "drawring" of (I think) The Weems Family.
I did read in the NYer awhile back about how Del McCoury booted Steve
Earl out because of his bad language.
> Apparently, Ralph Stanley didn't think much of Bluegrass players from
> anywhere north of the Mason Dixon. Had a sense that only Southern born
> and bred could really play his music. I remember hearing Tony Rice in
> an interview saying much the same thing; the Southern inflection,
> rhythm, cultural attitude could not be duplicated by any of us Yankees.
> I don't believe Bill Monroe shared that view, as he went through a lot
> of non-Southern musicians.
My Mama allus said:
"If you're from North of Waco, you're a yanqui!"
Seguro que hell yes!
--
TBSa...@infi.net
http://home.infi.net/~tbsamsel/
'Do the boogie woogie in the South American way'
Hank Snow (1914-1999)
THE RHUMBA BOOGIE
Steve Goldfield
Robert Palasek <bobpa...@home.com> wrote:
#>Robert Palasek:
#>> > NYC may be the cradle of all
#>> > sorts of fine folk musicians and fiddlers.
#>
#>Paul Mitchell:
#>> Fiddlin' Bob Larkin.
#>
#>Had to look it up. And then listen again.
#>
#>http://www.sover.net/~edzski/Pioneers/blarkin.htm
#>http://members.tripod.com/~takeo3/county.htm#co519
#>
#>So County Sales is in western Virginia, but
#>looking at an old County album, I see that
#>they too are originally from NYC, 10016.
#>Or at least that's where they were in 1970.
#>
#>Anyone have any stories about that.
My late friend Jon Biltchik (some of his recordings are on
the new NCLR live CD) knew Dave Freeman from the New York
days and used to tell me stories about the early days of
County (I think Dave had another label name for his first release).
We (OTR) gave Dave an award at our conference in Mt. Airy in
June, and I wrote up the brief bio. My primary source was an
article on the wall at County Sales (I went upstairs to talk
to some of Dave's long-time employees, but they suggested that
I read the article). Dave (I think he was working for the post
office at the time, shades of PVC) started preparing to issue
albums in the early sixties and put out the first one a year
or so later. (This is from memory.) Eventually, he moved to
Floyd (east of Galax and Hillsville and 6 miles from the
Blue Ridge Parkway (also home to Tina Liza Jones and tie die
capital of the world). County Sales is still there, though
Dave, County Records, and Rebel Records (which he acquired)
are elsewhere in Virginia now (is it Charlottesville?).
Dave was also a founder of Sugar Hill, but he sold his
interest soon afterward.
The article gives Dave's reasons for moving to Virginia,
but I'd be hard-pressed to remember what they were except
possibly for getting closer to the source of the music
and lower expenses.
Steve
(8<})>(8<})>(8<})>(8<})>(8<})>(8<})>(8<})>(8<})>(8<})>(8<})>
-------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Goldfield <stev...@best.com> * Oakland, California
* Home Page--<http://www.best.com/~stevesag/stevesag.html> *
I'm not over the hill. I am the hill.
Steve Goldfield
Gus Garelick <fiddl...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
#>
#>Robert Palasek wrote:
#>
#>>
#>> I thought Gillian Welch was a California girl, but I see
#>> from the article that she was born in Manhattan.
#>>
#>> I smile when I think that NYC may be the cradle of all
#>> sorts of fine folk musicians and fiddlers. First there was
#>> Jack Elliot. Then John Hartford and Jody Stecher and
#>> Jay Unger and Bruce Molsky and Kevin Wimmer. And who
#>> knows what others may be added to this list. E.g.,
#>> right off hand I can think of PVC and Tom Paley, etc.,
#>> but I do not really know for sure if they were born in NYC.
#>
#>Then there is David Grisman (alright, nearby New Jersey). And isn't
#>Arlo Guthrie originally from Brooklyn? Alan Senuake was from Queens.
#>Kenny Kosek, Andy Statman, Stacy Phillips (?). Not sure about Pete
#>Wernick, but I thought he was from New York. .
#>
#>Interesting article about Ralph Stanley in the latest New Yorker. Never
#>thought Bluegrass would ever make the pages of that magazine.
#>Apparently, Ralph Stanley didn't think much of Bluegrass players from
#>anywhere north of the Mason Dixon. Had a sense that only Southern born
#>and bred could really play his music. I remember hearing Tony Rice in
#>an interview saying much the same thing; the Southern inflection,
#>rhythm, cultural attitude could not be duplicated by any of us Yankees.
#>I don't believe Bill Monroe shared that view, as he went through a lot
#>of non-Southern musicians.
#>
#>GUS GARELICK
Yes, Pete Wernick is from New York. Paul Brown is from
Long Island, I believe. I could add lots of other names to
this list but will try to practice uncharacteristic restraint.
LukeHiNite
Fiddlin' Bob Larkin (!)
pvc (showing his dah-deedle-ah-dee-dah dah)
www.secretmuseum.net
wfmu.org
John Wright
Gus Garelick wrote:
[snip, snip]
>
> Interesting article about Ralph Stanley in the latest New Yorker. Never
> thought Bluegrass would ever make the pages of that magazine.
> Apparently, Ralph Stanley didn't think much of Bluegrass players from
> anywhere north of the Mason Dixon. Had a sense that only Southern born
> and bred could really play his music.
I believe he was responding specifically to a question about where he
went to hire musicians for his own band, rather than making a blanket
statement about musicians in general. In fact I've seen a group from
New York City performing at his festival--a group that was racially
integrated, which was a first for me at any festival, north or south.
John Wright
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. USA
Jack Aldrich
illustration of the Weems String Band on page119.