Marion Rees
Dmarts
Alright, consider this a test: Who is Marion Rees, what tunes were
recorded by this fiddler, when, where, why, etc. Give me everything!
Dave
Oldtime1
I'm not near my collection, so I'll have to respond off the top of my
head. Are you speaking of Marion Reece, a blacksmith from Zionsville, NC?
He was recorded by John Lomax, I believe. If Lomax listed his name as
Rees; he got it wrong.
I recall Lomax also thought he was in nearby Silverstone - or perhaps the
session really was there. I don't recall the titles Reece played for Lomax
on fiddle, but he played the older Watauga County repertoire very well
according to the older fiddlers of the area. His home and shop was north
of Boone, a few miles from the state line with Johnson County, Tenn.
He was not a young man when recorded. He can be found in census records if
his age is important to you. He was also a fifer and performed on an
instrument his father or grandfather brought home from the Civil War. (The
"Mountain Yankee" 13th Tenn. Cavalry and 4th Tenn. Infantry units were
raised nearby and the Reece family was largely supporters of the Union.)
It is 99 percent likely he was a descendant of Valentine Reece, who came
to this western side of the Blue Ridge from Germany before the American
Revolution with his wife Christina Harmon (Harmann).
The New World label issued his version of "Groundhog" on fife. Willet
Tyree learned some tunes from him. The only musician I know who knew him
is now in his 90s and no longer plays, but is still thinking well. I could
come up with considerably more information if there's a good reason for
this "test".
BTW, the older collectors treated their "informants" almost as ciphers,
incidental "carriers" rather than as creative artists and individuals
worthy of attention. With very important souces sitting before them, they
recorded virtually nothing about their life and thinking. I appreciate
their collections, but hope that the rest of us can learn from their
errors as well as from the "material" they collected. Some of this
collecting was treated as a form of harvesting; the collector got to put
his name and copyright on the song or tune - even if it was a composition
by the performer! This occasionally happened with commercial A & R men,
but the truly ugly examples are by persons now treated respectfully as
scholars. Joe Wilson
secret muse
wilson-
now THAT'S a posting.bravo.
-and thanx!
pvc
--
"the blues ain't no cause for jumpin'...
- the blues is just by itself." -SON HOUSE
http://www.megasaver.com/page2/ad4.html
Kerry, Sheila, Louise or Mirabelle Blech
There's little to add biographically to what Joe Wilson so eruditely
posted. Here's the technical info, culled from The Secret Museum of
Mankind's archives...
Marion Rees (sic), recorded in Zionville, NC July 1936 by John A. Lomax
(perhaps assisted by son Alan).
AFS 837
A1 Cumberland Gap (fiddle)
A2 Ground Hog (fiddle)
A3 Liza Jane (fiddle)
A4 The Lost Girl (fiddle)
A5 The Scolding Wife (fiddle)
B1 The Lost Girl (fife)
B2 Ground Hog (fife)
B3 Down the Road (fiddle)
I will side with Joe's statement about his surname, as the Lomax family,
while looking at the big picture, usually were short on the details.
Regards,
kerry
--
***** ****** ***** ***** ***** ***** ******
Kerry, Sheila, Mirabelle Rose & Louise Marie Blech
blec...@wolfenet.com + http://www.wolfenet.com/~blechfam
"The Old Tunes Are the Best Tunes." -- Luther Davis
Brittles
Joe Wilson <oldt...@aol.com (Oldtime1)> wrote about Marion Reece:
>He was also a fifer and performed on an instrument his father or
>grandfather brought home from the Civil War.<
And that's a very "important" banjo! It's one of very few that has
continuous photographic and family documentation placing it as a "real"
pre-Civil War fretless, and one that was actually PLAYED during that
conflict.
Andy Cahan gave a brief presentation on it (and the family) at one of the
Tenn. Banjo Institutes. As I remember, it was made by Manley Reece, who
took it to war with him. I think he was killed, and the banjo made it back
home with his belongings. There's a photo (daguerrotype?) of him holding
the banjo.
Thanks for the extra info Joe! Good comments about the "harvesting"
(reaping?) of "informants" too!
Ed Britt
Brit...@aol.com
Kerry Blech
Brittles wrote:
>... As I remember, it was made by Manley Reece, who
>took it to war with him. I think he was killed, and the banjo made it
> back home with his belongings. There's a photo (daguerrotype?) of him
> holding the banjo.
You can see a copy of the pic of Manley and the banjo on my web site:
http://www.wolfenet.com/~blechfam
I copied the photo at Kahle Brewer's house in Galax in 1988. Kahle was
kin to the Reece family and a Civil War buff.
Regards,
kerry
--
Blec...@WolfeNet.com
"When you get above the clouds, you can do just as you choose."
- The Rector Trio, Asheville, NC 1930
Paul M. Gifford
>BTW, the older collectors treated their "informants" almost as ciphers,
>incidental "carriers" rather than as creative artists and individuals
>worthy of attention. With very important souces sitting before them, they
>recorded virtually nothing about their life and thinking. I appreciate
>their collections, but hope that the rest of us can learn from their
>errors as well as from the "material" they collected. Some of this
>collecting was treated as a form of harvesting; the collector got to put
>his name and copyright on the song or tune - even if it was a composition
>by the performer! This occasionally happened with commercial A & R men,
>but the truly ugly examples are by persons now treated respectfully as
>scholars.
Don't forget all the Canadian fiddlers, mostly active on the radio in the '40s
and '50s, like Andy DesJarlis and others, who copyrighted obscure tunes
they had collected and then recorded or published or both. There are tunes,
for example, in the collection by Harry Jarman (Toronto, 1944), which are
credited to Jim McGill, who definitely did not write them (or at least the one
I'm thinking of). Andy DesJarlis copyrighted "Whisky Before Breakfast,"
but it now appears it circulated in Manitoba before he recorded it in the '50s.
Off hand I don't know if this happened much in the U.S., but I'm gonna go
home and look at my copy of Arkie Woodchopper's book and see if he
claimed authorship on any.
Paul Gifford
Dmarts
Oops, I think "Rees" was my own typo from the original post!
Nancy Mamlin
>
>I will side with Joe's statement about his surname, as the Lomax family,
>while looking at the big picture, usually were short on the details.
>
I imagine Joe said the spelling should be "Reece". According to the Watauga
County phone book, I'll go along with that. There are four with the spelling
"Rees", but none in Zionville. There are 10 with the spelling Reece that have
Zionville addresses, and several with Vilas addresses, which is between Boone
and Zionville. Given that families stay here (why leave?), Reece seems the
logical spelling.
Zionville, btw, is the prettiest place I've been in these mountains. Please
don't move there and spoil it.
Nancy
David Sanderson
And let us not by all means forget A.P. Carter, who learned, altered,
appropriated and otherwise took possession of a whole mess of material.
This is nothing very new, and the sense of possession that goes with a
copyright was never much paid attention to in connection with
traditional music.
The song books usually copyrighted everything, no matter what the
source.
The attitude of early collectors was somewhat different. There is a
book (old now) by D.K. Wilgus, "Anglo-American Folksong Scholarship
Since 1898", that chronicles some of the more bizarre theories about
traditional music that animated scholars, worth a look...
--
David Sanderson dav...@greennet.net
08/19/97 22:56
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