Free Little Birds field recordings
Dan T
A group of wonderful and important field recordings, made in the early
1970s, has been digitized and is now freely available.
More information about the archive is below.
The archive can be downloaded from here:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/freelittlebirds/freelittlebirds.zip
It is 1.61 gigabytes in size.
You should only download this zip file from the URL above; we can't
vouch for the contents of files downloaded from other locations.
(By the way, if you downloaded this archive earlier, you may want to
do so again; the mp3s in the new version are now fully tagged, making
it easier to identify the name of the tune and the players.)
If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please use the Yahoo
group set up for discussing this archive:
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/Free_Little_Birds/
The directory listing and README follow.
Thanks,
Dan Tenenbaum
------
Directory listing:
01 Wilson Douglas-Ivydale, WV
02 Glen Smith-Elizabeth, WV
03 Delbert Hughes-Ohley, WV
04 Mike + Pete Humphreys- Charleston, WV
05 Ott Wilson-near Morehead, KY
06 Alva Green-Sandy Hook, KY
07 Clarence Kelley-Morgan's Creek,KY
08 Jake + Lena Hughes-Ludlow, MO
09 Pete McMahon-Harrisburg, MO
10 Cleo Persinger-Columbia, MO
11 Russell 'Casey' Jones-Ludlow, MO
12 Frosty Lamb-Bloomfield, IA
13 Cyril Stinnett-Filmore, MO
14 Cyril Stinnett with Jake Elifries-gtr
15 Jake Elifries-Filmore,Mo
16 T.L. Fuller-Mena, AR
17 Uncle Dick Hutchinson-Disney, OK
18 Ben Drake-Humboldt, NE
19 Joe Monhart-Arthur, NE
20 Burrell Reed-Oklahoma City, OK
21 Winfred and Mary Burchett, Louisa KY
22 Dewey Balfa-Basile, LA
23 Fred Cockerham
24 Kyle Creed
25 Tommy Jarrell
26 Oscar Wright
27 Earl Collins, Bob Rogers, Don Durham
28 Earl Collins + Dave Ricker 1
29 Earl Collins + Dave Ricker 2
30 Gypsy Gyppo Outtakes
Delaney-Barnett.pdf
readme.txt
README file:
Readme.txt
version 2
1. An archive given to me by Armin Barnett to digitize, edit, and
distribute. During the early 70's Armin roomed with Chris Delaney who
went on a field recording trip and brought back the recordings in
directories numbered 1-22. They were put on open reels. Sometime
between then and now Armin got rid of his decent open reel recorder(s)
and was no longer able to listen to them.
2. There is a pdf included with this archive which has additional
information about the above. It contains Armin's lists.
3. Armin collected the material of Oscar Wright.
4. Directories 23 and 24 are from Barry Poss. Note that the list
from Directory 23 is out of order and inaccurate from the pdf list.
This reel had been rewound backwards so that when it was digitized
the list actually starts from beginning of side 2 rather than the
beginning of side 1.
5. With reference to the above and all of this archive, I would
regard the file names to be more accurate than the lists.
6. Recordings of the discs made by BF Jarrell of Charlie Lowe playing
with Tommy and Ernest East playing guitar are in the folder labeled
Kyle Creed. They begin with Old Bunch of Keys. There is some
discussion that there are other discs out there. While more research
can be put into this project, there comes a time when you have to let
projects like this go. There are probably well over 250 hours in this
project. That is enough.
6. The Earl Collins material is included because there still seems to
be many who haven't had access to it in spite of a lot of trading.
This recording with Bob Rogers, Don Durham, and, unfortunately, myself
on the banjo, was done in the late 60's or early 70's. Bobby Fulcher
has written an article about Bob for his Cumberland Trail website
where it now resides. Don Durham was Mel Durhams older brother. He
died in the mid-late 70's. Don would pick up Earl and the two of them
would meet Bob at a mutual friend's house in Downey, Ca on Thursdays.
I recommend you pay some attention to what is going on in the
background as a cultural backdrop. There was a fair amount of drinking
going on (although Don singularly wouldn't touch it). Also you should
know that Earl had had an operation on his forearm a week prior and
had two shiny chrome pins sticking out of his arms: one at his elbow
and the other at his wrist. The were connected by a bar which had a
cam fastened to one pin and fed through a hole in the other pin to
keep him from rotating his arm sideways. I told him it seemed like it
would really hurt to play with that in his arm. He said the pain was
severe.
7. I met Dave Ricker at a camp called Sweet's Mill in California.
Dave was about 10 years older than I. He had lived with Earl for a
while and made some tapes of him playing with Earl so he could
document Earl's repetoire. I sent copies of Dave's tapes to a friend
about 35 years ago and they ultimately returned to me from Barry
Cooper in the form of the included MP3's.
8. For those who would like further information on, or discuss, or
ask questions about anything on this DVD you are welcome to join the
yahoo group Free_Little_Birds which I have set up for that purpose
only. When you search for it the underlines betrween the words have to
be there. The link is
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/Free_Little_Birds/. There are a
lot of people to thank but they haven't given me permission to
associate them with this project. Therefore, in this iteration, I have
left their names out. We believe we have secured all the necessary
permissions for this music to be distributed. If you have questions,
please post them to the group.
9. Jerry Mitchell of the Gypsy Gyppo String Band saw me at the NW
Folklife Festival and handed me a CD of outtakes from their vinyl
recording asking that it be spread around. While it is of local
interest, it has been left in this iteration of the archive so that
everyone gets the same material.
10. You are encouraged to pass the link to whoever might benefit from
it. While the archive is free, the bandwidth you used to get it is
being comped by Dan Tenenbaum. I'm sure Dan would appreciate your not
spreading it around frivolously.
11. Conventions. Usually T=tuning or talk. N=noodling. Some people
like to get the whole thing, others might just want the music. The
organization is set up so that you can delete the Talk and noodling
tracks if you want and just listen to the music. With regards to
organization, there were many other things I could have done to make
these processes easier. Considering the time spent on this project,
it is time to let it go.
12 If anyone should be thanked it would probably Chris Delaney on
whose contribution everything else is riding. He will join the Yahoo
group if he wishes. While the other collections are along for the
ride, it would be appropriate to acknowledge Tom Carter and Barry
Poss. If they want to be involved, they know/will know about the
discussion group.
Dave Leddel
Dan T
Steve Goldfield
> Hi all,
>
> A group of wonderful and important field recordings, made in the early
> 1970s, has been digitized and is now freely available.
>
> More information about the archive is below.
>
> The archive can be downloaded from here:
>
> https://s3.amazonaws.com/freelittlebirds/freelittlebirds.zip
>
> It is 1.61 gigabytes in size.
> You should only download this zip file from the URL above; we can't
> vouch for the contents of files downloaded from other locations.
>
> (By the way, if you downloaded this archive earlier, you may want to
> do so again; the mp3s in the new version are now fully tagged, making
> it easier to identify the name of the tune and the players.)
>
I downloaded the archive several days ago so I assume that it is this
version.
It's great, by the way.
Steve Goldfield