[流行音乐] [Delta Blues , Gospel , Country]Deep River of Song

                                                                                       

Artist:  VA
Album: Deep River of Song - The Alan Lomax Collection
Genre: Blues, Delta Blues, Roots, Folk, Gospel, Country, Field Recording
Labe:  Rounder
Recording Date: 1999-2004
Quality: FLAC
Size:  2.15 GB

Recorded By – Alan Lomax

Alan Lomax 米国传奇田野录音师，他录制了米国最早一批民谣、Blues、福音等来自米国各地的歌曲。如果没有他，米国民歌史将缺失不少，而其的大部份录音至今仍在米国国会档案图书馆保存完好。


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
CD1 Alabama - From Lullabies To Blues  

Recorded between 1934-1940 by folklorist John Lomax, this offers an interesting cross-section of songs sung by "real" people in Alabama. And a cross-section it really is, from blues to spirituals to lullabies to work songs. It's a collection that introduces a voice that should have become well-known -- Vera Ward Hall, who opens the set with a startlingly pure "Another Man Done Gone" and keeps cropping up throughout. While the emphasis is on song, there's also some wonderful harmonica playing on "Train on a Hill" by Richard Amerson (who also reminisces about his days on steamboats), and Tom Bell accompanies himself on guitar on "Worried Blues." Perhaps the most intriguing piece is "Billy Goat Latin" from Joe F. Williams & Booker T. Williams, a bizarre field holler. All the way through, material that's become quite familiar over the years pops up in its folk roots -- "Honey, Take a Whiff on Me," "Hush Little Baby," "Alabama Bound," and "Go to Sleep (Little Baby)" -- all of which have become part of the national consciousness. Lomax proves to be as able as his son in finding great performers (although you have to wonder when he asks one to take a song into double time, obviously a first-time occurrence for the subject of this particular recording). By its very nature -- field recordings from the 1930s -- the sound quality is sometimes far from perfect, but overall the remastering is little short of miraculous, and the sleeve notes are thorough and extremely informative. AMG

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
CD2 Bahamas 1935 - Chanteys & Anthems From Andros & Cat Island  

Another sub series in Rounder's Alan Lomax collection, these are '30s field recordings documenting African-American life in the Bahamas in the mid '30s. It's a collection of sea chanteys and anthems drawn from field recordings made on Andros and Cat Island. The music made by these "spongers" is both lighthearted and delightful, full of interesting harmonies and interesting composition. What would later turn into commercial calypso has its seeds in this music. Another fascinating chunk of history. AMG

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
CD3 Bahamas 1935, Vol. 2 - Ring Games and Round Dances  

Deep River of Song: Bahamas 1935, Vol. 2 - Ring Games and Round Dances gathers more remastered field recordings from Alan Lomax's Caribbean travels. The ring game songs feature singing with handclapping and drums, while the round dances are performed by a string band; all of the songs, including "The Devil Roll Like Thunder," "Bimini Gal," "Sand Gone in My Cuckoo-Eye," and "Sailin' in the Boat," exemplify the playful melodies and rhythms of indigenous Caribbean music. AMG

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
CD4 Black Appalachia: String Bands, Songsters and Hoedowns  

Another sub-series in Rounder's Alan Lomax collection, these are field recordings documenting African-American life in the Appalachia chain, from the Blue Ridge mountains to the hill country of Northeast Mississippi. It's music that spans from string bands to blues solos and hoedowns to songsters. Performers aboard this collection (recordings made by Lomax between 1933 and 1946) include Leadbelly, Jimmie Strothers, Sid Hemphill, the Nashville Washboard Band and Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry. Highlights include "Cripple Creek," "Skillet Good and Greasy," "The Red Cross Store," "How Long" and a five-minute-plus rendition of "Arkansas Traveler." Like other volumes in the series, this sheds some serious light on a chunk of American history not often documented. AMG

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
CD5 Black Texicans - Balladeers And Songsters of the Texas Frontier  

In the 1930s, John Lomax and his son Alan made field recordings of numerous black Texan folk musicians, often in penitentiaries or on farms. This has 29 performances from 1933-1940, most of them previously unreleased. It reflects various aspects of black Texas repertoire, particularly cowboy songs (Texas had a higher percentage of black cowboys than other regions did), but also some blues, work songs, and tunes identified with the songster and minstrel traditions, performed a cappella or with guitar and harmonica accompaniment. Leadbelly is the only famous name here (with just one track, "Western Cowboy"), and several of the selections are well-known staples of American folk music, like "Jack of Diamonds," "Pick a Bale of Cotton," "Boll Weevil," and "Little Liza Jane." There's a little blues here, notably by Pete Harris, who plays good slide guitar on "Little Liza Jane." But as a whole it, like numerous other pre-World War II recordings, provides evidence that there were fewer boundaries between black and white repertoires than is often supposed. Some of the highlights on this interesting anthology of a sector of vintage American folk music include the a cappella rendition of "My Pretty Little Yellow Gal" (by Lightnin' Washington and group), with its laughing choruses; Butter Boy's "Old Aunt Dinah," a nasal chant that is a distant antecedent of rap; and Ace Johnson's vigorous harmonica on "Rabbit in the Garden." AMG

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
CD6 Georgia - I'm Gonna Make You Happy

Deep River of Song: Georgia is another entry in the series of Southern and Caribbean field recordings completed by Alan & John A. Lomax during the '30s and '40s. This disc contains 22 songs, including blues and group singing, performed by singers known and unknown. Four songs are sung and played by Blind Willie McTell, and they are highlights of this recording. "Boll Weevil" and "Dying Crapshooter's Blues" feature McTell's laid-back, soulful vocals and some nice guitar work. He adds a spiritual twist and a little slide work on "Just as Well Get Ready, You Got to Die" and "I Got to Cross the River Jordan." A number of songs, including "Captain Haney Blues" and "Longest Trail I Ever Saw," are performed by groups of male singers. These vibrant songs are easily accessible, with lively presentation and memorable melodies, making them a good entry place for those unfamiliar with field recordings. Robert Davis delivers the blues guitar instrumental, "Poor Joe Breakdown," complete with foot-stomping, and one shouldn't miss the harmonica playing of Buster Brown on "I'm Gonna Make You Happy." The liner notes are extensive and well-written, and there is a nice introductory essay by Dr. David Evans. While this album certainly has a historical value, it is also enjoyable and easy to recommend to anyone with a passing interest in field recordings. Beware though. Listening to this album will only lead one to pick up the other wonderful titles in Rounder's Deep River of Song series. AMG

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
CD7 Louisiana - Catch That Train and Testify

With the impressive girth of Alan Lomax's collection of field recordings and the immediate accessibility of so many of these recordings, choosing a single disc to satiate those curious of the historical significance of Lomax's recordings is near impossible. Deep River of Song: Louisiana - Catch That Train might not be the most logical place to start unless the listener is interested particularly in the unique music of Louisiana, but there are some very important documents here in the context of folk music, most notably the interview with Jelly Roll Morton at the end of the collection. Many of the tracks here are absolutely ferocious and upbeat a cappella ring shouts, but some early zydeco also appears here, as well as early Leadbelly recordings and musical contributions by Morton. What Lomax caught on tape over his long career of traveling is absolutely unbelievable, and Deep River of Song: Louisiana - Catch That Train is certainly no exception -- a priceless window into a time when music was a way of life, a style of communication, a working man's companion, and a celebratory, interactive way to pass the time. AMG

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
CD8 Mississippi - Saints and Sinners - From Before the Blues and Gospel

Recorded by Alan and John Lomax during the late '30s and early '40s, this volume in the Deep River of Song series focuses on work songs, ballads, spirituals, blues shouts, and all kinds of story songs. A companion volume to Deep River of Song: The Blues Lineage, which presented field recordings by Son House, Muddy Waters, and many other Delta bluesmen, Saints & Sinners presents a good look at the musical climate of rural Mississippi during the early 20th century. Listeners are given an ample view of the atmosphere of the times, which was much closer to the days of slavery than many blues fans realize. The names known best to Delta aficionados are Sid Hemphill and Dobie Red, though much of the best material comes from the many contributors who never made it to a studio; Alec Askew, Crap Eye, Rev. C.H. Savage, Henry Joiner and Deacon Tom Jones are just a few of the mysterious names whose sparse recordings lend a ghostly air to the proceedings. For those captivated by the mystery of many selections from Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, Saints & Sinners is a vital addition to their library. AMG

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
CD9 South Carolina - Got the Keys to the Kingdom  

John Lomax, Alan Lomax, and Ruby Lomax made numerous aluminum and acetate disc recordings in the Gullah enclave of South Carolina's Murrells Inlet between 1934 and 1939, where a distinct tradition of unaccompanied spirituals and work songs was still predominant. The fragments collected weren't gospel, but real spirituals, and they frequently sound not only measured but also gently mournful, resigned as much as they are cautiously invested in the prospect of a better world beyond this one. There are surprisingly (or maybe not) only semantic differences and few melodic ones between the straight spirituals and the work songs, and in the right hands, one could pass for the other. Both forms, it would seem, deal in the possibility of redemption, and both use roads, trains, and in some cases, chariots as metaphoric transformational vehicles. This haunting, understated set is fleshed out by the addition of similarly themed field recordings done at Reid State Farm, a South Carolina prison, where the concept of a better world awaiting and the prospect of eventual redemption were undoubtedly taken quite literally. With the contents really all of a piece, it is difficult to single out individual tracks here, but "Leprosy (Nicodemus)," sung byZack Knox, "Got the Keys to the Kingdom," sung by Lillie Knox, and "Ain't But the One Train Run This Track (All Night Long)," sung by D.W. White & the Pearson's Funeral Home Choir, are particularly poignant. AMG

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
CD10 Virginia And The Piedmont - Minstrelsy, Work Songs And Blues  

Deep River of Song: Virgina and the Piedmont collects Alan Lomax field recordings of descendents of Virginia slaves and songs from the racially diverse Piedmont region, where free African-Americans and whites often played music together. Tracks such as Jimmie Strothers' "I Used to Work on a Tractor," James Wilson's "Walk Down, Devils," Robert Higgins' "Prison Blues," and Willie Williams' "Boll Weevil" trace the development of African-American music, including work songs, spirituals, minstrel tunes, and acoustic blues from the antebellum era to the 20th century. The album also features digital remastering and thorough liner notes, reflecting the care put into the entire series of Lomax recordings. AMG
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