Contemporary Country-Western and Folk-Rock

Contemporary Country-Western and Folk-RockReview by: Norman CohenThe Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 83, No. 327 (Jan. - Mar., 1970), pp. 99-102Published by: American Folklore SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/538799 .

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RECORD REVIEWS

FROM THE RECORD REVIEW EDITOR

Contemporary Country-Western and Folk-Rock

There is far too little room and even less reason for commenting on all the recent country-western (C-W) albums that pass the Record Review Editor's desk; however, two types of occurrences do justify some notation in these columns. The first is the appearance of older traditional material presented in contemporary C-W style; the second is the appearance of contemporary material that because of theme or style either owes something to older numbers or else is a likely candidate for eventual appearance in oral tradition.

"The Banks of the Ohio" (Laws F5) still thrives in bluegrass tradition; therefore a bluegrass recording by The Kentuckians (Jalyn 45 rpm 45-314), coupled with "Little Darling Pal of Mine," is not surprising. Two recent C-W recordings, however, are noteworthy: Porter Wagoner, on The Carroll County Accident (RCA Victor LSP 4116), and Charley Pride, on Make Mine Country (RCA Victor LPM/LSP 3952). "Banks of the Ohio" (Uni 45 rpm 55118) by Bobby Skel is a country-rock recomposition based on the traditional ballad. "Tom Dooley" (Laws F36), by Jim Edward Brown on Country's Best of Record (RCA Victor LPM/LSP 3011) of course comes via the King- ston Trio. The Louvin Brothers, who were closer to the older tradition, recorded Tragic Songs of Life (Capitol DT 769) well over a decade ago, but Capitol has recently seen fit to reissue the album with added electronic stereo. Among the songs are "Katie Dear" (Laws M4), "Knoxville Girl" (Laws P35), and "Mary of the Wild Moor" (Laws P21).

George Hamilton IV, on A Rose and a Baby Ruth (RCA Camden CAL/CAS 2200), sings "Roving Gambler" (Laws H4). Johnny Cash, perhaps more than any other current top star, maintains in his repertory a large number of traditional songs, even though some come from nontraditional sources. Mean as Hell! (Columbia CL 2446/ CS 9246) includes "I Ride an Old Paint," "Streets of Laredo" (Laws BI), "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (Laws B9), "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie" (Laws B2), and "Mr. Garfield" (learned from Jack Elliott, who probably took it from a Bascom Lamar Lunsfield recording). On All Star Country (Harmony HS 11296) Cash sings "Delia's Gone" (Laws 15), which could have come from any one of a half dozen revival singers. At Folsom Prison (Columbia CS 9639) includes "Cocaine Blues," a variant of Laws 18. Both Merle Travis' "Dark as a Dungeon" and Danny Dill's "Long Black Veil," are almost surely destined to enter oral tradition. Hank Thompson sings the same version of "Cocaine Blues" on Smokey The Bar (Dot DLP 25932), and also "Drunkard's Blues," a recomposition of "St. James Infirmary," the American derivative of Laws Q26.

Even aside from Cash's disc mentioned above, cowboy and western folksongs fare well on current LPs. Twenty Golden Moments of Country Music (Diplomat Ds 2422),



100 RECORD REVIEWS

a supermarket album featuring the Green Valley Singers, includes "Jesse James" (Laws EI), "Old Chisholm Trail," "Streets of Laredo," "Patanio" (Laws B12), and "Boll Weevil" (Laws 117), the latter probably derived from Tex Ritter's rendition. An unexpected item is "I Was Born in Virginia," evidently learned from a Jean Ritchie recording. The Woodland Valley Singers render bland versions of "Sweet Betsy from Pike" (Laws B9), "Bad Brahma Bull," "Railroad Corral," "Blue Tail Fly" (Laws IIg), "Home on the Range," and "Big Rock Candy Mountain" on The Last Round-up (Diplomat DS 241o). On No Letter Today and Other Country & Western Songs (RCA Camden CAL/CAS 2171), a reissue, Wilf Carter (Montana Slim) sings "When the Work's All Done This Fall" (Laws B3), "Strawberry Roan" (Laws BI8), "Cow- boy's Heaven," "Ridge Running Roan," and "Old Chisholm Trail." Don Gibson performs "Streets of Laredo" on I Love You So Much It Hurts (RCA Camden CAL/CAS 2246), and Tex Ritters' Wild West (Capitol ST 2974) includes "Bad Brahma Bull."

"Wabash Cannonball" continues to prove a good seller; it, as well as "Waiting for a Train" (Laws H2) and "T for Texas" are on Billy Walker Salutes the Country Music Hall of Fame (Monument SLP I8ioi). "Wabash Cannonball" has also re-

cently been recorded by Jerry Reed (RCA Victor 45 rpm 47-9334), by Bobby Allen & the Southern Comforts on Northside Tavern (Rimrock RLP 152), and by Hank Locklin on Wabash Cannon Ball (RCA Camden CAS 2306), the latter also including the 188o sentimental piece, "Maple on the Hill," and the later "Great Speckled Bird." Moon Mullican's popular rendition of "Wabash Cannonball" has been reissued on

Diplomat DS 2431. The Browns Sing a Harvest of Country Songs (RCA Camden CAL/CAS 2262)

includes, in addition to more recent pieces, such older hillbilly standards as "Columbus Stockade Blues," "Poor Wildwood Flower," "Great Speckled Bird," and "Ground Hog." On Remember Me (RCA Victor LSP 4130) Jim Ed Brown sings "Molly Darling," recorded some years ago and copyrighted by Eddy Arnold but actually written in 1871 by Will S. Hays. "Columbus Stockade Blues," as well as "Mocking Bird" and more recent numbers, is performed by the Sons of the Pioneers on San Antonio Rose (RCA Camden CAL/CAS 2205). The Stoneman Family defies categorization, moving back and forth between C-W, bluegrass, hillbilly and pop; The Great Stone- mans (MGM SE 4578) includes "Nine Pound Hammer," "The Baby-O," and "Roll-

ing In My Sweet Baby's Arms" along with such recent numbers as "Hello, Dolly." The venerable "Deck of Cards" is recited on Bob Kames Plays All-Time Country Favorites

(Hollywood HLP 506). Not surprisingly, Negro revivals are few in C-W music. The Nashville Valley Boys

perform "Midnight Special" on Country Piano & Guitar Favorites (Diplomat DS 2417), but that song has lost its original color by now. Similarly, Chet Atkins, on Hometown Guitar (RCA Victor LPM/LSP 4017) renders "Sitting on Top of the World," though there are more traces of Doc Watson than of the Mississippi Shieks. It is ironic to be able to hear Leadbelly's song, "Cotton Fields," on Charlie Pride in Person Recorded Live (RCA Victor LSP 4094), which probably came via Bill Monroe, rendered with a spoken introduction telling how he sure doesn't want to go back down there. The same song is performed by George Lindsey on Goober Sings (Capitol ST 2965).

Derivative pieces have to be watched for: Hank Locklin's "Mommy Please Stay



RECORD REVIEWS IOI

Home with Me" on That's How Much I Love You (RCA Camden CAL/CAS 2266) is set to the tune of "True Lovers" (Laws G21), and Wynn Stewart's rendition "Wish- ful Thinking" on Original Golden Country Hits (Liberty LST 7569) is to the tune of "Little Rosewood Casket." The Lonesome Valley Singers' "Nine Pounds of Ham- mer on Cold Cold Steel," sung on Folsom Prison Blues (Diplomat DS 2456) is based on "Nine Pound Hammer." On Cream of the Crop (Capitol ST 2976) Wanda Jack- son sings Curly Putman's "Little Boy Soldier," about a child and his mother waiting at the train station for dad, who comes home in a box of pine-a good modern recomposition of an old theme exploited on "He's Coming to Us Dead" and "Little Box of Pine on the 7:29."

It is interesting to watch for the occasional appearance of traditional motifs in C-W contemporary ballads. "Sunset Hill," sung by Don Reno and Bill Harrell and the Tennessee Cut-Ups (Rebel 45 rpm F 268), is about a trucker who hears screams on a hill but sees no one. Later he recalls that a year earlier he had had a quarrel with his sweetheart there and she had jumped out of the truck and was killed by another passing vehicle. Blue Ribbon Country! (Capitol STBB 2969), a two-disc package of reissued hits, includes Dick Miles' "The Last Goodbye": the narrator's wife goes out shopping; she appears to return later but her behavior puzzles him; the telephone rings and he is informed that his wife has just been killed in an accident; and when he turns around she has, of course, vanished. My Nova Scotia Home and Other Early Hank Snow Fa- vorites (RCA Camden CAS 2257) is a collection of reissues that includes "The Broken Wedding Ring," a ballad about a returning cowboy sweetheart that uses motifs found in Child 17 and related ballads and tales.

Pop music (that is, rock and folk-rock) influences in C-W music are probably stronger now than at any time in the recent past. "500 Miles" may be an old hillbilly- folk song, but when it is performed by the Mountain Dew Singers and Orchestra on Country & Western Top Hits of 1964 (Mountain Dew S 7006) it owes more to the recent restabilized form recorded by such artists as the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul & Mary, and Bobby Bare. Other modern folk-rock and rock-and-roll compositions have been recast in C-W style and packaged for a new audience. Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing On My Mind" is recorded by Jean Shepard on A Real Good Woman (Capitol ST 2966), by Charley Pride on the disc cited above (RCA Victor LSP 4094), and by Chet Atkins on The Best of Today's Country Hits (RCA Victor VPS 6017). Hits by the Beatles are rendered by Marty Robbins on By the Time I Get to Phoenix (Columbia CS 9617) and by Bobbie Gentry on Local Gentry (Capitol ST 2964). Burl Ives' The Times They Are A-Changin' (Columbia CS 9675) includes songs by Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Tim Hardin, and others. Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind" has been recorded by many country artists, including Bobby Bare on Folsom Prison Blues (RCA Camden CAL/CAS 2290). Finally, George Hamilton IV on The Fourth Dimension (RCA Victor LSP 4066) sings several songs by folk-rock composers Leonard Cohen, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Tom Rush.

Surely the most widely recorded Child ballad to date is the Simon and Garfunkel version of "Scarborough Fair Canticle" (Child 2), which was recently waxed on Bobby Gentry & Glen Campbell (Capitol ST 2928). Gus Cannon's old jug band number, "Walk Right In," comes via Erik Darling and the Roof-Top Singers to Jerry Lee Lewis on All Country (Smash SRS 67071). Cannon's song itself was probably



102 RECORD REVIEWS

inspired by the 1909 hit, "Come Right In, Sit Down and Make Yourself At Home," which Billboard had called "the best coon song in years."

Folk-rock, although currently consisting largely of contemporary songs written by the

performers, still occasionally dips into older repertories for material. The English group known as the Pentangle sings Laws M32, N2i, and 035, and a variety of other types of songs on Sweet Child (Reprise 2RS 6334; two records). The Pentangle (Re- prise RS 6315) includes Laws M32 and "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme." Ian and Sylvia Tyson, on Full Circle (MGM SE 4550)-an apt title for the urban revival, folk-rock, Nashville rock sequence-perform "Jinkson Johnson," a version of Laws L4, with Nashville accompaniment. The Secret Life of Harper's Bizarre (Warner Bros. Seven Arts WS 1739) features Harper's Bizarre performing Jimmie Driftwood's "Battle of New Orleans" and Ian and Sylvia's copyrighted version of "What I Was a Cowboy," which is actually Leadbelly's unusual cowboy variant of "Jesse James." Memories (Vanguard VSD 79263), presenting Richard and Mimi Farifia, consists mainly of Farifia's own songs, though he takes credit even on the chantey, "Blood Red Roses."

An interesting trend in recent folk-rock is the cautious movement toward country- western styling. The Byrds, who have strong foundations in hillbilly music and the folk revival, turn to country music on Sweetheart of the Rodeo (Columbia CS 9670), which includes Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd" and Merle Travis' "I Am a Pilgrim." Joan Baez includes on David's Album (Vanguard VSD 79308) several country styled sacred numbers, such as "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," "Just a Closer Walk with Thee," and others. The Ballad of the Evergreen Blueshoes (Amos AAS 7002) debuts the Evergreen Blueshoes, another Los Angeles rock group that started in the folk revival, and includes a rock version of "Life's Railway to Heaven." The Great Awaken- ing is a clever pseudonym for multiply dubbed guitarist David Cohen, whose rock rendition of "Amazing Grace" (Amos 45 rpm AJB 113) recaptures by modern elec- tronics much of the mood of a Sacred Harp convention performance. Tim Hardin, on Live in Concert (Verve Forecast FST 33049), performs his own composition "Dan- ville Dame," which is strongly reminiscent of "Danville Girl" (Laws H2), and also a "Tribute to Hank Williams."

Other exponents in the folk-rock/folk revival scene demonstrate remarkably eclectic tastes that draw not only upon traditional material but on jazz, old pop songs, rhythm and blues, and C-W as well. What Ever Happened to Those Good Old Days at Club 47 (Vanguard VSD 79278) features Jim Kweskin performing a blues ballad (Laws 16), a Jimmie Rodgers song, a John Lee Hooker song, and early pop songs. The Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band's Their Greatest Hits (Vanguard VSD 79285) is typical of the variety of styles aimed at contemporary young urban audiences; more unusual is Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party (Rural Rhythm RRAD 216), which presents similar fare but on a mail order label geared to rural distribution.

The conclusion to be drawn from the above paragraphs is that we have reached an almost unprecedented degree of cross-pollination between the various blooms in the

contemporary musical bouquet. The conscientious folk music scholar must always be alert to the various developments. Jack Elliott's "Mr. Garfield" will probably never be the direct source of a field recording, but Johnny Cash's version very well may, and the latter derived from the former. If for no other reason than to understand such chance occurrences, we cannot dismiss lightly the contrived musical performances of



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Contemporary Country-Western and Folk-Rock