Tag Archives: Folk

Today: James Taylor is 66

james-taylor

When people use the term “singer/songwriter” (often modified by the word “sensitive”) in praise or in criticism, they’re thinking of James Taylor.
~William Ruhlmann (allmusic.com)

That’s the motivation of an artist – to seek attention of some kind.
~James Taylor

In concert – BBC Studios 1970 (ca 50min):

Continue reading Today: James Taylor is 66

Video of the day: Pete Seeger The Power of Song full documentary


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We were very saddened by the news of Pete Seeger’s passing just a few days ago. He was a huge influence on many of our singer-/songwriting favorites. We have dug up a very fine documentary from 2007, it’s a mix of interviews, archival footage and home movies illuminating his life and work.

It was shown on PBS ass part of their American Masters series, and Pete Seeger certainly fits the description of an American Master.

“Pete Seeger’s greatest gift was shepherding songs of peace and justice.”
– Bonnie Raitt

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In Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, Director Jim Brown documents the life of one of the greatest American singer/songwriters of the last century. Pete Seeger was the architect of the folk revival, writing some of its best known songs including Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Turn, Turn, Turn and If I Had A Hammer. Largely misunderstood and criticized for his strong beliefs he was picketed, protested, blacklisted, and, in spite of his enormous popularity, banned from commercial television for more than 17 years. Musicians including Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, Bonnie Raitt, Brice Springsteen, Natalie Maines, and Peter, Paul and Mary appear in this intimate portrait and discuss Seeger s lasting influence on the fabric of American music.
– from Amazon

Rest in Peace Pete Seeger, American Master.

Pete Seeger – The Power of Song (full documentary)

– Hallgeir

Videos of the day: Johnny Cash 1960s live TV appearances


60sJC

Today we’ve found two fantastic collections, almost every live appearances done by Johnny Cash in the 60s!

Our gratitude goes out to JohhnyCashfan66  who uploaded these great videos, as he says: “for the educational purpose of following one of the world’s greatest figures, I present Johnny Cash, 1960 – 1965”. Thank you!!

Part 1 1960-1965:

Track list part 1:
1960 – The Rebel Johnny Yuma (Dick Clark’s Saturday Night Show)
1960 – Ballad of the Harp Weaver (Jubilee USA)
1960 – Chaw ‘n’ Chewing Gum (Jubilee USA)
1960 – Snow in His Hair (Jubilee USA)
1960 – Don’t Take Your Guns to Town (The Ford Show)
1960 – Pickin’ Time (The Ford Show)
1961 – Big River (Star Route, USA)
1961 – Pickin’ Time (Star Route, USA)
1961 – Cry, Cry, Cry (Star Route, USA)
1961 – Five Feet High and Rising (Star Route, USA)
1961 – I Got Stripes (Star Route, USA)
1961 – God Has My Fortune Laid Away (Star Route, USA)
1962 – Big River (Grand Ole Opry)
1962 – Bonanza (Grand Ole Opry)
1962 – Five Feet High and Rising (Grand Ole Opry)
1962 – Were You There (Grand Ole Opry)
1963 – Ring of Fire (Unknown?)
1963 – Streets of Laredo (Hootenanny)
1963 – Frankie and Johnny (Hootenanny Hoot)
1964 – I Walk the Line (Barn Dance)
1964 – Big River (Barn Dance)
1964 – Busted (Barn Dance)
1964 – Busted (Hootenanny?)
1964 – I Walk the Line (Jimmy Dean Show)
1964 – Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright (Newport Folk Festival)
1964 – I Walk the Line (Newport Folk Festival)
1965 – Amen (Shindig)
1965 – Orange Blossom Special (Shindig?)

Missing Song:
1960 – Big River (Jubilee USA)

Part 2 1966-1969:

1966 – Orange Blossom Special
1966 – I Still Miss Someone (Sofia Gardens)
1966 – I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (Sofia Gardens)
1967 – Five Feet High and Rising
1967 – I Walk The Line (Roy Drusky Show)
1967 – I Guess Things Happen That Way (Roy Drusky Show)
1967 – Ballad of a Teenage Queen (Roy Drusky Show)
1967 – I Still Miss Someone (Roy Drusky Show)
1967 – Ring of Fire (Roy Drusky Show)
1967 – We’re Gonna Sing (Johnny Cash Show Demo)
1967 – It Takes a Worried Man (Johnny Cash Show Demo)
1967 – I Walk the Line (Johnny Cash Show Demo)
1967 – Fourth Man in the Fire [The Statler Brothers] (Johnny Cash Show Demo)
1967 – Foggy Mountain Top [June Carter] (Johnny Cash Show Demo)
1967 – I’ll Be All Smiles Tonight [Luther Perkins] (Johnny Cash Show Demo)
1967 – Were You There? (Johnny Cash Show Demo)
1967 – Were You There? (Road to Nashville)
1967 – The One on the Right is on the Left (Road to Nashville)
1968 – Folsom Prison Blues (Grand Ole Opry)
1968 – Folsom Prison Blues (Grand Ole Opry)
1968 – Ring of Fire (Grand Ole Opry)
1968 – Jackson (Grand Ole Opry)
1969 – A Boy Named Sue (Andy Williams Show)
1968 – I Walk the Line (Andy Williams Show)
1969 – A Boy Named Sue (Tom Jones Show)
1969 – I Walk the Line (Tom Jones Show)
1969 – Don’t Take Your Guns To Town (Tom Jones Show)
1969 – Dark As A Dungeon – Sixteen Tons – Legend of John Henry (Tom Jones Show)

Missing:
1967 – I Walk the Line (Road to Nashville)

Wow! Right?!

– Hallgeir

The Roots of Wagon Wheel aka Rock Me Mama

Bob Dylan In 'Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid'

Rock Me Mama/Wagon Wheel is a song originally sketched by Bob Dylan and later completed by Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show. Old Crow Medicine Show’s version was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in April 2013.

It is a big hit for Darius Rucker this year and nominated for a CMT award.

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The chorus and melody for the song comes from a demo recorded by Bob Dylan during the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid sessions.It is part of the famous bootleg Peco’s Blues, the Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid Sessions.

Peco's Blues

He started work on the soundtrack for Pat Garret on January 20th, 1973 in Mexico City. The next month he moved over to Burbank, California and was joined by Roger McGuinn, drummer Jim Keltner and bassist Terry Paul. The sessions gave us Dylan’s big hit Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, after finishing that classic they ran through 2 versions of Rock Me Mama.

It was never finished, and they probably forgot all about Rock Me Mama . The sessions got out as bootlegs and that’s how Keith Secor got to hear it.

Peco's Blues (BACK)

Dylan had left the song as an unfinished sketch, Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show wrote verses for the song around Dylan’s original chorus. Secor’s additional lyrics transformed “Rock Me Mama” into “Wagon Wheel”. Secor has stated the song is partially autobiographical.

As Chris ‘Critter’ Fuqua of Old Crow told theislandpacket.com in May this year:
“ I’d gotten a Bob Dylan bootleg in like ninth grade and I let Ketch listen to it, and he wrote the verses because Bob kind of mumbles them and that was it. We’ve been playing that song since we were like 17, and it’s funny because we’ve never met Dylan, but the song is technically co-written by Bob Dylan. What’s great about “Wagon Wheel” is that it has grown organically. The popularity of it was all based on word of mouth. There was no radio airplay for it. We made a music video for it, but it wasn’t “November Rain” or anything. No one was like, “Oh my God, what’s this video about?” And 16 years later, it went gold, then Darius Rucker cut it.”

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Keith Secor:
“It’d be my pleasure to dispel the myth and rumor about the song Wagon Wheel, or “Rock Me Mama” as Bob Dylan himself called the song when he recorded it down in Mexico in 1972 for the soundtrack of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. This song was not released, and it was not finished either, this is a demo of a practice session of him, Rob Stoner, and a couple of gals doing the chorus over and over again while the bass player learns the bass line. That’s what I heard on a German bootleg about nine years ago in high school. And I wrote the lyrics to the song because I loved the chorus so much and I sung it in my head for maybe a year straight, and then just penned what I penned, which is something of an autobiographical story about just wanting to get outta town, gettin outta school, and just wanting to go play music. It’s sort of autobiographical like that. But yeah, it’s sort of a Bob Dylan co-write with about 25 years inbetween.”

He works in the folk tradition that Dylan is definitely a part of, getting parts of melodies and lyrics and adding your own verses. He got the year wrong, it was in 1973.The version that he heard was probably the second version of the song, as he describes the chorus.
Continue reading The Roots of Wagon Wheel aka Rock Me Mama

Today: The late Jerry Garcia was born in 1942 – 71 years ago

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Jerome John “Jerry” Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) is best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band The Grateful Dead. Though he disavowed the role, Garcia was viewed by many as the leader or “spokesman” of the group.

One of its founders, Garcia performed with the Grateful Dead from 1965 until 1995. Garcia also founded and participated in a variety of side projects, including the Saunders-Garcia Band (with longtime friend Merl Saunders), Jerry Garcia Band, Old and in the Way, the Garcia/Grisman acoustic duo, Legion of Mary, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage (which Garcia co-founded with John Dawson and David Nelson). He also released several solo albums, and contributed to a number of albums by other artists over the years as a session musician. He was well known by many for his distinctive guitar playing and was ranked 13th in Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” cover story.

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Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Jerry Garcia was best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead, the rock band for which he served as de facto leader for 30 years, 1965-1995. Concurrently for much of that time, he also led his own Jerry Garcia Band (JGB), and he performed and recorded in a variety of configurations and a variety of styles, particularly styles of folk and country music, sometimes switching to banjo or pedal steel guitar for the purpose. But the Grateful Dead remained his primary musical outlet, and he performed thousands of concerts with them and appeared on dozens of their albums (many of them live recordings), 28 of which reached the Billboard chart during his lifetime, including the million-sellers Workingman’s Dead, American Beauty,Europe ’72, Skeletons from the Closet: The Best of Grateful Dead, What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been: The Best of the Grateful Dead, and In the Dark, and another eight that went gold. – From Allmusic (William Ruhlmann)

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Lagacy:

  • Garcia was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead in 1994.
  • In 2003, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Jerry Garcia 13th in their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.
  • According to fellow Bay Area guitar player Henry Kaiser, Garcia is “the most recorded guitarist in history. With more than 2,200 Grateful Dead concerts, and 1,000 Jerry Garcia Band concerts captured on tape – as well as numerous studio sessions – there are about 15,000 hours of his guitar work preserved for the ages.”
  • Seattle rock band Soundgarden wrote and recorded the instrumental song “Jerry Garcia’s Finger”, dedicated to the singer, which was released as a b-side with their single “Pretty Noose”.

Jerry Garcia Band – I shall be released (fantastic version, great guitar playing!):

Album of the day – Keystone Companions – The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings:

Other August-01:

Continue reading Today: The late Jerry Garcia was born in 1942 – 71 years ago