Customer Reviews

Friends of Old Time Music: The Folk Arrival 1961 - 1965

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a must have for musicians and fans of music alike. It is a collection of first rate, awesome music, with great audio fidelity, pictures and liner notes. It is also a document of a little known organization, the Friends of Old Time Music, which has had a huge positive effect on American culture. The series of concerts, presented by the FOTM, cronicled and sampled from in this box were an early and major step in introducing not just the songs themselves but the true musical styles of Southern traditional music to an urban audience in the North and to the population as a whole.

The music displays an artistry, debth of vision and advanced vocal and instrumental technique that is extraordinary. Up until these concerts the broadly influential "folk revival" in the North had been characterized by sanitized and simplified (and some would say bastardized) versions of these Southern traditional and vernacular songs. The concerts presented by the Friends of Old Time Music gave reality to this old-time, blues, pre-blues, carribean and bluegrass music, as played live and in person by some of its foremost artists. This inspired a broader section of the population to develope a sensitivity to the style and really learn to play and appreciate the music.

For me, the debate that this collection of music wades into, and which the Friends of Old Time Music was wading into in the early 60's, was whether and to what extent a song can be separated from its style. If you love this kind of music already, or are just getting into it listen for the style of the music, how it is ornamented and executed. A song cannot really be separated from its style. For musicians: learn the style and innovate within the tradition. You can't really get out of it anyway, might as well check it out as much as you can.

- Eli Smith

This is a beautiful piece of art. The voices are raw and real and the rhythm and tone of the instrumentals are terrific. Sorry am I gushing? The box set itself is gorgeous and the liner notes really tell a great tale. There are some CD's that you just want to download a couple of songs and forget the rest, this set isn't one of those. I love the whole thing. I can remember my father playing some of these songs with his friends, howling some of the harmonies. I remember the words of some of the songs I haven't heard anywhere else and probably would have lost forever if I hadn't bought this. I got one for my brother too, so he could remember.

This is a series or recordings made by the Friends of Old Time Music (FOTM) in NY in the early sixties. FOTM was formed by Ralph Rinzler, Izzy Young, Mike Seeger, Jean Ritchie, and John Cohen. These recordings have several well known people/groups (Maybelle Carter, Fred McDowell, the Stanley Brothers, and Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys), however, there are many "unknowns" like Doc Watson and Roscoe Holcomb. There is also some performers that had played in NY in the 1920's who have returned (Mississippi John Hurt and Dock Boggs). The quality of the recording leaves much to be desired, but these recordings are very up close and personal with the audience. You get the feeling you are back in NY in the 1960's sitting in a smokey club. This works better for the smaller and one person acts, and probably less well for Bill Monroe and his group. The very least known of these artists (Ed Young and Emma Ramsay and Jesse Fuller) put on quite a show playing the blues. I think you will enjoy the banjo, mandolin, and guitar playing of these excellent artists.
I would recommend this album as a slice of the Americana folk scene, but I am not sure you will play them (3 CDs) over and over again. It is more of a one or two time romp! This CD set is best enjoyed at home rather than in your car since the liner notes are excellent and the pictures stunning (unless you can miss all your fellow drivers while reading in the car... :^)

Okay, maybe the now somewhat eclipsed mountain music and country blues revival of the early 2000s driven by George Clooney's "Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Songcatcher" revived some names from those traditions like The Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys and Maybelle Carter (although her connection with the Carter Family and Johnny Cash probably would have made her well-known in any case). But how about Kentucky banjo/fiddler (and much else) Roscoe Holcomb? Or Hobart Smith? Or Dock Boggs? Or.... I could go on but, hopefully, you get my drift.

What I am talking about is the lesser lights of these genres and the acknowledgement of their proper place in the American Songbook. That, my friends, comes from the "rediscovery" of these last mentioned performers as part of the general trend back to roots music that drove the overall folk revival of the early 1960's. The producers of this outstanding three-disc compilation are at pains to separate these genres out from the other doings of that time such as the search for the roots of the blues and the creation of a new up-to-date folk idiom by a wave of singer/songwriters who were thick as fleas in those days crowding New York City for recognition. One name, Bob Dylan, can arbitrarily serve as the symbol for that trend.

For lack of a better term, Friend of Old Time Music (FOTM), served as a transmission belt to bring this particular form of music to the roots hungry urban young longing for a different musical sound. From personal knowledge this reviewer, and many from his generation, were desperately seeking music not provided in the precincts of Tin Pan Alley and other safe havens that had emasculated the rockabilly and rock and roll that drove our teen years. We may not have been able to articulate it exactly that way but we knew we did not want a continual diet of Sandra Dee and Bobby Vee.

This three disc compilation (including an incredibly informative booklet giving a mother lode of material, including photographs, about the how, when and why of bringing the mainly Southern, mainly rural talents to New York City in the early 1960s) will give the new generation and many older aficionados, in one place, a primer of great value. If you want to know the details of this part of the folk revival puzzle you certainly have to start here. For the beginner or the aficionado this is a worthwhile addition to the store of our common musical heritage.

Rather than repeat information that is readily available in the booklet and on the discs I'll finish up here with some recommendations of songs that I believe you should be sure to listen to:

Disc One: Dock Boggs on "The Country Blues", Mississippi Fred McDowell on "Going Down The River". Roscoe Holcomb on "East Virginia Blues", Hobart Smith on "Soldier's Joy", Mississippi John Hurt on "Coffee Blues". Maybelle Carter on "The Storms Are On The Ocean" and Jesse Fuller on "Buck And Wing"

Disc Two: Maybelle Carter on `Foggy Mountain Top" and "Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow", Jesse Fuller on "San Francisco Bay Blues", Roscoe Holcomb on "John Henry" and Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers on "Before This Time Another Year"

Disc Three: Jesse Fuller on "Guitar Lesson" and "Cincinnati Blues", Maybelle Carter on "He's Solid Gone" and "Sugar Hill", Roscoe Holcomb on "Rising Sun Blues", Mississippi John Hurt on "Frankie And Albert"
and The Clarence Ashley Group on "Amazing Grace"

Note: I should mention that all five of Maybelle Carter's tracks on this compilation have made my recommendations list. I might add that her performances here (in 1965, and accompanied by members of The New Lost City Ramblers) make me wonder out loud, very out loud, what the heck she was doing all those years as merely one member of the Carter Family Trio. Off these performances I now know who held that operation together musically. No just her well-regarded and influential country guitar work and her use of the auto harp but her finely-etched voice that comes out very nicely on something like "Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow".

If you like the "Anthology" that Harry Smith put together from 78's issued in the late 1920's and early 1930's then here is a chance to hear what was happening to that music thirty years later in live concerts. First, this album includes some of the same artists, like John Hurt, Sam McGee, Dock Boggs and Maybelle Carter, sounding as good as ever. It also includes wonderful performers of the period following the "Anthology" performers, like Fred McDowell and Jesse Fuller. You can hear pre-revival performers from the sixties, like Roscoe Holcomb, Gaither Carlton and Doc Watson. Finally, there are some top-rate performers performing some of the music that grew out of the "Anthology" type of music; while I'm not a blue-grass fan I enjoyed the cuts by Bill Monroe and the Stanley Brothers.
The audio is excellent, considering that these are live performances.
I was overjoyed when I attended these concerts and I am ecstatic at being given the chance to hear these performances again.

If you like folk music, bluegrass or blues, this is for you. A wide variety of this type of music is presented. All are the originals from 14 concerts that were presented in New York city from 1961-1965.The artists vary from Doc Watson to Mississippi John Hurt and include The New Lost city Ramblers, Bill Monroe and The Stanley Brothers.. Some of the recordings are now collectors items if you could find the originals.

A great addition to any collection of old time music.

All-in-all, this is a very good album. I would have preferred that the Mountain Music and the Delta Blues be separated onto their own disks and more of the sponge diver and sea island chants be included. In that there are three disks, there should have been one disk for each genre.

Old-time folk and mountain music- played by the 'originals' - reminiscent of old Smithsonian recordings made in Appalachia in the 20's and 30's. Unpolished, genuine and a good sampling of a musical genre that is particularly, as it has developed, American.

This three disc set is a treasure. It has some of the great old time music performers on it, like Doc Watson, Maybelle Carter, Bill Monroe, Mississippi John Hurt, Roscoe Holcomb, The Stanley Brothers and more. I love it, and if you love Old Time music, you will too.

I love this version of Pallet. I think it is MJH's best version of his best song. Can't get enough of that guitar pickin'.

Coming in Glory is also great. Sounds like they are in the room with you.

Five stars for each of those two. I did not download anything else from this one (FOTM).