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Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest - The Greenbriar Boys and The New Lost City Ramblers

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It is certainly gratifying (not to say surprising) that Pete Seeger should have had his own TV show so shortly after being officially classified as Unamerican, and blacklisted. It is even more gratifying that the show should have been preserved, for now we can see again -- and the younger generation can see for the first time -- many artists who would otherwise have vanished without videographic trace. Two such groups are (I believe) the New Lost City Ramblers and the Greenbriar Boys.

Both are later incarnations, the NLCR with Tracy Schwarz instead of Tom Paley, and the GB with the addition of Jim Buchanan, and Frank Wakefield instead of Ralph Rinzler.

These shows give new meaning to the term "low-budget production": literally the only props in addition to the musicians themselves are a few pieces of furniture and a simulated window. Nevertheless the sound and video quality are good, as is the camera work.

"Informal" and "unrehearsed" -- at least as applied to the show, if not the music -- are other words that seem barely adequate. I thought it was wonderful. If groups like the Kingston Trio gained something with their professionalism and carefully-rehearsed comedy routines, they lost something as well.

The songs are as follows:

NLCR

Stone's Rag
Man of Constant Sorrow
The Cuckoo Bird
Arkansas Sheikh
The Soldier and the Lady
Hawkins's rag
Orange Blossom Special
I Never Will Marry
Ragtime Annie Medley

GREENBRIAR BOYS

Sally Goodin
The Wabash Canonball
Danville Girl
The Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me
Our Festival of Flowers
Bear Creek Hop
Roll on Buddy
Dink's Song
Little Birdie
Stewball
Midnight Special

It has to be said that some of the performances are a bit rough: in particular, Tracy Schwarz's tone would make Jascha Heifetz spin in his grave, and John Herald forgets the lyrics to "Danville Girl"...

But so what?

This is one of the better offerings in Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest TV series. There is a lot of interaction and song swapping between the host, Pete Seeger and the two groups and the instrumentation is excellent. This presentation just leaves the audience wanting more.

Rainbow Quest was a U.S. television series hosted by Pete Seeger. It was filmed in black and white and featured musicians playing in traditional American music genres such as old-time music, bluegrass and blues. The program operated on a low budget and Seeger and his fellow producers eventually had to fund the program from their own pockets. The money eventually ran out entirely and the program went off the air. Almost 40 hour-long programs were recorded at new UHF station WNJU's Newark, New Jersey studios in 1965 and 1966, produced by Seeger and his wife Toshi with Sholom Rubinstein.

Seeger was an amiable, if slightly awkward, host. There is a long entry on Seeger and his trials in Wikipedia. The production skills were not especially smooth - there are a number of abrupt camera changes, resulting in Seeger and his guests searching for the currently active camera while maintaining their train of thought. Typically, Seeger would open the program with his theme song, sing two or three additional pieces, have his guests come on and sing their pieces, chat about one thing or another, do some pieces together, and then sign off with the theme song again.

Among the guests featured on the program's 38 episodes were Johnny Cash & June Carter, Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson, The Stanley Brothers, Elizabeth Cotten, Patrick Sky, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Tom Paxton, Judy Collins, Donovan, Richard and Mimi Fariña, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Mamou Cajun Band, Bernice Johnson Reagon, The Beers Family, Roscoe Holcomb, and Shawn Phillips. Many of the segments can be seen on YouTube, but at a lower resolution and audio quality than the DVD's. Unfortunately, only 12 of the 40 programs have been issued by Shanachie - on six two-hour discs.

They are:
Shanachie 605 with The Stanley Brothers, Cousin Emmy, and Doc Watson
Shanachie 606 with Johnny Cash & June Carter, Roscoe Holcomb, and Jean Redpath
Shanachie 607 Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Hedy West, Paul Cadwell and Mississippi John Hurt
Shanachie 608 The New Lost City Ramblers, and The Greenbriar Boys
Shanachie 609 The Clancy Bros. with Tommy Makem, and Mamou Cajun Band
Shanachie 610 with Judy Collins, Elizabeth Cotten, Rosa Valentin and Rafael Martinez

By the late 1950's, the public performances of the folk songs and ballads of southern Appalachia (which had been handed down through the generations since the original British settlers had brought them from the old country) had devolved into two distinct, but inauthentic styles: - the decorous, harmonious, sanitized and cutesy versions of Burl Ives, The Kingston Trio, and Peter, Paul and Mary, and the "Bluegrass" style of Bill Monroe, Lester Scruggs and Earl Flatt, and their contemporaries. Practitioners of the "old style" like Buell Kazee, Clarence "Doc" Ashley, Gaither Carlton, Doc Boggs et al, were unfashionable, unappreciated and/or unknown.

This program is interesting in that it has two groups of young performers who formed in the late 50's, with the goal of recreating the authentic sounds and styles of the Appalachian musicians of the 1920's and before. Since that tradition had largely disappeared or been subsumed, their primary source was the numerous recordings made in that period. Since all of the members of The New Lost City Ramblers as well as two of the four Greenbriar Boys were born and raised in New York City and its environs, one might not expect the results of such an attempt to recreate an authentic sound to be convincing - or even plausible.

I would say that the results are very mixed. I had expected the southern roots of Frank Wakefield (mandolin, from Tennessee) and Jim Buchanan (fiddle, from North Carolina) to give the Greenbriar Boys, which was formed in 1959, the edge in producing a more authentic sounding style; however John Herald (guitar) and Bob Yellin (banjo) are so resolutely modern (and east coast) in their approach and style that their pieces never meld into a consistent, harmonious whole. When Pete Seeger (who did not have nearly the feel for style that his younger brother Mike possessed) joins in, the ambience gets very stiff and awkward - half southern and half Kingston Trio. The group disbanded a few years, and several changes of personnel later.

On the other hand, The New Lost City Ramblers, which was composed at the time of this recording by Tracy Schwarz (who had replaced the original founder, Tom Paley), Mike Seeger and John Cohen, went on for several more decades of performing and recording. John Cohen was Pete's brother-in-law and Mike Seeger was Pete's (half) brother; and they were extremely talented musicians, with an excellent feel for authentic sounding performance style. Whereas the Greenbriar Boys play only one instrument each in their songs, The NLCR exchange instruments like a troupe of jugglers, and I cannot discern any change in the quality of the music making arising from this promiscuous instrument swapping. When Pete Seeger joins them in several pieces at the end of the hour, he messes up their timing a little, but they are able to maintain stylistic control, and the warm camaraderie of family-based old-time music making recalls the original roots of the musical tradition.

Contents
1. Theme Song (Pete Seeger with banjo)
2. What Will the Deep Sea Say? (Pete Seeger with 12 string guitar)
3. Worried Man Blues (Pete Seeger with 12 string guitar)
4. I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night (Pete Seeger with banjo)
5. Willie, Won't You Roll Down the Line (Pete Seeger with banjo)
6. Cumberland Mountain Bear Chase (Pete Seeger with banjo)
7. Stone Mountain Rag (Tracy Schwarz-fiddle, Mike Seeger - harmonica & auto harp, John Cohen-guitar)
8. Man of Constant Sorrow (Mike Seeger - auto harp & vocal)
9. Cuckoo Bird (John Cohen - banjo & vocal)
10. Arkansas Sheik Rag (Tracy Schwarz-fiddle & vocal, Mike Seeger - guitar, John Cohen- banjo)
11. The Soldier and The Lady (Tracy Schwarz-guitar, Mike Seeger -auto harp, John Cohen-mandolin)
12. Movie clip of Jimmy Driftwood playing a mouth-bow & discussion
13. Hawkins Rag (Tracy Schwarz-spoons, Mike Seeger - mandolin, John Cohen-guitar)
14. Seeger home movie clip of Mike Seeger playing a banjo on a unicycle
15. Movie clip of "Wagon Aces" (Japanese band) playing Orange Blossom Special in Fukuoka
16. Orange Blossom Special (Tracy Schwarz-fiddle, Mike Seeger - mandolin, John Cohen-guitar, Pete Seeger - banjo)
17. I Will Never Marry (Tracy Schwarz-fiddle, Mike Seeger - mandolin, John Cohen-guitar, Pete Seeger - banjo & vocal)
18. Ragtime Annie Medley ((Tracy Schwarz-fiddle, Mike Seeger - banjo, John Cohen-guitar, Pete Seeger - mandolin)
19. Theme Song (Pete Seeger)
20. Theme Song (Pete Seeger)
21. Sally Goodin' (Greenbriar Boys)
22. Wabash Cannonball (Greenbriar Boys with Pete Seeger - vocal, yodeling and 12 string guitar)
23. Danville Girl (Frank Wakefield - mandolin and John Herald - vocal & guitar)
24. The Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me (Frank Wakefield - mandolin, Bob Yellin - banjo and John Herald - guitar)
25. Our Festival of Flowers (Pete Seeger with banjo, others accompanying)
26. Bear Creek Hop (Jim Buchanan - fiddle, Bob Yellin - banjo)
27. Roll on Buddy (Greenbriar Boys with Pete Seeger - banjo)
28. Little Birdie ((Greenbriar Boys)
29. Stewball ((Greenbriar Boys)
30. Midnight Special (Greenbriar Boys with Pete Seeger - banjo)
31. Theme Song (Pete Seeger)

In a year that has featured various 90th birthday celebrations it is very appropriate to review some of the 1960's television work of Pete Seeger, one of the premier folk anthologists, singers, transmitters of the tradition and "keeper" of the folk flame. This DVD is a "must see" for anyone who is interested in the history of the folk revival of the 1960's, the earnest, folksy style of Pete Seeger or the work of the also tradition-oriented New Lost City Ramblers made up of (early on) the folklorist and master photographer John Cohen, Tom Paley ( a valuable folk source in his own right as witness his comments in various documentaries about the New York City part of the folk revival of the early 1960s) and Mike Seeger, Pete's half-brother (it is in the genes, right?). I have now reviewed several of these "Rainbow Quest" productions and it is clear that, kinship aside, Pete, along with his use of a whole range of folk instrumentation that gets a full workout in this presentation, is most comfortable with this group as he joyfully plays along with the boys.

Also included on this DVD is a performance by the legendary Greenbriar Boys, a group that combined urban folk aficionados and real mountain music men to take advantage of the early interest in the mountain music roots of a lot of what the 1960s folk scene was searching for, authenticity . Additionally, Pete, as an early exponent of what is now called "world music" does some lesser known traditional songs and does a hearty rendition of the classic radical labor anthem "Joe Hill".

This DVD contains some very interesting and, perhaps, rare television film footage from two of Pete Seeger shows, packaged in one DVD, entitled "Rainbow Quest". Each show is introduced (and ends, as well) by Pete singing his old classic "If I Had A Golden Threat" and then he proceeds to introduce, play guitar and banjo and sing along with the above-mentioned artists.

One final note: This is a piece of folk history. Pete Seeger is a folk legend. However, the production values here are a bit primitive and low budget. Moreover, for all his stature as a leading member of the folk pantheon Pete was far from the ideal host. His halting speaking style and almost bashful manner did not draw his guests out. Let's just put it this way the production concept used then would embarrass a high school television production class today. But, Pete, thanks for the history lesson.