Heroes And Rebel Rebels

I'll not begrudge Bowie fans their moment, but I can't really share it. I like some of his stuff just fine. "Heroes" is always majestic. You can't not like "Suffragette City", "Rebel Rebel", "Gene Genie", "Cat People" or "Ziggy Stardust". You have to also give kudos to the videos for "Ashes To Ashes" and "Blue Jean". Not to mention "The Hunger" and "The Man Who Fell To Earth". Also he rescued Iggy from the gutter. Bowie was also one of the few rockstars who could pull off the difficult role of taking a political stand without looking like an insufferable prat, unlike Bono say. Witness his dignified performance of "Heroes" at the Liveaid Aids benefit concert or his oh-so-elegant grilling of an MTV VJ over MTV's lack of black music videos back in the 80's. Bowie was so inherently classy he could pull that off without looking like a strident grouch (like Bob Geldoff) or a pompous twat (hello Sting).

DAVID BOWIE ~ "SPACE ODDITY";


Bowie was a very big deal for people who came of age musically in the mid -1970's which I can understand. The early 70's were a pretty bleak time. Progrock and Jazz Fusion were actually considered cutting-edge. Otherwise you could choose between burned-out hippies, drippy singer-songwriters, endless Southern Rock Boogie jams, proudly vacuous Bubble Gum Pop and Disco, lots of Disco. And everybody dressed like slobs. There were no "underground" or "alternative" scenes as we understand them. No indie labels, no zines, few clubs, fewer cool indie record stores and no campus radio.

No wonder Glam seemed like a breath of multi-coloured fresh air. Bowie wasn't the first Glam rocker; by many counts Marc Bolan got there first and his hits were catchier and less cluttered then Bowie's, and Bolan was cuter. But Bowie was more media-savvy and disciplined than Bolan was, more populist than Roxy Music and more talented than the likes of Gary Glitter, Jobriath, Sweet or Slade. Not to mention smarter. There was a reason why he was a hero to many of the first generation of Punks.

DAVID BOWIE ~ "ASHES TO ASHES";


Bowie was an even bigger deal for the LGTB communities which I also get. I certainly can't deny them a figure who embraced a despised group before it was fashionable. He was also a hero to fashionistas which I acknowledge but couldn't care less about.

However I never fell into any of those groups. I came of age musically in the mid 1980's "Let's Dance" era when Bowie was not only totally mainstream but completely omnipresent. In 1980's Toronto there were only a limited number of radio choices; for AM Top 40 there was CHUM and CFTR. On FM there was mainstream CHUM FM, the Classic Rockist Q-107, New Wavish CFNY and campus radio CIUT and tiny CKLN. On TV there was Muchmusic and a few assorted shows like "The New Music", "The CHUM Countdown", "American Top 40", "Midnight Special", "Solid Gold" and that was literally it. There were also dance clubs like "Nuts & Bolts", "The Silver Crown", "Empire Club", "The Copa" and "RPM". There was no internet remember so if you wanted to listen to music aside from what you actually owned those were the only options. That may actually seem like a lot compared to a lot of other cities and it was but even for all that there was shockingly little variety. CFTR, Q-107 and the two CHUMs played pretty much the same stuff, albeit in slightly different amounts, and playlists were so predictable that certain groups were guaranteed to be played multiple times a day, usually playing the same few songs. Thus for most of the decade you could be sure of hearing The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Rush, Who, Doors, Teenage Head, Police, AC/DC, Dire Straits, Genesis, Clash and Bowie more than a few times every single day without fail. CFNY and campus radio had a mandate of "New Music" and so had more variety but there was still some overlap with certain artists who had some credibility with the New Wave/Post Punk such as Bowie, Police, Clash, Elvis Costello, Pretenders, Blondie, U2, Billy Idol, REM, OMD, Teenage Head, Rough Trade, Simple Minds, Tom Petty, The Cars, The Cult, Rush (no really) and Dire Straits. Bowie had possibly the greatest across the board reach and I can recall more than once actually hearing a Bowie song on one station, switching the dial to another station only to find yet another Bowie number. Possibly the same one.

DAVID BOWIE ~ "LIFE ON MARS";


To a Bowie fanatic I suppose this would be heaven, at least in theory, but I hated it. Especially in the aftermath of "Let's Dance". At first I rather liked it; "Cat People" was nicely slinky, the Stevie Ray Vaughan solo in "China Girl" was tasty and the rest was likable enough. But after a few months I had had enough. I especially began to actively resent "Modern Love" especially since I had originally enjoyed the opening with it's swirling guitar riff and staccato drums, but eventually I came to dread hearing it. You know the way you felt about a band you rather liked putting out competent but mediocre music and then being embraced by a hoard of incredibly uncool people? Imagine that a hundred times over. Imagine being confronted by this every time you turned on a radio, went to a dance club or opened a music mag. That was the fate of several post punk bands circa 1984 and for several years afterwards. The band most associated and despised for this cultural shift was U2 of course, along with the Police, but Bowie got there first. So I guess he was a pioneer in taking hip music to dreadfully unhip people like Conservatives, Yuppies, Preppies, Frat Boys, Corporate Weasels and Jock Assholes. Maybe that's a good thing in a way but it sure didn't feel like it at the time. This was OUR music scene! Why couldn't they go back to listening to Phil Collins or something equally shitty and leave us the fuck alone?

That said Bowie was never going to be one of my faves anyway. At the time I was heavily into punk bands like The Sex Pistols, Ramones, Stooges, Ruts, TSOL, Adolescents, Sham 69, X-Ray Specs and Agent Orange, and Post Punk bands like Joy Divison, Siouxsie, Bauhaus, Killing Joke, Jesus & Mary Chain, Pretenders, Wire, Virgin Prunes, the first two Psychedelic Furs and first five Simple Minds albums and early Cabaret Voltaire. I was also into rootsy punk like The Gun Club, Cramps, Deja Voodoo, Gruesomes, Jason & The Scorchers and X not to mention actual sixties nuggets like the Animals, Yardbirds, Jefferson Airplane and Velvet Underground. Compared to them I found much of Bowie's work to be stiff and overproduced, too many string sections, unfunky horns and shrill backing singers. I related much better with other proto-punk figures like the Velvets, Stooges, MC5, NY Dolls, Blue Cheer and various Nuggets and Pebbles Garage bands.

DAVID BOWIE ~ "HEROES";


More than that there was a fundamental difference between pre-punk glam figures like Bowie, Marc Bolan and Bryan Ferry and the best of the next generation of 1976 like the Pistols, Clash, Ramones or Joy Division, even taking into account the obvious influence of the former on the latter. Glam was all about affectation, artifice and striking a pose. There was little or no pretense to deeper meaning or emotional commitment. Bowie, Bolan and Ferry were posers and proud of it, and they could change that pose whenever they bored of it, as Bowie (and occasionally Ferry) so famously did.

Punk was another matter. Punk valued authenticity and emotion above all. Of course Johnny Rotten was a poser, but he was also genuine in his alienation and resentment. He meant it MAN!! Ditto for the Clash, Ramones, Joy Division, Black Flag, X-Ray Specs etc. Their music was an explosion of a rage shared by a generation of discarded, largely working class youth. A generation Bowie was not a part of. By the mid seventies he was a show biz veteran who had been scuffing around since the 1960's and had more in common with the likes of literate, artsy types like Ray Davies or Syd Barrett than with lowlifes like Sid Vicious, Johnny Thunders or Stiv Bators. Even figures who wore their Bowie influences on their sleeves like Bauhaus, Siouxsie, John Foxx or the Virgin Prunes did so with a sense of alienation that Bowie never could share even if he wanted to. He was always a rock star even when he wasn't one yet. Therein lay much of his appeal and the appeal of Glam and Glitter (and for that matter Disco) in the early seventies; everybody can be a star, or at least act like one. Perhaps after the political activism of the sixties a backlash of me-first hedonism was inevitable and Glam was it (along with Disco) but by the 1976 Summer Of Hate there was another backlash, this time not just of bored teenagers but bored and angry ones. Enter Punk.

Punk had plenty of artifice as well, it's not everybody who can pull off spikey pink hair a safety pin through the ear and a studded dog collar. But that artifice was meant to advertise the anger within, not mask it in lipstick and glitter. Punk was supposed to reject mainstream success and exist outside it, not overwhelm it with style and sheer excess. The world of Glam was always that of stadiums, flashy discos, high fashion runways. Not grungy clubs, indie labels, cut-and-paste zines and tiny campus radio stations. Glam rockstars toured in private jets and went to exclusive parties with starlets, super-models and lesser royalty, not crammed into the back of a broken down van eating ramen and drinking warm beer. It's impossible to picture Bowie or Ferry in the urine and graffiti stained backstage of CBGB's. Glam was larger than life or it was nothing. Punk rejected all this with a sneer of contempt and embraced it's outsider status. Even making it to a fetish it to an occasionally unhealthy degree. This past week many Bowie fans have related stories about how they identified with Bowie as outsiders. I'll not question their personal feelings but I never, ever, felt that way. To me Bowie was a rock star just like Mick Jagger or Rod Stewart, he had more intellectual heft certainly and more class but that was about it. I never identified with him the way others clearly did.

DAVID BOWIE ~ "BLUE JEAN";


One of the qualities Bowie fans often cite admiringly was his constant changing of personas, a quality Madonna fans constantly praise as well. This is often referred to style over substance but I think this misses the point; it's process over substance. To me as a fan of Punk and Post Punk this was a sign of a a basic opportunism. By contrast while the best Punk and Post Punk bands may have had equally carefully constructed personas those they seemed more real, and they rarely changed them. If they did they could face a backlash from fans who though they had sold out as would happen to U2, Simple Minds, Psychedelic Furs, Ultravox or The Knack among others. It was possible for some to cross the dividing line between the underground and the mainstream to some degree but it was tricky and none who crossed that line could ever be fully accepted again. Many bands struggled with this Catch-22. When Simple Minds or Psychedelic Furs finally scored hits with film themes after close to a decade on the fringes they seemed paralyzed and unsure of how to respond and essentially fell apart. Other bands like Bauhaus, Siouxsie, Killing Joke, Japan and Love & Rockets flirted with success by following near hits with obscure artsy singles that were sure to fail and did. Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello insisted on not making videos or taking years between albums. Others like Polly Styrene, Holly Beth Vincent, The Only Ones or Vapours simply disappeared. They were never able to reconcile the punk ideals of an underground scene they at least partly believed in with the demands of a mass audience they were never truly comfortable with. Bowie never had this conflict because he came out of an earlier era when being a Rockstar was the highest achievement.

This then was the context of Bowie for me, worthy of some respect but fundamentally not part of the scene (or scenes) I loved. Although it's fair to point out that unlike most of his pre-punk contemporaries Bowie did not reject the newer musical genres of Punk, Post Punk, New Wave, New Romanic or Industrial. It may have been his natural curiosity to both art and music as well as to freaks and outlaws or it may have been his keen eye for new trends to exploit but either way he was not threatened by new trends. He did not reject them so he was not rejected in turn. It's worth pointing out as well that Bowie's one of the few artists who can claim they put out something relevant in every decade since the 1960's. Certainly the Stones can't say that. Or Paul McCartney. Or Dylan. Or the Who. Oh I know they can still release albums that chart and sold out tours but does anybody actually care about anything they've done since, say, the eighties? I think not. There only a handful of other figures with that kind of reach. But Lou Reed was less prolific and Iggy less varied. In fact the only figure with as long (longer actually) and still relevant career is Neil Young, and his influence is strictly limited to certain musical genres, not film, fashion or larger social trends. Young's appeal is also mostly limited to the English speaking world of North America, Britain and Australia, he's not nearly well known in places like Asia or Eastern Europe where Bowie certainly is.

This led to some cool punk era covers, although notably far fewer than true proto-punks like Iggy Pop or The Velvet Underground. Especially Bauhaus with their version of "Ziggy Stardust". I liked Bowie's version well enough but I prefer the Bauhaus version, seriously if you're going to do a song about an over-the-top rockstar then you should really go all out.

BAUHAUS ~ "ZIGGY STARDUST";


Then there were the Polecat's Rockabilly cover of "John, I'm Only Dancing" which is clearly more dancable than the original. It also bears more than a passing resemblance to Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love".

THE POLECATS ~ "JOHN, I'M ONLY DANCING";


Bauhaus singer Peter Murphy would later fire off a version of "Funtime" as well which is strictly by-the-numbers but still well done.

PETER MURPHY ~ "FUNTIME";


There have been a number of good covers of "Heroes" by Nico, Blondie and King Crimson.

NICO ~ "HEROES";


An obscure Toronto band, Manix from the eighties, used to run through their own ramshakle version of "Ziggy Stardust".

MANIX ~ "ZIGGY STARDUST";


Later on there would be a few more like Toronto band The Knifings slapdash aggro version of "Queen Bitch".

THE KNIFINGS ~ "QUEEN BITCH";


Eventually Simple Minds, a post punk band with obvious Bowie/Roxy influences finally got around to a Bowie cover of their own with "The Man Who Stole The World". And then they fired off a fine acoustic version.

SIMPLE MINDS ~ "THE MAN WHO STOLE THE WORLD";


Finally The Coal Porters, founded by ex-Long Ryders singer Sid Griffen, did a nice Gram Parsons style Country Rock version of "Heroes".

THE COAL PORTERS ~ "HEROES";


One more Bowie note; Immediately after his death an account from a former groupie (self-described) in which she claims to have had sex with Bowie when she was under-aged. This has led to much online hand-wringing from some quarters describing Bowie as a "predator", "abuser" and "rapist". Inevitably comparisons to Bill Cosby and Jian Ghomeshi have been raised. I call bullshit. I read the actual account from the woman in question. She did not and does not consider Bowie a rapist or herself a victim. She was by her own admission a willing groupie who met Bowie after a gig at a club, retiring to a hotclub quite happily. There is no indication that Bowie knew she was under-age, she never told him and they were in a licensed club where he could reasonably expect everyone to be of age. That's it. There was no luring or drugging as with Cosby or sudden violence as with Ghomeshi. She has no recriminations or regrets. Demands from activists (who have not bothered to meet or talk to the woman themselves) that she be treated as and consider herself a victim to suit their own sexual politics do not impress me. By all means hound that smug, sleazy, asshole Cosby to his grave but I don't see any story here.

SIMPLE MINDS ~ "THE MAN WHO STOLE THE WORLD" (acoustic);

A Couple Of Toronto Area Music Figures Pass On

Michele Tafts; Drummer for 1990's and 2000's Hamilton All-Girl Garage band The Girl Bombs. They recorded a couple of singles and opened for The Cynics, Fleshtones and Midways.

THE GIRL BOMBS ~ "FRUSTRATED";


Brian Miller ~ 60 ~ Guitarist with 1970's and early 80's Toronto Prog-Rock band Zon, dies of cancer. Zon were formed in 1977 as a Prog-Rock counterpart to the far more stripped down Punk revolution. They recorded two albums with the 1978 debut, "Astral Projector" being nominated for a Juno award for Most Promising New Group and they opened for Styx and Foreigner at CNE Stadium. Zon broke up around 1980 after bad reviews and a notorious concert opening for Alice Cooper at CNE when Alice refused to go on and Zon volunteered to play a second gig after announcing his cancellation. Miller later worked as tech at local guitar store the 12th Fret.
ZON ~ "BACK DOWN TO EARTH";


ZON ~ "ASTRAL PROJECTOR" (full album);


NEWS FOOTAGE OF THE 1980 ALICE COOPER RIOT;

Band Profile; Dock Walsh & The Carolina Tarheels

The Carolina Tar Heels were a short lived but notable Old Time Country String Band who made a series of respected and highly collectible recordings from 1928 to 1932. They were led by Dock Walsh "The Banjo King of The Carolinas" who was born in Lewis Fork North Carolina in 1901 and included veteran musician Clarence Ashley, a guitar/banjo player originally from Bristol Tennessee (born 1895) and on harmonica and guitar either of the brothers Garley or Gwen Foster.
Walsh was a noted pioneer of the "clawhammer" banjo picking style and was also one of the first to record in the three-finger style. He is also believed to have invented a style of playing in a blusier slide style by placing pennies under the bridge and using a knife blade similar to that of blues guitar players like Robert Johnson and Son House. All of which earning the title "Banjo King Of The Carolinas". He was already playing (but not recording) with Gwen or Garley foster as the Carolina Tar Heels since 1925 when Columbia Records talent scout Ralph Peer put them together with Clarence Ashley for some recording sessions in 1928.

CAROLINA TAR HEELS ~ "GOING TO GEORGIA";


Clarence "Tom" Ashley was already an experienced performer who had toured with medicine shows and blackface minstrel show since 1911 and had played with well known fiddler G.B. Grayson. He had done recordings in 1928 for Gennett Records with the Blue Ridge Entertainers with Clarence Green on fiddle and Garley Foster on harmonica.

The Recordings ~ The records made by the Tar Heels are notable from others of the era for not having a fiddle player. The songs range from spare slower numbers like the classic "In the Pines" (sung by Walsh) to ensemble numbers sung by all three and played at a breakneck speed. All featured the banjo as the lead instrument. "In the Pines" was a folk ballad of unknown authorship with the version done by Walsh believed to be the first commercially recorded release. The song became a classic and would later be recorded by Leadbelly, Bill Monroe, Peg Leg Howell, The Louvin Brothers, Osborne Brothers, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Doc Watson, Roscoe Holcomb, John Phillips, Long John Baldry, Dave Van Ronk, The Greatful Dead, The Four Pennies, Ralph Stanley, Dolly Parton, Odetta, Gene Clark, Link Wray and more recently Mark Lanegan and Nirvana.

CAROLINA TAR HEELS ~ MY HOME'S ACROSS THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS";


Dissolution ~ After making the Peer recordings the band seems to have essentially ended with Ashley moving on to other projects while the great depression brought an end to much of the industry devoted to rural music. Walsh and the Fosters would continue to perform but Ashley would be the one to have the greatest impact with his rediscovery during the folk revival of the 1960's when he would make several recordings for Smithsonian/Folkways and playing the folk circuit. Walsh would also record for Folkways during the 1960's folk revival. Walsh and Ashley both died in 1967 while Foster died in 1968.
Members;
Dock Walsh ~ Banjo/Vocals, Clarence Ashley ~ Guitar or Banjo/Vocals, Garley Foster ~ Harmonica or Guitar/Vocals

CAROLINA TAR HEELS ~ "THERE'S A MAN GOING ROUND TAKING NAMES";

Coming Live To CIUT This Month!

Next Thursday at 1pm July 16 Ginger St James brings her Honky-Tonkin'-Rockabilly self on down to CIUT for a live session in our Map Room Sessions for a live-to-air recording. Any and all cheering sections are cordially invited. At the low, low price of absolutely free. Full 45 minute show starts at 1pm sharp. In the Map Room at Hart House in the University Of Toronto.

GINGER ST JAMES ~ "TRAVELING BAND";


GINGER ST JAMES ~ "FOLSUM PRISON BLUES";


GINGER ST JAMES ~ "HONK TONK BLUES";


GINGER ST JAMES ~ "TENNESSEE WALTZ";


Also coming up in August;

Old Time Country with Pigeonhawk Stringband ~ Thursday Aug.13
PIGEONHAWK STRING BAND ~ "EVA'S LULLABY";


Surf's Up with Luau Or Die ~ Friday Aug.14
LUAU OR DIE ~ "HAVING AN AVERAGE WEEKEND";


LUAU OR DIE ~ "PIPELINE";


LUAU OR DIE ~ "GEEK USA";


As always listen online at www.ciut.fm

Offbeat Instruments In Old Time Music

We have a certain image of the instruments used during the 1920's birth of the Blues and Country music. Guitars, Banjos, Fiddles, Harmonicas, Pianos, Mandolins and the occasional Autoharp, along with whatever jerry-rigged instruments Jug Bands cobbled together, and that's pretty much it. But that's quite wrong, a trip through the Sears & Roebuck Catalogs of the age which were commonly used to order instruments even in most rural areas show pages of Zithers, Harp-Guitars, Cellos and Harmoniums for sale. And we know that some rural folk did indeed play them. Then there were locally produced instruments such as the Mountain Dulcimer, Washboard, Washtub Bass, Musical Saw and the Quills. I've even seen an old photo of a stringband standing in front of a saloon proudly showing off their full size concert harp. Lord knows what they played on it.

The problem was that in the early days of recordings many instruments simply did not record well given the crude technology of the time. Banjos, Fiddles and Pianos recorded quite well from the start, they were loud, clear and distinct. In fact the banjo, which had been around for over a century as a African-American instrument, became wildly popular in the Ragtime Age when white, tuxedoed players like Fred Van Epps and Vess Ossman had numerous hit records with their rapid fire instrumentals. Guitars by comparison, now seen as the archetypal blues, folk and country instrument, took longer to catch on, they were too quiet to record well at first. It's noteworthy that the first big selling rural artists like Eck Robertson, Fiddling John Carson, Uncle Dave Macon and Papa Charlie Jackson played fiddle or banjo. Soon enough the guitar pushed it's way in and took over. Of course it was sexier than the weedy fiddles or clanging banjos. On the other hand there's the autoharp. They had been around since the 1900's and sold well enough since they were relatively easy to play, however they did not record well and might have been largely forgotten if it were not for the fact that two of the biggest names in country music, The Carter Family and Ernest Stoneman used them on their hit records. By comparison take the Mountain Dulcimer. Like the autoharp they are easy to play and in fact have obvious advantages in that since they only have three or four strings they are a lot easier to tune. They are also louder. Due to the vagaries of taste however they were never very popular as recording instruments and never had a hit-maker like Stoneman or the Carters to champion them. The instrument might have slipped into complete obscurity if folk revivalists like Jean Ritchie, John Jacob Niles, Richard Farina and Mike Seeger hadn't championed them in the 1950's and 1960's. The mandolin is another example of the vagaries of taste. They had been subject of an odd fad in the 1910's when large all-mandolin orchestras briefly became all the rage. The dawning of the electric Honky Tonk era might have pushed them to the sidelines if it were not for Bill Monroe's bluegrass bands and various brother duos like the Louvins and the Stanleys. Now it is literally impossible to have a bluegrass band without one. I think it may actually be a bylaw. By contrast the bodhran, a hand-held drum common in folk music of the Celtic Fringe of Ireland, the Scottish Highlands and the Isle Of Man would have been a perfect addiction to Bluegrass, Country Stringbands or Jugbands. However the numorous immigrants from these Gaelic lands did not move to Appalachia and the Ozarks so this never happened.

There were also the commercial decisions made by record companies. Once certain instruments and genres sold well record companies rushed to sign up more of the same while more regional and eccentric tastes fell by the wayside. A few oddities still managed to slip through;

THE QUILLS ~ RAGTIME HENRY THOMAS:
RAGTIME HENRY THOMAS ~ "FISHING BLUES";


Henry Thomas (1874 - 1950's) was a Texas based bluesman who recorded in the twenties. He was actually a full generation older than other 1920's bluesmen which was reflected both in his repertoire, which ranged from standard blues to rags and minstrel tunes, as well as his use of the quills. A crude instrument known since ancient times, the quills were simply a set of several short flutes cut from hollowed out reeds and attached to a rack. The ancient Greeks referred to a similar instrument as the Pan Flute. Since the quills were easy to play, compact, and could be made by any handy craftsman they were quite popular amongst black slaves as well as poor white farmers, sailors and other rural folk, including children, going back to colonial times. They were not considered a respectable instrument however and their reedy sound did not record well and by the turn of the century they had been superseded by the harmonica which had the advantage of being a far more versatile instrument, not to mention louder, as well as being sturdier and more compact. Thomas, a singer/guitarist, was the only notable recording artist who used the quills, which he played using neck mounted rack similar to the ones later used by Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. He recorded some twenty three sides for Vocalion throughout the twenties. The quills add a distinctive touch to his fairly upbeat tunes as the perfect counterpart to his equally reedy tenor voice.



Thomas was best known for his classic "Bull Doze Blues" later covered by Canned Heat. Thomas was a mysterious figure about whom little is known in fact exact dates for his birth and death are not confirmed. Besides Thomas a few other rural artists would be recorded playing the quills in later years by John and Alan Lomax.

RAGTIME HENRY THOMAS ~ "BULLDOZE BLUES";


THE HARP-GUITAR ~ ALFRED KARNES;



The harp-guitar was one of the many odd hybrid instruments that was briefly popular in the late Victorian era. A large and unwieldy instrument the harp-guitar was a guitar with a extra large body topped with several extra strings that could be strummed to add extra body to the melody picked out or chorded on the fretboard. The harp-guitar was so large and bulky that shorter players actually had to prop it up on a stand. They were not an instrument that came from rural America but were instead a modification of the lutes used in Europe since the Renaissance. They probably made their way to rural audiences via vaudeville where odd instrumental acts were not unusual. A few photos from this era show the instrument. Too awkward and bulky to be really popular they could however be easily be bought through the Sears & Roebuck mail-order catalogs even in remote rural areas and they can occasionally still be found in antique shops.

ALFRED KARNES ~ "I'M BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND";



Alfred Karnes was one of the artists recorded at the legendary Bristol Sessions set up by producer Ralph Peer in 1927 which included such major figures as The Carter Family, Jimmy Rodgers and Ernest Stoneman. Karnes was a singing preacher who had never recorded before. He showed up with his harp-guitar which he played using a distinct slapping sound while picking out the guitar melodies and using the harp strings to strum a backing. This gave his records the illusion of playing two guitars, an effect also made by Maybell Carter's innovative duel picking and strumming style. He also sung his gospel songs in a ringing stentorian baritone far removed from the nasal twang of the likes of Jimmy Rodgers or Charlie Poole. His best known songs were the rousing "I'm Bound For The Promised Land", "To The Work" and the mournful "Where We'll Never Grow Old". At the Bristol Sessions Karnes is believed to have played and sang backups with another singing preacher from Corbin, Kentucky named Ernest Phipps who recorded songs like "I Want To Go Where Jesus Is" backed by a stringband. However the details are sketchy and the audio evidence is unclear.

ALFRED KARNES ~ "TO THE WORK";


Given the excellence of his recordings Karnes could have single-highhandedly popularized the harp-guitar if he had chosen to seriously pursue a serious musical career. However unlike the stars of the Bristol sessions like Rodgers, Stoneman and the Carters, Karnes had little interest in doing so and after his promising start Karnes made a few other recordings before returning to preaching for the rest of his life. He died in 1958 just a few years to soon for the folk revival of the early sixties which would lead to the rediscovery of contemporaries like Maybell Carter, Roscoe Holcomb and Hobart Smith and it certainly would have done the same for Karnes and his harp-guitar.

ALFRED KARNES ~ "WHERE WE'LL NEVER GROW OLD";


Another more obscure group to use the harp-guitar was The Gibbs Stringband who recorded six sides for for Paramount Records in 1927 and six more in 1930 for Vocalion. The Gibbs Brothers were Bob (banjo), Joe (guitar) and Hugh (harp-guitar) with James Jackson (fiddle) and Sam Spencer (vocals). Their records are standard stringband fare, well done and lively, especially on "I'm Going Crazy". However, as with the Ernest Phipps records, in a group context it is difficult to tell the difference between a harp-guitar and regular guitar. Clearly the harp-guitar really shined as a solo instrument in the hands of someone with the power of Alfred Karnes. The Gibbs Band made no further records and dropped from sight.

THE GIBBS STRING BAND ~ "I'M GOING CRAZY";


THE GIBBS STRING BAND ~ "CHICKEN REEL";

As it was the instrument, too bulky to be truly popular, fell into obscurity. As an added note there exists an old photo of what appears to be old time country gospel group (note what appears to be bible in the older man's hands) named Leigh & Frieda Northrup and John & Maude Montgomery, featuring a fiddle and harp-guitar with a vocal duo. This clearly shows that at least a few other rural groups were using the harp-guitar at the time. Unfortunately the Northrup & Montgomery group apparently did not record so thus missing another chance to preserve this peculiar instrument.



UPDATE; After I posted this someone did some research on these folks and discovered they were indeed preachers who lived in Tillamook County, Oregon where they built Bethel Mission Church around 1916 which is probably when this photo was taken judging by the clothes. They probably never saw the inside of a studio or radio station sadly.

THE ZITHER vs THE DOLCEOLA; WASHINGTON PHILLIPS;

WASHINGTON PHILLIPS ~ "I AM BORN TO PREACH THE GOSPEL";


The zither is a multi-stringed harp-like instrument having a hollow wooden body to act as a sound box (unlike a true harp which has no body at all) having anywhere from a dozen two dozen strings. Unlike most folk instruments used in North America which came from the British Isles (except the banjo, which is African in origin), the zither came from central Europe. Specifically Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland and Scandinavia and was brought by the waves of immigrants who came from these lands starting in the mid-nineteenth century. There were numerous different types of zither each with different names, shapes and numbers of strings but the German type would become the standard with it's harp-like shape, usually around a foot and half by fourteen inches in size, with anywhere from 25 to 35 strings. They were invariably painted black with a floral design. These zithers were quite common and any Sears & Roebuck catalog of the 1900's and 1910's will always have a page or two of these models. They can often still be found cheaply in antique stores today. By the 1920's however they had fallen out of fashion.

A STANDARD MODEL ZITHER FROM THE 1910's;


A MORE ELABORATE MODEL FROM THE 1890's;
The zither's downfall can be traced to some of the usual suspects. It's gentle sound did not record well. It's delicate and intricate finger picking, while suitable for slow ballads, was completely unsuited to accompany the more aggressive dance tunes, rags and fiddle breakdowns that became popular. With their multiple strings they were also difficult to keep in tune. Essentially the zither was made obsolete by the invention of the autoharp, which kept the basic shape and size of the zither while adding the distinctive tonebars which allowed the instrument to be chorded and strummed vigorously enough to accompany other instruments. It was also therefore easier to play. Zithers were also victims of the xenophobia of World War One when all things German became taboo.

Washington Phillips was one of the most enigmatic Gospel/Blues singers of the 1920's. For decades little was known about his life and death, and nobody knew what he looked like. This is true for other figures like Blind Blake (of whom one photo exists, but little else is known) but Phillips is unique in that for decades nobody was even sure what instrument he played. The Texas based singer recorded a series of sides in 1927 and again in 1929 for Columbia records, and then dropped out of sight. On these unique records he sings in a gently drawling, somewhat quavering, tenor accompanied by an oddly chiming zither-like instrument which gives him an almost ethereal sound. Originally it was insisted that he was playing an odd instrument called a dolceola, an equally enigmatic and rarely recorded instrument of which few examples exist. The dolceola was basically a zither with a keyboard attached which made it sound like a tiny piano or harpsichord. They were only made for a few years and then discontinued and were seen mostly as a novelty instrument. Virtually the only person who is known for sure to have occasionally played around with one is fellow Texan Leadbelly so it's possible for Phillips to have had one. However the only real evidence he did so was the producer's notes for the original recordings. However eyewitness reports seem to indicate a zither and the issue became a matter of heated debate for years. However in the 1980's a photo surfaced in a Columbia Records catalog which showed Phillips holding two instruments which are clearly zithers. That should have ended the debate. But of course it did not and the powerful dolceola lobby is quite stubborn. Audio evidence is completely subjective as everyone listening to scratchy old 78's tends to hear something different. Some hear keyboard strikes, some do not. I can't tell but personally I prefer the zither theory on the grounds that;

WASHINGTON PHILLIPS ~ "KEYS TO THE KINGDOM";


1) The zither was a fairly common instrument in the turn of the century (albeit not amongst black musicians) and easy enough to find. Whereas the dolceola was always an obscure novelty instrument only available for a few years. It's always possible that Phillips could have found one of course, Leadbelly obviously did, but the odds are definitely with the zither.
2) All the eyewitness accounts about Phillips that have surfaced (of which there are admittedly only a few) consistently describe a zither type instrument played by strumming and plucking, not a keyboard instrument. That's not a mistaken impression anybody is likely to make. The only real evidence for a dolceola is that notation in the Columbia Record's files, which could have been made later and might indeed be a mistake.
3) Listening to the Leadbelly track, which everybody agrees is definitely a dolceoa, sounds quite different from the Phillips records.
4) Then there's that photo. After all what are the odds that Phillips happened to be sitting around when a photographer handed him two zithers, said "Here hold these and say cheese!" and then snapped a quick photo? And even if he did why would Columbia Records then choose that photo for their catalog if he played a completely different instrument?
Washington Phillips did not record after 1929 and for years it was assumed that he died in 1938 after being committed to an insane asylum. However recent research revealed that he actually returned to preaching and died in 1954, outliving the far more famous Leadbelly who died in 1949. Phillips' recordings represent a gentle and charming contrast to the Hellfire and Brimstone more commonly associated with rural gospel music. Some of his songs were later covered by Blind Lemon Jefferson and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

WASHINGTON PHILLIPS ~ "TAKE YOUR BURDENS TO THE LORD";


Although not normally used by rural musicians (at least those who recorded) there is one other example of a group who clearly did use a classic German style zither. The Perry County Music Makers were Nonnie Smith Presson on zither and vocals, her brother Bulow Smith on vocals and guitar and occasionally a harmonica player, Nonnie was apparently the main songwriter. They recorded four sides for Vocalion Records in Knowville in 1930 in which Nonnie's zither is the main instrument and can therefore be compared to Washington Phillips. Nonnie and Phillips do playing the same basic instrument although she is much more fluid, not to mention louder. Unlike most of the other artists here Nonnie and Bulow. although never very successful in the 30's did live long enough to be rediscovered and and recorded two albums in the 1970's before she died in 1970.

THE PERRY COUNTY MUSIC MAKERS ~ "I'M SAD & BLUE";


THE REED ORGAN AND HARMONIUM;
The organ is the oldest mechanical instrument known to man, having existed since the late middle ages. These early organs were massive, honking monsters powered by large bellows operated by separate assistants. Clearly they were not portable and were limited to large churches and the occasional palace. By the late renaissance smaller, more portable models had been invented using hand bellows, basically like an accordion. The reed organ was the last pre-electronic organ developed and some were small enough to be reasonably portable, at least if you had a car. The harmonium was even more portable, being about twice the size of an accordion and operated much the same way. They were reasonably affordable and commonly sold through mail order. They took a while to catch on as recorded instruments however. Their sound, while easily loud enough, did not record well at first. Their rather blaring honk tended to overwhelm everything else and the notes seemed to blur together. By the 1920's these technical problems had mostly been worked out, however their were still cultural issues to restrict the use of organs in secular music. The organ had always been seen, at least in popular tastes, as a church instrument. Using the organ for blues, country, jazz or ragtime would have been seen almost as blasphemy. Fats Waller would make some jazz recordings in the 1940's but it was not until the 1950's that figures like Ray Charles, Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff would score commercial hits using the organ, and even then there was controversy. Prior to then it was mostly limited to some gospel recordings, at least those denominations which allowed musical instruments at all. The harmonium was made obsolete by small electric organs although oddly they did catch on in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal (presumably brought by missionaries) where they are still quite common.



The Jubilee Gospel Team were a black trio from Georgia who made a series of recordings in 1928. Like most gospel groups at the time (and now for that matter) their repertoire is fairly limited. Basically they have two tempos; slow and slightly faster. Structurally the songs are typical call and response. They are fairly lively though and the organ adds depth to the records. A couple of records like "Dry Bones In The Valley" have an urgent string-of-consciousness sound. Little else is known about the group and what happened to them other than the probability they were from Virginia.

THE JUBILEE GOSPEL TEAM ~ "DRY BONES IN THE VALLEY";

Luther Magby was a gospel singer from from Georgia who made only two recordings in 1927. He used a harmonium in a fast paced rhythmic style that was well suited to his sharp, slurring voice. He is also backed by a single anonymous tambourine player. The results make for a lively and upbeat single although once again the songs do sound very similar and one wonders if Magby had any other more varied material in his repertoire. Unfortunately he made no more recordings and little more is known of him.

LUTHER MAGBY ~ "JESUS IS GETTING READY FOR THAT GREAT DAY";


One of the few non-religious groups to use the instruments were the obscure Reeves White County Revelers from White County, Arkansas and made up of three Reeves Brothers; Ike and Ira on fiddle, Lloyd on piano and vocals and Fred Rumble on guitar. Pianos were already somewhat odd in stringbands but not unknown, however when they arrived at Chicago in 1928 to record they discovered that the studio amazingly did not have a piano so Lloyd had to make do with a reed organ. The resulting singles are highly unusual in combining traditional stringband fare like "Arkansas Traveler" and "Shortning Bread" with the fiddles battling their way through a fog of blaring organ. Purist collectors of stringband 78's find this cacophony difficult to wade through but they do have a distinctive sound that somehow sounds even more out of time than other stringbands in spite of their more "modern" flourishes. They were brought back to the studio six weeks later to record a second series of more standard stringband tunes. The Ramblers then returned to Arkansas and made no further recordings although they remained active into the sixties.

THE REEVES WHITE COUNTY REVELERS ~ "RATTLER TREED A POSSUM";




THE LUTE-DULCIMER ~ JOHN JACOB NILES;
John Jacob Niles (1892 - 1980) is not normally seen as a rural performer, he was a serious musicologist with a degree from Cincinatti University as well as studying in France who did an extensive study of traditional ballads. However he had genuine rural southern roots having been born in Kentucky, who had been performing traditional ballads since childhood. He played an odd version of the Mountain Dulcimer he made himself. The Mountain Dulcimer was a simplified version of various strummed zithers brought to America by immigrants from The British Isles, Germany and Scandinavia. These instruments had various numbers of strings and names like the hummel (Swiss), kantele (Finnish), langleik (Norwegian) and the scheitholt (German). The Mountain Dulcimer came from Appalachia and had either three or four strings grouped in sets of two, similar to the German scheitholt. Held in the lap or on a table and played with a vigorous strumming motion, the first set of strings were fretted like a guitar using a wooden slider while the second set of strings were unfretted and acted as drones giving the instrument a buzzing echo effect. Easy to play and tune it was also useful to accompany a ballad singer or a string band although it lacks the complexity for a good solo. In spite of these advantages it was never popular as a recorded instrument, partly for cultural reasons. The Dulcimer's very ease of play made it popular with women singers but thus not popular with men who preferred the more flashy fiddles, banjos, guitars or mandolins.

JOHN JACOB NILES ~ "GO AWAY FROM MY WINDOW";


From childhood John Jacob Niles designed and built his own unique instruments which combined a body based on the old European lute with the basic string setup of the Mountain Dulcimer for a unique instrument that was at least twice the size of the usual dulcimer. The lute was an old European stringed instrument that dated back to the Middle Ages when it became the choice instrument of minstrels and troubadours. It had a large oval body and a thick neck and a distinctive bent head and multiple strings played with intricate finger plucking creating a delicate sound. The lute was fiendishly difficult to play or keep in tune and not suitable to play fast dances or accompany a string band. By the late restoration period it was falling out fashion to be replaced by far more versatile and user-friendly guitars and mandolins. Paintings of the era often show a musician happily playing a guitar while a lute sits unused in a corner, dusty and forlorn. They were never common in America but the studious Niles could have easily seen pictures of one and used it as a model for his homemade version of the smaller mountain dulcimer.
Niles researched old Anglo-Celtic ballads popular in his Kentucky home and sang them in a breathless, ghostly tenor that seemed enveloped in the mists of time beyond the mountains of Appalachia to the foggy Highlands of Scotland, the sunny meadows of England, the hills of Wales and the fields of Ireland. His dulcimer playing was rudimentary at best, often little more than fragmentary strumming that could barely be heard. By the time he started recording in 1938 his style was already so archaic as to be positively prehistoric, even in Appalachia, and his small audience was mostly made of young, university educated urban folkies in the late 1950's and early 60's folk revival. Too offbeat and weird to have ever found a larger audience he nonetheless influenced the next generation of folkies like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and Jean Richie, the latter of whom would popularize the dulcimer with a far more dexterous style. He continued playing up his death.

BLIND MAMIE FOREHAND & HER HAND CYMBALS ~ "I WOULDN'T MIND DYING";


Mamie Forehand was a gospel singer along with her guitarist husband A.C. who recorded two singles (along with a couple of out-takes) in Memphis in 1927. They were apparently rather elderly and their origins are unknown but were presumably from Tennessee or neighboring Arkansas or Missouri. Tamborines were quite common in black Baptist and Pentecostal churches but somewhere along the road Mamie Forehand found a pair of hand cymbals, an instrument known from the Orient and rarely, if ever, used in rural music black or white. The cymbals were small, delicate and tuned to a specific pitch and were played like Spanish castanets. They are not used with the same staccato urgency however and instead used with a softly played simple rhythm that is barely audible on the tracks sung by A.C., especially given his guitar and harmonica playing. The tracks sung by Mamie are softer and with less backing from A.C. and thus her cymbals are more clearly heard. The Forehand's records are gentle and intimate and like those of Washington Phillips are reminder of the softer side of gospel. Unlike Phillips their records were, and remain obscure and the Forehand's subsequent whereabouts are unknown but it's safe to assume they're long gone.

THE KAZZOO ~ JAMES WIGGANS;
Normally seen as a child's toy, the kazzoo was occasionally used by blues and country musicians,both black and white, as a sort of novelty version of the harmonica. It recorded reasonably well and unlike the harmonica it required no skill and could be played hands free. It quickly fell out out of fashion to be replaced by the far more expressive, and far less goofy sounding, harmonica. James Wiggans was a piano playing bluesman who recorded a few records for Paramount Records including the original version of "Keep A Knockin" later covered in a classic version by Little Richard. Kazoos were also used by a few other black artists particularly on Paramount Records.

JAMES "BOODLE IT" WIGGINS" ~ "KEEP A KNOCKIN";


THE STOVEPIPE;
Jug Bands and other rural songsters, black and white, were known for making use of a number of improvised and Jerry-rigged homemade instruments as the iconic Moonshine Jugs, Washboards, Washtub Bass, Musical Saw, and Spoons. In fact all of these are still in some use today in some form. One of the oddest improvised instruments to have a brief heyday was the stovepipe. In spite of it's rather intimidating name which suggests something to be used by Cabaret Voltaire or S.P.K, the stovepipe was simply a length of stove pipe tapered at the ends which the player hummed, blew, whistled or stuttered into rather like a combination of the jug and kazoo. The results were the limited, monotonous and downright silly sounding, it's even less expressive than the kazoo. Still at least two black songsters chose to not only specialize in the instrument but made it their trademark. Sweet Papa Stovepipe who recorded for Paramount Records (of course) in 1926 and his rival Stovepipe Number 1 who recorded for Paramount, Columbia and OKeh in the 1920's. Both were older than the usual bluesman and their materiel suggests they started out in the 1910's which is probably when the stovepipe had it's day, such as it was. Stovepipe Number 1 (real name Sam Jones) was fairly versatile recording not only solo but also with a band from 1924 to 1930.

STOVEPIPE NUMBER 1 ~ "A WOMAN GETS TIRED OF THE SAME MAN";

Lesser Known Artists From The Bristol Sessions

The 1927 recording sessions for Victor Records in Bristol, Tennessee are legendary as the single most important event in the history of Country Music, no less than Johnny Cash once referred to them as "The Big Bang Of Country Music". These sessions did indeed lead to the discovery of the two most important figures of Old Time Country Music; Jimmy Rodgers and The Carter Family. The small city of Bristol is a now major music shrine on a par with the Ryman Auditorium, Sun Studios or Motown Studios. Calling the sessions the beginning of Country Music is a complete oversimplification of course. By 1927 Fiddling John Carson, Eck Robertson, Harry McClintock, Uncle Dave Macon and Ernest Stoneman were already successful recording artists and Vernon Dalhart had already sold a jaw-dropping seven million copies of "The Prisoner's Song", still one of the biggest selling records of all time.




Accordingly when Victor Records scout Ralph Peer set up operations in Bristol, Tennessee, a small but important city in the area bordering Virginia and within easy driving range to West Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky and sent out advertisements announcing auditions, he already assumed he would find some potential hits. One of the featured artists, Ernest Stoneman had already seen some recording success while the Carter Family had already auditioned once before only to have A.P.Carter walk out in a dispute after it was suggested that they should add a fiddle player. Jimmy Rodgers was part of a group called the Tenneva Ramblers who had a local reputation but had not recorded. As it happened the Ramblers broke up just before the sessions and Rodgers ended up recording solo. The Carters, Jimmy Rodgers and Stoneman would each score million selling hits and help establish country music as a serious business rather than a series of novelty hits. The fates of Jimmy Rodgers and the Carters are well known; with Rodgers dying of tuberculosis in 1933 and the Carters having an influential career into the 1940's (Maybelle carried on into the 70's after Sara and AP left) and beyond for Mother Maybelle. Ernest Stoneman is now less well known but he would actually have the longest career of all, recording well into the 1960's by which time he was known as Pop Stoneman and was backed by his beautiful daughters. He died in 1968. Henry Whitter was another well known country music veteran who had been recording successfully as early as 1923 with a number of hits including the original version of "Wreck Of The Old 97" and "Lost John". After the Bristol sessions he teamed up with blind fiddler BG Grayson for some successful singles including the classic "9 Pound Hammer" until Grayson was killed in a car wreck in 1930. After that Whitter would slow down and not record again. He died of complications from diabetes in 1941.

But what of the other artists who recorded at the Bristol Sessions? Here are some personal faves;

ALFRED KARNES ~ "BOUND FOR THE PROMISED LAND";


ALFRED KARNES ~ Not all of those artists were full-time musicians. Karnes was a singing Baptist preacher from Corbin, Kentucky who drove down to Bristol with his harp-guitar and some gospel songs. The harp-guitar was an odd and unwieldy hybrid instrument built on a large guitar body with a second set of strings which were unfretted and could give the illusion of two guitars.



A CONTEMPORARY PHOTO OF A RURAL STRINGBAND WITH A HARP-GUITAR

The harp-guitar had a brief vogue in the early twentieth century along with all sorts of other stringed instruments of various shapes and sizes. It was too bulky to be truly popular however (it was so large that some shorter players had to use a stand to prop it on) and it was already archaic by the time Karnes showed up to record. Karnes played with a distinctive string snapping style which gave a percussive drive to his soaring, stentorian baritone. He recorded thirteen sides, all gospel, and all excellent, including the rousing "Bound For The Promised Land" (later covered by Hank Williams sr) and "To The Work" and the soaring ballad "Where We'll Never Grow Old". He also sang and played backup to Ernest Phipps on his Bristol recordings. More on Phipps in a bit

ALFRED KARNES ~ "TO THE WORK";


Karnes certainly had the talent and a distinctive enough sound to have made a real name for himself. However Karnes was simply not interested in a musical career, preferring to return to the pulpit where he would remain for the rest of his life. He died in 1958 just a few years too soon for the Folk revival of the early sixties which certainly have led to a rediscovery of his work as it did for others of his era.

ALFRED KARNES ~ "WHERE WE'LL NEVER GROW OLD";


B.F. SHELTON ~ When Karnes drove down to Bristol he brought with him Shelton, a singing banjo playing friend who worked as a barber in Corbin, Kentucky and had reportedly served time in a prison where Karnes had preached. B.F.(Frank) Shelton recorded a few songs including "Oh Molly Dear" a version of a popular song already recorded as "East Virginia Blues" as well as a version of another well known song "Pretty Polly" which was later covered by Clarence Ashley, The Stanley Brothers, The Byrds and The Sadies among others. Shelton played in a stark modal style quite different from the rapid fire failing of the likes of Uncle Dave Macon, an effect enhanced by his ghostly tenor. Shelton made some other recordings but preferred to stay in the area rather than become a full-time musician. He did some more recordings a few years later which were not released. Like Karnes he also died just prior to the Folk Revival in 1963.

B.F. SHELTON ~ "OH MOLLY DEAR";


BLIND ALFRED REED ~ Unlike Karnes and Shelton, Reed was a professional singer who had already built up a local reputation before Ralph Peer invited him down to Bristol. Reed was fiddler and singer from Princeton, West Virginia who sang a mixture of songs traditional gospel, topical and protest songs he wrote himself. Reed usually had a few back-up musicians and brought a guitarist named Arthur Wyrick to the sessions. Musically Reed's songs are pretty conventional string band fare and not especially noteworthy, unlike those of Karnes and Shelton, however Reed did have a strong voice and good songs. The songs at this session included "Walking In The Way With Jesus" and "Wreck Of The Virginian".

BLIND ALFRED REED ~ "WALKING IN THE WAY WITH JESUS";


Reed would return to the local circuit and made further recordings including the better known protest songs "How Can A Man Stand Such Times And Live" (later covered by Ry Cooder) and "Why Do You Bob Your Hair Girls". This combination of conservative Christianity and political populism may seem strange now, but in the era of William Jennings Bryan, who was very popular in the region, such politics were quite common. Like many other rural artists Reed's recording career ended when the Great Depression hit and he was reduced to becoming a street corner preacher until banned by city bylaws around 1937. He died, reportedly of malnutrition, in abject poverty in 1956. Like Karnes, Reed also just missed the Folk revival that certainly would have helped him.

BLIND ALFRED REED ~ "HOW CAN A POOR MAN STAND SUCH TIMES AND LIVE";


ERNEST PHIPPS ~ Another singing preacher from Corbin, Kentucky, but unlike Karnes, Phipps was more of a full time musician with a backing band. Phipps sang with a Hellfire and brimstone style and included backup singers along with his backing stringband, which (at least at these sessions) included Alfred Karnes. This partnership is a little odd since Phipps was a preacher in a Pentecostal Holiness Church while Karnes was a Baptist. While the rest of Phipps band on these sessions are unknown it's also possible BF Shelton played with him as well since he is known to have driven down with Alfred Karnes. Originally from Gray, Kentucky, Phipps was probably not too different from other white Southern Gospel groups of the era although they are praised for the power of his singing. His recordings are also notable since such music was rather under-recorded. His Bristol sessions included the rousing "I Want To Go Where Jesus Is". Phipps continued on with his career including more recordings until he died in 1963.

ERNEST PHIPPS ~ "I WANT TO GO WHERE JESUS IS";


THE JOHNSON BROTHERS ~ An early example of the brother duos that would become a fixture in country music with names like The Carlisle Bros, Delmores, Monroes, Louvins, Stanleys, Lillys, and ultimately the Everly Brothers. Paul Johnson sang and played steel guitar while Paul backed him on guitar. Their songs are slow mournful ballads based on traditional sentimental Victorian themes like "A Passing Policeman" (based on an 1894 song) and "The Jealous Sweetheart". On the latter song they are accompanied by an unknown musician playing the bones, a simple percussion instrument used since ancient times, particularly with black musicians. It is assumed that this was El Watson, a black harmonica player who Charles Johnson would in turn back on his own single, a harmonica showcase called "Potlicker Blues" which was recorded the same day. The Johnsons, from nearby Happy Valley, were actually well known entertainers in the area having been regulars on the local vaudeville, minstrel and medicine show circuit and had already attended a recoding session in New York so they were known to Peer before the showed up in Bristol. However their singles were not notably successful("A Passing Policeman" was not even released at the time) and the Johnsons would drop out of sight with their ultimate fates unknown. El Watson is even more obscure. Although he is assumed to have been black, it is not even known for sure if he was. After Bristol Watson disappeared from the historical records entirely.

THE JOHNSON BROS ~ THE JEALOUS SWEETHEART";


THE ALCOA QUARTET ~ While the rest of the musicians at Bristol played various types of rural music both religious and secular, the Alcoa Quartet were a slick professional singing group from Alcoa, Tennesse made up of the brothers J.E and J.H. Thomas and W.B. Hitch and John Wells, who were already well known as professional musicians who performed at state fairs and conventions as well as on the radio. Like some of the other Bristol performers they had already recorded as well. Their repertoire was mostly religious in nature like "I'm Redeemed" and is a good example of a vocal tradition that had been popular since Victorian times. They would go on to a long career performing on radio as well as later backing the young Roy Acuff among others, becoming an inspiration to future quartets like The Blackwood Brothers, The Jordinaires, The Oak Ridge Boys and The Statler Bros (who later covered "I'm Reedemed").

THE ALCOA QUARTET ~ "I'M REDEEMED";

Prof. Kitzle's Time Machine Profile; Wilmer Watts

Wilmer Watts (1897 - 1943) Was a an Old Time Country Music singer, player and bandleader who recorded a series of 78 records for Paramount Records in the 1920's. Although not as well known as fellow North Carlina singer/banjo player Charlie Poole, who has undergone a revival over the last few years, Watts is for my money a more interesting artist with a crude but distinctive style.




Born in Mount Tabor (now Tabor City) a market town in Columbus County, between 1896 and 1898. After he moved to the city of Belmont where he worked as a worker in textile factories. Having learned several instruments including banjo, fiddle, guitar, dobro, autoharp, harmonica, musical saw and drums he became a semi-professional musician around 1921 and made his first recordings in January or Feburary 1927 as a duo with local guitarist Charlie Wilson (1900 - ?) with a single entitled "The Sporting Cowboy" which was not released at the time although it was later rerecorded. With a new trio under the name of Wilmer Watts and His Lonely Eagles they recorded six sides for Paramount Records in 1927 using a line-up that included Charles Freshour (1900 - 1959) on guitar and the then unusual steel guitar which was played by Wilson. In 1929 he returned to Paramount's New York studios. This time Wilson was replaced on steel guitar by Palmer Rhyne (1904 - 1967), a fellow factory worker friend of Watts. These sessions resulted in fourteen sides.

RECORDINGS AND MUSICAL STYLE;




Wilmer's banjo playing was quite simple and repetitive, staying to mid-tempo songs and quite different from the more complex ragtime influenced picking of Charlie Poole or blues singer Papa Charlie Jackson or the fast choppy style of Uncle Dave Macon. Unlike most of his contemporaries Watts' musical influences seem to be based mostly on traditional Anglo-Celtic sources along with blues, ragtime, or minstrelsy and his songs have a distinctive droning modal quality compared to those of his North Carolina contemporary Charlie Poole. In his lyrical themes (at least in his recorded works) Watts largely avoided traditional folk songs and focused on more modern themes ranging from blues to a few political protest songs usually in a mocking vein similar to those of song writer Joe Hill collected in the "Little Red Songbook" of the I.W.W.




Among Watts' best known recordings are;






"Cotton Mill Blues"; a bluesy protest song about the plight of factory workers, based on a 1900 poem "A Factory Rhyme" by George Stutts.

"COTTON MILL BLUES" (an explanation of the song with cover versions, done by a descendent of Posey Rorrer, who played with the better known fellow North Carolina singer/banjoist Charlie Poole )


"Been On The Job Too Long"; a murder ballad later covered by such artists as Leadbelly and Bob Dylan under the title of "Duncan and Brady".

"BEEN ON THE JOB TOO LONG";

"Walk Right In Belmont"; the first known recorded version of "Midnight Special", a later standard later covered by Leadbell>, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Mac Wiseman. This single was originally released under the name "Watts & Wilson" and later through Paramount's subsidiary label Broadway Records under the name "Watts & Wiggins". Note this song is not to be confused with the Gus Cannon song "Walk Right In".

"WALK RIGHT IN BELMONT";


"Banjo Sam"; an especially repetitive modal song with surrealistic lyrics later covered by Pete Seeger.

"BANJO SAM";


"Knocking Down Casey Jones"; a version of one of the many tribute songs then common to famous train engineer Casey Jones. This song is notably more heroic than Joe Hill's I.W.W. version.

"KNOCKING DOWN CASEY JONES";


"Fighting in The War With Spain"; an anti-war song mocking the Spanish-American War in which Watts makes light of the war and portrays himself as a deserter.

"FIGHTING IN THE WAR WITH SPAIN";


"The Fate Of Rhoda Sweetin"; A murder ballad sung and reportedly written by Charles Freshour about his own sister. This single was credited to Charles Freshour and The Lonely Eagles.

"THE FATE OF RHODA SWEETIN";


"She's A Hard Boiled Rose"; A version of a Tin Pan Alley song later used in another version by stripper Gypsie Rose Lee.

"SHE'S A HARD BOILED ROSE";


"Charles Guitaw"; A ballad (with a misspelled title) about Charles Guiteau, the assassin of President James Garfield. This song was also covered by Kelly Harrell.

"CHARLES GUITAW";


"CHAIN GANG BLUES";





LATER CAREER;

After the 1927 sessions Wilson left the group and was replaced by Palmer Rayne for the 1929 sessions. The Great Depression ended the recordings of many rural artists and Paramount Records went out of business in 1935 so Watts made no further recordings. He returned to Belmont were he continued working as a textile worker, tenant farmer and gas station owner as well as a part-time musician albeit without the Lonely Eagles who broke up. Watts often gigged as a one-man-band playing as many as five instruments at once. In 1931 Watts won a talent contest for his act awarded by Uncle Dave Macon. Later from the mid nineteen-thirties he formed a Southern Gospel group with his daughters as the Watts Singers who performed two regular shows on the radio but did not record. He was diagnosed with stomach cancer and retired in 1939 dying in 1944 at the age of approximately 47. His daughters continued as the Watts Singers with one of their husbands replacing Wilmer into the 1960's but did not record.

OTHER MEDIA;




The only photo of Watts commonly known (showing him holding a fiddle rather than his usual banjo) was reproduced by the artist R. Crumb for a collection of trading cards of old time country musicians.