When I was a boy growing up in southern Appalachia, my grandfather was a old tyme preacher. I rememeber him and some of the others singing a style of acapella gospel that as best I can remember had a minor blues sound to it. Very haunting sounds.
I have tried for some time to find a video or audio of some of this type music when I came upon this youtube of the late Roscoe Holcomb. I don't know how white Appalachia ties into blues history, if at all, but this sure sounds like minor blues notes to me. The old people I remember from the sixties would have been born around the turn of the century, so I'm not sure where they would have picked up this style.
Any info, audio, or video would be appreciated. Adam, you familiar with this guy?
Roscoe played guitar, banjo, and harmonica. He was discovered late in his life, but he did make it to the Pete Seeger Show.
The first video is the haunting gospel I refered to and the second is of Roscoe playing the harmonica.
The above harmonica song is Roscoe's adaptation of Henry Whitter. It sounds it started life as Henry Whitter's "Lost Girl of West Virginia."
No question about this being blues... very represenative I think of Appalachian blues in the 1920s. Roscoe was playing in the 1960s (at least that's when people noticed he was there), but he was playing all this stuff from the 1920s. Roscoe was a coal miner in eastern Kentucky.
Y'all need to check out these guys for a start: Frank Hutchison, Dick Justice, Clarence Ashley, Gwen Foster. Frank Hutchison, a fellow West Virginian, was the first white man to record a blues song.
---------- www.harrisonharmonicas.com
"There are only two things money can't buy - true love and homegrown tomatoes." - Lewis Grizzard
Last Edited by on Oct 06, 2010 8:19 PM
The first vid reminds me of the part in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" when the Klan was getting ready to hang the "Robert Johnson" character. I've heard stuff like that before too. It doesn't really follow the 12 Bar Blues pattern but it probably stems from a similar source. I'm sure poor Blacks and poor Whites living around each other in the rural South during those times would have learned a lot from each other, especially about music. I've always said that The Black Man has the Blues and the White Man has Bluegrass. Interesting vids, thanks for sharing em'. ---------- Hohner Big River in Low F,G,A,Bb and D Hohner Special 20 in Bb Suzuki HarpMaster in C Suzuki FolkMaster in D,E and F
I believe the voice that most are thinking of from "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" is that of Ralph Stanley (Be Sure to Check Him Out Too! See The Stanley Brothers if you're interested) Here's him singing "Oh Death"
---------- "The denial of racism is a form of racism itself." Tim Wise
Last Edited by on Oct 06, 2010 11:41 PM
I'm very familiar with Brother Ralph Stanley work. He's kind of a "2nd Founding Father" of Bluegrass with Bill Monroe being the 1st Founding Father. Of course folks down here in the hill were playing "that kind of music" long before it became what is now known as Bluegrass. We simply called it "Front Porch Pickin'" where local people would get together with their instruments(probably why there's no drums, they'd be a royal pain to lug around the hills)and sit and pick on a Saturday night to relieve boredom. ---------- Hohner Big River in Low F,G,A,Bb and D Hohner Special 20 in Bb Suzuki HarpMaster in C Suzuki FolkMaster in D,E and F
Elk River..I love it before the start of Graveyard Blues when Roscoe says..."its purdy hard tuh sang".
This post is not about racism in any way.
I was just curious what the ties are between genres and the history. Roscoe is part of the link between blues and bluesgrass.
TNFrank may be correct, but I don't think these mountains were very populated with blacks at the time. ..though Brownie and Stick McGhee did grow up in my hometown of Kingsport.
I found some videos from a motion picture I had forgot about called "Songcatcher". Set in western N.C. near the TN line, about a reporter hoping to record the old songs. My grandmother passed a couple years ago at 95 and could very much relate to a lot of the movie. Brought back childhood memories for her.
I was watching a program on PBS the other night and they were talking about how a Black artist could bring out a song in the '50's and not make a dent in the Top 40 but if a White artist brought out the same song it'd be a hit. There was a lot of cross over thru the '40's and '50's with music. That's why a lot of people didn't like Elvis, because he was basically singing "Black Folks" music to White kids and that rubbed both Blacks and Whites the wrong way. Blacks because he was stealing Their music and Whites because it was "Black" music. Brother Ralph Stanley did a, for lack of a better word, Reading of a Gospel song on a program that I was watching called "Song of the Mountain" also on PBS. He said that "back in the day" they didn't have enough hymnals to go around so the Preacher would kind of Talk the verse first then they'd all sing it together as a congregation. It was really interesting. Either way I really love Roots music(Blues, Bluegrass, Folk(not the Hippy stuff,LOL) because it's so basic and Real. It's normally just a person or persons and their instruments, normally acoustic, doing what they feel. No big productions, no "flash"(think Lady Gaga here) just real life put into music. ---------- Hohner Big River in Low F,G,A,Bb,C and D Hohner Special 20 in Bb Suzuki HarpMaster in C Suzuki FolkMaster in D,E and F
