Aaron

Bobby Rush Raw and in Person

Bobby Rush visited the Southern Folklife Collection yesterday and gave a fantastic solo performance to a few lucky listeners (I see you, “Clarksdale”) who braved the storm to attend the first concert in the 2012 Southern Journey Fall Concert Series.

It was a rare opportunity to see and hear Bobby Rush performing acoustic and sharing stories of his long and remarkable career as a bluesman, as a runner for Elmore James, getting guitar lessons from Howlin’ Wolf, riffing on Tony Jo White, and even a story of how he got his name, Bobby Rush.Bobby Rush Clip 1_mp3

We also picked up a copy of one of his recent albums (Bobby Rush has released over 250 albums in over 50 years of recording music).  Entitled Raw, Bobby Rush strips down the songs to their fundamentals, using only his guitar, harmonica, voice, and feet percussion. This is a different side of Bobby Rush, but we like it just as much as the master showman of southern R&B that we are used to (although we did kind of miss the costume changes and backup dancers).

Hear for yourself; listen to some more clips of Bobby Rush’s performance below and remember Tommy Edwards will be here playing North Carolina bluegrass in our second installment of the Southern Journey Concert Series on October 2. See you at Wilson Library at 11 AM, October 2!
 
Bobby Rush Clip 2_mp3
Bobby Rush_SFC Fall Concert Series_18 September 2012 Clip 3_mp3

Southern Journey Fall Concert Series kicks off Tuesday September 18

The Southern Journey Fall Concert Series kicks off next Tuesday, September 18 with a performance by legendary bluesman Bobby Rush (pictured above).  Future concerts will  feature local bluegrass musician Tommy Edwards and his band on October 2 the New Orleans R&B of JoJo Herman and Alfred “Uganda” Roberts on November 8.  All events are free and open to the public.  Bobby Rush will appear 11AM to 12PM in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Second Floor, The Wilson Library, on the campus of UNC Chapel Hill.  Please join us and come back for updates on future Southern Journey concert events.

The Southern Journey Fall Concert Series is sponsored by The Southern Folklife Collection, the Center for the Study of the American South, the UNC College of Arts and Sciences, Department of American Studies and Department of history.  For more information contact Steve Weiss 919 962 7105.

Southern Folklife Collection Banjo Symposium: Schedule, Saturday August 25

The inaugural event in the Southern Folklife Collection Instrument Series, The Banjo: Southern Roots American Branches is coming up in just three days. Many people have asked for a schedule of the daytime symposium in Wilson Library.  Please see below.  Tickets are still available for the free concert, Saturday August 25 in Memorial Hall on UNC’s campus, featuring master pickers Tony Trischka, Dom Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Riley Baugus with Kirk Sutphin. This is a free but ticketed event. Contact the Memorial Hall Box Office, 919.843.3333 for information.
Banjo Symposium – Pleasants Family Assembly Room, 2nd Floor, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
9:30am:  Reception
10:00am:  Phillip Gura, UNC Professor of American Studies; Author of America’s Instrument: The Banjo in the 19th Century
10:45am:  Coffee break
11:00am:  Bob Carlin, Musician and Author of The Birth of the Banjo & Jim Mills, musician (Ricky Scaggs, Vince Gill) Six time winner of IBMA Banjo Player of the Year Award.
11:30am:  Robert Cantwell, UNC Professor of American Studies; Author of Bluegrass Breakdown
12:15pm – 2:00pm:  lunch
2:00pm:  Stephen Wade, Musician and Author of The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience
2:45 – Coffee break
3:00pm:  Panel discussion–Laurent Dubois, Duke Professor of Romance Studies and History; Cecelia Conway, Appalachian State University Professor of English; Author of African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia; Dom Flemons, musician (Carolina Chocolate Drops)
4:00pm – End
7:30pm: Concert in UNC Memorial Hall
 
 

Southern Folklife Collection Banjo Symposium Coming Up August 25


Everything is falling into place for the inaugural event in the Southern Folklife Collection Instrument Series, The Banjo: Southern Roots American Branches. Tickets are still available for the free concert, Saturday August 25 in Memorial Hall on UNC’s campus, featuring master pickers Tony Trischka, Dom Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Riley Baugus with Kirk Sutphin. This is a free but ticketed event. Contact the Memorial Hall Box Office, 919.843.3333 for information.

Photo of the Week: Bascom Lamar Lunsford


It is hard to pick a favorite from the remarkable portraits of Bascom Lamar Lunsford from the John Edwards Memorial Foundation Records (#20001), but I always come back to this one, call no. P1651.  See this photo and many others in our upcoming exhibit, The Banjo: Southern Roots, American Branches.
Please join us first for the banjo symposium Saturday, August 25 from 10am to 4pm in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC-CH, followed by a free concert in UNC’s Memorial Hall including master pickers Tony Trischka,Dom Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Riley Baugus with Kirk Sutphin. This is a free but ticketed event. Tickets are now available at the Memorial Hall Box Office, 919.843.3333.

The Banjo: Southern Roots, American Branches

BILL BIRCHFIELD OF THE ROAN MOUNTAIN HILLTOPPERS, PHOTO BY ALICE GERRARD.

The Southern Folklife Collection is pleased to announce The Banjo: Southern Roots, American Branches, Saturday, August 25, 2012. This exhibit, symposium and concert is the first of the three-part Southern Folklife Collection Instrument Series. Panels, exhibits, and concerts in 2013 will feature the pedal steel guitar and the fiddle. The series seeks to provide an opportunity for music lovers to learn from leading musicians and scholars about the music, history, and culture of the American South.
Please join us first for the banjo symposium Saturday, August 25 from 10am to 4pm in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room, Wilson Special Collections Library, UNC-CH, followed by a free concert in UNC’s Memorial Hall including master pickers Tony Trischka, Dom Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Riley Baugus with Kirk Sutphin. This is a free but ticketed event. Tickets are now available at the Memorial Hall Box Office, 919.843.3333.
The symposium features lectures and panel discussions on the history of the banjo with:

  • Robert Cantwell, UNC Professor of American Studies; Author of Bluegrass Breakdown
  • Bob Carlin, Musician and Author of The Birth of the Banjo
  • Cecelia Conway, Appalachian State University Professor of English; Author of African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia
  • Laurent Dubois, Duke Professor of Romance Studies and History
  • Dom Flemons, musician (Carolina Chocolate Drops)
  • Phillip Gura, UNC Professor of American Studies; Author of America’s Instrument: The Banjo in the 19th Century
  • Jim Mills, musician (Ricky Scaggs, Vince Gill) Six time winner of IBMA Banjo Player of the Year Award.
  • Stephen Wade, Musician and Author of The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience

Don’t miss the accompanying exhibit tracing the history and development of the banjo, featuring instruments, photographs, recordings and ephemera from the Southern Folklife Collection.The exhibit opens August 25th and runs through Dec 31, 2012. on the 4th Floor, Wilson Library. Follow the Southern Folklife Collection on facebook or come back to Field Trip South for updates.
And now a couple more photos from the same roll as the one featured above from the Alice Gerrard Collection (#20006). These photos feature Joe and Bill Birchfield of the great family stringband from Carter, Tennessee, The Roan Mountain Hilltoppers. Bill is demonstrating his unique banjo style, playing backwards, upside-down, and left-handed.

SFC Spotlight: Kitty Wells

It is no surprise that the “Queen of Country Music,” Ms. Kitty Wells, is well represented at the Southern Folklife Collection. Hundreds recordings, photographs, publications, and memorabilia chronicle her remarkable life and career. While we want to start giving peeks via Field Trip South into our plans for the upcoming symposium, exhibit and concert The Banjo: Southern Roots, American Branches, the passing of Kitty Wells deserves some attention here as well.
To start, we found a fascinating newsletter, the Macon News, announcing Kitty Wells signing with then independent record label Capricorn Records after her release from a lifetime contract she originally signed with Decca records in 1952 (click photo to enlarge)

The newsletter also features Miss Wells in the Capricorn Sound Studios in Macon, GA recording a cover of Dylan’s “Forever Young.” The photo of drummer Bill Stewart, producer Johnny Sandlin, and organist Paul Hornsby in the control room is a classic.
The 1973 newsletter also reminds listeners of one of the year’s best country crossover hits, “Behind Closed Doors,” performed by Charlie Rich, but composed by Capricorn artist Kenny O’Dell. Tomorrow, more information about the banjo symposium and concert, PLUS the Kitty Wells Cookbook.  

Tia Blake Record Release Party

Saturday, June 23 at 2PM

 All Day Records 112A E Main St, Carrboro, North Carolina  

— Come join us to celebrate the reissue of Tia Blake’s classic record Folksongs and Ballads (1971). The Tia Blake Collection is part of the Southern Folklife Collection. Transfers from the original master tapes were conducted in the SFC studios. —

In the early spring of 2011, SFC curator Steve Weiss asked me to create an inventory of a small collection he had recently accessioned. Water Music, a record label based in California, was planning a reissue of Folksongs and Ballads by Tia Blake and her Folk Group. The producer was searching for photographs and other media to include as part of the release. The box of materials included few photographs, some open reel tapes, a flier for the group’s single performance (see below), some business correspondence, a copy of her LP, released in 1971 by the tiny French label SFP (Societe Francaise de Productions Phonographiques).

After some initial research, Tia Blake remained a mystery to me. She recorded just the one album in 1970 as a teenager living in France, had one performance (above photo), and left France never to perform publicly again. Blissfully unaware the the album I held is considered a lost gem of psych folk music–a rare collaboration between a young American woman living in France and European musicians enamored with American traditional music–and highly sought after by collectors, I was struck by Tia Blake’s warm, deep and  and powerful vocals. The arrangements are sparse and very skillfully arranged, accentuating the intimate sadness of Blake’s voice. Made up entirely of traditional tunes in the public domain, the album feels familiar but the casual grace of Blake’s vocals and the acoustic accompaniment make for a remarkable and lovely listening experience.

Along with a copy of the album were two open reel tapes: one including outtakes and rehearsal demos from the initial recording session, and another with three tracks performed by Tia Blake solo and recorded at a CBC studio in Montreal in 1976.  All of these tracks are included on the CD reissue. A composition about her father (with whom she lived in the Amazon in 1975) remains one of our favorites.“My Father is a Lonely Man” by Tia Blake, CBC recording 1976
Ms. Blake became a writer and eventually settled in North Carolina. The Southern Folklife Collection is honored to be the repository for the Tia Blake Collection and very pleased to have contributed to reintroduce her music to the world. Please join us on Saturday, June 23 at All Day Records in Carrboro to celebrate the release of the album.
Two important things you should know about this event:
1. The reissue is CD-only at this time, there will be CDs for sale
2. Tia Blake will be present, but will not be performing

Photo of the Week: Cedric Chatterley's Portraits

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to view a remarkable exhibit of photographs made by Cedric Chatterley and the images have not left my mind.  A few of the photographs came from the Barbara Lau and Cedric Chatterley Collection (#20025), a phenomenal collection of interviews, photographs, and manuscript materials documenting the lives and culture of South East Asian immigrants to North Carolina. Lau and Chatterley’s collaborative ethnographic work with their consultants from the Cambodian communities in North Carolina resulted in an incredibly rich and informative body of materials and we are honored to be the repository.  Details on the exhibit, on view until June 29 at the Durham Public Library follow below.   Have a great weekend.


North Carolina at Work: Cedric Chatterley’s Portraits and Landscapes of Traditional Labor
An exhibition organized by the North Carolina Folklife Institute:
On display April 29 —June 29, 2012
Location: Durham County Main Library (300 N Roxboro)
Free and Open to the public
Chatterley’s photographs depict North Carolinians at work and the landscapes that surround them. At-work images in their lived environment evokes a strong sense of place that many North Carolinians feel, and visitors expect to experience. This exhibition will foster conversations about the relationship between work, the environment/place, identity, and community.
Drawn from the NCFI archives, these images spring from projects undertaken by the Folklife Institute and the Folklife Program of the North Carolina Arts Council.
This exhibit is curated by Liz Lindsey, with curatorial assistance by students in the “Mount a Real Documentary Photography Exhibit” continuing studies class course at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.  Co-sponsored by Durham County Library and the Center for Documentary Studies
http://www.durhamcountylibrary.org/
http://cds.aas.duke.edu/
Supported by the North Carolina Arts Council and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation
http://www.ncarts.org/
http://www.marydukebiddlefoundation.org/
The North Carolina Folklife Institute is also supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Its archive projects are supported in part by a grant from the Visual Resource Association Foundation.
http://www.arts.gov/
http://www.vrafoundation.org/
“Mount a Real Documentary Photography Exhibit” continuing studies course at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, (April 7 —April 28, 2012)
Organized by the North Carolina Folklife Institute, supporting the People’s Arts since 1974 • http://www.ncfolk.org/

SFC Behind the Scenes: Tom Davenport revisits "A Singing Stream"

It has been a pleasure to have filmmaker and Folkstreams founder Tom Davenport working in the Southern Folklife Collection Ben Jones Film and Video Studio this week. Tom, along with the assistance of folklorist T. C. Owens, has been working through the original 16mm outtakes from the 1986 film, A Singing Stream. The entire documentary, which chronicles the lives of the Landis family of Granville, North Carolina, can be viewed at Folkstreams.net.
With interviews and stories, and scenes from daily life, reunions, gospel concerts, and church services, the film traces the history of the Landis family, highlighting the role of traditional acapella gospel singing in their relationships with each other and their community.  Particularly featured are performances by her sons’ gospel quartet The Golden Echoes.
Tom is looking at the original footage to see what scenes might be incorporated into a new film, tentatively titled Son of Singing Stream. Judging from his work here over the past three days, we can’t wait to see the results.
For more information about Tom Davenport’s films and A Singing Stream, see the following collections in the SFC: