Holiday In the Stacks: The Prairie Ramblers 16 inch transcription disc edition

Standard Library Transcription disc label, red, blue and white, song titles.
Cover of Prairie Ramblers songbook. Image of group in red.For your holiday listening pleasure, we pulled the Standard Program Library 16-inch transcription disc pictured above, call number TR1181 from the Southern Folklife Collection Transcription Discs (#30024), by the excellent Prairie Ramblers. The group coalesced in the 1930s appearing on numerous radio stations before settling down at WLS in Chicago. Featuring mandolinist Charles Chick Hurt, bassist “Happy” Jack Taylor, fiddler Tex Atchison, and Floyd “Salty” Holmes, a multi-instrumentalist and master of the harmonica, the group rose to fame after partnering up with a young Patsy Montana. Comfortable jumping from old-time stringband music, to country, to western swing, they went on to appear in numerous cowboy films with Gene Autry and other singing cowboys before splitting up for good in 1947 (well after Montana left to pursue her solo career). There is some excellent biographical information in the Prairie Ramblers Barn Dance Favorites, FL-506 in the Southern Folklife Collection Song Folios (30024). But back to the disc, here are a couple of holiday toe tappers to cut your cookies to:

Listen to “Christmas Chimes”:

Lyrics:
Merry merry Christmas chimes
Merry merry Christmas chimes
Ringing so sweet and so clear
Merry merry Christmas chimes
Merry merry Christmas chimes
Telling of joy and good cheer
When sleigh bells chime at Christmas time
For sparkling snow their music sings
They tell again that story old
Of peace on earth, good will to men
Merry merry Christmas chimes
Merry merry Christmas chimes
Ringing so sweet and so clear
Merry merry Christmas chimes
Merry merry Christmas chimes
Telling of joy and good cheer
The church bells ring their message plain
Upon the clear and frosty air
They voice the hope on Christmas day
That love may conquer everywhere
Merry merry Christmas chimes
Merry merry Christmas chimes
Ringing so sweet and so clear
Merry merry Christmas chimes
Merry merry Christmas chimes
Telling of joy and good cheer

Listen to “Cowboy Santa Claus”:

Lyrics:
We're going to have a sagebrush Santa
He's coming in from Santa Fe
He's a rootin' tootin' rounder
He rides a bronc and not a sleigh
He totes a .44 and a big white hat
And he shoots from where he draws
He's a singin', swingin'
Rawhide slingin', cowboy Santa Claus
Cowbells, cowbells, ringing on the range
Ringing out a melody over the golden plains
Cowbells, cowbells, ringing out because
Everyone is welcoming our cowboy Santa Claus

Inside cover of Prairie Ramblers songbook. Image collage of group with text.
Centerfold of Prairie Ramblers songbook. Image collage of group with text.

Cousin Emmy: Looking for a Name

CD Cover, Carolina Chocolate Drops seated with instruments, sepia-toned to appear oldLast year, while writing a final research paper on the Carolina Chocolate Drops’ wonderful 2012 album, Leaving Eden, I encountered the music of the late hillbilly performer Cousin Emmy. The Carolina Chocolate Drops had covered her single “Ruby” for the album, notably adding a beat boxer for their arrangement. I loved the song, and the difficulty of finding anything beyond variations on the same basic biography of Emmy was intriguing. Besides wondering how her actual childhood and life compared to the brief anecdotes I found mentioned constantly, I came upon a more simple question: what was her real name?
In theory, the answer was as simple as the question: several credible sources mentioned Cynthia May Carver as Cousin Emmy’s real name. However, the 1946 Decca single that featured “Ruby” credited the songwriter as one “Joy May Creasy.” When the Osborne Brothers had their first hit on MGM Records in 1956 with their rendition of “Ruby Are You Mad,” the song was simply credited to Cousin Emmy, suggesting that Joy May Creasy and Cousin Emmy were one and the same. This seemed to be further confirmed by an oft-cited 1943 Time magazine profile that claims Cousin Emmy was christened Joy May Creasy outside Lamb, Kentucky. After searching pictures of gravestones, countless liner note mentions, copyright renewals, and census records, I had found many more instances of both names, including some minor variations (Mae instead of May, Jo rather than Joy, etc.). I felt that I could safely conclude that both these names held some truth, and the variation in reporting was probably due to a failed (and unmentioned) marriage, the use of pet names, and/or some other unknown factor.
Record label, Cousin Emmy's song "Ruby," Decca Records; LP Cover, Osborne Brothers sitting with instruments, stylized writing of Ruby
This summer, I was fortunate to begin working here in the Southern Folklife Collection, where I have been exposed to a wealth of information on early hillbilly performers like Cousin Emmy. As I pulled items for researcher questions and digitization, I began to revisit Cousin Emmy and to try to add some more context to her story. I settled on a simple goal: find a resource that mentioned both Joy May Creasy and Cynthia May Carver, or at least something that explained the difference.
In the SFC Song Folio Collection (30006), I found Chimney Corner Songs, FL-0137, which offered an interesting biography of Cousin Emmy and her fellow performers. Although it did not specifically mention her real name or a marriage, it led me to two different, illustrative sources in the Special Collections and Archives at Berea College. First, I searched a similar songbook collection and found a songbook that includes a biography for Johnny Creasy, the announcer on Cousin Emmy’s show, that also mentions his attraction to Cousin Emmy. Chimney Corner Songs was published and largely credited to John Lair, whose papers and correspondence are held at Berea. In that correspondence is a 1941 letter from Cousin Emmy, in which she champions herself and her husband, an announcer: “My husband is a very good announcer. We both work nice together.”
Song folio cover, drawing of fireplace and photos of Cousin Emmy and Frankie MooreBlack and white photograph of cousin emmy
So, Cousin Emmy was born Cynthia May Carver outside Lamb, Kentucky. At least at some point, she also went by Joy. She was married to a Johnny Creasy (whose first name might have been Alfred) for some time, despite many claims, including in the Time article, that she had never married.
Of course, I also found a scribbled note card in the SFC Artist Name File (30005) for Cousin Emmy, NF-538, that states “Cousin Emmy was married to Joe Fred White before she was in radio (He’s in Florida).” In the Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive, an online database, I found a small blurb in a 1949 issue of Variety magazine:
“St. L.’s ‘Cousin Emmy’ Divorced
St. Louis, June 14
Elmer Schaller, farmer living at Lenzburg, Ill., near here, last week won an uncontested divorce from his wife, who has been the “Cousin Emmy” of KMOX’s early a.m. hillbilly program. Couple was married April, 1945, and separated March, 1948. Mrs. Schaller has been a radio entertainer for seven years.”
handwritten notes on Cousin Emmy
Cousin Emmy’s on-stage persona and biographical information were constantly being tailored to her audience, from hillbilly music on the radio to the folk revival with Alan Lomax in the 1940s and the New Lost City Ramblers in the 1960s. Separating all the details of her life from the stories spinning all around her would surely be an impossible task, but I plan on putting on “Ruby” and digging around a little more.two posters, one featuring Cousin Emmy and other performers, the other is the Cousin Emmy Show

Friday folio: Rev. Andrew Jenkins, Atlanta's Blind Newsboy Evangelist

30006_FL0733_Southern Folklife Collection_001_Christian Love Songs, Rev. Andrew JenkinsExcited to be steered toward this folio of “Christian Love Songs” by the prolific and talented songwriter, and blind newsboy evangelist, Rev. Andrew Jenkins, FL-733 in the Southern Folklife Collection Song Folios (30006). Published in 1924 by Polk Brockman, the A&R man responsible for encouraging fellow producer Ralph Peer to record Fiddlin’ John Carson in 1923, the folio is an example of Brockman’s tendency to take full publication rights from the artists he worked with. This songbook was published early in the Jenkins Family’s recording career as Brockman looked to capitalize on the success of Jenkins’ popular broadcasts on Atlanta’s WSB radio station. For more information and to listen to music by the Jenkins Family (including their many secular songs, like the well known ballad, “The Death of Floyd Collins”), see these resources available at the Southern Folklife Collection. For more information on Polk Brockman, visit or contact the Southern Folklife Collection to listen to recorded interviews listed below from the Ed Kahn Collection (20360) and the Archie Green Papers (20002)

Audiotape FT-12660

Interview with Polk Brockman, Atlanta, Ga., 11 August 1961. Tape 1.

Audiotape FT-12661

Interview with Polk Brockman, Atlanta, Ga., 11 August 1961. Tape 2.

Audiotape FT-12662

Interview with Polk Brockman, Atlanta, Ga., 11 August 1961. Tape 3.

SFC Audio Open Reel FT-20002/4064

Interview with Polk Brockman, recorded by Hoeptner and Pinson, Atlanta, GA, 10 July 1959

1/4″ Open Reel Audio

SFC Audio Open Reel FT-20002/4065

Interviews with Polk Brockman, 27 April 1961; Stoneman, 24 May 1962; Mike Seeger, 22 June 1962; Charlie Bowman, Mike Seeger, Union City, Ga., 22 June 1962

1/4″ Open Reel Audio

SFC Audio Open Reel FT-20002/4066

Interview with Polk Brockman, Atlanta, GA, 11 August 1961 Reel 1 of 2

1/4″ Open Reel Audio

SFC Audio Open Reel FT-20002/4067

Interview with Polk Brockman, Atlanta, GA, 11 August 1961 Reel 2 of 2

1/4″ Open Reel Audio

Big Slim loves you (we do too)

FL247_Cover_Southern Folklife Collection Song Folios (#30006)If you sing along, Big Slim the Lone Cowboy won’t be so lonely. The Southern Folklife Collection happily welcomes you to learn the Secret’s of our heart. Another classic from the Southern Folklife Collection Song Folios, 1882-1893 (#30006), FL-247. See the remaining contents below. Special thanks to a new Southern Folklife Collection friend in Australia for leading us to this great collection of songs through a research request from almost 10,000 miles away.
FL247_Heart_Southern Folklife Collection Song Folios (#30006)


Folio of Favorite Radio Songs of Big Slim, The Lone Cowboy. American Music Pub. Co. New York, N.Y. 1946. 27 p. of music.
“After Yesterday”
“Heart Weary and Blue”
“Lone Star Trail”
“Moonlight on the Cabin”
“Never Say Goodbye”
“Only a Rose (From My Mother’s Grave)”
“Patanio, the Pride of the Plain”
“Secrets of My Heart”
“Sunny Side of the Mountain”
“There’ll Never Be a Sweeter Girl Than You”
“There’s Another Mother Angel Up in Heaven”
“You Go Your Way, I’ll Go Mine”
“Cowboy Jack”
“Don’t Cry Little Girl of Mine”
“Green Grows the Laurel”
“Hazel That Old Gal of Mine”
“Kickin’ My Love Around”
“Oh, Oh, Uhm Uhm”
“Ridin’ Along Singin’ a Song”
“The Letter Edged in Black”
“There’s a Little Winding Road”
“Two Sparkling Blue Eyes”
“When the Shadows Fell on the Prairie”
“Whoa Mule Whoa”
“Yellow Rose of Texas”

Friday Folios: Brought to you by the Letter "B" and the Southern Folklife Collection

A few folios for you this Friday. First the famous Bailes Brothers from West Virginia. Only two of the brothers are featured here, although Walter and Kyle were certainly in the group at the time of the publication of this folio in the mid-1940s. That Johnnie and Homer would soon go their separate ways makes the image of them as apparently conjoined twins that much more poignant.
While Johnnie and Homer look happy together, the King of Western Swing, Bob Wills looks downright menacing on the cover of this 1946 folio. While Wills’s iconic grin often gives him the appearance of a mad man (and his happy hollers help to reinforce the diagnosis), here the bright red background an Wills’s laconic eyes makes him look especially dangerous. Featuring some hit songs like “Texas Playboy Rag” and “Faded Love,” along with patriotic propaganda-pop like “G. I. Wish” and heartfelt memorial ballads penned by Wills like “White Cross on Okinawa,” this folio was certainly a hit although it might have given some players pause when they pulled if from their parlor piano bench.
For more fantastical folio flights of fancy see collection #30006, the Southern Folklife Collection Song Folios, circa 1882-1983.

SFC Spotlight: Back to school with Jimmy Boyd and the School for Workers

78-5076. Jimmy Boyd, “(I’ve got those “wake up, seven-thirty – wash your ears they’re dirty – eat your eggs & oatmeal – rush to school”) blues”[audio:https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/sfc/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2011/08/78-5076_1.mp3|titles=78 5076_1_Jimmy Boyd]

School is back in session here at UNC, and we are more happy about that than the incomparable Jimmy Boyd (probably best known as the amazing voice of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”). Boyd recorded this tune in 1953, one of a number of popular country and novelty tunes he recorded for Columbia throughout the 1950s, including duets with Rosemary Clooney and Frankie Laine. While some of the novelty tunes have not aged terribly well, this track is country pop candy with the Norman Luboff Choir and pedal steel likely performed by the equally incomparable Speedy West.

Steel solo, 78-5076. Jimmy Boyd, “(I’ve got those “wake up, seven-thirty – wash your ears they’re dirty – eat your eggs & oatmeal – rush to school”) blues”[audio:https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/sfc/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2011/08/78-5076_2.mp3|titles=78 5076_2]

We have an exciting fall of projects and programs ahead.  “From the Cradle to the Cave,” our exhibit of North Carolina poster art from the SFC collections opened last week in Davis Library and will hang until next may. It was an excellent event with all five artists present and sweet sounds courtesy of The Kingsbury Manx.
Tickets are on sale for our concert tribute to Howlin’ Wolf. Scheduled for September 19 in the Great Hall of the UNC Student Union, the concert will feature Alvin Youngblood Hart, Eddie Shaw and the Wolf Gang, Jody Williams, and Henry Gray.  Prior to the concert, a free public symposium will take place in Wilson Library. At 5:30 p.m., blues scholar Peter Guralnick will discuss Howlin’ Wolf’s life and music. Guralnick is currently writing a book about Sam Phillips, the Sun Records founder who discovered not only Howlin’ Wolf, but also Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash.
Guralnick will then be joined for a Q&A conversation with Phillips’s son Knox Phillips, who learned the music business from his father before embarking on his own career as an engineer, producer, and studio owner. The concert is the first in a series of blues tributes hosted by the Southern Folklife Collection in 2011 and 2012.
In honor of the first Monday of the school year, we wanted to share some items to inspire the coming work ahead.  What better inspiration than Labor Songs for All Occasions, produced by The School for Workers at the University of Wisconsin in 1940.  Part of the SFC Song Folios Collection #30006, circa 1882-1983call no. FL-409. 

There are songs for all occasions, “March of the Toilers,” for walking to classes, “Soup Song” for trips to Lenoir, “Put on Your Smart Now Bonnet” for homework and test preparation, and “We’ll Not Be Fools” as and “The Cudgel Song” for mid-term exams and finals.  Choose your favorite from the the contents below.


 
 

Photo and Folio of the Week: Eddy Arnold on stage, in person, and on screen

**click image to enlarge**

This photograph is fascinating as a document of concert goers in the late 1940s, however the band trailer for Eddy Arnold parked out front is what constantly piques my imagination. With the white wall tires and custom paint job, featuring a portrait of Arnold himself as well as the titles of his countless hit songs, I know I’d bee excited to see this barreling down the freeway with Arnold behind the wheel.
We are not sure in which city this photo was taken as there were countless Capitol Theatre’s across the United States, however, we do know Thunderhoof–starring Mary Stuart, Preston Williams, William Bishop, and of course, Thunderhoof as himself–appeared in theaters in 1948 when Eddy Arnold was at the peak of his 1st stage of Country music stardom.
Arnold recorded over 60 top ten hits for RCA throughout the 1940s, under a contract managed by the infamous Colonel Tom Parker.  In 1948 he had five songs in the top 10 simultaneously and Arnold held the number 1 spot for 40 weeks of that year.  Not sure how much merchandise artists sold on tour back then, but maybe had a few of these song folios, call no. FL-199 from the ever popular Southern Folklife Collection Song Folios, circa 1882-1983 (#30006) , on hand for fans.

Eddy Arnold’s Favorite Songs. Hill and Range Songs, Inc. New York, N.Y. 1948. 44 p. of music and illustrations.#30006, Series: “Song Folios, circa 1882-1983.” FL-199

“Just a Little Lovin'”
“Anytime”
“Bouquet of Roses”
“Molly Darling”
“Chained to a Memory”
“Detour”
“Drivin’ Nails in My Coffin”
“No Children Allowed”
“Dangerous Ground”
“Rose of the Alamo”
“At Least a Million Tears”
“Can’t Win, Can’t Place, Can’t Show”
“False Alarm”
“Who at My Door Is Standing?”
“He Knows”

 

Folio of the Week: Arthur Smith's Original Folk Songs

***click photo to enlarge***

This collection of tunes by Arthur Smith, call no. FL-0024, from the Southern Folklife Collection Song Folios, circa 1882-1983 (#30006), includes a number of fantastic Smith compositions that have become standards in the Country music canon.  The folio features one of Smith’s most famous compositions, “Beautiful Brown Eyes,” a song he wrote in 1937 and subsequently won a copyright judgement against other artists that had recorded it, assuming it was in the public domain.
We haven’t yet found the time to read the forward by Alton Delmore, but we can’t wait for the opportunity. The Delmores toured with Smith and his Dixieliners in the 1930s and both groups had appeared throughout the 1930s together on the Grand Ole Opry.  If the foreward is similar to Delmore’s autobiography, Truth is Stranger than Publicity (published posthumously by the CMF in 1977), then we are sure to be in for a treat.

Arthur Smith’s Original Folk Songs, Folio No. 1. American Music, Inc. Hollywood, Calif. 1943. 46 p. of music.

“Ain’t it Hard to Love?”
“Beautiful Brown Eyes”
“The Girl I Love Don’t Pay Me No Mind”
“Pig at Home in the Pen”
“I’ve Had a Big Time Today”
“Walkin’ in My Sleep”
“Adieu False Heart”
“Why Should I Wonder?”
“There’s More Pretty Girls Than One”
“Hen-Pecked Husband Blues”
“Her Little Brown Hand”
“I’m Bound to Ride”
“Give Me Old Time Music”
“It’s Hard to Please Your Mind”
“Lost Love”
“The Crazy Blues”
“Take Me Back to Tennessee”
“Little Darling, They’ve Taken You From Me”
“Rainin’ On the Mountain”
“The Farmer’s Daughter”

SFC Spotlight: Special Golden Jubilee Edition

Did you ever wonder which songs will live forever?  We hadn’t ever really thought about it, but then we came across this January 1953 copy of a magazine by the Charlton Publishing Corporation that answered the question that we didn’t know we had twice every month.  For just $0.25 this information could have been yours.

Southern Folklife Collection Song Folios (#30006): Songs That Will Live Forever, Vol. X, no. 1, Charlton Pub. Corp: Derby, Conn, January 1953.

Poster of the Week: Whitey Ford, the Duke of Paducah


Comedian and banjo player Benjamin Francis “Whitey” Ford (b. 1901 in DeSoto, Missouri), aka the “Duke of Paducah,” appeared on the Grand Ole Opry from 1942 to 1959.  Ford originally developed the Duke character on the air of KWK-AM, St. Louis in the early 1930s and carried the character over to his own show with Red Foley in 1937, the Renfro Valley Barn Dance.  Ford’s brand of folksy one-liners reached beyond fans of country music and he was just as popular on tours with stars of early Rock and Roll like Elvis Presley.  The image above features the Duke’s signature tagline: “I’m going back to the wagon, these shoes are killing me.”  The poster, call no. XOP-30021/144, is part of collection #30021: Southern Folklife Collection Posters, circa 1847-2008.