The New Lost Times

Paul Nelson (1936-2006), produced Seeger album

Paul Nelson died a few weeks ago. He was the reviews editor for Rolling Stone in the 1970's, wrote early-on for Sing Out! and the Village Voice, was an A&R man for Mercury. He was an early champion of a lot of people he didn't need to champion, like Rod Stewart, David Bowie, and the New York Dolls. He defended Dylan for "going electric" when other Sing Out! writers were cutting Dylan no slack.

Nelson was from Minnesota, and there's a good piece on him in the Twin Cities weekly, The City Pages.

He also produced the 1973 Mike Seeger album "Second Annual Fairwell Reunion," which was on the Mercury label. The label also released "Music From True Vine" in 1971 and I bet Nelson also had a hand in that.

 

Seeger at Pitt for teacher's institute

Mike Seeger will help teachers from around the country learn how to teach American history through song. Here's a press release (which I've drastically shortened for you) from Pitt.

Teachers From Around the Country to Convene at Pitt for "Voices Across Time"

Teachers from Hawaii, Texas, and a dozen other states will assemble at the University of Pittsburgh June 26-July 28 for Voices Across Time: Teaching American History Through Song, an institute that will help them learn how to teach social studies, language arts, and other subjects by using American music.

The 25 participants will learn techniques that will allow them to return to their home school districts and weave American music into the curricula.

“The sound of history is missing from our classrooms,” says institute codirector Deane Root, the curator of the Center for American Music and chair of Pitt's music department. “Music sends messages about the lives and values of the people who produced, performed, and consumed it. It provides a very real soundtrack to events throughout history.”

Musicians taking part in this year's institute include folksinger and instrumentalist Mike Seeger, who documented Southeast mountain folk music traditions through field recordings and his own playing. He and his group, The New Lost City Ramblers, exerted a strong influence on the string-band revival of the 1960s. Musicians Jay Unger and Molly Mason also will take part.

Voices Across Time is funded through a $165,581 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

 

Eric Bibb and the NLCR

Eclectic bluesman Eric Bibb grew up listening to The New Lost City Ramblers, according to an article in the Monterey County Weekly.

Obsessed with music as a teenager, Bibb would feign illness to stay home from school so he could listen to records by folk greats like The New Lost City Ramblers, Josh White, and Joan Baez ... In the early 1970s, he headed to Paris, where he woodshedded to develop his blues chops. Later he moved to Sweden, becoming a key participant in Stockholm’s vibrant music scene, while continuing his ardent study of Delta blues and other pre-war styles.

Check out his touring schedule. Hopefully, he'll drop by Minneapolis when he's in nearby Mankato in September.

 

The Lonesome Sisters

Tracy Schwarz' niece, Sarah Hawker, is one of The Lonesome Sisters, an oldtime folk duet that seems to be getting great reviews everywhere, including the Boston Globe, the Old Time Herald, Dirty Linen, and Sing Out!

Their third CD was released last month. It's got some fretless banjo. Sweet.

Uncle Tracy says:

Rivet your attention to The Lonesome Sisters and their artful arrangements, well-crafted songs and hynotizing voices if you know what's good for you!

 

Schwarz at Augusta's Cajun week

Tracy Schwarz co-founded a week of Cajun and Creole workshops and instruction at the Augusta Heritage Center. Well, that week is THIS week!

It sounds like an extended version of American Banjo Camp, which I attended a few years ago. At Augusta, you enjoy a whole week of jamming cajun-style and instruction from masters such as Tracy Schwarz, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, and Keith Frank and the Soileau Zydeco Band.

The tuition ($410) would start to seem like a bargain as soon as your boots hit the ground, if my experience is any judge. It's probably too late for this year, but think about next year. Hooo!

 

Cohen's 1968 Dylan interview

New Lost City Rambler John Cohen's 1968 interview with Bob Dylan is included in a new book, "Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews" edited by Jonathan Cott. The interview was originally published in "Sing Out" back in 1968.

The interview is quoted in an article by Jim Fusilli at calendarlive.com (run by the Los Angeles Times). Fusilli writes:

He also understands that his fans have invented their own personal Bob Dylan to satisfy their needs. "[N]o one cares to see it the way I'm seeing it now," he told photographer and writer John Cohen in a 1968 article for Sing Out! "I no longer have the capacity to feed this force which is needing all these songs."

Read the article at calendarlive.com.

 

Frank Cloutier and Victoria Cafe Orchestra

The Celestial Monochord has posted what seems to be the first substantive information ever uncovered about Frank Cloutier and The Victoria Cafe Orchestra.

Cloutier's "Moonshiner's Dance" was included on the 1952 Folkways Anthology of American Folk Music, which John Cohen credits as a huge influence on The New Lost City Ramblers.

Cohen, in fact, got to know the Anthology's editor, Harry Smith, photographing and formally interviewing him. Cohen also tried to get the "lost" fourth volume of the Anthology finally released, but was unsuccessful. Mike Seeger, of course, went out and located the Anthology's Dock Boggs in the early 1960's.