The New Lost Times

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.

 

Stairwell Sisters & NLCR in Berkeley

The Stairwell Sisters will open for the New Lost City Ramblers on September 15 at the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention.

I mentioned the Sisters back in April because their banjoist/clogger, Evie Ladin, traces her interest in old time music back to her father, who fell in love with it through the New Lost City Ramblers. I imagine Evie is probably looking forward to this gig. I know I am.

 

Seeger & Hazel Dickens at Seedtime

The second weekend in June, Mike Seeger and Hazel Dickens will be at the 20th Seedtime on the Cumberland festival put on by Appalshop. This sounds like a blast.

Looks like they'll be headlining Friday night and doing various demonstrations, discussions, and jams over the course of the weekend. I've seen Seeger do similar weekends before, carrying on the great tradition of the folk festival weekend workshop. It's a big part of what it means to be a folk music enthusiast -- getting to see, up close, the masters work and talk about what they do.

I can't say much more about Hazel Dickens than what is said at eFolkMusic. Mike Seeger was heavily involved in the Baltimore area's folk and bluegrass scenes in the 1950's -- around the same time as Hazel and her singing partner Alice Gerrard -- so I'd imagine the three met there. They've all worked together often over the years.

 

Schwarz at Mt. Airy Fiddler's Convention

The website of Tracy Schwarz and his partner Ginny Hawker suggests that they're back from some weeks in Scotland -- and now they're off again to the Mt. Airy Fiddler's Convention (the 35th annual, in North Carolina). Why don't they just relax for a weekend?

The convention's website makes no mention of Schwarz and Hawker, so I don't know what to promise on their behalf. Maybe they're competing? Just jamming?

 

Mini "Interview" with Cohen

The editor of The Celestial Monochord reports on his brief conversion with John Cohen at the opening of Cohen's exhibit at the Icebox of Minneapolis (the quotes are approximate -- written down from memory):

Monochord: Ok, I have a question, and I wouldn't ask you this question if I wasn't somewhat eppifficated. In the DVD that came with Dark Hollar -- the Dillard Chandler documentary -- was that a drag queen? Was that a guy in a dress? What was that about?

Cohen: That was the same guy who was in the cafe before -- Dillard's friend. Same guy. They knew I'd be filming at this party and they were putting one over on me. When I saw them coming through the door and he was wearing women's clothes, I thought, MY GOD, what joke are they pulling on me?

Obviously, the editor of The New Lost Times also saw the exhibit and it is great -- seeing well-displayed real prints of fine photos ... there's no substitute. And Cohen is at least as excellent a photographer as anything else he's been during his career.

Read the whole story.

 

Schwarz continues tour of Scotland

Tracy Schwarz continues his tour of Scotland in support of The Crooked Road, a campaign for southwest Virginia tourism. He is joined by a number of other American old time and bluegrass musicians, including Ginny Hawker, his wife and musical collaborator

From the The Herald of Glasgow:

Ginny Hawker ... and Tracy Schwarz come from different areas of the US – Virginia and New York respectively – but when they met at the Ashokan music camp in the Catskill Mountains in 1988, they discovered much common ground. Schwarz was smitten by "cowboy songs" on the radio as a boy, while Hawker grew up surrounded by a large musical family. Her father was one of 10 children, each of whom sang. Indeed, he and her uncles once drove down to Nashville just to breathe the air among the music.

For her part, she discovered early on that she could earn a nickel from the neighbours for singing on the front porch ...

... The Masters from the Crooked Road play Rothes Halls, Glenrothes, on Friday. At the time of going to press, tickets were also still available for the Birnam Arts Institute, near Dunkeld (Saturday 13); St Bride's Centre, Edinburgh (Sunday 14); Greenock Arts Guild (Tuesday 16); the Magnum Theatre, Irvine (Thursday 18) and the Tron Theatre, Glasgow (Sunday 21). Big Big Country runs from May 16-May 28.

Read the article, "On the Road to a Good Ol' Broken Heart".