OLD-TIME AND BLUEGRASS MUSIC DIRECTIONS

From Phil Nusbaum's Bluegrass Review program, summer 2007.
Lyle Lofgren's notes and comments for Episode 5 (Program # 732): HOMELESS.

PLAYLIST:

The Georgia Hobo -- Uncle Willie & The Brandy Snifters
I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow -- The Stanley Brothers
Jimmy Brown The Newsboy -- The Carter Family
Grapes on the Vine -- Wildfire

"Homeless" has come to equal "hopeless," but there are some people who seem to relish vagrancy. Most homeless people, however, do not. Homeless songs seem to be an American specialty, entangled with the open road, freight trains, busking, unemployment, poverty, and chemical dependence.

There were a lot of romantic hobo songs, such as The Big Rock Candy Mountain, but most of them were fairly realistic in describing the hard life of the transient. One example is The Georgia Hobo, performed by Uncle Willie & The Brandy Snifters: Lyle Lofgren, lead vocal & fiddle; Bud Claeson, harmony vocal & guitar; Jon Pankake, fiddle; Marcia Pankake, guitar. Released on Going Nowhere Fast, a Marimac Records cassette, 1986. Re-released as Lak-O-Tone CD minus 001, available at http://www.lizlyle.lofgrens.org/BrnSnift/BrandySnifterHome.html. We learned the song from a 1927 recording by the Cofer Brothers.

Dick Burnett (1883 - circa 1975) was a coal miner. On his way home from work in 1907, he was robbed and beaten, leaving him blind. He had to leave his wife of two years to travel as an itinerant musician, which was about the only available niche for a blind man. About 1913, he printed up a small book of his songs to sell, including one called Farewell. That song says he's been blind for 6 years, which is how we arrive at the 1913 date. Later, he teamed up with Leonard Rutherford of Monticello, Kentucky, and they recorded many excellent songs as Burnett & Rutherford. They did not record Farewell, however: it was first recorded by Emry Arthur in 1928 with the title I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow. The Stanley Brothers learned the song from that record, but changed it considerably for their version, here performed by the Stanley Brothers, with Ralph Stanley, lead vocal. It was released by Columbia in 1950, and reissued on the Bear Family CD The Stanley Brothers & The Clinch Mountain Boys, 1949 - 1952 (available at http://www.cdwolf.com). There are those who say that Burnett modified an existing song. In his old age, he couldn't remember if he'd written it or not. But I'm sticking with the story that he composed it, because
(a) no one has found the older song;
(b) the folk process often involves modifying existing songs;
(c) this version makes a better story; and
(d) it doesn't matter, anyway.

Not all homeless people are wanderers. A first person account in the 19th century parlor song genre is Jimmy Brown, The Newsboy, performed by the Carter Family, featuring Sara Carter, vocal, with guitar and autoharp. Recorded November 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, by the Victor Company. It was re-released on a Rounder Records CD1066, When the Roses Bloom in Dixieland, which is unfortunately out of print. If you can't find that one for sale, you could splurge on the Bear Family 12-CD set, In The Shadow Of Clinch Mountain, which will give you over 300 Carter Family recordings (available at http://www.cdwolf.com). The song is listed as being composed by a Will S. Hays in 1875.

Alcoholism is an effective way to become homeless and have a short, miserable life as well. The story is told by Grapes on the Vine, performed by Wildfire on their CD Rattle of the Chains, Pinecastle PRC 1148.


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