This is my ‘Folk and Bluegrass’ playlist on my personal YouTube channel. I curate the playlist, with 263 live music videos at least weekly. It’s one the biggest #playlists of the nineteen I curate on my channel. I’ve collected these #MusicVideos for over a decade, and without being too immodest I think I did a damn good job. You can hit this playlist, sit back and enjoy for hours, days even. Or just keep it on in the background on shuffle. My gift to you. BTW, if you’re not already spending the $18.99/month (USD) for YouTube premium, you’re missing out. I’d get rid of all my other streaming subs, including Netflix & Prime, before I’d part with my #YouTubePremium - Just sayin. #FolkMusic#Bluegrass#Music#Fiddle#Banjo#Guitar#Mandolin
Rough-edged folk delivered with a minimalist arrangement – a voice, a guitar, and some poetry. Like most material in this genre, your enjoyment is going to be directly tied to how much you enjoy not just the format but also the particulars. The lyrics are clever, well constructed and engaging, so if they click with you, this will likely find a home in your heart.
My last public recording is literally 3 views away from 100 plays on YouTube. I'd be honored if you could give it a listen and bump it up over the century mark. It doesn't mean anything to anybody but me. Maybe say something nice if you liked it, even.
Today's video is about two folk songs from Wales, both of which are lullabies: Ar Hyd y Nos (All Through the Night) and Suo Gân. I'm playing a medley of the two tunes on ocarinas.
Time for another auld tune. Jack Lattin was once popular all across these islands. Composed in Ireland sometime in the early 1700s it quickly spread across the Irish Sea and appears in many music collections of the 18th century.
Here’s a cracking Jean Blanchard tune I can’t believe I don’t remember before hearing it on Mel’s #MelodeonMonday yesterday so I have to share for #TuneswapTuesday - Boite a Frissons
This recording is going along swimmingly! Just back from a break to walk the dog. I'm getting the hang of the basics of Reaper on Linux.
Once I get going, the workflow is soooo much nicer than audacity or ,dare I say, my trusty old 4-track. Certainly wouldn't have the flexibility to double mic everything and balance condenser with dynamic everywhere!
Time to start paying attention to all those free VST posts in my timeline I guess!
Always like stopping at Hamish Henderson's childhood home in Glenshee, which backs right onto the kirkyard.
Henderson was a major organiser of the Scottish Folk Revival in the 1950s-70s. Some of his interest in folk culture came from his upbringing here and around
Blairgowrie, where he heard his mother
and their neighbours singing traditional songs.
Today in Labor History April 1, 1929: Textile workers struck at the Loray Mill, in Gastonia, N.C. Textile mills started moving from New England, to the South, in the 1890s, to avoid the unions. This escalated after the 1909 Shirtwaist strike (which preceded the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist fire), the IWW-led Lawrence (1912) and (1913) Patterson strikes, which were led by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Big Bill Haywood and Carlo Tresca. The Gastonia strike was violent and bloody. Dozens of strikers were imprisoned. A pregnant white woman, Ella Mae Wiggins, wrote and performed songs during the strike. She also lived with and organized African American workers, one of the worst crimes a poor white woman could commit in the South. The strike ended soon after goons murdered her. Woody Guthrie called Wiggins the pioneer of the protest ballad and one of the great folk song writers.
Wiley Cash wrote a wonderful novel about Ella Mae Wiggins and the Gastonia strike, “The Last Ballad.” Jess Walter wrote a really great novel about the Spokane free speech fight, featuring Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, called “The Cold Millions.” Other novels about the Gastonia strike include Sherwood Anderson’s, “Beyond Desire,” and Mary Heaton Vorse’s, “Strike!”
Today in Labor History April 1, 1920: T-Bone Slim's “The Popular Wobbly” was published in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) "One Big Union Monthly." T-Bone Slim (Matti Valentin Huhta) was a Finnish-American poet, songwriter, journalist, hobo and IWW labor activist. He was a regular columnist for the Industrial Worker, Industrial Solidarity, and Industrialisti. Some of his most well-known labor songs include: The Popular Wobbly, Mysteries Of A Hobo's Life, and The Lumberjack's Prayer. His songs were sung during the Civil Rights protests of the 1960s and Noam Chomsky was a big fan. https://youtu.be/Rn_Wfydg61c
Photo a friend sent me of Wolf Shilkret (Schildkraut, ~1866-1925), #Klezmer violinist and father of Victor Records notable Nat Shilkret #violinist#fiddler#MusicHistory
Most of my newest songs have been written on the banjo and my next release will have this extraordinary instrument at its core. While I haven’t thrown my fingerpicks away, playing skin on string has opened my ears and mind to what the banjo can bring to my music. Playing an open backed banjo has connected me like never before as my own body becomes part of the sound.
There are many popular Gillian Welch songs to choose from, but I love this one from the "Lost Songs"---so quiet and winsome, closer to classic American country music than mainstream folk. #countrymusic#folkmusic#musicwomenwednesday
I had a choice of two originals. One is an instrumental literally called "Lullaby in E". The other (included below) is a protest song, which I was surprised to find works very well as a lullaby:
"I'll Be Right Here, Too"
(performance and work CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Jennifer Vena Wood)
For all the queer kids out there, may you be safe and loved.
I heard this and thought “Gallopede” but apparently this called “Knife’s Edge” except that if you search for that you find another tune instead… so I don’t know what I’m sharing this #TuneswapTuesday except that it is early #Blowzabella.