What are you listening to?

And here's to the "privileged" Blacks who also helped build the U.S. railroads.
This posting brought to mind the O Brother Where Art Thou movie and soundtrack, a favorite of mine as it contains many old time bluegrass songs I had never heard before. Being the Depression, and the hard times associated with it, many songs of the period reflect themes of death.

O_brother_where_art_thou_ver1.jpg

The film is set in 1937 rural Mississippi during the Great Depression. Its story is a modern satire loosely based on Homer's epic poem The Odyssey that incorporates mythology from the American South. [...] the movie deals with the picaresque adventures of [three convicts] Ulysses Everett McGill and his companions Delmar and Pete [...]. Sprung from a chain gang and trying to reach Everett's home to recover the buried loot of a bank heist they are confronted by a series of strange characters--among them sirens, a cyclops, bank robber George "Baby Face" Nelson (very annoyed by that nickname), a campaigning governor and his opponent, a KKK lynch mob, and a blind prophet who warns the trio that "the treasure you seek shall not be the treasure you find."

Much of the music used in the film is period folk music, including that of Virginia bluegrass singer Ralph Stanley. The film received positive reviews, and the soundtrack won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2001 using American folk music. The country and folk musicians who were dubbed into the film included John Hartford, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Chris Sharp, Patty Loveless, and others. They joined together to perform the music from the film in a Down from the Mountain concert tour which was filmed for TV and DVD.

[...]The musical selection also includes religious music, including Primitive Baptist and traditional African American gospel, most notably the Fairfield Four, an a cappella quartet with a career extending back to 1921 who appear in the soundtrack and as gravediggers towards the film's end. Selected songs in the film reflect the possible spectrum of musical styles typical of the old culture of the American South: gospel, delta blues, country, swing and bluegrass.

The use of dirges and other macabre songs is a theme that often recurs in Appalachian music ("O Death", "Lonesome Valley", "Angel Band", "I Am Weary") in contrast to bright, cheerful songs ("Keep On the Sunny Side", "In the Highways") in other parts of the film.

The version of "I'll Fly Away" heard in the film is performed not by Krauss and Welch (as it is on the CD and concert tour), but by the Kossoy Sisters with Erik Darling accompanying on long-neck five-string banjo, recorded in 1956 for the album Bowling Green on Tradition Records.
The negro chain gang sings while they dig the graves for the three recaptured escaped convicts about to be hung:

Po Lazarus by James Carter And The Prisoners

Angel Band - The Stanley Brothers

Alison Krauss & Gillian Welch - I'll Fly Away

The Cox Family - I am Weary (Let Me Rest)

The MegaHit of the movie - the Alison Krauss & Union Station version with Dan Tyminski singing lead - The voices of the Soggy Bottom Boys were provided by Dan Tyminski (lead vocal on "Man of Constant Sorrow".
Alison Krauss & Union Station "Man Of Constant Sorrow

I have a double CD of Alison Krauss & Union Station performing live that includes the above (which I always crank up the volume) and another song from the movie performed as an encore. I also have the movie and the soundtrack that contains two versions of "Man of Constant Sorrow". I watched a DVD from the library that provided background of the various artists that performed in the movie that was fascinating. I attended a concert several years ago featuring Ralph Stanley (now deceased) and his band, The Clinch Mountain Boys that included his son, Ralph Stanley II. "Man of Constant Sorrow" was among the songs performed. Being quite elderly, he was past his prime, but I felt so lucky to actually get to hear him sing and so appreciated his legacy to the bluegrass genre.

Enjoy!
 
Last edited:
@goyacobol The Coal mines in Eastern Canada are a part of some of my "ancestors" stories as well.
The quote in your profile signature:

"Session 22 July 2012:
Q: (L) What are you excited about?
A: Peace will come!
Q: (L) And when will this peace come? Well, maybe "when" isn't the right question. How is peace going to come?
A: The cosmos is going to clean house!!!"

Reminded me of these song lyrics:
That old man upstairs, he wears a crooked smile
Staring down at the chaos he created
Said son if you ain't having fun just wait a little while
Momma's gonna wash it all away
And she thinks Mercy's overrated


Its by Sturgill Simpson.....Living the Dream....

 
This is Cellophane from FKA Twig. To be honest, I had seen the name of this singer floating around for the longest time. However, I had always assumed that she couldn't really sing. I was wrong! Here is a beautiful performance from her. Her voice is crystalline and pure like water.

 
There's some explicit truth in there too and my ears didn't fall off or anything...yet anyway. :-/
For an old guy like me this gets sooooo...confusing...like this one.
Here's another hilarious attempt by the "Jesus Gang" to get Groovy! :cool:
Some of the forum might remember when the Lawrence Welk Show was a big deal....

"Did they realize what they were singing?! Gail Farrell and Dick Dale sing Brewer and Shipley's song "One Toke Over The Line," on The Lawrence Welk Show. Lawrence describes this song as a "modern spiritual". Ummm, okay, I guess so, "technically"..."
 
An incredible Russian (Alexey Arkhipovsky) meets an incredible Australian (Tommy Emmanuel).

Alexey Arkhipovsky was born on May 15, 1967 in Tuapse, Krasnodar Region. Passion for music was passed down from his father, who played the accordion as a child, and in the 50s on the accordion. At the age of 9 he entered the music school in balalaika class. During his studies he repeatedly participated and was the prize-winner of city and regional competitions. At the end of the music school he gave his first solo concert from two departments. In 1982 he entered the Gnessin State Medical University on the department of folk instruments in the specialty of balalaika in the class of Zazhigin Valery Evgenievich. In 1985 he received the title of Laureate at the 3rd All-Russian competition of folk instruments performers. After graduating from school, since 1989 he worked as a soloist in the Smolensk Russian Folk Orchestra under the baton of V.P. Dubrovsky. It was there that the first experiments in the field of new expressive possibilities of balalaika-solo began. In 1998 he was invited as a soloist to the State Academic Russian Folk Ensemble "Russia" under the direction of L.G. Zykina. Together with the ensemble he toured a lot in Russia and abroad. Since 2002-2003 he started his solo career, which continues to this day.

Alexei Arkhipovsky considers his triangular instrument to be a treasure trove of mysteries and riddles similar to the mysterious Kheops pyramid. He does not get tired of solving them, so - to surprise his grateful audience with new discoveries and discoveries. "I don't consider myself a balalaika maker in the generally accepted sense... And I don't treat the balalaika as a Russian folk instrument, but as an instrument on which one can do anything", the performer admits.

Alexei ArkhipovskyEgo is often compared to Paganini or Hendricks - musicians who have turned the minds of listeners, forcing them to look at the possibilities of violin and guitar in a new way. Arkhipovsky also created a different style of balalaika playing, combining authentic, guitar and original techniques of sound extraction with a revolutionary innovation - "electrification" of the instrument.

A universal musician free of style and genre frames, Arkhipovsky is a welcome guest at festivals of classical, ethnic, folklore and jazz music, as well as at concert venues, the number of which is growing rapidly both in Russia and abroad. In 2011, the virtuoso was included in the Russian Book of Records in the category "World's Best Ballet Man".

A report from the festival dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the Fender music server "Sound.ru":

"...Alexei Arkhipovsky, who was met with a bit of a bewildered applause, performed in such a way that the program of the evening should be closed. A world-class balalaika virtuoso who owns the balalaika not even in perfection, but beyond understanding, he deafly "closed" all the technical tricks shown before him with his ten-minute sketch, and in music he was more inventive than ever.

Audio Video magazine:

"Aleksey Arkhipovsky, a balalaiechnic, became a sensation immediately after his first appearance before the general public. He literally ripped off the guitar (!) festival at the Central House of Artists, where he gave out a 10-minute solo number, demonstrating amazing musical and acting skills. It was a real theatre of virtuoso play and dizzying performing kunstuks, mimics and gestures. Many listeners compared Arkhipovsky with Hendrix himself, not much, not much! Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom