Sonntag, 17. September 2023

Pete Seeger - Darling Corey (1950)

Folksinger and banjoist Peter Seeger has made other recordings, including as a member of the Almanac Singers in 1941-1942, but "Darling Corey" is his first solo album. He devotes it to traditional folk songs, some of which were introduced to him by folklorist Alan Lomax, who employed him at the Archive of American Folk Song, part of the Library of Congress, in 1939-1940, and who penned the annotations for this collection.

There are songs about long-lost loves who come back to their beloveds ("John Riley") and about "no good" wives who get their heads cut off by their husbands ("I Had a Wife"). The title song is about a moonshiner and his woman, and "East Virginia Blues," which begins, "I was born and raised in East Virginia," is a romantic lament. Lomax acknowledges in his notes that Seeger himself was born in New York City, the son of a musicologist and a "longhair" violinist, and attended Harvard. It is not surprising that he makes no attempt to affect the kind of rural accent that might be expected in these songs. Instead, he picks his banjo steadily and renders the songs in a clear, direct manner, as if in the aural version of a musicologist's transcription. In so doing, he preserves some valuable musical folklore.                


Tracklist                           
A1John Riley
A2Risselty-Rosselty
A3Devilish Mary
A4Come All Fair Maids
A5East Virginia Blues
A6I Had A Wife
B1Skillet Good And Greasy
B2Darling Corey
B3Banjo Pieces
B4Jam On Jerry's Rocks
B5Penny's Farm
B6Danville Girl
B7Get Along Little Dogies


Pete Seeger - Darling Corey (1950)
(256 kbps, front cover inlcuded)

3 Kommentare:

Anonym hat gesagt…

Thank you for this jewel.

Richard Bock hat gesagt…

A great work of art. Thanks very much.

zero hat gesagt…

You are welcome!

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