Our club, "Your Water"

The Isaac Shelby chapter of the University of Louisville Alumni Association gathered on February 8, 2009, at Allen Dale, home of Reggie and Cheryl Van Stockum, to watch the Cardinals' basketball game with St. John's. Halftime entertainment included a screening of Reggie's performance of Your Water. The video, drawn from from Reggie's video library on Vimeo.com, exhibits one song from the Reginald Bareham Singer Songwriter Showcase at the Rudyard Kipling in Louisville on February 7. Your Water featured Reggie Van Stockum (performing under the name Reginald Bareham) on rhythm guitar and vocals, Kelly Hickerson on guitar, David Clement on trombone, and Brian Ginn on snare drum.

»  Cross-posted at The Cardinal Lawyer  «

The last of the true believers

A thematic anthem from Nanci Griffith, one of Danzig U.S.A.'s favorite artists:

Oh, he said it was the sound of the winter calling
from up around the bend
Or it could be the cry of your restless heart
for the love of your long lost friends
Me, I think it's just the summertime
and the heat of these Texas winds
They keep on slapping my face with dust so thick
that the tears won't roll again

Chorus:
Last of the true believers
Have you grown weary all alone?
You could go home again, home again, home
Last of the true believers
You pack your things and go back home
You could go home again, home again, home

You can't stay away forever
'cause they say love doesn't last that long
and the ghost of the one that you loved the best
is bound to be long gone
So you fall for the one you believe in
and take pride in the heart you hold
'Cause when the wintertime pounds upon your door
it's shelter from the cold

[Repeat chorus.]

There's a shadow on our wall
where I once stood with him in mind
And there is an empty space beside him
where I do take my rest at night
Oh, I will be the last of the true believers
if truth is his heart to lend
'Cause the wintertime sure looks cold to me
coming up around the bend

[Repeat chorus.]

Oh, I could go home again, home again, home
Well, it looks like home again, home again, home
Oh, I could go home again, home again, home
Well, he brings me home again, home again, home . . . .

Where I go

The Green River near Mammoth Cave, Kentucky

Natalie Merchant, Where I Go, Tigerlily (1995)

climbing under a barbed wire fence
by the railroad ties
climbing over the old stone wall
I am bound for the riverside

Well I go to the river to soothe my mind
ponder over the crazy days of my life
just sit and watch the river flow

find a place on the riverbank
where the green rushes grow
see the wind in the willow tree
in the branches hanging low

well I go to the river to soothe my mind
to ponder over the crazy days of my life
watch the river flow
ease my mind and my soul
where I go

well I will go to the river from time to time
wander over these crazy days in my mind
watch the river flow
where the willow branches grow
by the cool rolling waters
moving gracefully and slow

child it's lovely
let the river take it all away
the mad pace, the hurry
the troubles, the worries
just let the river take them all away
flow away

The Kentucky River near Shaker Village, Kentucky

Annabelle

Within the expressive idiom of American folk music, is there a more compelling example of literary naturalism than Gillian Welch's 1996 ballad, Annabelle  (on Revival)?

In previous blog posts, on Jurisdynamics and MoneyLaw, I've come close to answering the question. Now I wish to say, emphatically, that Annabelle might well be the perfectly composed song in the Southern folk tradition:

Gillian Welch, Annabelle , Revival (1996) (live on YouTube)

We lease twenty acres and one Ginny mule
From the Alabama trust
For half of the cotton and a third of the corn
We get a handful of dust

We cannot have all things to please us
No matter how we try
Until we've all gone to Jesus
We can only wonder why

I had a daughter, called her Annabelle
She's the apple of my eye
Tried to give her something like I never had
Didn't ever want to ever hear her cry

We cannot have all things to please us
No matter how we try
Until we've all gone to Jesus
We can only wonder why

When I'm dead and buried
I'll take a hard life of tears
From every day I've ever known
Anna's in the churchyard she got no life at all
She only got these words on a stone

We cannot have all things to please us
No matter how we try
Until we've all gone to Jesus
We can only wonder why

Ain’t No Reason (Things Are This Way)

There ain’t no reason things are this way
It's how they always been and they intend to stay
I can't explain why we live this way
We do it everyday.

Brett Dennen sings Ain't No Reason (Things Are This Way):

Amazing grace, in the key of black

» Cross-posted at Jurisdynamics «

Negro Spiritual Singers, from the Works Progress Administration's Federal Music Project, entertained King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at the White House, June 8, 1939.

addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart — Ephesians 5:19, RSV

The Negro spiritual is a powerful and influential art form. Through their music and their words, spirituals transformed the tragedy of slavery into an enduring expression of faith, hope, and love.

Among the many beautiful songs within this tradition, Amazing Grace stands out. And how:

Hat tip: Already Not Yet and Rick Ianniello.
Wintley Phipps says he has God on his side, at his back, and in his soul. I am in absolutely no position to question any of that. I come solely to show that Reverend Phipps also has music theory and cultural history in his favor.

Amazing Grace uses a pentatonic scale. Properly spaced, five intervals within any octave are sufficient to generate an astonishing diversity of musical idioms, including Celtic, blues, and Negro spiritual. The belief that the pentatonic scale is the native tonality of children underlies Orff Schulwerk, a method of music education perhaps best known for withholding keys from kids' xylophones.

It's easy to generate a pentatonic scale. You can climb the circle of fifths on a piano. Starting at middle C, this trip yields the note sequence C G D A E. If you have a violin handy, the strings there give you the last four steps in that sequence: G D A E. Rearranging all five notes within a single octave gives you the pentatonic sequence, C D E G A.

Or you can subtract two from seven and yield five. Remove the fourth and seventh scale degrees from the familiar "do-re-mi" diatonic scale — or F and B — and you will reach the same C D E G A sequence.

Most simply, you can follow Reverend Phipps's advice and play just the black keys: G♭ A♭ B♭ D♭ E♭. How sweet the sound.

Finally, as for the cultural history of the Negro spiritual, I am pleased to leave the explanation to The Spirituals Project, whose mission is "[t]o preserve and revitalize the music and teachings of the sacred songs called 'spirituals,' created and first sung by enslaved Africans in America in the 18th and 19th centuries":

Editor's note: This Spirituals Project video presents an excerpt from I Can Tell the World, a new documentary by Larry Bograd and Coleen Hubbard.

Silver threads and golden needles

In Danzig U.S.A., we love old-time country music. There's a lot of loving and cheating, losing and loathing in our music. Here are four versions of an old classic, Silver Threads and Golden Needles:

Wanda Jackson	The Springfields
I don't want your lonely mansion, with a tear in every room All I want's the love you promised beneath the haloed moon But you think I should be happy with your money and your name And hide myself in sorrow while you play your cheating game Chorus: Silver threads and golden needles cannot mend this heart of mine And I dare not drown my sorrows in the warm glow of your wine You can't buy my love with money, for I never was that kind Silver threads and golden needles cannot mend this heart of mine [Wanda Jackson version only:] I grew up in faded gingham where love is a sacred thing You grew up in silk and satin where love's the passing game I know now you never loved me, and I know I was a fool To think your pride would let you live by the golden rule (Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, and Loretta Lynn)
Linda Ronstadt	Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, and Loretta Lynn (live)

Bonus multimedia:

With some help from Chet Atkins, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, and Loretta Lynn perform Silver Threads and Golden Needles as The Honky-Tonk Angels:

Another Music Festival in Louisville

Join us at the Mellwood Arts Center, June 19 - 22, 2008 for Terrastock 7.

There will be three stages (2 inside, 1 out).

According to the Terrastock Festival Site:

Each Terrastock Festival builds on the successes of the previous ones. The events are conceived in a spirit of peace, love and co-operation purely in order to celebrate the music championed by the The Ptolemaic Terrascope magazine and the Terrascope Online web community.

Terrastock is not an indie-rock A&R feeding frenzy. Bands and artists are there at the personal invitation of the organisers because we love their music and they love the way we do things. It's simply about the music, and about the whole Terrastock spirit. If you've ever been to a Terrastock, you'll know what we mean...

Click here for a list of bands.

To order Tickets, click here.

Forecastle Festival

The 7th Annual Forecastle Festival will be held on the Belvedere July 25-27, 2008. The festival offers music, art, and activist information. Founded in Louisville, KY, the gathering is described as "a symposium for musicians, artists, and environmentalists. Forecastle connects the progressive Midwest."

Check out this year's lineup: http://www.forecastlefest.com/lineup.php.

It's a good event for the whole family.

The Harry Pickens Trio at the Jazz Factory

I had the distinct pleasure of listening to the Harry Pickens Trio on Saturday, January 26, 2008, at the Jazz Factory, perhaps Louisville's premier venue for live jazz. The show exceeded the expectations set in the Jazz Factory's program notes for Saturday's performance:

The jazz giant Harry Pickens celebrates his birthday at The Jazz Factory with his great jazz trio. Bring your friends, your family and your acquaintances for an evening of music that is guaranteed to warm the heart and fortify the soul. Harry lives, breathes and exudes the essence of jazz. He's performed internationally with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, James Moody, Milt Jackson, Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson, as well as top players from his own generation, including Kenny Garrett, Ralph Peterson and Wallace Roney. In addition to being a gifted musician, Harry is an eloquent spokesperson for the music and a charismatic performer.

There is no substitute for a live musical performance, and even a recording from Saturday's show could do scarce justice to the power and the presence of the Harry Pickens Trio. But courtesy of bassist Chris Fitzgerald, who is also a member of the University of Louisville's music school faculty, I'm pleased to post two performances by the Harry Pickens Trio:

I've Never Been in Love Before



How Insensitive

Editor's note: Cross-posted at The Cardinal Lawyer

I wish it would rain

Strictly speaking, this post presents contemporary bluegrass music that has no direct connection to Louisville or to any other part of Kentucky. But Southern music, whatever its precise provenance, falls well within the mandate of Danzig U.S.A., and this is an especially poignant song.

Nanci Griffith, I Wish It Would Rain, Little Love Affairs (1988)

Chorus:
Oh, I wish it would rain
And wash my face clean
I want to find some dark cloud to hide in here
Love in a memory
Sparkled like diamonds
When the diamonds fall . . . they burn like tears
When the diamonds fall . . . they burn like tears

Once I had a love from the Georgia pines
Who only cared for me
I wanna find that love of twenty-two
Here at thirty-three
I've got a heart on my right
One on my left . . . neither suits my needs
No, the one I love lives away out West
And he never will need me

Repeat chorus.

I'm gonna pack up my two steppin' shoes
And head for the Gulf Coast plains
I wanna walk the streets of my own hometown
Where everybody knows my name
I wanna ride the waves down in Galveston
When the hurricanes blow in
'Cuz that Gulf Coast water tastes sweet as wine
When your heart's rollin' home in the wind

Repeat chorus

When the diamonds fall darlin' . . . they burn like tears

© 1987 Wing and Wheel Music

---

	The Lynn Morris Band performs I Wish It Would Rain, a song originally written and performed by Nanci Griffith.

Bourbon and bluegrass

The November 4, 2007, edition of the New York Times' travel section features a story on the pursuit of bourbon and bluegrass in Kentucky:

[Author Steven Kurutz] embarked on a road trip centered on bourbon and bluegrass, exploring the back roads of the state where those two American mainstays trace their deepest roots. It was a trip that spoke to our passions and vices; [travel companion] Chris and I are both avid fans of traditional country and roots music, and we’re also dedicated whiskey drinkers, so much so that holidays are often met with an exchange of a bottle of whiskey between us. (Occasionally, we’ve even combined the two, sneaking a flask into a concert.)

We fashioned our itinerary in the style of a bluegrass song: a defined structure but with ample room for improvisation. During the first part of the trip, we would hit the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, a whiskey version of California’s Napa Valley made up of seven distilleries (Maker’s among them) that are open to the public. Our final stop would be the sixth annual Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Celebration in Rosine, the birthplace of Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass. It was in the central part of the state, in the rolling hills between Lexington and Louisville — where a layer of limestone filters the iron from the water, making it ideal for bourbon making — that Scotch-Irish distillers settled in the early 1800s.

Cross-posted from The Cardinal Lawyer and Agricultural Law.

Multimedia notes

1. The online version of the Times' feature includes a multimedia supplement, which you may watch in a popup window.


2. Be sure to enjoy Bill Monroe singing his signature song, Blue Moon of Kentucky: