Another World, But Hard to See Through the Noise


About 2001, I realized that my career as a performing musician was over. I could still play the computer, slowly, with the use of two fingers, so I got into digital audio. I found I could still make music, but it was going to be on the other side of the glass. This collection is an early effort. I discovered RA feeds of 78 rpm gems all over the net. After making sure that the copyrights had expired, I captured them in real time at 16 bit/44.1KHz on CoolEdit, corrected the artifacts introduced by RA encoding and low bitrate transmission, did some clean-up and sweetening....and I give a copy of the recordings to people who attend my parties as a little party favor.

Here's a pic of the CD label.




Here is a track listing:

1

1.       Alabama Sacred Harp Singers: Cuba (Go, preachers, and tell it to the world)……………

2.       DaCosta-Woltz’s Southern Broadcasters: Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb?.. ..

3.       Alfred Reed: Money Craving Folks ……………………………………………………….

4.       Dock Walsh: Sugar Babe ……………………………………………………………….…

5.       Carolina Ramblers: I’ve Got a Home in the Beulah Land ………………………………..

6.       Django Reinhardt:  St. Louis Blues………………………………………………………..

7.       Cliff Edwards (Ukulele Ike): When My Sweetie Puts Her Lovin’ On……………………

8.       Darby and Tarlton: Alto Waltz……………………………………………………………

9.       Charlie Wilson: Ride That Goat Over the Mountain……………………………………...

10.     Dykes Magic City Trio: Poor Ellen Smith………………………………………………...

11.     Frank Stokes:  How Long…………………………………………………………………

12.     DaCosta-Woltz’s Southern Broadcasters: John Brown’s Dream………………………….

13.     Weems String Band: Greenback Dollar…………………………………………………...

14.     Harry Reser: Lollypops……………………………………………………………………

15.     The Carter Family: My Clinch Mountain Home…………………………………………..

16.     Kessinger Brothers: Done Gone…………………………………………………………...

17.     Honey Duke and His Uke (Johnny Marvin): That Certain Party of Mine…………………

18.     Leake County Revelers: Crow Black Chicken…………………………………………….

19.     Proximity String Quartet: Lindy…………………………………………………………...

20.     The Carter Family: The Waves On the Sea………………………………………………..

21.     Fred Van Epps: Dixie Medley……………………………………………………………..

22.     Harry Reser: I’ve Never Seen a Straight Banana………………………………………… 

23.     Honey Duke and His Uke (Johnny Marvin): Hot Coffee…………………………………..

24.     Dave Tarras: Freilach………………………………………………………………………

25.     Geeshie Wiley: Last Kind Word……………………………………………………………

 


Here are the Liner Notes:

Examination of examples of the popular or vernacular culture of a society may allow an observer to gain limited insights into the values held by said culture, but you gotta be real careful! Turn-of-the-last-century immigrants thought American streets were paved with gold until they hit the bricks of the Lower East Side. Some of my recent immigrant friends from the British Isles thought acting American meant bellowing in a grotesque Scots approximation of a matinee movie inspired Texas Drawl, and were mystified by my renditions of George Formby songs. The existence of this cultural cognitive dissonance is a result, I believe, of the intersection of popular culture and the quasi-religion we call the market economy. Popular culture is no longer a reflection of society. It is a product that is created independent from and marketed to said society, and thus serves as a driver or shaper of popular culture. Was there a time when popular culture percolated up from communities and out into society, as opposed to the present state of affairs in which popular culture emanates from profit centers and is rammed down the throats of consumer-amoebas, to quote Frank Zappa? Hard to say. But there was a time, in the first two decades of the 20th century, when market forces and popular culture ran a parallel course. The nascent recording industry figured it could make money by reflecting existing popular culture back at rural and newly urbanized people! This led to odd quirks in the folk process, like Robert Johnson learning how to play blues off of contemporary 78s. Listening to old records is like watching a flickering image through a dark, dirty window. Sometimes, you have to apply personal mythology to extract meaning.

Steve