New Issue of Victory Review

The December issue of Victory Review is in the stands!.  When not the stands exactly.  When it was an in print magazine it was given away at northwest folk events and stores, or mailed by subscription.  It's the magazine of Victory Organization the Northwest acoustic music organization.  Victory has been promoting folk, bluegrass, jazz and other music for years.  I have two CD reviews in this issue and I hope to be able to provide them more for the next issue. Of course there are a lot of reviewers these days.   Here is the link:
http://victorymusic.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=28&Itemid=74

Musical Saw? #2

As I promised more on the musical saw. In fact I will be providing much more later. Years ago in Santa Cruz I knew Tom Scribner who, among other things, was a legend in the musical saw field. He did more than anyone else in the 60's and 70's to revive the playing of the musical saw and an musical saw gathering started up in the Santa Cruz mountains as a result, after he died. If he taught you how to play the musical saw he would award you a P.h.d in musical saw playing. If anyone has one of those please send a photo in the comment section to show it off.

I remember many occasions upon which I was walking in downtown Santa Cruz and I could suddenly here the eerie, winning sound of the saw. I would follow it's beckoning and find Tom sitting somewhere downtown playing the saw, then I would sit beside him and listen for a while, and find him always willing to chat after a while. I'll provide more detail on Tom and his history in later posting.

Practical advice for those thinking of taking up the art: don't play the tooth side, you will use up to many bows. Actually look for a saw that has a good handle or one specifically made as a musical saw. And bend and play it before you buy it. If it doesn't produce a lot of high pitched sounds it's no good for anything except cutting wood. And between you and me, I think cutting wood is more work than making music.

Besides the saw convention in California there is now an annual one in New York City. I have a little U-Tube from that here for you.

Sing Out Magazine: The Sing Out Radio Magazine

Sing Out Magazine, for those not in the folkie know, is a magazine founded in 1950 by folk musicians and folk types including Pete Seeger. It has weather the political and economic storms of the years to continue writing about folk songs, musicians and issues in the folk scene. It was started as a successor to People's Songs, which had started as a mimeographed handout and grew to a circulation of 3,000, then folded as an anti-red wave affected was leveled against progressive organizations. In 1950 some of the same people got together and planned the first issue of Sing Out!, which had just broad enough appeal to last.

Sing Out has grown into a larger organization with a resource center and a radio program on NPR. Songs from past and present issues of Sing Out can be heard on this show, produced by the group that has been the heart and soul of the last two folk revivals, and the slow times for folk music in between.

I found some Homer and Jethro on the Sing Out page and track it's source down, so to give you a little flavor of Sing Out I'll post them here.

To find Sing Out Radio go to:

http://www.folkalley.com/music/singout/

And to find the online Sing Out organization and magazine go to:

http://www.singout.org/

Musical Saw?

I had a friend in Santa Cruz in the old days, Tom Scriber, who was an ex-wobbly and a musical saw player. I think it's one of the great folk instruments. In his memory here I am putting some musical saw links.

First a flicker photo of the statue to Tom:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42304632@N00/58958201/

Then a musical saw lesson

And an interview with Tom:

I share more with you another day on Tom Scribner, musical saws and folk instruments.

This Land Is Your Land

By now it's old news that Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger and 'Tao Rodriguez Seeger sang Woody Gurthrie's " This Land is Your Land" at Obama's inauguration(Too bad Arlo Guthrie wasn't up there also). Just in case you were out of the loop that day, have forgotten, or haven't gotten enough of it, I've included the You Tube Video of it. But please come back afterward dear reader, since I have something to say about the famous song and our times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl08hEegDu4

It may be symbolism to have 90 year old lifetime folk and topical singer Seeger lead the nation and a slightly nervous and reticent Obama in the greatest people's patriotic song, but it's important symbolism. It's symbolism that feeds into something FDR once said --"I agree, now make me do it." It's symbolism that says if we can sing together, we can work together and make the president do something about our problems.

There is another important symbolism at work. It's about the words to the song. When Woody first wrote the song it said a lot more about the problems of working people than the version we got to know as kids did. The music publishers and record labels want "safe versions" of songs like this. 3 verses were censored out and seldom sung since:

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn't say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry,
I stood there asking Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

What's important here about these lyrics is that Pete and Co. didn't take the safe way, they included the censored lyrics. Maybe that's why Obama was a little nervous, (and maybe that's why some progressives voted for Nadir or Green,) but he heard and if he keeps on hearing, "Nobody living can ever stop" us.



Of course you can't sign just part of a song so I'm including here the full lyrics.

Please share them with your friends and please leave comments about this or any other great Woody Guthrie songs that keep running through your brain (like they do mine -- I don't have 60's pop songs running around up there for some reason.) I'll include a link here to a two sites about the song for those that want to know more. For anyone wanting to verify my statements about this song see "Woody Gurthrie, A Life" by Joe Klein Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1980.

The discussion of this song on Truthout can be found at: http://www.truthout.org/011909R

The discussion of this song on Mudcat Cafe can be found at: http://www.truthout.org/011909R



This Land Is Your Land

Words and Music by Woody Guthrie


Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

Chorus

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

Chorus (2x)

More on Shape Note Singing

Eric, a Shape Note Singer informs us that there is some You Tube posted footage of lasts years Pacific North West Shape Not convention.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwNZwUNaJrY

If there are any more interesting posts of Shape Note Singing, Folk Singing or the like please forward them as a comment, and I'll post them.

Shape Note Singing

Shape note singing is a cappella form of singing in four part Harmony, dating to the early days of America. It 's roots lie in the signing schools of New England, but it transplanted itself into the American south and grew into a beautiful, fervent form of spiritual folk music. Most shape note singers use a song book known ass the Sacred Harp, which dates back to before the civil war, although revised editions are used now.

I have been listening to shape note signing for several years now. Some of it was heard on the sound track of Cold Mountain. Alan Lomax in doing recording in the south recorded lots of shape note music, available on various Smithsonian albums.

Listening on the outside of shape note signing its hard to understand what's going on, although it's beauty is obvious. I was able to listen to it live at the Northwest Folk Festival, in Seattle, one year and then I knew it was wonderful. Last May, at the Folk Festival, I was able to participate in a shape note singing workshop, and found that with help from those sitting next to me, I could effectively participate in four part Harmony singing.

It's called shape note signing because of an old tradition going back to New England -- each of the four parts is designated by a shape-- a circle, square, rectangle or triangle. Each group knows what it's part is without professional training.

Shape note signing has spread around the country as a result of the spread of interest since the 1940's in all forms of folk and country music. There are shape note signing groups meeting in churches and other places around the country and occasionally they meet in regional conventions.

Saturday February 14th, 2009 and Sunday the 15th there will be the 17th annual meeting of the Pacific NW Sacred Harp Convention at the Labor Temple in Seattle (2800 1st Ave). It's free and anyone can participate. (Donations are accepted). Song books are available for sale. The registration is at 9AM on Saturday and the signing begins at 9:30AM. It lasts till 3:30 PM with a potluck dinner at noon (in the tradition of the South). The details are the same for Sunday.

Please attend if you can and have an interest. If you know anything or have questions about this form of singing, leave a comment.

For more information see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Harp orhttp://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~mudws/harp.html
or http://www.fasola.org/