Topic: Spanish Fandango - Sound familiar?

[jed]

Every so often, I resolve to find something new or, at least, previously unheard.  The below-linked version is just such an example.  Has anyone heard it, or anything else from the performer?

https://home.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/kentspanish1253.mp3

[Johnm]

Hi Jed,
It sounds like a cop of this version, by John Dilleshaw, to me.



All best,
Johnm

[Stuart]

Or possibly John Fahey's cover:



"Ash Flat, Arkansas, 1959"?? Why not give the date?  --Doesn't sound like a 63-64 year old recording to me.

[Johnm]

I think Fahey got it from Dilleshaw, too, Stuart.

[Stuart]

He did, John. I was referring to a possible line of transmission. Sorry for the confusion.

[btasoundsradio]

[ThatGuyWithThe12Stringer]

Sounds similar to Leadbelly's rendition of Poor Howard (though AFAIK Fandango predated it by a while)

[jed]

Thanks, all.  And thanks for bringing that recording from Libba Cotton.  She gets as close as I've heard to a slack key feel on the song. 

A body could get lost in all the versions.  The Milum Kent recording comes from this "Ozark Folksongs" collection:  https://home.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/.  Alan Lomax is mentioned in there, as is Gus Cannon, H.L. Menken(!) and other familiar folks.  It also has a few recordings of Bukka White talking in their folklore class about a bit of his own history.

[Bluesgal]

https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/208661

[Bluesgal]

I think this is a performance of Worrals original:

[jed]

Thanks; that's close to Worrall's arrangement, with some personal flairs, by my rusty reading along with the sheet music.  The performer (Dallas-based Perry Brooks Nichols, who appears to have some Carlos Castaneda-based influence) apparently teaches flamenco, paints and mashes up a variety of styles into sonic psychedelia to express and/or lead listeners into separate realities. 

Nichols interpreted Spanish Fandango for Juneteenth 2022 to honor guitarist/composer/arranger/civil rights activist/Martin endorser Justin Holland, whose Reconstruction-era guitar method books became widely popular.