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I would say that Boogie-Woogie was the bad little boy of the rag family who wouldn't study. I heard crude beginnings of it in the back streets of New Orleans, in those early years following 1904, but they were really back streets... such music never got played in 'gilded palaces' - Roy Carew, from Giles Oakley's The Devil's Music, BBC

Author Topic: Roscoe Holcomb  (Read 5623 times)

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Offline Mr.OMuck

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Re: Roscoe Holcomb
« Reply #15 on: November 07, 2010, 03:38:14 PM »
Thanks for the recommended listening list Frank, you know how much i respect your opinion. One of the reasons I like this forum so much is that I can say unintentionally provocative things without getting yelled at too badly. ;)
Senility being what it is I don't recall the names of everybody I used to see performing at the wonderful series of folk music concerts held at the Hunter College auditorium back in the sixties. I remember a Doc Watson, Pete Seeger & I believe Jean Ritchie bill once though. Then there were the concerts Izzy Young put on at the Folklore centere and all the people who drifted through Gerdes & the Gaslight. I first discovered Roscoe Holcomb I think on Rainbow Quest the same year I would have seen Gary Davis for the first time. I heard him again, and listened more intently, after picking up a Folkways record titled "The Friends of Old Time Music"

Friends of Old Time Music
Various Artists FW02390

Founded in 1960 by Margot Mayo, Jean Ritchie, John Cohen, Ralph Rinzler, and Israel G. Young, the Friends of Old Time Music endeavored to bring traditional folk artists to New York City to show people "the real thing." This album features the artists who participated in the non-profit's concerts between 1961 and 1963.
COUNTRY(S) United States
CULTURE GROUP(S) African American; Anglo-American
KEYWORD(S) Ballads; Banjo music; Bluegrass music; Blues; Folk music--Virginia; Folk songs--United States; Hymns; Laments; Music--Appalachian Region, Southern.; Old-time music; Spirituals (Songs)
INSTRUMENT(S) Banjo; Bass; Fiddle; Guitar; Harmonica; Kazoo; Mandolin; One-Man Band; Washboard band music
YEAR OF RECORDING 1964
RECORD LABEL Folkways Records
SOURCE ARCHIVE Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
CREDITS Recorded by Edward A. Kahn ; Produced by John Cohen ; Recorded by Ralph Rinzler ; Recorded by Peter K. Siegel ; Produced by Peter K. Siegel ; Recorded by Mike Seeger



Play
101   Double File   Doc Watson and Gaither Carlton   1:55   

Play
102   Hicks' Farewell   Doc Watson and Gaither Carlton   4:32   

Play
103   Soldier's Joy   Hobart Smith   1:42   

Play
104   Claude Allen   Hobart Smith   3:48   

Play
105   Monday Morning Blues   Mississippi John Hurt   5:58   

Play
106   Pallet on the Floor   Mississippi John Hurt   4:36   

Play
107   Chick-a-la-lee-o   Almeda Riddle   3:02   

Play
201   Come All Ye Tender Hearted   Stanley Brothers   3:38   

Play
202   Little Birdie   Stanley Brothers   2:40   

Play
203   Rabbit in the Log   Stanley Brothers   2:24   

Play
204   Dark Holler Blues   Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley   4:57   

Play
205   What Did I Do To Be So Black and Blue?   Jesse Fuller   3:43   

Play
206   Mistreated Mama Blues   Dock Boggs   2:07   

Play
207   Hook and Line   Roscoe Holcomb   0:31   

Play
208   Pretty Fair Miss All in a Garden   Roscoe Holcomb   3:55   

Play
209   He's Coming In Glory Some Day   Doc Watson, Clint Howard, Fred Price   2:46   

So I did hear Doc Boggs and Hobart Smith and others and enjoyed them, but only Roscoe Lodged in my mind as a permanent fixture.

I'll definitely try to keep educatin' myself however. Great record btw. What a lineup!




My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music.
Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977)

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Offline Stuart

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Re: Roscoe Holcomb
« Reply #16 on: November 07, 2010, 05:10:21 PM »
Just to add: There was a "new" release of FOTM a couple of years back:

http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=3136

http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/liner_notes/smithsonian_folkways/SFW40160.pdf

I picked up the original LP back in the day--like Mr. O says, it is one great album--and it's still available (as a CD on demand):

http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=231

http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/liner_notes/folkways/FW02390.pdf

Offline uncle bud

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Re: Roscoe Holcomb
« Reply #17 on: July 10, 2013, 04:34:59 PM »
Here's a link to some footage of Roscoe I don't recall having seen playing Lost Indian.

http://sandbox.berea.edu/specialcollections/ac-vr-001-004-19/


Offline frailer24

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Re: Roscoe Holcomb
« Reply #18 on: July 12, 2013, 12:47:14 PM »
IMHO, Roscoe is on a plain only occupied by two others in the mountain blues category. Hobart Smith and Dock Boggs. Roscoe's playing on "Graveyard Blues" is so energetic, one would think he's just seen a ghost and trying to get away, while his singing just tears into you.
That's all she wrote Mabel!

Offline NotRevGDavis

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Re: Roscoe Holcomb
« Reply #19 on: July 12, 2013, 01:27:16 PM »
Graveyard Blues is my Bluegrass Catfish Blues. Maybe that is why it isn't on the Juke.  >:D
« Last Edit: July 12, 2013, 01:29:26 PM by NotRevGDavis »
Got the name, still workin' on the licks!

Offline Stuart

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Re: Roscoe Holcomb
« Reply #20 on: July 12, 2013, 04:53:42 PM »
Just a reminder:

http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=9153.msg77770#msg77770

http://www.amazon.com/Lonesome-Sound-Legacy-Roscoe-Holcomb/dp/3869302542/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Borrowed it from the library, but will probably add it to my collection at some point.

Don't forget  to use the Weenie Amazon box on the left hand side.

Offline tmylet

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Re: Roscoe Holcomb
« Reply #21 on: July 13, 2013, 07:52:30 AM »
In the early 70's I attended a concert at the U of PA by Roscoe Holcomb and have no memory of how it happened but Roscoe and John Cohen wound up staying at my house for the night.

When we got to the house, my roommate greeted Roscoe saying "I really enjoyed the show." John Cohen immediately quipped, "That was no show, that was real." While at the time I thought it was a bit of a put down, I have to say having been there, it couldn't have been any more real.

While it's great to know the tunings, technique, etc. the ability to expose all that raw emotion in front of an audience is what stuck with me. Seeing John Hurt, Skip James, Son House and Fred Cockerham all moved me. But just thinking about Roscoe Holcomb still takes me to a strange emotional place. If I could conjure up half of that power I wouldn't need to be worried about having the right instrument or technique. Roscoe Holcomb was frighteningly real to me.

Tom Mylet
Dr. Tommy

Offline RB

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Re: Roscoe Holcomb
« Reply #22 on: July 15, 2013, 11:11:43 AM »
Tom, I went to that 'concert' at the Up of P also.  There weren't many there, as I recall.  I do recall being moved similarly but I think now that I was young and impressionable and all this fuss about one person--Holcomb in this case--is a bit like the mystique inappropriately applied to others.  Just a man, though from a different culture, just an amateur musician, though an interesting one, and probably no more real or much more powerful than many others. 

Offline Johnm

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Re: Roscoe Holcomb
« Reply #23 on: July 15, 2013, 11:54:08 AM »
I'm curious, RB.  Who are the many others whom you would consider on a par with Roscoe Holcomb in terms of vocal power and intensity?
All best,
Johnm

Offline RB

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Re: Roscoe Holcomb
« Reply #24 on: July 15, 2013, 12:31:30 PM »
John, thank you for your note.  I don't mean to be obstreperous, perhaps I just am.  But I think we are--and the point I was putting forward was that we are--not that good at judging and that we are convincing ourselves of those attributes in him, in that we 'need' this, we need these 'heroes.' Having witnessed this a few times prior, I don't really think that's a good thing in us, it seems to distort what's real.

I may need them, heroes, too, but I think I recognize group think and group bonding.  I could be wrong. 

I, too, like Holcomb's music and his demeanor as I saw it that night (and I think I might have discussed this here before) and as it was captured on sound and sight recording.

If I was to cite others with that demeanor it might be some African-American singers of religious songs.  Oh, and I could think of others, too, but I think my point is less about the performers and more about the listeners or the audience. 

Thank you for taking the time to think about my note, and thanks to you--and all the others00for making this discussion (I don't mean just about Holcomb) an interesting one.

Offline Johnm

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Re: Roscoe Holcomb
« Reply #25 on: July 15, 2013, 04:51:49 PM »
Hi RB,
I can appreciate not wanting to succumb to a herd mentality, and I don't particularly care about having heroes, but to deny exceptional status to those of unquestionable exceptional stature seems wrong-headed and small.  Roscoe was certainly singing within a style, and I think it is a measure of the extent to which he was exceptional, even within that style, that his fellow practitioners in that style pretty much unanimously acknowledged his singing as being especially intense, focused, and profoundly engaged with the emotional content of his songs.  It doesn't make those of us who consider his music remarkable any smaller to acknowledge his special musical gifts.  They and he were special.
All best,
Johnm

 

Offline LucyStag

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Re: Roscoe Holcomb
« Reply #26 on: July 16, 2013, 06:29:03 PM »
Tom, I went to that 'concert' at the Up of P also.  There weren't many there, as I recall.  I do recall being moved similarly but I think now that I was young and impressionable and all this fuss about one person--Holcomb in this case--is a bit like the mystique inappropriately applied to others.  Just a man, though from a different culture, just an amateur musician, though an interesting one, and probably no more real or much more powerful than many others.

There's a difference between some of the weird Delta blues mystique that may not be historically accurate and trying to deny your reaction to an amazing singer, just because you were young and impressionable.

You gotta let that in and stay! There's no accuracy to strive for in that kind of circumstance.

I saw Ralph Stanley last month. In 40 years I hope I can remember how that felt.

Offline Rivers

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Re: Roscoe Holcomb
« Reply #27 on: July 16, 2013, 09:31:21 PM »
The obvious fact is that one's first impressions of the truly musically unusual may not abide.

You have to revisit after a decent period of time and see what you think and then bring your view up to date.

The same goes for the reverse, what blew your mind many years ago might (would probably) seem ho-hum today. This could be a whole Jam Session thread in its own right.

Roscoe Holcomb's music is certified by many as 100% cool. If you disagree in 2013 just put a reminder in your schedule to check it out again in, say, 2016. You may, or may not, think differently. But at least you should realize that several of your respected peers see it differently.
« Last Edit: July 16, 2013, 09:48:54 PM by Rivers »

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