Hi all,
I have been listening a lot tonight to one of the greatest (some would say the greatest) mountain blues singers, the Kentuckian Roscoe Holcomb. While much of his music came out of the Old-Time fiddle and banjo tune traditions and the church and folk songs he grew up hearing and singing, almost everything he did had a heavy dose of the Blues. Had he been a non-playing singer, he would have been remarkable, but he was a stellar player, as well.
Roscoe played a lot in Spanish tuning, or a very close variant of it. On the two Folkways LPs of his music that I have, "Close to Home" and "The Music of Roscoe Holcomb & Wade Ward" (they play separately, not together), and the Smithsonian Folkways CD release, "The High Lonesome Sound", Roscoe plays the following songs in this tuning:
* "The Rising Sun", which is his version of "House of The Rising Sun"
* "Motherless Children"
* "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues"
* "Train That Carried My Girl From Town"
* "Walk Around My Bedside"
* "Boat's Up The River"
John Cohen, in his notes to "The High Lonesome Sound", has Roscoe's tuning for "The Rising Sun" as GGDGBE. I can not speak with any certainty as to whether Roscoe's sixth and fifth strings were tuned to unison G notes, but I can say with reasonable certainty that Roscoe's first string was tuned to D, not E, for at various places in the course of the rendition you can hear Roscoe contrasting the sound of the fretted D note at the third fret of the B string with the open D first string. Roscoe never hits a note with lower pitch than that of the G-tuned fifth string, so it is possible that the sixth string is tuned in unison with it, or that he simply avoids hitting the sixth string. In any event, his approach to playing in the tuning in both the right and left hands is very influenced by his banjo playing, I would say. It tends to be a linear rather than chordal approach, and he seldom frets more than one string simultaneously. Of all the Country Blues players I have heard, it reminds me the most of Robert Pete Williams, both in its constantly-improvised sound, it's more or less incidental harmonic content, and in the freeness of Roscoe's phrasing. The way Roscoe used his thumb in the right hand was unique; he tended to drone on the open fifth string on upbeats. I can not think of another player in the style who kept time by playing with the thumb on upbeats. Occasionally the droning thumb drops out altogether as Roscoe utilizes it to play a complicated run.
Roscoe also played blues on the guitar in standard tuning, and on the recordings I have he does the following songs in standard tuning:
* "Graveyard Blues", in G
* "Frankie and Johnny", in G
* "In The Pines", in E (this vocal has to be heard to be believed)
Roscoe's playing in G standard bears a lot of similarity to pre-Clarence White bluegrass lead guitar playing. He takes what the position gives him and maintains a very driving feel. His playing on "In The Pines" reminds me of Hobart Smith's blues-playing, particularly Hobart's "Graveyard Blues".
Roscoe also played a lot of blues banjo with the following performances falling squarely in that category.
* "Trouble In Mind"
* "Milk Cow Blues"
* "Got No Honey Baby Now" (very similar to the song Dock Boggs recorded as "Sugar Baby"
* "Darling Cory" (Roscoe's version is melodically very similar to Dock Boggs's "Country Blues")
* "Married Life Blues"
As remarkable and varied as Roscoe's playing was, I think it is fair to say that his most powerful musical expressions were made vocally. He was a perfectly amazing singer. The intensity of his tone production, his microtonal control of pitch, and the consuming focus and indentification he brought to whatever he sang makes hearing him sing, even on recordings, an emotionally draining experience. There does not appear to have been an ounce of compromise in his approach to music-making. A couple of quotes from John Cohen's excellent liner notes to these recordings go some way toward communicating Roscoe's relationship to his music.
"He sings each song only once, and has strong misgivings about repeating it. In this way, each time is a new unfolding and a revelation to him, not a retelling or act of refinement. In this way he can maintain such intensity.
He sings at the top of his vocal range with full tension on his voice. This manner of singing is a locally developed Kentucky tradition. Bill Monroe as well as the Osborne Bros. also from Ky. are know for their high-pitched singing. In Hazard, I once asked someone what they thought of the Carter Family from Va. and the only reply was "They tuned their guitar too low."
Roscoe is tired to the point of exhaustion after two or three songs. In a sense, an LP recording is a deceptive way of hearing him--and the listener should keep this in mind--that it is more natural to be hearing these songs a few at a time, with a rest between."
Another observation from the notes to "Close to Home" is interesting.
"At a workshop at the same Michigan Festival the black fiddler Howard Armstrong (of Martin, Bogan & Armstrong) commented that Roscoe's music was very pure, and that all other musicians--including Beethoven, Bach, Jazz blues or fiddlers all had tricks or devices which they employed to help communicate their music to an audience, and that was what their style was all about. But what Roscoe Holcomb was singing was the music without the devices, it was the core of the musical idea and the real spirit of the music which was being heard.
At this point I can only presume that this quality is what has made Roscoe Holcomb's music appreciated far beyond the confines of his home, and mountain community, and beyond the limits of the folksong tradition."
If you have never heard Roscoe's music, I would say it shares the kind of focus and intensity found in the singing of Son House or Blind Willie Johnson. It is not the kind of music you have on while you putter around the house, but if you are prepared to give yourself over to it, even for one or two songs at a time, I think you will feel as though you've been touched by someone who is putting every bit of himself into what he is doing. How rare is that?
All best,
Johnm
I have been listening a lot tonight to one of the greatest (some would say the greatest) mountain blues singers, the Kentuckian Roscoe Holcomb. While much of his music came out of the Old-Time fiddle and banjo tune traditions and the church and folk songs he grew up hearing and singing, almost everything he did had a heavy dose of the Blues. Had he been a non-playing singer, he would have been remarkable, but he was a stellar player, as well.
Roscoe played a lot in Spanish tuning, or a very close variant of it. On the two Folkways LPs of his music that I have, "Close to Home" and "The Music of Roscoe Holcomb & Wade Ward" (they play separately, not together), and the Smithsonian Folkways CD release, "The High Lonesome Sound", Roscoe plays the following songs in this tuning:
* "The Rising Sun", which is his version of "House of The Rising Sun"
* "Motherless Children"
* "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues"
* "Train That Carried My Girl From Town"
* "Walk Around My Bedside"
* "Boat's Up The River"
John Cohen, in his notes to "The High Lonesome Sound", has Roscoe's tuning for "The Rising Sun" as GGDGBE. I can not speak with any certainty as to whether Roscoe's sixth and fifth strings were tuned to unison G notes, but I can say with reasonable certainty that Roscoe's first string was tuned to D, not E, for at various places in the course of the rendition you can hear Roscoe contrasting the sound of the fretted D note at the third fret of the B string with the open D first string. Roscoe never hits a note with lower pitch than that of the G-tuned fifth string, so it is possible that the sixth string is tuned in unison with it, or that he simply avoids hitting the sixth string. In any event, his approach to playing in the tuning in both the right and left hands is very influenced by his banjo playing, I would say. It tends to be a linear rather than chordal approach, and he seldom frets more than one string simultaneously. Of all the Country Blues players I have heard, it reminds me the most of Robert Pete Williams, both in its constantly-improvised sound, it's more or less incidental harmonic content, and in the freeness of Roscoe's phrasing. The way Roscoe used his thumb in the right hand was unique; he tended to drone on the open fifth string on upbeats. I can not think of another player in the style who kept time by playing with the thumb on upbeats. Occasionally the droning thumb drops out altogether as Roscoe utilizes it to play a complicated run.
Roscoe also played blues on the guitar in standard tuning, and on the recordings I have he does the following songs in standard tuning:
* "Graveyard Blues", in G
* "Frankie and Johnny", in G
* "In The Pines", in E (this vocal has to be heard to be believed)
Roscoe's playing in G standard bears a lot of similarity to pre-Clarence White bluegrass lead guitar playing. He takes what the position gives him and maintains a very driving feel. His playing on "In The Pines" reminds me of Hobart Smith's blues-playing, particularly Hobart's "Graveyard Blues".
Roscoe also played a lot of blues banjo with the following performances falling squarely in that category.
* "Trouble In Mind"
* "Milk Cow Blues"
* "Got No Honey Baby Now" (very similar to the song Dock Boggs recorded as "Sugar Baby"
* "Darling Cory" (Roscoe's version is melodically very similar to Dock Boggs's "Country Blues")
* "Married Life Blues"
As remarkable and varied as Roscoe's playing was, I think it is fair to say that his most powerful musical expressions were made vocally. He was a perfectly amazing singer. The intensity of his tone production, his microtonal control of pitch, and the consuming focus and indentification he brought to whatever he sang makes hearing him sing, even on recordings, an emotionally draining experience. There does not appear to have been an ounce of compromise in his approach to music-making. A couple of quotes from John Cohen's excellent liner notes to these recordings go some way toward communicating Roscoe's relationship to his music.
"He sings each song only once, and has strong misgivings about repeating it. In this way, each time is a new unfolding and a revelation to him, not a retelling or act of refinement. In this way he can maintain such intensity.
He sings at the top of his vocal range with full tension on his voice. This manner of singing is a locally developed Kentucky tradition. Bill Monroe as well as the Osborne Bros. also from Ky. are know for their high-pitched singing. In Hazard, I once asked someone what they thought of the Carter Family from Va. and the only reply was "They tuned their guitar too low."
Roscoe is tired to the point of exhaustion after two or three songs. In a sense, an LP recording is a deceptive way of hearing him--and the listener should keep this in mind--that it is more natural to be hearing these songs a few at a time, with a rest between."
Another observation from the notes to "Close to Home" is interesting.
"At a workshop at the same Michigan Festival the black fiddler Howard Armstrong (of Martin, Bogan & Armstrong) commented that Roscoe's music was very pure, and that all other musicians--including Beethoven, Bach, Jazz blues or fiddlers all had tricks or devices which they employed to help communicate their music to an audience, and that was what their style was all about. But what Roscoe Holcomb was singing was the music without the devices, it was the core of the musical idea and the real spirit of the music which was being heard.
At this point I can only presume that this quality is what has made Roscoe Holcomb's music appreciated far beyond the confines of his home, and mountain community, and beyond the limits of the folksong tradition."
If you have never heard Roscoe's music, I would say it shares the kind of focus and intensity found in the singing of Son House or Blind Willie Johnson. It is not the kind of music you have on while you putter around the house, but if you are prepared to give yourself over to it, even for one or two songs at a time, I think you will feel as though you've been touched by someone who is putting every bit of himself into what he is doing. How rare is that?
All best,
Johnm