Topic: Monroe Gevedon & Family--"The Two Soldiers"

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I first heard the song "The Two Soldiers" performed by Mike Seeger, on his Vanguard album, from probably around 1964 or 1965.  Mike did a beautiful rendition of the song, accompanying himself on the autoharp.  I was surprised when Yazoo released its 2-volume set, "The Music of Kentucky", to find what must have been the version of the song that Mike based his on, performed by Monroe Gevedon on fiddle and vocal, backed by his wife, Cathlynn on guitar and his son, Bert, on banjo.  I really love this song, both the melody and the lyrics, and it is one of my favorite melodies.  The way the song "backs up on itself", going to the IV chord in between the V chord and the I chord is striking, too.  I really appreciate Monroe Gevedon's unsentimental delivery of the song.  Here it is:



SOLO

He was Jim, the blue-eyed Boston boy, his voice was low with pain
"I'll do your bidding, comrades mine, if I ride back again.
But if you ride back, and I am dead, you'll do as much for me.
My Mother, you know, must hear the news, so write to her tenderly."

"She is sitting at home like a waiting saint, her fond face pale with woe.
Her heart will be broken when I am gone, I'll see her soon, I know."
Just then the order came to charge, for an instant, hands touched hands
They answered, "I am on the road to that brave and devoted band."

SOLO

Straight was the course to the top of the hill, and the rebels with shot and shell
Plowed furrows of death in the toiling ranks, and guarded them as they fell
There soon was a horrible dying yell, from heights they could not gain
And those whom doom and death had spared rode slowly back again

But among the dead who were left on the field was the boy with the curly hair
The tall, dark man who fought by his side, lay dead beside him there
There were none to write to the blue-eyed girl, the word her lover had said
While Mother at home is a-waiting her boy, she'll only know he's dead

SOLO

All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Looking just now, I was surprised to find the Mike Seeger version of "The Two Soldiers" up on youtube (for that matter, I was surprised to find the Monroe Gevedon version, too).  Here is Mike Seeger's version of the song:



All best,
Johnm

[David Kaatz]

It is a beautiful tune. I first heard this done by Dylan, on his World Gone Wrong album, which is all covers of old tunes, just Bob and guitar. Great album.
I see on youtube a bunch of fairly famous folks have done the tune - Cowboy Junkies, Grisman-Garcia, Ricky Skaggs, Tony Rice, Emmylou,...
Thanks John.

D

[Kokomo O]

Thank you, John, it really is a great tune. I was only familiar with the newer readings, starting with Dylan's, so both of these are treats.

I wonder how Mike Seeger played his autoharp. It sounds to me like he strummed it, as opposed to some who I think play them with thumb and fingerpicks (Maybelle Carter, perhaps). But it doesn't sound like the kind of attack you'd hear with a flatpick. I had an elementary school music teacher who used a rubber doorstop, and my recollection of the sound--granted, this goes back 45 or 46 years--is that it was much like this recording.

[Johnm]

Hi Kokomo O,
When I saw Mike play autoharp relatively early in his performing career, he was holding the autoharp upright (as opposed to on his lap, like Kilby Snow), and playing with a thumbpick and one or two fingerpicks, like Maybelle Carter.  He may have switched to lap-style later on.
All best,
Johnm

[alyoung]

I can answer this (it might be that I'm the only autoharp player on this list ... or at least the only only that'll admit it). He is holding the instrument upright, which has been the standard way of playing it for at least 60 years, since Maybelle Carter showed the world how to do it. He is playing with a thumbpick and at least two fingerpicks (these days, many players use three or even four). Like guitar, the thumb plays the bass and the fingers the treble, but the roles are more interchangeable than on guitar, and in this track the thumb sometimes gets well up into the treble strings. And he is using a range of rhythm effects; sometimes the thumb and at least one finger are working together in a pinch motion; sometimes the thumb is playing the melody with the fingers providing rhythm; sometimes the fingers are taking the melody with the thumb providing a bass underpinning. Mike Seeger was a very good autoharp player, and I'd have to say that if the teacher with the rubber doorstop could make the instrument sound like this track, he must have been one helluva doorstop player.

[banjochris]

I'll admit to playing the autoharp, too! I saw Mike play quite a few times in the last 15 years or so of his life and he always played with thumb pick and two fingerpicks, holding the harp upright, as Al says.

Kilby Snow, by the way, played the harp in sort of a sideways upright style, not quite lap style, as you can see here:



Chris

[Prof Scratchy]

Was Kilby left handed?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Johnm]

Hi Prof,
Yes, Kilby was left-handed, and he played the autoharp the way Libba Cotten played the guitar, left-handed and upside down.  I think he modified his autoharps, too, moving the chord armature and bars further up toward the narrow end of the autoharp so that he would have more room to pick below them.  I play autoharp, too, though not very often.
All best,
Johnm

[frailer24]

As another 'harpist, I also modify all mine to be played lap style, since my arms are short. I use a thumbpick and a fingerpick made from a coil spring.

[alyoung]

Kilby Snow extensively modified his chord-bar setup from Oscar Schmidt standard. As well as moving the chord-bar assembly to give himself more picking space at the base of the instrument, he also changed individual bars, re-felting them and rearranging the chord line-up. He eliminated minors, and I'm fairly sure he had more than one of some common chord bars (two Cs, for example) so he could use which ever was more convenient at the time. An excellent article on his style, by the late Joe Riggs, is at http://fieldrecorder.org/kilby-snow-and-his-influential-music-style/ 
It's probably worth noting that very few autoharp players play lap-style these days; upright rules, and the common chord-bar adjustment is to move the assembly down to the base of the instrument, opening up access to the top strings (top-line harps by the likes of George Orthey, Pete Daigle or John Hollandsworth come already set up this way).
BTW, it's nice to see all these autoharpers coming out of the closet. And isn't it good that we don't get whacked for straying from the core blues topic.

[frailer24]

Al, for what it's worth, I like hearing upright style from others, but just too difficult for me to execute. I did ask Pete Daigle about a lap style setup, and he told me that would be easily done.

[alyoung]

If you do want to pursue playing upright, it might be worth looking at one of Evo Bluestein's "Sparrow" harps, which Pete Daigle sells -- http://www.daigleharp.com/sparrowharps.html  They are lighter and narrower than regular harps, made for people for whom a regular harp is too much of an armful. I've seen only one -- not a lot of them get to New Zealand and the one I saw was a visitor -- but I was impressed with its sound and ease of handling.

Perhaps I'd better introduce some blues content -- here's Josh White's mother, Elizabeth White, singing Going to Lay Down My Burdens (a version of Down by the Riverside) accompanied by autoharps played by her and her grandson Gideon Craig (both playing lap style (Mrs White strummed with a clothes pin) --   (Recorded by Mike Seeger on June 29, 1963, in Greenville, SC.)

[frailer24]

Heard that Ms. White recording before. Still floors me with that humble power!