We spent the Memorial Day weekend in Altamont, NY at the Black Creek Fiddler’s Reunion. Last year, the plan was to do both Black Creek and Mt. Airy, but it was just too much driving and not enough vacation time, so Mt. Airy won out. It was nice to be back at Black Creek this year. The weather was surprisingly forgiving - always a plus when camping. The music was great, but we didn’t take enough pictures and I didn’t get to horn in on nearly as many sessions as I would have liked. It’s always that way with festivals. As it is - I had to swipe this pic of Mike Resnick, Kim and me from the festival website:
I’m just now starting to actually realize that there’ll be no Clifftop for us this year. Oh well, there’s always Fiddlin’ Bear, then maybe Rockbridge in the middle of September. Maybe this’ll be the year we get back there - that’s a nice one!
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Malcolm at Venerable Music now has a streaming radio station:
You can put that in rotation with the Weenie Juke and Sugar In The Gourd.
In the last week or so, Kim has been very interested in learning guitar - perhaps brought on by the recent acquisition of a nifty yet modest old parlor guitar. At any rate, it’s given me the opportunity to help guide her through the initial stages of learning how to play. Our basic approach has been to take an old-time tune or song, break down the chords for one guitar and have the other guitar flatpick the melody. In doing so, I had something of a revelation, basically of something I’ve known for a long time, but was driven home yet again.
It’s amazing to me that it’s possible to relate to old-time on so many levels that can actually sound like music. As a beginner, you can grab on to one of those tunes or songs and play the simplest accompaniment and the sparsest setting of the melody and still have something that is pleasing. At the same time, it’s eminently possible to take those same ingredients and turn yourself loose on them to wind up with something that is so completely personal and unique - like Roscoe Holcomb’s “Little Birdie” or The Carter Family’s “You’ve Been A Friend To Me”.
Maybe it’s that underlying simplicity that draws me in - I dunno. I’m grateful for it, anyway.
roscoe-holcomb-little-birdie.mp3
the-carter-family-youve-been-a-friend-to-me.mp3
Incidentally, I haven’t flatpicked a guitar with any real dedication in close to 10 years, so this last week has been a learning experience for me, too. I’d forgotten how specific a sound flatpicking really is, and the kind of texture it provides. Flatpicking fiddle tunes isn’t ever something I’d do in an old-time session, but sitting around the house when you’ve got someone else to play backup… that’s a pretty nice sound!
After getting some stuff done around the house, I suddenly got the urge to sing this song. It’s been on my mind quite a bit in the last few months, as it’s something of a prayer song - I’m not sure you’d call it a Gospel song so much as a Spiritual, but then again, I’m certainly not a reliable source of information on either.
I recorded this in one take, on the spur of the moment. For some reason, I like the way it turned out, clams and all - just kinda feels good. Musically, the song speaks to me because it’s a modal sounding song and Rev. Davis pulls it off in the key of C - not the easiest thing to do, really. I’m still playing it in C, but on the twelve-string, the pitch winds up at G (even though I’m playing C figures). That allows me to sing in a more comfortable range, although I do like the way that Rev. Davis sings at the low end of his range on the recordings of this song that I’ve heard (it’s on the albums “Pure Religion and Bad Company” and “The Sun of Our Lives”). Maybe I’ll get down there someday.
The song speaks to me in other ways, but that’s probably a lot harder to explain. Maybe you’ll like it, too, for your own reasons.
If I was going to be a one-lick kind of guitar player, this is the lick I’d want to have. Lately, I’ve had one foot in flat-key madness and the other in 12-string madness. Playing in E-flat definitely has a way of getting to you after a while. This tune is the antidote. Eli Framer has the best rhythm, the coolest, greasiest groove going on this song. As cool as his guitar playing is, I think it’s his zero-BS voice that gets me going the most. You can probably guess what my favorite verse is - trust me, it’s as much what he sings as how he sings it. Just fantastic!
I can only wish that someday I’ll be confident enough to deliver a line like that.
Framer plays the song in standard tuning, E position. I’ve transcribed the lyrics below and definitely had some trouble in spots, denoted by square brackets.
Framer’s Blues - Eli Framer
Well I’m going to the river, sit down there by my self
Said I’m going to the river, baby, going to sit down there by myself
Thought of the one I love, don’t want nobody else
Said, it weren’t for my mother and this girl I love
Said, it wasn’t for my mother, baby, and this girl I love
Hear my [] [suspicion], [] [] lord above
Said my mama [busted] me when I was young and wild
Said my mama [busted] me when I was young and wild
[] you ought to consider mama, lord, you done been a child
Girl, I ain’t going to marry, babe, I swear I ain’t going to settle down
Said I ain’t going to marry, babe, I swear I ain’t going to settle down
Send my babe around here until we going to [] [] good brown down
If the blues going to kill me baby, take my measure, now n-now lord
Blues going to kill me baby, take my measure now
Said the blues going to kill me baby, take my measure now
There’s a change in the ocean, mama, change in the deep blue sea
There’s a change in the ocean, mama, change in the deep blue sea
Say you take me back, baby, find no change in me
If I follow my rider, baby, to her burying ground
If I follow my rider, baby, to her burying ground
Say “Easy, preacher, let her body down.”