Tangleweed's Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals

Tangleweed’s third CD, Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals, got a very nice write up in Record Department:

Chicago Americana quintet Tangleweed takes its influence from traditional fiddle tunes, bluegrass, blues, hymns, rags and rave-ups that grew out of the rural South. Tangleweed meticulously collected hidden gems, the lost, forgotten and/or obscure songs from Folkways reissues, 78s, box sets, traditional songbooks and the history of Americana music. This is especially evident in the title of their third album, Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals taken from a little known 1920s classic. The album is rich, organic and authentic – Tangleweed carries on the tradition of old time music while expanding upon it with a few contemporary classics of their own.

Check it out at Record Department’s site: RecordDept.com

Tangleweed's Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals

Our latest CD, Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals, got a favorable write up in this month’s Bluegrass Unlimited:

This latest collection features traditional numbers “Sandy River Belle,” “Short Life Of Trouble,” and “Listen To The Mockingbird” blended with original material. Noted performances include “California,” “Mississippi Trashboat,” and a rendition of the bluegrass classic, “Pain In My Heart.” Tangleweed has created a vigorous collection of contemporary bluegrass capped with originality.

Read the full review at Bluegrass Unlimited’s site

There’s a fellow on YouTube by the name of 78Man, who has posted over 800 videos of 78rpm records playing. The result is strangely compelling — like the yule log, but with better music.

One of the more appealing sides offered is the Sons of the Pioneers classic, Cool Water. The description says that this is a 1948 recording, but I think this is the version they recorded in Chicago on March 27th, 1941 for Decca. It was released on Brunswick’s English subsidiary, which would expain the label. Of course, I can’t see the catalog label to confirm this.

A free Dixie cup to the person who can count all the instances of the word ‘water’ in this recording.

12 strings spread between 2 necks.

2 necks, 12 strings. This 1960s-era mandolin/ tenor guitar is one of the cooler things I’ve seen for a while. I’ve been switching between mandolin and tenor guitar for some of Tangleweed’s stuff, so a 2-header monster like this has some appeal. I’m wagering that an SG-style electric wouldn’t fly at bluegrass festivals, though.

At $13.5K, it’s hardly an impulse buy, but it sure is neat looking.

It’s using regular Gibson-style humbucking pickups for both instruments, with the space for the extra two pole pieces filled up with mother of pearl inserts.

There are way more pictures on Elderly’s web site.

This is the track that launched a career, and a career that helped launch an industry. It was recorded in Bristol, Tennessee, on August 4, 1927 for the Victor label. Though it was only a modest success, it marked the beginning of one of the most illustrious recording careers in American popular music.

Rodgers actually recorded two sides that day (the other being ‘The Soldier’s Sweetheart’), but this was the side that featured Rodgers’ formidable yodeling talents. Rodgers neither invented yodeling nor introduced it to American music, but he did more than anyone to cement its place in country music.

Rodgers returned to the studio the following November, and recorded what would be his first hit and his most iconic recording: Blue Yodel.

Nolan Porterfield’s Jimmie Rodgers: The Life and Times of America’s Blue Yodeler (American Made Music Series) remains the definitive work on Rodgers, and one of the more impressive works of vernacular music scholarship one will find.

Courtesy of archive.org

Rodgers work has entered the public domain in most of the world. It remains under copyright in the U.S. due to Sonny Bono’s Mickey Mouse Protection Act. But let’s ignore Bono’s ignoble legislative career and apparent lack of skiing skills, and remember him as the auteur behind ‘Pammie’s on a Bummer,’ and the associated heavy-lidded PSA:

Sonny Bono Speaks Against Pot

I listened to this expecting to hear the song Riley Puckett sang so well, and was surprised to hear this very nice fiddle instrumental instead. Surprised, especially, in that I had never heard of Fiddlin’ Frank Nelson.

A quick check of Tony Russell’s Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942 the Rosetta Stone for prewar country music, solved the mystery. Fiddlin’ Frank is a pseudonym for the great Kentucky fiddler Doc Roberts.

This track was cut in Richmond, Indiana, at the studios of the Starr Piano Company, with Joe Booker providing the guitar accompaniment. It was recorded on Saturday, August 27th, 1927, and paired with Roberts’ interpretation of Billy in the Lowground. That pairing was released on half a dozen labels, under half a dozen names. Here’s a mapping for you:

• Champion Records -> Fiddlin’ Jim Burke
• Silvertone and Supertone Records -> Jim Burke
• Challenge and Superior Records -> Fiddlin’ Frank Nelson
• Bell Records -> Fiddlin’ Bob White
• Bell Records (again) -> Bob White
• Gennett Records -> Doc Roberts

Roberts had a career rebirth during the folk revival of the 1960s. Berea College in Kentucky has an extensive collection of his papers.

Courtesy of Archive.org

Fiddlin’ Powers was a John Cowan Powers, from Russell County, Virginia. His recording career encompasses 33 sides for the Victor, Edison, and OKeh labels, though 14 of those seem to be unissued. This is a 1925 Edison recording, and he is backed by a family band:

• Orpha Powers, mandolin;
• Charlie Powers, banjo;
• Carrie Powers, guitar;
• Ada Powers, ukulele

Despite what Henry Ford thought, a lot of these old time songs are pretty filthy. ‘She lays eggs for the whole darn crew.’ Indeed.

Courtesy of Archive.org

The Rural Roots Music Commission has named Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals as its ‘Traditional Music CD of the Year’. Thanks!