The song was in the style of the old broadside ballads, and set to the tune of ‘The Ship that Never Returned’. Authorship of the ballad (and entitlement to the substantial royalties generated by a million-plus selling record) was bitterly disputed in a case that eventually found its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Wreck of the Old 97 was based on the events of September 27, 1903, when a speeding mail train crashed off a train trestle near Danville, Virginia, killing 9 (some sources say 11).

Courtesy of Archive.org

For this of you (like me) who are just finding out about this issue, Jim DeRogatis of the Sun-Times has written an excellent blog detailing the ordinance, its history, and public reaction to it:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/derogatis/

Here’s another blog that was also responsible for raising public awareness.  They collected almost 6,000 signatures for their online petition opposing the ordinance:

http://savechicagoculture.org/

Power to the people!

Hey friends:

Quickly, a plea. There is an ordinance being voted on in the city council meeting tomorrow that will severely impact the freedom of small venues to host events. It is called the Promoter Ordinance and it is going to require venues to pay more fees and jump through more bureaucratic hoops than ever! This means music, performance, theatre, comedy, etc will be affected and limited to only the wealthy and established venues and promoters! Yuk!

I encourage you to email or call your alderman TODAY. Particularly if you live in the 47th ward, as the Gene Schulter himself is the one who brings this ordinance before the council.

Here is more information about the ordinance:
SunTimes.com

And here is a link to find your alderman:
CityOfChicago.org

Extra Credit: Join me and others tomorrow morning at 9 am at city hall to protest! There will be a musical uprising!

I’ll bring the banjo - you bring a guitar, harp, kazoo, castanets, your audition monologue, mime act or baritone uke - whatever! For real, we are going to sing out! 121 N. LaSalle St. The council meets on the second floor. See you there! (The meeting itself is at 10. Attend that for extra extra extra credit and speak out!)

yours truly,

Julie B

ps. forward on to people I don’t know but you do.

The tune is Sally Goodin (also spelled Gooden), an old warhorse of a fiddle tune first recorded by Eck Robertson. Pickard’s performance is charming — earnest, understated, and well-played.

Courtesy of Archive.org

By the way, there’s some hot jawharp, played by the author of this post, on the forthcoming Tangleweed CD, Most Folk Heroes Started Out As Criminals.

Courtesy of Archive.org

The set list:

1. Listen to the Mockingbird
2. South Australia
3. Angeline the Baker -> Soldier’s Joy
4. California
5. Short Life of Trouble
6. The Logjam
7. Takeup Reel -> Cold Frosty Morning -> Grey Eagle
8. Trishanku’s Heaven
9. High On A Mountain
10. British Army
11. Little Sadie
12. With a Bottle in My Hand
13. Ginseng Blues
14. Dead Flowers
15. Orange Blossom Special

Download the show here:
http://www.archive.org/details/tweed2008-05-01.cemc6.flac16

It wasn’t a great show — we were plagued by a very bad stage mix and didn’t play or sing particularly well that night. Also, for reasons unknown to me, we wound up sitting around the venue for a few hours until the staff deigned to do a soundcheck, and I hit the stage more than a little annoyed and at a low energy ebb. That said, the venue has a decent sounding (almost acoustically dead) room, and it’s a good-sounding recording. The energy and performance quality started to pick up by the end of the set.

It’s signed and dated Antonio Stradivario in Cremona 1680, which would place it twenty years into his career as an instrument maker, but still almost another two decades before his ‘golden age’ of 1698-1720.

In addition to mandolins, he apparently made some fiddles.

He’s documented his efforts in an interesting page on his website, called Banjo Craziness. He notes that his designs are more appropriate for old-timey frailing rather than bluegrass, and he makes this hilarious (though likely controversial) observation:

[B]luegrass sucks. Bill Monroe should have been a priest or a welder or a pimp, anything other than the father of the hideous noise called bluegrass. Bluegrass is a well-spring of Southern sentimentality, morbid lyricism, cornball humor, and poor writing. Hardcore ‘grassers lament that there are no good new bluegrass songs, but I maintain that there are no good old ones, either. The real irony is that some of the hottest pickers in folk music play bluegrass.

Read the full series here:

http://www.jcalkinguitars.com/banjo_craziness.htm

I’m hosting a new bluegrass jam starting this Sunday, May 11 at the Wild Rover Pub with Ryan Fisher (eminent Tangleweed banjoist and Old Town School instructor). This will be every other Sunday and we’re having free chili and cornbread this week while it lasts. Any and all instruments and skill levels welcome, so come on down and have a hootenanny!

4-8pm

6001 N. Paulina (peterson/paulina)

Here is Colbert with his own Korean pop video, He’s Singin’ In Korean:

Rain and Stephen Colbert finally settle the score with a Dance Off:

***Disclaimer: In no way am I advocating the singing of Korean R&B songs or the production of their videos, either by Korean pop stars or American satiric comedians, but this was just too funny to pass up.