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(A Heaping Helping of Americana today)
Since it is Thanksgiving and a traditional American holiday, I thought I would toss out a large helping of Americana by way of a concert with The Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Howard Hanson, featuring all American composers of the early 20th Century - most of whom you've probably never heard of before.
Living on the West Coast, I didn't have the opportunity of experiencing Jean Shepherd as so many in New York did. I got it by way of rumor, his album on Elektra and his syndicated radio show that periodically ran on KPFK. I heard he was good friends with a lot of the Beat Generation poets, and growing up with a well-thumbed copy of "A Coney Island Of The Mind" in my high school notebook, anyone who was anywhere near that scene had to be a hero of mine.
Years later, I ran across a collection of tapes which featured his live shows and a bunch of his studio shows from the early 60's, which this is one.
Shepherd is pretty much known today as the guy who wrote "A Christmas Story". And even though it's achieved a kind of "classic Americana" status - it doesn't really explain who Shepherd was and why he was so loved by everyone who heard him. His was a skewed vision of the world, often darkly humorous and completely iconoclastic.
To a 16 year old mind, he was just what the doctor ordered.
A few weeks ago I posted a Miriam Makeba concert from the Hollywood Bowl in 1962. I made mention of the fact that one of the opening acts was the recently formed Dave Guard's Whiskeyhill Singers. I got a lot of response on that, with readers wanting to know when I would get around to posting it. Sorry for the delay, so here it is.
For those of you not familiar with Dave Guard or the Whiskeyhill Singers, Guard had recently left The Kingston Trio, taking with him David "Buck" Wheat, their accompanist bass player. The Kingston Trio was one of the most successful folk acts of the late 1950's to early 1960's, cresting a wave of popularity that ebbed just around the time The Beatles came on the scene. Folk music in general had achieved a great amount of popularity during this time - first as a true exponent of Americana and later as a means of protest, although the protest part had been around for a long time with the likes of Pete Seeger, The Vietnam War seemed to be the galvanizing point from which a lot of protest Folk singers emerged.
Dave Guard's Whiskeyhill singers consisted of Dave Guard, Cyrus Faryar, Judy Henske and Dave "Buck" Wheat.
The group didn't last very long, splitting up shortly after this concert was recorded. They released one album for Capitol, with another as yet unreleased.
So here is a glimpse of a short-lived group, whose members went on to pursue other musical avenues and achieve names in their own right. Their traditional folk approach is evident in the three songs from this portion of the set: 1. Railroad Bill 2. The Oxdriver 3. Salomila
This is something of an experiment. With news in historic perspective Monday through Friday, Backstage Weekend with live groups on Saturday, I thought I would try to mix it up a bit for late Saturday/early Sunday; a sort of Panorama of Arts type thing. I figure most days we're all pretty bludgeoned with unfolding events, pundits spin and hysteria. So why not offer a break from all that and get a small recharge of the batteries? So here is the first of what I hope will be a weekly feature, Weekend Galimaufry. Classical, Jazz, World music, historic performances, interviews with artists, writers, musicians - poetry readings. A sort of grab bag of ear candy. Stuff you might remember and not heard for a long time, or things you may never have heard of. The sole purpose is to share a bit of culture here and there; all the time digging through my vault. So enjoy and come back often. And as always, requests are welcome.
So . . . first up is one of my favorite American composers, Roy Harris. His was one of the first 78's in my collection as a kid (Quintet for Piano and Strings - Victor M752). When you're an 8 year old, you become a sponge for things and first impressions always seem to last.
This particular recording comes from a broadcast in 1945 featuring Harris conducting the ABC (American Broadcasting Company) Symphony performing his Phantasy - a piece I've never seen in any other form. The closest it seems to come to is another Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra from the early 1950's - but it's not the same one. This is a big, broody piece that almost sounds as though it would make a great soundtrack behind a Robert Mitchum/Ida Lupino movie. Bear in mind, this composition comes around the same time Jazz was making big leaps, experimenting in the area of composition and arrangement (i.e. Stan Kenton, Claude Thornhill, Boyd Raeburn etc. etc.).
At any rate, it's a wonderfully evocative piece of music that's been sadly neglected. I also took advantage of the screen time and plastered a montage of photos by Steichen, Stieglitz, Mydans and a bit of Edward Hopper. A big dose of Americana.
