I'm happy and proud to announce that my song "Read Me the Dead" has been chosen as Arts for Peace's Peace Poem of the Month for December 2006. It will be displayed at the Arts for Peace show at the Village Hall in New Paltz. I had known that someone submitted it for me, but that was awhile ago and I was surprised to hear that they are using it. One more piece of local publicity for us!
Read Me the Dead
c Bob Lusk May 2006
Every Saturday morning Jay, David and Joan
Stand by the door, at the Kings’ Mall
Outside the recruiters, they do their duty
They stand and recite, the names of the dead
Chorus: Read me the dead, what were their names?
Do you think this is some sort of game?
Read me the dead, what were their names?
Do you think this is some sort of game?
That was my son, my daughter or brother
Uncle or aunt, friend or a lover.
Why did they go, what did they hope for?
Why are we here, who wants to know?
Chorus
Cursed be the leaders, who tarnished the memories
Of foot soldiers, veterans, each one a hero
These are their names, their battles have ended
We stand in their honor, we stand here for peace!
Chorus
Traditional Music of Upstate New York
For Immediate Release
Contact: Kyle Carey
cel 603-393-8199 or Skidmore College: 518-580-5000
Traditional Music of Upstate New York
Free Concert - Thursday, December 7th 7pm
Bernhard Theater - Skidmore College Campus
Skidmore College · 815 North Broadway · Saratoga Springs, NY · 12866
Siamsa na nGael of Skidmore College will sponsor a concert of Traditional Music of the Upstate New York region. This free event is a unique gathering of nine of the area's finest exponents of regional 'folk music,' that is ballads, songs or dance music coming to us through an oral tradition. Though not known for it's folk music in the way that Ireland or Southern Appalachia are, New York State has a rich tradition of it's own.
Saratoga Springs, New York - This free event will have both an entertaining and educational aim. The music itself runs the gamut from the lovely long-form ballads of singer Colleen Cleveland to the lively dance music of Bill Spence and George Wilson. An added goal is to bring to students and the community an awareness of New York's folk tradition and the many performers who carry it on. Traditional Music is an important part of New York's cultural identity.
The concert will feature Rexford resident George Ward - a singer, musician and folklorist who specializes in traditional ballads and songs of the Erie Canal, Voorheesville resident Bill Spence - a hammered dulcimer player who led the revival of the instrument in the early '70s and has been a key player in the contra-dance scene ever since, Wynantskill resident George Wilson - a fiddler, teacher and multi-instrumentalist who has played with Spence in Fennig's All-Stars and solo since the late 70s, Brant Lake resident Colleen Cleveland - a singer who has the rare gift of an unbroken oral tradition coming down through her family, Greenfield Center residents John Kirk and Trish Miller - both musicians, teachers and performers who for over 20 years have celebrated the music and dance of the Adirondack region, Schenectady resident and England native John Roberts - a singer and musician whose repertoire includes ballads and songs from Britain, Ireland and the Northeastern United States which he has performed over the years on his own and in a duo with fellow singer Tony Barrand, Ballston Spa resident and Adirondack native Dan Berggren - singer, songwriter, folklorist and collector of songs from Minerva and throughout the Adirondack region, and Southern Appalachian resident and Saranac Lake native Lee Knight, a singer and song collector whose has also worked with Marjorie Lansing Porter and Anne & Frank Warner, musicologists who had a major impact on the preservation of New York State Traditional music.
Concert attendees are encouraged to bring canned food to be collected and donated to a local Saratoga Springs food pantry.
After the concert there will be an open song-swap held at the Case Center building. This additional event is also free to any who wish to listen or to take part.
Additional information Contact:
Keith Fotheringham, Manager, Celtic Treasures 518-583-9452 or cel 518-879-1029
Or for further information on the artists:
George Ward (518-399-0315):
http://www.mulesong.com/
Colleen Cleveland:
http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/upnorth/masters/cleveland/cleveland.php
Bill Spence (518-765-4193):
http://www.oldsongs.org/billspencemusic/biography.html
George Wilson (518-461-8394)
http://www.oldsongs.org/georgewilson.html
Lee Knight:
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-139680221.html
Dan Berggren (518-490-1809):
http://www.berggrenfolk.com/
John Roberts (518-370-4166):
http://www.ziplink.net/%7Elwalker/r-b_bio.html
John Kirk & Trish Miller (518-581-0255):
http://www.johnandtrish.com/
Contact: Kyle Carey
cel 603-393-8199 or Skidmore College: 518-580-5000
Traditional Music of Upstate New York
Free Concert - Thursday, December 7th 7pm
Bernhard Theater - Skidmore College Campus
Skidmore College · 815 North Broadway · Saratoga Springs, NY · 12866
Siamsa na nGael of Skidmore College will sponsor a concert of Traditional Music of the Upstate New York region. This free event is a unique gathering of nine of the area's finest exponents of regional 'folk music,' that is ballads, songs or dance music coming to us through an oral tradition. Though not known for it's folk music in the way that Ireland or Southern Appalachia are, New York State has a rich tradition of it's own.
Saratoga Springs, New York - This free event will have both an entertaining and educational aim. The music itself runs the gamut from the lovely long-form ballads of singer Colleen Cleveland to the lively dance music of Bill Spence and George Wilson. An added goal is to bring to students and the community an awareness of New York's folk tradition and the many performers who carry it on. Traditional Music is an important part of New York's cultural identity.
The concert will feature Rexford resident George Ward - a singer, musician and folklorist who specializes in traditional ballads and songs of the Erie Canal, Voorheesville resident Bill Spence - a hammered dulcimer player who led the revival of the instrument in the early '70s and has been a key player in the contra-dance scene ever since, Wynantskill resident George Wilson - a fiddler, teacher and multi-instrumentalist who has played with Spence in Fennig's All-Stars and solo since the late 70s, Brant Lake resident Colleen Cleveland - a singer who has the rare gift of an unbroken oral tradition coming down through her family, Greenfield Center residents John Kirk and Trish Miller - both musicians, teachers and performers who for over 20 years have celebrated the music and dance of the Adirondack region, Schenectady resident and England native John Roberts - a singer and musician whose repertoire includes ballads and songs from Britain, Ireland and the Northeastern United States which he has performed over the years on his own and in a duo with fellow singer Tony Barrand, Ballston Spa resident and Adirondack native Dan Berggren - singer, songwriter, folklorist and collector of songs from Minerva and throughout the Adirondack region, and Southern Appalachian resident and Saranac Lake native Lee Knight, a singer and song collector whose has also worked with Marjorie Lansing Porter and Anne & Frank Warner, musicologists who had a major impact on the preservation of New York State Traditional music.
Concert attendees are encouraged to bring canned food to be collected and donated to a local Saratoga Springs food pantry.
After the concert there will be an open song-swap held at the Case Center building. This additional event is also free to any who wish to listen or to take part.
Additional information Contact:
Keith Fotheringham, Manager, Celtic Treasures 518-583-9452 or cel 518-879-1029
Or for further information on the artists:
George Ward (518-399-0315):
http://www.mulesong.com/
Colleen Cleveland:
http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/upnorth/masters/cleveland/cleveland.php
Bill Spence (518-765-4193):
http://www.oldsongs.org/billspencemusic/biography.html
George Wilson (518-461-8394)
http://www.oldsongs.org/georgewilson.html
Lee Knight:
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-139680221.html
Dan Berggren (518-490-1809):
http://www.berggrenfolk.com/
John Roberts (518-370-4166):
http://www.ziplink.net/%7Elwalker/r-b_bio.html
John Kirk & Trish Miller (518-581-0255):
http://www.johnandtrish.com/
"From the Mountains to the Valley" on TV!
"From the Mountains to the Valley" - Video Produced by Ernie Mortizans from a concert of Bob Lusk and Regina Scheff doing historic folk music, will be playing on public access Ch 23, in Saugerties, at the following times this week:Thursday 4:30 - 6:20, Friday 4:30 - 6:20, Saturday 4:30 - 6:20, Sunday 1:30 - 3:20
Kings Mall 7 Benefit
Dear Editor,
Cries of "More, More" greeted the end of each musical set at New World Home Cooking on Sunday afternoon as we enjoyed a too short but very successful party/fundraiser in support of the Kingsmall 7. The terrific New World Home Cooking appetizers kept coming, warming bellies. Betty McDonald called herself stage manager but was truly the gracious hostess, warming hearts.
Murali Coryell led a world class musical line up and gained the rapt attention of the audience, not easy in a chattering, bustling Ulster County group. Bob Lusk, one of the Kings Mall 7, sang an original song which could become THE Iraq War lament with a strong, from the heart, baritone. Betty McDonald, Jim Curtin and Peggy Stern made music which stopped me in my running-around-attending-to-everything tracks. Such deep beauty and wild wisdom.
Julie Parisi Kirby and T.G.Vanini's songs were alternately witty and soulful, both with impeccable musicality. Mikhail Horowitz and Giles Malkine must have written new work for this sophisticated crowd. They topped themselves and had us doubled up, helpless with biting hilarity. Peggy Mulligan piped some plaintive bag pipe offerings for "healing."
Yes, Bagpipes! And then the chairs disappeared like magic from the sheer force of the need to dance to Rennie Cantine and Rip Van Ren. If you weren't there but thought you felt an earthquake Sunday afternoon, it was that rocking group.
Sincere thanks to all of the above. It was the happiest fund raiser ever. And the celebratory mood was enhanced by an announcement of the Kings Mall's 7's attorneys, Stephen Bergstein and Alan Sussman. The New York ACLU considers this case important enough for their over loaded docket. They will join the appeal! As WWII Vet Joan Keefe told the supportive crowd, freedom of speech and assembly is not limited to two hours a week!
Joan Walker
Enlist For Peace Legal Defense Fund
Cries of "More, More" greeted the end of each musical set at New World Home Cooking on Sunday afternoon as we enjoyed a too short but very successful party/fundraiser in support of the Kingsmall 7. The terrific New World Home Cooking appetizers kept coming, warming bellies. Betty McDonald called herself stage manager but was truly the gracious hostess, warming hearts.
Murali Coryell led a world class musical line up and gained the rapt attention of the audience, not easy in a chattering, bustling Ulster County group. Bob Lusk, one of the Kings Mall 7, sang an original song which could become THE Iraq War lament with a strong, from the heart, baritone. Betty McDonald, Jim Curtin and Peggy Stern made music which stopped me in my running-around-attending-to-everything tracks. Such deep beauty and wild wisdom.
Julie Parisi Kirby and T.G.Vanini's songs were alternately witty and soulful, both with impeccable musicality. Mikhail Horowitz and Giles Malkine must have written new work for this sophisticated crowd. They topped themselves and had us doubled up, helpless with biting hilarity. Peggy Mulligan piped some plaintive bag pipe offerings for "healing."
Yes, Bagpipes! And then the chairs disappeared like magic from the sheer force of the need to dance to Rennie Cantine and Rip Van Ren. If you weren't there but thought you felt an earthquake Sunday afternoon, it was that rocking group.
Sincere thanks to all of the above. It was the happiest fund raiser ever. And the celebratory mood was enhanced by an announcement of the Kings Mall's 7's attorneys, Stephen Bergstein and Alan Sussman. The New York ACLU considers this case important enough for their over loaded docket. They will join the appeal! As WWII Vet Joan Keefe told the supportive crowd, freedom of speech and assembly is not limited to two hours a week!
Joan Walker
Enlist For Peace Legal Defense Fund
Adam Snyder - Historic Music in Kingston
Kingston City Hall will proudly host and celebrate the debut of Adam Snyder's second CD: "This Town Will Get Its Due," at a free concert on Saturday, December 16, at 3pm in City Council Chambers, City Hall, 420 Broadway, Kingston, NY.
Adam will be there to sing some of his new songs and will have his CD available for purchase and autograph.
Adam will be there to sing some of his new songs and will have his CD available for purchase and autograph.
Kumbaya
How did 'Kumbaya' become a mocking metaphor?
02:40 PM CST on Sunday, November 12, 2006
By JEFFREY WEISS / The Dallas Morning News
What do a recent Republican political ad, bubble gum commercial and British newspaper spoof of a soccer rivalry have in common?
All make fun of a well-known religious song. The GOP ad is typical: An impersonator of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright sings "Kumbaya" with terrorists. Why is "Kumbaya" the designated silly-song to represent phony or ineffectual friendliness?
Where did the song come from? And what the heck is a "Kumbaya," anyway?
Also Online
Religion blog: Check out various performances and discussions of "Kumbaya."
The last question is the easiest to answer: "Kumbaya" is a pidgin version of "Come by here." The word repeats as a prayer throughout the song. A typical verse runs:
Someone's praying, Lord. Kumbaya./ Someone's praying, Lord. Kumbaya./ Someone's praying, Lord. Kumbaya./Oh, Lord, Kumbaya.
In other verses, someone's singing, crying, sleeping and so on.
The song's roots wind from South Carolina to Oregon to Angola to Ohio – and out to nearly every summer camp in America.
Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, offers an oft-repeated theory about the creation of "Kumbaya." It says the song (also spelled "Kum Ba Yah") was composed by the Rev. Marvin V. Frey (1918-1992) in the 1930s in New York City.
While it's commonly thought to be a "19th-century African-American folksong, originating among the Gullah, a group descended from enslaved Africans living on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia ... there is no evidence of the song before Frey's publication," Wikipedia says.
Concise, simple – and significantly wrong. (Lesson: The Wiki is handy, but not trustworthy.)
What may be the best chronicle of "Kumbaya" has been written by Lum Chee-Hoo, a doctoral student in music education at the University of Washington. His article is to be published in Kodaly Envoy, a scholarly music journal.
"I was interviewing some undergrads on camp songs they know and found out that 'Kumbaya' was top of the list, and so decided to do a little investigation," he said.
Here's what Mr. Lum found:
The earliest known threads of "Kumbaya" history are in Washington, D.C., at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress.
Sometime between 1922 and 1931, members of an organization called the Society for the Preservation of Spirituals collected a song from the South Carolina coast. "Come By Yuh," as they called it, was sung in Gullah, the Creole dialect spoken by the former slaves living on the Sea Islands.
Another version was preserved on a wax cylinder in May 1936 by Robert Winslow Gordon, founder of what became the American Folklife Center. Mr. Gordon discovered a woman named Ethel Best singing "Come By Here" with a group in Raiford, Fla.
The music and lyrics in both cases were similar, though not identical, to the modern version.
So how could Mr. Frey, a pastor and composer, claim authorship? According to Mr. Lum, Mr. Frey said that he had been inspired by a prayer he heard delivered by "Mother Duffin," a storefront evangelist in Portland, Ore.
Mr. Frey's first lines: "Come by here. Somebody needs salvation, Lord. Come by here." A lyric sheet of Mr. Frey's final version, printed in 1939, indicates it was written in 1936 – well after the versions collected by the music historians.
So was Mr. Frey inspired by a woman praying by using a song she had learned on the other side of the continent? Or was he one of many white artists of his era who piggybacked on the creativity of African-Americans without giving credit? The history is silent.
Mr. Frey went to his grave claiming the song was his own. In any case, by the early 1940s, Mr. Frey's copyrighted version had made it into church hymnals and onto live radio broadcasts.
Next, according to Mr. Frey, he taught the song to missionaries headed for Africa. By the late 1940s, other missionaries had returned to America from Africa singing "Kum By Yah" – with no idea where it had originated.
Jump forward to the mid-1950s and the Cooperative Recreation Service, an Ohio-based publisher of songbooks for camps and scouts.
Joe Hickerson, a folksinger and former director of acquisitions for the American Folklife Center, credits Lynn Rohrbough, the owner of Cooperative Recreation, with getting "Kumbaya" to the masses.
If a camp wanted a music book with, say, 40 songs, Ms. Rohrbough would offer 30 from her stock inventory and add 10 new ones, Mr. Hickerson said.
"Kum By Yah" – described only as an "African" song – was part of the Rohrbough inventory by 1956. As a result, it showed up in countless books of camp songs used by the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and others.
"The camp counselors who played guitar liked it because it only has three chords," Mr. Hickerson said.
In the 1950s, he was a student at Oberlin College, in Ohio, where he and some friends had formed a singing group, the Folksmiths. He said he first heard "Kumbaya" in 1957 from a folksinger named Tony Saletan, who had learned it from Ms. Rohrbough.
That summer, the Folksmiths played the song for thousands of campers, Mr. Hickerson said. When the group released an album in 1958, "Kumbaya" was included – the first commercial recording of the song.
Pete Seeger also recorded the song on an album released that year. Many other folksingers quickly followed suit, including the Weavers, Joan Baez, and Peter, Paul and Mary.
In time, the song spread beyond summer camps to become a mainstay of the civil rights movement and Catholic folk masses. So "Kumbaya," apparently, traveled from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific Northwest, to central Africa and back, from a Midwest publishing house to campgrounds everywhere, and, finally, into the broad vernacular of American folkmusic.
For the next 25 years, it was just one folksong among many.
But in the early 1980s, something happened. "Kumbaya" became the English-speaking world's favorite folksong to ridicule, the musical metaphor for corny camaraderie. How? Someone's wondering, Lord.
An extensive (and we do mean extensive) search of databases of newspapers, magazines and other sources turned up what may be the first ironic reference to "Kumbaya" in print, from Aug. 16, 1985.
The line is from a Washington Post review by Rita Kempley of the comedy movie Volunteers:
"Tom Hanks and John Candy make war on the Peace Corps in Volunteers, a belated lampoon of '60s altruism and the idealistic young Kumbayahoos who went off to save the Third World."
How did she settle on "Kumbaya?" Had she heard others mocking it? Was it something about the cynicism felt by liberals under Reagan? A commentary about the religious theme of the song, at a time when the Moral Majority was making its name?
Ms. Kempley can't remember. "I guess that song was the ultimate expression of people in the '60s who really cared," said Ms. Kemply (who accepted a buyout last year from the Post).
"And then everyone decided, Let's just make fun of that."
Dissing "Kumbaya" caught on.
In 1988, a column in The Christian Science Monitor knocked a New Age performance: "Next he'll want you to sing 'Kumbaya.'..." Time to leave."
In 1994, then-senatorial-candidate Rick Santorum dismissed the federal AmeriCorps program as "somebody ... going to do one year of community service picking up trash in a park and singing 'Kumbaya' around the campfire."
These days, a search for "Kumbaya" on Google or YouTube is almost as likely to turn up a joke as the song.
The recent bubble gum TV ad shows a bunch of tween-aged "summer campers" around a campfire.
"Let's sing 'Kumbaya,' " a rainbow-clad "camp counselor" says.
"We don't want no 'Kumbaya!' the kids yell. "All we want is bubble gum!"
Which doesn't make a ton of sense. But neither does the decision to make "Kumbaya" the symbol of insincere bonhomie. After all, the lyrics have nothing to do with friendship or unity.
So why did "Kumbaya" – among all the folksongs written in the last 100 years – become an idiom for idiocy?
Here's a partial list of etymologists, linguists and other experts who say they don't know:
Paul Heacock, editor of the Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms ... Erin McKean, editor in chief of U.S. dictionaries for Oxford University Press ... Cynthia Barnhart, senior general editor for the Third Barnhart Dictionary of New English ... Grant Barrett, editor of The Official Dictionary of Unofficial English ... Wayne Glowka, an editor at the journal American Speech and chair of the American Dialect Society's committee on new words ... Barry Popik, contributor to the Historical Dictionary of American Slang ... Hugh Rawson, author of Rawson's Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk.
Some guesses: It's a one-word title that rolls easily off the tongue. It sounds foreign, and that makes it funny to many Americans. It's African-American, so racists deride it. It's African-American, so sappy white liberals couldn't wait to suck the soul out of it. It's a song that generations of summer campers (and folk-mass celebrants) were forced to sing, and they're sick of it.
Since nobody really knows, let's give the final word to Pete Seeger, from his liner notes to the 1958 album Pete Seeger and Sonny Terry at Carnegie Hall:
"At any rate, it is a beautiful example of how the world's folkmusic continues to intermingle, sans passports or permission, across boundary lines of fear and prejudice."
Kumbaya.
E-mail jweiss@dallasnews.com
MAKE THEM STOP, LORD, KUMBAYA ...
"Kumbaya" has been recorded scores of times. Some of the performers are the usual suspects. Some are not.
Folkies:
•Joan Baez
•The Folksmiths
•Garrison Keillor (on Prairie Home Companion)
•Odetta
•Peter, Paul and Mary
•John Sebastian
•Pete Seeger
•Sweet Honey in the Rock
•The Weavers
Oddities:
•Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber (of Veggie Tales)
•Jose Carreras with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra
•Nanci Griffith & The Blue Moon Orchestra
•Guadalcanal Diary (indie pop band)
•The Hillside Singers (best known for the Coke ad song "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing")
•Mackenzie MacBride (glam-punk)
•Raffi
•Terell Stafford (jazz trumpeter)
•Very Best of Welsh Male Choirs
Jeffrey Weiss
COLE PORTER IT AIN'T
The lyrics to "Kumbaya," as recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary in 1998:
Kumbaya, my Lord. Kumbaya.
Kumbaya, my Lord. Kumbaya.
Kumbaya, my Lord. Kumbaya.
Oh, Lord, kumbaya.
Someone's singing Lord. Kumbaya.
(REPEAT TWICE)
Oh, Lord, kumbayah.
Someone's laughing, Lord. Kumbaya.
(REPEAT TWICE)
Oh, Lord, kumbaya.
Someone's crying, Lord. Kumbaya.
(REPEAT TWICE)
Oh, Lord, kumbaya.
Someone's praying, Lord. Kumbaya.
(REPEAT TWICE)
Oh, Lord, kumbaya.
Someone's sleeping, Lord. Kumbaya.
(REPEAT TWICE)
Oh, Lord, kumbaya.
02:40 PM CST on Sunday, November 12, 2006
By JEFFREY WEISS / The Dallas Morning News
What do a recent Republican political ad, bubble gum commercial and British newspaper spoof of a soccer rivalry have in common?
All make fun of a well-known religious song. The GOP ad is typical: An impersonator of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright sings "Kumbaya" with terrorists. Why is "Kumbaya" the designated silly-song to represent phony or ineffectual friendliness?
Where did the song come from? And what the heck is a "Kumbaya," anyway?
Also Online
Religion blog: Check out various performances and discussions of "Kumbaya."
The last question is the easiest to answer: "Kumbaya" is a pidgin version of "Come by here." The word repeats as a prayer throughout the song. A typical verse runs:
Someone's praying, Lord. Kumbaya./ Someone's praying, Lord. Kumbaya./ Someone's praying, Lord. Kumbaya./Oh, Lord, Kumbaya.
In other verses, someone's singing, crying, sleeping and so on.
The song's roots wind from South Carolina to Oregon to Angola to Ohio – and out to nearly every summer camp in America.
Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, offers an oft-repeated theory about the creation of "Kumbaya." It says the song (also spelled "Kum Ba Yah") was composed by the Rev. Marvin V. Frey (1918-1992) in the 1930s in New York City.
While it's commonly thought to be a "19th-century African-American folksong, originating among the Gullah, a group descended from enslaved Africans living on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia ... there is no evidence of the song before Frey's publication," Wikipedia says.
Concise, simple – and significantly wrong. (Lesson: The Wiki is handy, but not trustworthy.)
What may be the best chronicle of "Kumbaya" has been written by Lum Chee-Hoo, a doctoral student in music education at the University of Washington. His article is to be published in Kodaly Envoy, a scholarly music journal.
"I was interviewing some undergrads on camp songs they know and found out that 'Kumbaya' was top of the list, and so decided to do a little investigation," he said.
Here's what Mr. Lum found:
The earliest known threads of "Kumbaya" history are in Washington, D.C., at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress.
Sometime between 1922 and 1931, members of an organization called the Society for the Preservation of Spirituals collected a song from the South Carolina coast. "Come By Yuh," as they called it, was sung in Gullah, the Creole dialect spoken by the former slaves living on the Sea Islands.
Another version was preserved on a wax cylinder in May 1936 by Robert Winslow Gordon, founder of what became the American Folklife Center. Mr. Gordon discovered a woman named Ethel Best singing "Come By Here" with a group in Raiford, Fla.
The music and lyrics in both cases were similar, though not identical, to the modern version.
So how could Mr. Frey, a pastor and composer, claim authorship? According to Mr. Lum, Mr. Frey said that he had been inspired by a prayer he heard delivered by "Mother Duffin," a storefront evangelist in Portland, Ore.
Mr. Frey's first lines: "Come by here. Somebody needs salvation, Lord. Come by here." A lyric sheet of Mr. Frey's final version, printed in 1939, indicates it was written in 1936 – well after the versions collected by the music historians.
So was Mr. Frey inspired by a woman praying by using a song she had learned on the other side of the continent? Or was he one of many white artists of his era who piggybacked on the creativity of African-Americans without giving credit? The history is silent.
Mr. Frey went to his grave claiming the song was his own. In any case, by the early 1940s, Mr. Frey's copyrighted version had made it into church hymnals and onto live radio broadcasts.
Next, according to Mr. Frey, he taught the song to missionaries headed for Africa. By the late 1940s, other missionaries had returned to America from Africa singing "Kum By Yah" – with no idea where it had originated.
Jump forward to the mid-1950s and the Cooperative Recreation Service, an Ohio-based publisher of songbooks for camps and scouts.
Joe Hickerson, a folksinger and former director of acquisitions for the American Folklife Center, credits Lynn Rohrbough, the owner of Cooperative Recreation, with getting "Kumbaya" to the masses.
If a camp wanted a music book with, say, 40 songs, Ms. Rohrbough would offer 30 from her stock inventory and add 10 new ones, Mr. Hickerson said.
"Kum By Yah" – described only as an "African" song – was part of the Rohrbough inventory by 1956. As a result, it showed up in countless books of camp songs used by the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and others.
"The camp counselors who played guitar liked it because it only has three chords," Mr. Hickerson said.
In the 1950s, he was a student at Oberlin College, in Ohio, where he and some friends had formed a singing group, the Folksmiths. He said he first heard "Kumbaya" in 1957 from a folksinger named Tony Saletan, who had learned it from Ms. Rohrbough.
That summer, the Folksmiths played the song for thousands of campers, Mr. Hickerson said. When the group released an album in 1958, "Kumbaya" was included – the first commercial recording of the song.
Pete Seeger also recorded the song on an album released that year. Many other folksingers quickly followed suit, including the Weavers, Joan Baez, and Peter, Paul and Mary.
In time, the song spread beyond summer camps to become a mainstay of the civil rights movement and Catholic folk masses. So "Kumbaya," apparently, traveled from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific Northwest, to central Africa and back, from a Midwest publishing house to campgrounds everywhere, and, finally, into the broad vernacular of American folkmusic.
For the next 25 years, it was just one folksong among many.
But in the early 1980s, something happened. "Kumbaya" became the English-speaking world's favorite folksong to ridicule, the musical metaphor for corny camaraderie. How? Someone's wondering, Lord.
An extensive (and we do mean extensive) search of databases of newspapers, magazines and other sources turned up what may be the first ironic reference to "Kumbaya" in print, from Aug. 16, 1985.
The line is from a Washington Post review by Rita Kempley of the comedy movie Volunteers:
"Tom Hanks and John Candy make war on the Peace Corps in Volunteers, a belated lampoon of '60s altruism and the idealistic young Kumbayahoos who went off to save the Third World."
How did she settle on "Kumbaya?" Had she heard others mocking it? Was it something about the cynicism felt by liberals under Reagan? A commentary about the religious theme of the song, at a time when the Moral Majority was making its name?
Ms. Kempley can't remember. "I guess that song was the ultimate expression of people in the '60s who really cared," said Ms. Kemply (who accepted a buyout last year from the Post).
"And then everyone decided, Let's just make fun of that."
Dissing "Kumbaya" caught on.
In 1988, a column in The Christian Science Monitor knocked a New Age performance: "Next he'll want you to sing 'Kumbaya.'..." Time to leave."
In 1994, then-senatorial-candidate Rick Santorum dismissed the federal AmeriCorps program as "somebody ... going to do one year of community service picking up trash in a park and singing 'Kumbaya' around the campfire."
These days, a search for "Kumbaya" on Google or YouTube is almost as likely to turn up a joke as the song.
The recent bubble gum TV ad shows a bunch of tween-aged "summer campers" around a campfire.
"Let's sing 'Kumbaya,' " a rainbow-clad "camp counselor" says.
"We don't want no 'Kumbaya!' the kids yell. "All we want is bubble gum!"
Which doesn't make a ton of sense. But neither does the decision to make "Kumbaya" the symbol of insincere bonhomie. After all, the lyrics have nothing to do with friendship or unity.
So why did "Kumbaya" – among all the folksongs written in the last 100 years – become an idiom for idiocy?
Here's a partial list of etymologists, linguists and other experts who say they don't know:
Paul Heacock, editor of the Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms ... Erin McKean, editor in chief of U.S. dictionaries for Oxford University Press ... Cynthia Barnhart, senior general editor for the Third Barnhart Dictionary of New English ... Grant Barrett, editor of The Official Dictionary of Unofficial English ... Wayne Glowka, an editor at the journal American Speech and chair of the American Dialect Society's committee on new words ... Barry Popik, contributor to the Historical Dictionary of American Slang ... Hugh Rawson, author of Rawson's Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk.
Some guesses: It's a one-word title that rolls easily off the tongue. It sounds foreign, and that makes it funny to many Americans. It's African-American, so racists deride it. It's African-American, so sappy white liberals couldn't wait to suck the soul out of it. It's a song that generations of summer campers (and folk-mass celebrants) were forced to sing, and they're sick of it.
Since nobody really knows, let's give the final word to Pete Seeger, from his liner notes to the 1958 album Pete Seeger and Sonny Terry at Carnegie Hall:
"At any rate, it is a beautiful example of how the world's folkmusic continues to intermingle, sans passports or permission, across boundary lines of fear and prejudice."
Kumbaya.
E-mail jweiss@dallasnews.com
MAKE THEM STOP, LORD, KUMBAYA ...
"Kumbaya" has been recorded scores of times. Some of the performers are the usual suspects. Some are not.
Folkies:
•Joan Baez
•The Folksmiths
•Garrison Keillor (on Prairie Home Companion)
•Odetta
•Peter, Paul and Mary
•John Sebastian
•Pete Seeger
•Sweet Honey in the Rock
•The Weavers
Oddities:
•Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber (of Veggie Tales)
•Jose Carreras with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra
•Nanci Griffith & The Blue Moon Orchestra
•Guadalcanal Diary (indie pop band)
•The Hillside Singers (best known for the Coke ad song "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing")
•Mackenzie MacBride (glam-punk)
•Raffi
•Terell Stafford (jazz trumpeter)
•Very Best of Welsh Male Choirs
Jeffrey Weiss
COLE PORTER IT AIN'T
The lyrics to "Kumbaya," as recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary in 1998:
Kumbaya, my Lord. Kumbaya.
Kumbaya, my Lord. Kumbaya.
Kumbaya, my Lord. Kumbaya.
Oh, Lord, kumbaya.
Someone's singing Lord. Kumbaya.
(REPEAT TWICE)
Oh, Lord, kumbayah.
Someone's laughing, Lord. Kumbaya.
(REPEAT TWICE)
Oh, Lord, kumbaya.
Someone's crying, Lord. Kumbaya.
(REPEAT TWICE)
Oh, Lord, kumbaya.
Someone's praying, Lord. Kumbaya.
(REPEAT TWICE)
Oh, Lord, kumbaya.
Someone's sleeping, Lord. Kumbaya.
(REPEAT TWICE)
Oh, Lord, kumbaya.
Yorktown Folk Guild
Fun at the Yorktown Folk Guild Saturday night. A small group, but enthusiastic. Mark Bernardini puts out a lot of time and effort to make it happen. There are some great guitar pickers there.
The high point for me though was singing in the church lobby while Lorraine played accordion. Songs were Hava Nagila and Roll Out the Barrel.
The high point for me though was singing in the church lobby while Lorraine played accordion. Songs were Hava Nagila and Roll Out the Barrel.
Chant
Chanting Circle at the Woodstock Jewish Congregation
Join us for En-Chanting Afternoons
Sundays from 4-6 pm
November 12, December 17 (bring your menorah), January 14, February 11
Enter into the sacred space of winter afternoons through devotional Hebrew chants. Learn and practice deep ways of connecting with Jewish prayer and liturgy. Join a community of voices raised to bring down the divine flow. Everyone is welcome.
With Roberta Wall, a graduate of Kol Zimra, chant leadership training taught by Rabbi Shefa Gold.
*Questions? phone Roberta at 845 246 5935*
*or email robertaindia@yahoo.com*
Quotes!
Staying with the "about me" theme for a minute, here is a page of quotes that I've gathered from various published comments about me over the years. Aw, shucks!
Go to - http://bobluskquotes.blogspot.com/
Go to - http://bobluskquotes.blogspot.com/
About Me
Day after the election, So, what's going up with me? Busy, busy, busy. It feels like I have been running non stop for the past few months. The thought of now and then having a day that is not filled is very welcome.
I have been taking music classes at the Hindu temple in Wappinger's Falls. A lot of fun, but a stretch.
Some problems with the tendons in my hand have limited my playing lately. I'm getting physical therapy and have no doubt of a complete recovery. I am able to do my gigs, just not spending time playing for fun.
I'll be at the folk guild in Yorktown this Saturday. On the 19th there is a benefit for the Kings Mall 7 (me and 6 others who dared to raise our voice in protest) at New World Home Cooking. I'll be singing a song at least.
I have stopped drinking coffee, I hope for the last time. Also working on a healthier overall diet. Also, I have been getting to the Y in the morning for the past week.
The day job is more taxing than ever. When I get home, all I want to do is sit and watch "Gilmore Girls".
I have a 1/2 dozen instruments in my basement that need repair. Also need to finish putting together my studio, make time for more vocal toning, etc, etc.
I'm also working up a Johnny Cash show. Penny doesn't want to be June Carter though.
I have been running a stop smoking group for the Mental Health Association. Next week is the last week and as of last night everyone quit!
Peace to you and yours!
I have been taking music classes at the Hindu temple in Wappinger's Falls. A lot of fun, but a stretch.
Some problems with the tendons in my hand have limited my playing lately. I'm getting physical therapy and have no doubt of a complete recovery. I am able to do my gigs, just not spending time playing for fun.
I'll be at the folk guild in Yorktown this Saturday. On the 19th there is a benefit for the Kings Mall 7 (me and 6 others who dared to raise our voice in protest) at New World Home Cooking. I'll be singing a song at least.
I have stopped drinking coffee, I hope for the last time. Also working on a healthier overall diet. Also, I have been getting to the Y in the morning for the past week.
The day job is more taxing than ever. When I get home, all I want to do is sit and watch "Gilmore Girls".
I have a 1/2 dozen instruments in my basement that need repair. Also need to finish putting together my studio, make time for more vocal toning, etc, etc.
I'm also working up a Johnny Cash show. Penny doesn't want to be June Carter though.
I have been running a stop smoking group for the Mental Health Association. Next week is the last week and as of last night everyone quit!
Peace to you and yours!
Eisteddfod-NY November 17-19 - early bird deadline extended!!!
Subject: Eisteddfod-NY November 17-19 - early bird deadline extended!!!
Eisteddfod-NY, A Festival of Traditional Music
17-19 November, 2006
at The Renaissance Charter School, 35-59 81st Street, Jackson Heights, Queens, NY.
We've extended the Early-Bird Special until Tuesday 7 November. (Election Day - don't forget to vote!)
Don't miss this wonderful event. Members of supporting organizations qualify for early-bird discounts on all-festival passes ($65; at-the-door $75) until 7 November 2006. You can book tickets online:
members: http://eisteddfod-members.eventbrite.com
non-members: http://eisteddfod-ny.eventbrite.com/
non-members: http://eisteddfod-ny.eventbrite.com/
Music from America, England, Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, Francophone Canada, and West Africa, presented by a stellar list of performers. See website for complete list and schedule.
Concerts, workshops, Open Stage, Festival Marketplace, and plenty of opportunities for singing and jamming.
See you there!
--
Joy Bennett
President
Folk Music Society of NY, Inc.
FMSNY1@att.net
Joy Bennett
President
Folk Music Society of NY, Inc.
FMSNY1@att.net
Pete Seeger: Working Families Message
Pete Seeger has recorded a special election message for you. It's 38 seconds long, and it'll make you smile. Please take a moment to listen to it, and if you agree with his message then forward this email to everyone you know.
You can hear Pete's message at:
http://www.workingfamiliesparty.org/countonme/seeger.html
See who else is voting Working Families and why at:
http://www.workingfamiliesparty.org/countonme/endorsements.html
Vote Working Families!
Sam Williams, Bertha Lewis, and Bob Master
WFP Co-Chairs
Dan Cantor
WFP Executive Director
http://wfpjournal.blogspot.com/
http://www.workingfamiliesparty.org/
P.S. Check out our election event calendar and add election events at
http://freecal.brownbearsw.com/WFP
Hillary/Banjo
Hillary Clinton was in town today at our local VFW hall. I brought my banjo and joined with a few of the local lefties outside to greet her cavalcade as she drove up. Of course we didn't see her. They had the route planned out and took her in through the back door. They were in large black cars with tinted windows, but she couldn't have helped see us as they drove out. I'm not sure if they heard me singing "Study War No More", probably not, but I had to do it...tree falling in the forest and all that.
I have used my banjo more and more at rallys lately instead of the guitar. Part of the reason is concern about the guitars saftey. My Martin D35S, which is the only guitar I know loud enough to play at a rally unamplified and be heard, cost me $1,650 ten years ago and would probably cost a lot more today. My Gold Tone Pete Seeger long neck banjo with home made resonator only cost me $600. Banjos are also able to take the cold, heat, and general abuse that rallys call for. The resonator was a piece of junk from a cheap banjo. I spray painted it and attach it to the banjo with velcro, so it can come off easily and be played as an open back.
At rallys I usually play with a flatpick, similar to 4 string Plectrum banjo style. The sound and the rhythm carry much more than a frailing or 3 finger style.
If you want me to come to your rally............... give a shout.
I have used my banjo more and more at rallys lately instead of the guitar. Part of the reason is concern about the guitars saftey. My Martin D35S, which is the only guitar I know loud enough to play at a rally unamplified and be heard, cost me $1,650 ten years ago and would probably cost a lot more today. My Gold Tone Pete Seeger long neck banjo with home made resonator only cost me $600. Banjos are also able to take the cold, heat, and general abuse that rallys call for. The resonator was a piece of junk from a cheap banjo. I spray painted it and attach it to the banjo with velcro, so it can come off easily and be played as an open back.
At rallys I usually play with a flatpick, similar to 4 string Plectrum banjo style. The sound and the rhythm carry much more than a frailing or 3 finger style.
If you want me to come to your rally............... give a shout.
Humidifying Instruments
This link was sent to me by ElDicko@aol.com. I personally have had several instruments badly injured over the years from lack of humidity. Perhaps even more important than a humidifier is a hydrometer ($20 from Radio Shack) to measure the humidity in your home. Anything less than 30% is a problem.
From Fred's Music Shop
How humidity affects your guitar!!
Since, in our part of the country (Northeast), we use forced air or radiator supplied heat frequently, we have a lot of damage occuring to "better" acoustic guitars over the winter . Many of our customers have instruments that have developed cracks, etc. from lack of proper humidity over the winter . Having a heating system that is "hot water" , in other words ... radiators in the rooms .. is NOT a system that supplies ANY form of humidity to the air! Many of our customers are baffled by the fact that even though they have "hot water" heating systems... their guitar still cracked .!! The reason for this is that the "water" is INSIDE the radiator and does not enter the air ... the air is dried by the heat just as much .. .and maybe more than with forced-air systems. If you have a "better " acoustic guitar ... one with solid woods .... it is IMPERATIVE that you keep the air at a proper humidity ... in most cases ... the MORE THE BETTER ! In the early 1970's , when our store was on North Ninth Street in Reading , I once had a 1939 Martin D-18 crack overnite ! I was playing it .. .put it on a stand and went home ... and the next morning when I came in the top was cracked and I was baffled !?! I had "Hot Water" heating .. why would my guitar crack?? Well , when I actually took a humidity reading ... I had basically NO HUMIDITY! Since then , I either keep the humidifier going or keep my good guitars in my basement where the heating system has no effect. In our store , we recently installed new high-output systems on the main heating systems and if you visit our acoustic guitar displays , you will notice that we STILL use a room type humidifier to augment the system and we constantly monitor the humidity with and electronic meter. We like our guitars ... so we humidify over the winter
!!
If you want to check your guitars .. here's some quick ways that I use to tell if my guitars are drying out .
#1 - is the action getting lower ? The guitar is getting really easy to play? Faster action than you remember? If so .. the top is "shrinking" and lowering itself and getting ready to split ... watch it!!
#2 - is the sound getting buzzy - more fret buzz than you remember. Same as above .
#3 - when you run your fingers down the sides of the fingerboard... are the fret ends sticking out slightly ? (or more?) ... think of the wood as a sponge .. .the fingerboard is drying out and shrinking ... the metal frets don't shrink... so they stick out!!!
If the answer is yes to any of these ... it's probably yes to all of them and your guitar is drying out ... watch it !!
Back to Fred's Music Home Page
copyright 1996 - Fred A. BernardoFredÕs Music Shop - 212 W. Lancaster Ave., Shillington, Pa. 19607www.fredsmusic.com
From Fred's Music Shop
How humidity affects your guitar!!
Since, in our part of the country (Northeast), we use forced air or radiator supplied heat frequently, we have a lot of damage occuring to "better" acoustic guitars over the winter . Many of our customers have instruments that have developed cracks, etc. from lack of proper humidity over the winter . Having a heating system that is "hot water" , in other words ... radiators in the rooms .. is NOT a system that supplies ANY form of humidity to the air! Many of our customers are baffled by the fact that even though they have "hot water" heating systems... their guitar still cracked .!! The reason for this is that the "water" is INSIDE the radiator and does not enter the air ... the air is dried by the heat just as much .. .and maybe more than with forced-air systems. If you have a "better " acoustic guitar ... one with solid woods .... it is IMPERATIVE that you keep the air at a proper humidity ... in most cases ... the MORE THE BETTER ! In the early 1970's , when our store was on North Ninth Street in Reading , I once had a 1939 Martin D-18 crack overnite ! I was playing it .. .put it on a stand and went home ... and the next morning when I came in the top was cracked and I was baffled !?! I had "Hot Water" heating .. why would my guitar crack?? Well , when I actually took a humidity reading ... I had basically NO HUMIDITY! Since then , I either keep the humidifier going or keep my good guitars in my basement where the heating system has no effect. In our store , we recently installed new high-output systems on the main heating systems and if you visit our acoustic guitar displays , you will notice that we STILL use a room type humidifier to augment the system and we constantly monitor the humidity with and electronic meter. We like our guitars ... so we humidify over the winter
!!
If you want to check your guitars .. here's some quick ways that I use to tell if my guitars are drying out .
#1 - is the action getting lower ? The guitar is getting really easy to play? Faster action than you remember? If so .. the top is "shrinking" and lowering itself and getting ready to split ... watch it!!
#2 - is the sound getting buzzy - more fret buzz than you remember. Same as above .
#3 - when you run your fingers down the sides of the fingerboard... are the fret ends sticking out slightly ? (or more?) ... think of the wood as a sponge .. .the fingerboard is drying out and shrinking ... the metal frets don't shrink... so they stick out!!!
If the answer is yes to any of these ... it's probably yes to all of them and your guitar is drying out ... watch it !!
Back to Fred's Music Home Page
copyright 1996 - Fred A. BernardoFredÕs Music Shop - 212 W. Lancaster Ave., Shillington, Pa. 19607www.fredsmusic.com
WOODY REDISCOVERED
From: Stephen & Marilyn Suffet
To:
Subject: "Woody Redicsovered" in Brooklyn 12/17/06
Greetings!
We know this event is seven weeks away, but the truth is seating is
strictly limited. Our hosts have enough chair and sofa space for just
sixteen people, and four of those places have already been reserved. So
if you want to attend this event, it's better to let us know sooner
rather than later.
WOODY REDISCOVERED
an Exploration of Woody Guthrie's Less Known Songs
with Anne Price and Steve Suffet
Sunday . December 17, 2006 . 4:30 to 6:30 PM
Park Slope location . Brooklyn, NY
Sponsored by the Folk Music Society of New York, Inc.
(New York Pinewoods Folk Music Club)
with kind support and encouragement from the Woody Guthrie Foundation.
For reservations, location, and directions, please call Steve at
718-786-1533 or Anne at 718-543-4971.
WOODY REDISCOVERED will take place at a private residence on 8th Avenue,
near Carroll Street & Garfield Place, Brooklyn, NY. The hosts have asked
us not to put their address out on the Internet, but their building is
easily reached by public transportation (Grand Army Plaza subway
station) and by car.
WOODY REDISCOVERED is an exploration of some of Woody Guthrie's less
known songs. There are more than 3,000 songs in the Woody Guthrie
Archives, and Woody recorded well over 300 of them. However, only about
30 are well known today. In this house concert style workshop we will
introduce you to a few of Woody Guthrie's other 2,970+ songs. Some were
recorded or published in Woody's own lifetime; others were discovered
among his effects after his death. All deserve to be recognized as the
gems that they are. We will have song sheets available, so come prepared
to sing along and learn some new old songs. For example:
Dance Around My Atom Fire
Ticky Tock
Peace Call
Two Good Men ( a Sacco and Vanzetti song)
Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key
Arthritis Blues
This Morning I Am Born Again.
Peace Pin Boogie
Tin Horn Taxi
Why Do You Stand There in the Rain?
When the Curfew Blows
Mr. Tom Mooney Is Free
What Are We Waiting On?
Blow, Big Wind, Blow
Sixty-Six Highway Blues
.... and as many more as time permits!
The suggested donation is $12. FMSNY members: $10.
Anne and Steve presented WOODY REDISCOVERED for the Folklore Society of
Greater Washington this past September 30, and here is what two people
had to say:
"It was a pleasure hosting an informative evening like that. As I listed
to the songs combined with the show-and-tell of songbooks and albums, I
realized that it was precisely the sort of evening that makes the
Folklore Society unique as a presenter of more than just concerts for
mere entertainment." -- Charlie Baum, FSGW vice president
"I was very happy to be able to provide hospitality to you, as well as a
venue for your house concert -- which I enjoyed very much and where I
learned a great deal about Woody Guthrie that I hadn't known before. A
good sign about how much the rest of the audience also enjoyed your
concert is the fact that two people who had been there came up to me at
an old-time CD release party last night to talk with me about YOUR house
concert!" -- Kathie Mack, FSGW member and concert host
So please come to Brooklyn on December 17 and find out for yourself!
Website links:
Anne Price: http://www.anneprice.com/
Steve Suffet: http://suffet.home.att.net/
Folk Music Society of New York, Inc.: http://www.folkmusicny.org/
Woody Guthrie Foundation & Archives: http://www.woodyguthrie.org/
--- Steve Suffet & Anne Price
To:
Subject: "Woody Redicsovered" in Brooklyn 12/17/06
Greetings!
We know this event is seven weeks away, but the truth is seating is
strictly limited. Our hosts have enough chair and sofa space for just
sixteen people, and four of those places have already been reserved. So
if you want to attend this event, it's better to let us know sooner
rather than later.
WOODY REDISCOVERED
an Exploration of Woody Guthrie's Less Known Songs
with Anne Price and Steve Suffet
Sunday . December 17, 2006 . 4:30 to 6:30 PM
Park Slope location . Brooklyn, NY
Sponsored by the Folk Music Society of New York, Inc.
(New York Pinewoods Folk Music Club)
with kind support and encouragement from the Woody Guthrie Foundation.
For reservations, location, and directions, please call Steve at
718-786-1533 or Anne at 718-543-4971.
WOODY REDISCOVERED will take place at a private residence on 8th Avenue,
near Carroll Street & Garfield Place, Brooklyn, NY. The hosts have asked
us not to put their address out on the Internet, but their building is
easily reached by public transportation (Grand Army Plaza subway
station) and by car.
WOODY REDISCOVERED is an exploration of some of Woody Guthrie's less
known songs. There are more than 3,000 songs in the Woody Guthrie
Archives, and Woody recorded well over 300 of them. However, only about
30 are well known today. In this house concert style workshop we will
introduce you to a few of Woody Guthrie's other 2,970+ songs. Some were
recorded or published in Woody's own lifetime; others were discovered
among his effects after his death. All deserve to be recognized as the
gems that they are. We will have song sheets available, so come prepared
to sing along and learn some new old songs. For example:
Dance Around My Atom Fire
Ticky Tock
Peace Call
Two Good Men ( a Sacco and Vanzetti song)
Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key
Arthritis Blues
This Morning I Am Born Again.
Peace Pin Boogie
Tin Horn Taxi
Why Do You Stand There in the Rain?
When the Curfew Blows
Mr. Tom Mooney Is Free
What Are We Waiting On?
Blow, Big Wind, Blow
Sixty-Six Highway Blues
.... and as many more as time permits!
The suggested donation is $12. FMSNY members: $10.
Anne and Steve presented WOODY REDISCOVERED for the Folklore Society of
Greater Washington this past September 30, and here is what two people
had to say:
"It was a pleasure hosting an informative evening like that. As I listed
to the songs combined with the show-and-tell of songbooks and albums, I
realized that it was precisely the sort of evening that makes the
Folklore Society unique as a presenter of more than just concerts for
mere entertainment." -- Charlie Baum, FSGW vice president
"I was very happy to be able to provide hospitality to you, as well as a
venue for your house concert -- which I enjoyed very much and where I
learned a great deal about Woody Guthrie that I hadn't known before. A
good sign about how much the rest of the audience also enjoyed your
concert is the fact that two people who had been there came up to me at
an old-time CD release party last night to talk with me about YOUR house
concert!" -- Kathie Mack, FSGW member and concert host
So please come to Brooklyn on December 17 and find out for yourself!
Website links:
Anne Price: http://www.anneprice.com/
Steve Suffet: http://suffet.home.att.net/
Folk Music Society of New York, Inc.: http://www.folkmusicny.org/
Woody Guthrie Foundation & Archives: http://www.woodyguthrie.org/
--- Steve Suffet & Anne Price
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