April Link Roundup
Welcome to the very first Barking Dog monthly link roundup! Each month, I’ll gather some of my favourite videos, articles, and websites I’ve come across during my research and share them with you here. Let’s get started…
Videos
Footage of 4 Great Musicians
Jimmie Rodgers playing “Waiting for a Train” sometime around 1929, when the stock market crashed and this song subsequently became a hit.
Baptist preacher and banjo “thrasher” Buell Kazee demonstrating various banjo tunes in 1969, when he was almost 70 years old—his classically trained voice remains as clear as ever. (And catch his sly little smiles at the camera…)
The great Elizabeth Cotten at 92, playing “Freight Train,” a song she wrote when she was a teenager in the early 20th century.
80-year-old master banjo player Lee Sexton of Kentucky playing “Shady Grove,” “Little Maggie,” and “Wildwood Flower.”
1 Classic NFB Short
John Weldon’s charming and distinctive animation pairs beautifully with Kate and Anna McGarrigle’s version of Wade Hemsworth’s “Log Driver’s Waltz,” one of several songs extolling the log driver as the perfect lover.
Albums
2 Collections of Poetry
To Live and Die in Dixie by John Beecher
Beecher’s father was a steel executive and his family expected him to enter the same line of work, but his experiences in the steel mills caused him to become active in labour movement activities instead.
“If I Forget Thee, O Birmingham!” by John Beecher (Liner Notes)
3 Folkways Albums
Safarini in Transit: Music of African Immigrants, an album of songs by musicians from Africa who now live in the United States.
Teton Tea Party with Charlie Brown (real name Charles Artman), who’s called “Utah’s first hippie” because he never wore shoes, lived in a teepee, drove an old yellow bus, and hosted the Teton Tea Party, an all-night event for mountaineers and folk musicians.
Songs and Stories by Ed McCurdy, a musician and songwriter from Pennsylvania who’s best known for the anti-war song “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream.” He wins Best Album Cover.
Articles
2 Folk Song Deep-Dives
This article summarizes the life of PEI boy Peter Amberley (better known as Peter Emberley), and examines the circumstances surrounding his death in the New Brunswick lumber woods in 1880.
Here’s an article about the similarly tragic death of another young man, Timothy Merrick of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, who died at the age of 22 from a snakebite while mowing his field.
Bonus Video
I found this 1965 NFB film about the Bluenose and the Bluenose II while trying to find the short film for which Stan Rogers wrote “Bluenose.” It’s a great document of oral history, plus it features excellent old east-coast accents.
Join me back here next month for another link roundup, and don’t forget to tune in to Barking Dog every Thursday on CKUW!