July + August Link Roundup
August was full of travel, and while it was very nice to get out of the city, I’m happy to be back to regular life. Here are some of my favourite discoveries from the past two months:
Videos
2 Live Performances
Last time, I included a link for Pete Seeger’s version of “Little Boxes,” so here’s Malvina Reynolds herself performing what is likely her best-known song in Finland in 1976. We played “The Faucets Are Dripping” on July 4th, and “Overtime” on July 27th. You can see how much she loved playing for people.
We played this song on July 27th, and it’s the first recording we’ve played by RoadKnight—not much of her music is available online, though an anthology of some of her recordings was released on Bandcamp in October. I can’t get over how interesting her voice is.
1 Film Clip
I’ve never actually seen this film, but we played Mitchum and child actor Gary Gray’s performance of “Just Like Me” from Rachel and the Stranger on July 27th. I love Mitchum’s voice, and it’s nice to see him in a role that’s not quite as sinister as many of the characters he’s known for.
2 Hobo Films
In case you missed it, you can listen to our hobo-themed show from August 22nd right here. Who is Bozo Texino? is one of the films I recommended at the end of the show; it’s a glimpse into the often overlooked tradition of boxcar graffiti, and on top of introducing you to some of the greats (including the genius mail artist BuZ Blurr, also known as the Colossus of Roads), watching it will leave you with something to do while you sit in your car waiting for a train to pass. I’ve already spotted some of my favourite monikers out in the world.
Hobo is (perhaps obviously) another film to watch if you’re looking to learn more about hobohemia. I only saw it myself for the first time last month, and though some of the views expressed by the subject of the film are understandably problematic given that it was made 30 years ago, it remains a riveting examination of the hobo subculture and possibly one of the best documentaries I’ve seen. (Feel free to get in touch if you’d like a version of the film that includes the song that was removed for copyright purposes in this upload)
1 Complete Television Broadcast
I looked Cisco Houston up on YouTube a few weeks ago after realizing I’d never really seen footage of him. Since there’s only one surviving video of his friend and contemporary Woody Guthrie, I was surprised to learn that there’s significantly more footage of Cisco. I was particularly delighted to find this full TV special from 1960, which features not only Cisco Houston as host, but performances by artists like Joan Baez, John Jacob Niles, and John Lee Hooker as well. Further information about the broadcast can be found here.
Albums
1 New Release
Barking Dog favourite Jake Xerxes Fussell released his latest album, When I’m Called, on July 12th, and as expected, it’s an eclectic selection of tracks from sources as wide-ranging as outsider artist Maestro Gaxiola, 20th-century composer Benjamin Britten, and artist and folklorist Art Rosenbaum.
4 Protest Albums from Around the World
This 1976 album protests Ferdinand Marcos’ military dictatorship and American imperialism’s role in supporting his regime. We’ve played tracks from this album pretty regularly, most recently on July 11th.
Ireland: The Final Struggle from 1977 is another one we’ve often pulled from over the last year. It’s a nice collection of both traditional and contemporary songs about the Irish struggle for independence, and if you like this one, there are two more albums from the Men of No Property on the Folkways website.
Chile: Songs for the Resistance was released in 1975, two years after the Chilean military (with the support of the CIA) ousted and assassinated socialist president Salvador Allende and replaced him with military dictator Augusto Pinochet. Music was an important tool of resistance for Chileans, and its power is audible in this collection of nueva canción recordings.
This album launched the “songs for life” genre in Thailand, which is influenced by western folk rock and protest music. We played “Distant Gunfire Sounds” on July 27th.
3 Tribute Albums
Alistair Hulett was a folksinger and political songwriter from Glasgow, Scotland, who was known as both a solo artist and as a member of the folk-punk band Roaring Jack. This tribute album, released the year after his death in 2010, presents a nice selection of his songs by artists including David Rovics and the Irish Rovers.
A tribute album for one of the coolest folksingers by another of the coolest folksingers. We played Sorrels’ version of Reynolds’ song “The Money Crop” on August 8th.
Jack Hardy was the founder of Fast Folk Musical Magazine, the catalogue for which can be found here. He died in 2011, and this is a collection of covers of his music by artists including Suzanne Vega, Christine Lavin, and Nanci Griffith.
Articles
2 Articles About Members of the Almanac Singers
This is a nice little article about how Woody Guthrie came to write 26 songs for the Bonneville Power Administration in the Pacific Northwest in 1941, including Roll, Columbia, Roll,” “Hard Travelin’,” and “Pastures of Plenty.”
This entry in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas just scratches the surface of Lee Hays’ fascinating life, but it’s a great jumping-off point for further learning about one of folk music’s greatest and most criminally underrated performers and songwriters.
2 Pieces of History That Are Memorialized in Song
Here is a brief overview of the Highland Clearances, a government-led attack on non-English-speaking societies in Scotland that occurred between 1750 and 1860. We played Alistair Hulett’s song about the clearances, “Destitution Road,” on July 4th.
We played Pete Seeger and Frances Taylor’s song “Those Three Are On My Mind” on August 8th; it’s about the murder of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Shwerner in Mississippi in 1964. This article gives more information about what occurred.
1 Article About Canadian Hobos
While I was working on a project about hobo culture in April, I came across this excellent 1984 article by Wayne Roberts about hobos in Canada in the first half of the 20th century. Most articles about hobos tend to focus on the States, so it was nice to read about something more local.
1 Whale Tale
On August 8th, we played a piece by Country Joe McDonald and Bernie Krause called “Cetacean Visitations.” Krause is a musician and soundscape ecologist who founded Wild Sanctuary in 1968, which records and archives the sounds of natural environments. This article is about one specific instance in which his recordings came in handy when a migrating humpback whale took a wrong turn and ended up in the Sacramento River Delta.
Miscellany
Thomas Fraser was a Scottish fisherman and farmer who left behind thousands of home recordings when he died in 1978, the majority of which were country and blues songs. His website has a longer explanation of how his music was rediscovered, as well as an archive of photos, videos, and more.
For fans of Bob Dylan, here is a collection of some of his poems and letters from the early 1960s, when he was in his early 20s. It really does bring you back to being that age…
That’s about it for me. If you want to get in touch, you can reach me in the comments, on my website, or at ckuwbarkingdog@gmail.com. As a complement to last roundup’s final album suggestion, here’s one to end your summer on a good note:
