Jim Yates - Posted - 02/21/2011:  08:57:37

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quote:

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Originally posted by Hotrodtruck

Here is a video of the Group The Brothers Four on the old Hootenany show. This is in 1963 (before a lot of you were born) when the folk music scene helped young people get interested in bluegrass. This is a neat arrangement of Darling Corey , featuring a long neck, open back banjo picking some good bluegrass style music. Many of the young people were not familiar with bluegrass, and these guys helped open their eyes.
Enjoy
Mike

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Although I never saw the film Hootenanny Hoot, I did see posters advertising the movie and one of the stars was Johnny Cash playing a twelve string guitar in the promo shots. Apparently one of the plot lines was about getting a show together and one of the promoters complained that folk music wouldn't sell soap. I recall Bob Dylan saying something like,"Sell soap! Hell, us folkies don't even use soap."

I don't want to get into a "What is a folk song?" debate, but I have always lumped bluegrass in with folk music. It's just another genre of folk, like blues or Irish fiddle tunes or Cajun music. I used to play in a bluegrass group with a guy who claimed to hate folk music. I would say, "Then what're you doing playing bluegrass?" He was convinced that if it didn't have "Folly-wacka-doodle" or something, it wasn't folk music.

So to answer the question in the title of this thread, folkies like Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs and Don Reno did a lot to help bluegrass by creating the genre.

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Edited by - Jim Yates on 02/21/2011 09:04:31

Basic Strum - Posted - 02/21/2011:  09:45:40

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quote:

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[i]

So to answer the question in the title of this thread, folkies like Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs and Don Reno did a lot to help bluegrass by creating the genre.

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That's a great way to look at it, and bluegrass is, in fact, a subset of folk music. But you'd better keep an eye over your shoulder now, because resonators are going to be flying at your neck like Oddjob's derby. BTW, the name of the group you referenced earlier was the Baby Sitters. In addition to Arkin's guitar, they played toy instruments, spoons, pie plates, pot lids. Bill

robbif - Posted - 02/21/2011:  11:40:07

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I believe it's on one of the DVDs I ordered from the KT's website that Dave Guard was directly or indirectly quoted as saying one of his greatest regrets or mistakes was leaving the Trio. It took me a while to warm up to Stewart's different style, but I sure have a lot of their albums with him! On one of the reunion videos, I think I remember Guard was back.

robbif - Posted - 02/21/2011:  11:48:38

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I'm lucky to be living only a few miles from Pete Seeger. We'll be passing through a major intersection where peaceful pro- and anti-war demonstrators regularly gather on diagonally opposite corners. And there will be Pete with his guitar on a cold winter day!

In 2008, at the local Historical Society's Strawberry Festival, I recorded Pete working the crowd...
eastfishkillhistoricalsociety....er-l.html

robbif - Posted - 02/21/2011:  13:31:24

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Roland White pointed out a great collection of photos on Facebook by a Mark Sukoneig called "Sixties, Seventies, and beyond, mostly musicians"...

facebook.com/album.php?aid=111...366693917

gDGBD - Posted - 02/21/2011:  14:58:38

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John Cooke, formerly with the Charles River Valley Boys, has a nice collection of bluegrass, folk, and blues photos from the 60's here: cookephoto.com/index.html

TL - Posted - 02/21/2011:  17:20:23

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Sounds like lots of us were bitten by the bug during the 60's. My life was changed after seeing the Kingston Trio in Chicago in 1965 (John Stewart version). I was so moved at the sound of Stewart's banjo playing that the next day I scoured through the 99 cent rack at Wagreen's at Chicago Avenue and Michigan Avenue and came away with my first three bluegrass albums....Newport Folk Festival & Greenbrier Boys, Bill Emerson & Billy Baker, Bluegrass Gentlemen (Cravens & Bray Bros). After that day, life was good!

Jim Yates - Posted - 02/21/2011:  18:10:41

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A quote from Pete Seeger: The electric guitar might well be remembered as the most popular instrument of the folk music of the late 20th century.

robbif - Posted - 02/21/2011:  19:36:23

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I highly recommend the PBS video, "Pete Seeger - the Power of Song"

amazon.com/Pete-Seeger-Power-J...0018PH3OC

INFP47 - Posted - 02/22/2011:  10:48:31

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I too first heard the banjo on Kingston Trio recordings in the late 50's and early 60's. In 1964 I discovered that Pete Seeger was a neighbor of mine when I saw one of his recordings on the wall in a Manhattan record store. One of my relatives had worked for Pete and told me about this guy who played the banjo on his porch. Once I purchased that first recording "Live at Carnegie Hall" my life changed. I still thought, for some reason, that the banjo could only be played by professionals on stage or recordings and was surprised when, in about 1965, I saw "Robbif's" friend Jerry Oland, a fellow student, playing bluegrass banjo on the lawn at our college campus. It shocked me into realizing that maybe I, too, could play the banjo. And I did.

Thanks, Pete. Thanks, Jerry.

Tim

Rich Weill - Posted - 02/22/2011:  11:50:32

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I'm surprised that this discussion of the relationship between folk music and bluegrass -- including several references to music played in New York -- has made no mention of the folk and bluegrass music played every Sunday in that era in Washington Square Park. From what I've read about those days, there seemed to be enormous overlap.

The Washington Square musicians still reunite annually on one September Sunday: beachamjournal.com/journal/201...nion.html

Emiel - Posted - 02/22/2011:  12:46:28

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quote:

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Originally posted by Pig_Eyed_Jackson

Hmmmm, just how did he get that Mastertone sound on an open back playing at the"Y?"

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A Tubaphone bano with or without resonator is excellent for bluegrass sound...

robbif - Posted - 02/22/2011:  13:27:22

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Speaking of the Washington Square musicians, here's my photo from Union Grove 1968

of Jody Stecher and Winnie Winston



from my series frobbi.org/slides/ug1968

You can also see the NY Ramblers from my scans of the Union Grove 1968 program..



and the Union Grove 1967 program..

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Edited by - robbif on 02/22/2011 13:31:34

John Allison - Posted - 02/23/2011:  05:13:48

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Loved the music of that era and got to see several of the groups perform such as the K-Trio, the Limelighters, Burl Ives (not a group but a great folk performer, Josh White Jr, and Peter, Paul, Mary. Actually, it was watching Dave Guard that inspired my interest in the banjo. About 10 years ago, I got to see a "Freedom Show" featuring such groups as the K-Trio (and, as someone pointed out, the only surviving member was Bob Shane), the Limelighters and two other groups of which I cannot remember the names. Quite a show with many fond memories. Every now and then, there will be a show on PBS regarding the music of that era. Incidentally, Peter Yarrow (of PPM) will be in Ann Arbor at the Ark in the near future.

John Allison - Posted - 02/23/2011:  05:34:05

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Since it is to late to edit ..... I could not remember the name of the person who did the commentary on the Freedom show and finally looked it up, it was Glen Yarbrough (the golden voice). Most of the participants of all the groups present were not original members but the music was the same.

BanjoLink - Posted - 02/24/2011:  08:02:40

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Fred - I can't believe you didn't get an autograph of the sax player at Union Grove! (probably the only guy in the program that you don't know, don't have a photo of, served in the army with, or recorded in a private session!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Although I used to watch Flatt & Scruggs on TV, it was probably the Kingston Trio that got me interested in the Banjo. I didn't see the gals flocking to Lester and Earl, so that probably had a little influence on my thinking. Most of the high school and college groups around me were just as interested in the instrumental parts as the singing, so it never really dawned on me that some of the more commercial groups couldn't play a lick.

robbif - Posted - 02/25/2011:  17:09:05

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Sax player, eh? Man, I must really be slipping!!

Does this have anything to do with the fact that, years later, Emily Litella on Saturday Night Live would complain about "Sax and Violins"?

lonesomepicker - Posted - 03/01/2011:  13:57:05

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[quote]Originally posted by wwatson

The TV series "Hootenany" aired a number of groups that used "house" musicians to round-out the instrumental section. Perhaps someone here knows the name of the Scruggs style player that was occasionally shown sitting in a chair nearby and playing awesome banjo. I remember he was rather rotund and might of had a short beard? en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hootenanny_(US_TV_series)?wasRedirected=true
Bill

That was very possibly Paul Prestopino, who was an accompaniest for the Chad Mitchell Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary.

wwatson - Posted - 03/01/2011:  15:40:48

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Yes, thank you! I looked at images of Paul Prestopino and that is the guy who played wonderful banjo while other folkies sang and strummed guitars on the Hootenanny TV show. His name has dissipated in my banjo world.
Bill

robbif - Posted - 03/02/2011:  19:23:27

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I was just channel-surfing and came in on the middle of a PBS a 2-hour (campaign) PBS show called "John Sebastian Presents: Folk Rewind (My Music)" with artists of the 50s and 60s including Pete Seeger, Judy Collins, the Kingston Trio, and the Chad Mitchell Trio.

I think I remember seeing some of this before. Of course, they're hawking the DVD sets with donations.

There's even a current reunion of the Chad Mitchell Trio coming up...after all the (understandable) campaign stuff.

robbif - Posted - 04/09/2011:  05:42:14

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The late Nick Reynolds of the Kingston Trio will be honored at the 2nd Annual Tenor Guitar Gathering June 3-5, 2011.

The information is at flatpickerhangout.com/topic/21097