Old Timey!

[Basstrap]

I recently saw O, Brother Where Art Tho again and fell in love with that rootsy old timey blues stuff.

any suggestions?

I went and downloaded Skip James, the early 30's recordings. Nothing is more beautiful than hearing that old scratchy blues recording.

 

[U2Kitten]

I don't know much about blues but I do know bluegrass. My older relatives were always into that stuff and I used to hate it but now after hearing so much crappy music over the years I'm seeing the good in some of it. Or maybe it's just in my genes.

Have you ever heard any Jimmie Rodgers? Train Whistle Blues and stuff like that? He died in 1933 of TB, so his stuff is really old and his recordings scratchy and ancient.

The Carter Family is a good old timey band right out of the hills and hollers in the old times. Bill Monroe has a lot of good stuff too.

 

[meegannie]

Do you have the issue of Uncut that had U2 on the cover? The cd that came with that has a lot of old stuff.

Here's the tracklisting if you don't have it:
Uncut77 2003-10 - In God's Country - October 2003

1 - Johnnie Allan - The Promised Land
2 - Hank Williams - I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
3 - Elvis Presley - Maybellene
4 - Blind Willie McTell - Lay Some Flowers On My Grave
5 - Mose Allison - Parchman Farm
6 - Billie Holiday - Stormy Weather
7 - Woody Guthrie - This Land Is Your Land
8 - Patsy Cline - Walkin' After Midnight
9 - Robert Johnson - If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day
10 - Jimmie Rodgers - In The Jailhouse Now
11 - Big Bill Broonzy - How You Want It Done
12 - BB King - When My Heart Beats Like A Hammer
13 - Tommy McLain - Sweet Dreams
14 - Big Joe Williams - Don't You Leave Me Here
15 - The Staple Singers - When Will We Be Paid
16 - Ramblin' Jack Elliott - Grand Coulee Dam
17 - Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys - Goodbye Old Pal
18 - William Bell - Born Under A Bad Sign
19 - The Rhythm Wreckers - Blue Yodel No 2
20 - Jesse Fuller - San Francisco Bay Blues
21 - The Nite Owls - Memphis Blues
22 - John Lee Hooker - Crawling King Snake
23 - Bill Landford - Run For A Long Time
24 - Molly O'Day & The Cumberland Mountain Folks - Heaven's Radio

 

[meegannie]

You might also want to try http://www.musicplasma.com/, where you enter an artist and it gives you suggestions. I entered Skip James, and it came up, so it might have a few ideas for good starting points.

 

[HelloAngel]

Meggie is such a badass.

 

[pub crawler]

The "Must Have" American Folk recording of all time (according to many music critics), and one that I plan to get eventually is The Anthology of American Folk Music, compiled by the legendary Harry Smith.

This is the album set that inspired people like Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, and one of the most fascinating aspects of the collection is how it came to be. Smith was an eccentric, almost penniless artistic intellectual drunk who in the 1940's collected, as I hope I correctly recall from his story, thousands of forgotten vinyl records from the 1920's and 30's. He knew someone from the Smithsonian, apparently connected with the Smithsonian record label, and was asked to compile his best discs for an anthology. The result is said to be astonishing.

Anyway, you can read a lot about the anthology and Harry Smith on line.

I've put off buying it so far because of its price: $75US.


http://www.folkways.si.edu/harry/hsa.htm

 

[Mullen-Girl]

Yeah I couldnt' believe myself when I really liked that music from the movie. I was like what's wrong with me but I really enjoyed it alot