VA – Troubadours: Folk and the Roots of American Music, Part 1 (2014)

While some observers often see Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, Carole King, Joni Mitchell and James Taylor as the founders of America's contemporary singer-songwriter movement, the tradition actually dates back to the mid-19th century. The Hutchison Family of Milford, New Hampshire toured the United States singing religious and secular songs supporting numerous populist causes. In the years before World War I, Joe Hill and Ralph Chaplin refashioned traditional songs and hymns into biting anthems for the Industrial Workers of the World.

During the early '20s, Bentley Ball gave recitals of Appalachian ballads, Cowboy sons and Native American material to fascinated urban audiences. In 1920 he made the first recordings of such folk standards as Jesse James and The Dying Cowboy. Four years later Marion Try Slaughter, a Texas-born light opera singer who performed under the name Vernon Dalhart, recorded twangy versions of The Wreck Of The Southern 97 and The Prisoner's Song. Though hardly authentic, it caught the public ear and sold hundreds of thousands of records.
Two Tin Pan Alley writers exploited that success by penning folk-flavored songs inspired by some current event. Carson Robison, a Kansas native who played guitar on Dal hart's record, used a moralistic template for songs about train wrecks and natural disasters. Bob Miller, who hailed from Memphis, penned songs that addressed populist issues. Miller's left-leaning songs like Eleven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat anticipated the People's Songs movement of the late '40s.

Folk songs continued making inroads into American popular culture during the Jazz Age of the '20s. Millions of radio listeners tuned into the Chicago-based WLS every Saturday night to hear 'The National Barn Dance' and its sweet-voiced Kentucky balladeer Bradley Kincaid sing Barbara Allen or The Blue Tailed Fly. John Allison organized a trio that introduced folk material over New York's WNYC as early as 1927. Recordings intended for Southern listeners occasionally migrated to urban audiences in the north. The better-selling Victor Records by Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family crossed Southern borders; some of their titles were issued in Europe and Australia, and even India.

TRACKLIST

CD1:

01. Goebel Reeves: The Hobo's Lullaby
02. The Carter Family: I Never Will Marry
03. The Carter Family: Little Darling, Pal Of Mine
04. The Carter Family: Wildwood Flower
05. Lead Belly: The Midnight Special
06. Lead Belly: Western Plain (When I Was A Cowboy)
07. Lead Belly: Rock Island Line
08. Carl Sandburg: The Horse Named Bill
09. The Dixon Brothers: Weave Room Blues
10. Earl Robinson: Joe Hill
11. Earl Robinson: The House I Live In
12. Earl Robinson: The Frozen Logger
13. Josh White: One Meat Ball
14. Burl Ives: The Wayfaring Stranger
15. Woody Guthrie: Do Re Mi
16. Woody Guthrie: I Ain't Got No Home
17. Woody Guthrie: Pretty Boy Floyd
18. Woody Guthrie: Dusty Old Dust (So Long, It's Been Good To Know You)
19. Woody Guthrie: Babe O'Mine
20. Woody Guthrie: Grand Coulee Dam
21. Woody Guthrie: Ramblin' Round
22. Woody Guthrie: Hard Travelin'
23. Woody Guthrie: This Land Is Your Land
24. Woody Guthrie & Cisco Houston: Philadelphia Lawyer
25. Woody Guthrie: I've Got To Know

CD2:

01. The Almanac Singers: Hard, Ain't It Hard
02. The Almanac Singers: Which Side Are You On
03. The Almanac Singers: Union Maid
04. The Almanac Singers: Union Train
05. The Almanac Singers: Sinking Of The Reuben James
06. The Union Boys: U.A.W.-C.I.O.
07. The Union Boys: A Dollar Ain't A Dollar Anymore
08. The Union Boys: Solidarity Forever
09. Sam Hinton: Old Man Atom (Talking Atomic Blues)
10. Dick Blakeslee: Passing Through
11. Vern Partlow: Newspapermen Meet Such Interesting People
12. Pete Seeger: Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues
13. Pete Seeger: The Death of Harry Simms
14. Pete Seeger: No Irish Need Apply
15. Pete Seeger: Darling Corey
16. Terry Gilkyson: The Cry Of The Wild Goose
17. Merle Travis: Sixteen Tons
18. Merle Travis: Dark As A Dungeon
19. The Weavers: Wasn't That A Time
20. The Weavers: Banks Of Marble
21. The Weavers: The Hammer Song
22. The Weavers: Goodnight Irene
23. The Weavers: So Long, It's Been Good To Know You
24. Duncan/Lieberman/Sanders/Smith: Die Gedanken sind frei

CD3:

01. Cisco Houston: 900 Miles
02. Cisco Houston: Diamond Joe
03. Cisco Houston: Great American Bum
04. Jean Ritchie: Jubilee
05. Jean Ritchie: Dear Companion
06. Oscar Brand: Bootlegger's Song
07. Oscar Brand: Around Her Neck
08. Oscar Brand & Jean Ritchie: Paper Of Pins
09. Cynthia Gooding: Go Way From My Window
10. Ed McCurdy: John Brown's Body
11. Will Holt: Raspberries, Strawberries (Ah les fraises et les frambous)
12. Will Holt: The M.T.A.
13. Bob Gibson: Delia
14. Bob Gibson: Abilene
15. Paul Clayton: Gotta Travel On
16. Paul Clayton: Who'll Gonna Buy You Ribbons When I'm Gone
17. Paul Clayton: Pay Day At Coal Creek
18. The Gateway Singers: The Ballad Of Sigmund Freud
19. The Gateway Singers: Come To The Dance
20. The Easy Riders: Marianne
21. The Easy Riders: Strolling Blues
22. The Easy Riders: Green Fields
23. The Easy Riders: Kari Waits For Me
24. Vince Martin & The Tarriers: Cindy, Oh Cindy
25. The Tarriers: The Banana Boat Song
26. The Tarriers: Those Brown Eyes