"Nobody Knows De Trouble I've Seen"

"To me Jubilee Hall seemed ever made of the songs themselves, and its bricks were red with the blood and dust of toil. Out of them rose for me morning, noon, and night, bursts of wonderful melody, full of the voices of my brothers and sisters, full of the voices of the past." 

- W. E. Burghardt Du Bois. The Souls of Black Folk, from the chapter "Of the Sorrow Songs"

My project was inspired directly from two elements: first, the song I chose to focus on is "Nobody Knows De Trouble I've Seen," sung by Marian Anderson, and second, W.E. Burghardt DuBois's The Souls of Black Folk. The way I drew the woman looking (or maybe not looking) in my picture is to hint at what the song is titled. When I listen to the song, I hear a gentle woman but also the experiences she was involved in or had seen. The troubles she has seen in her life after being transported to America. Yes, the landscape maybe beautiful, but it is full of cotton and ugly events that hold in the memories of the African Americans. Now after pondering for a bit, the title is ironic because now that we have access to so much information on the history of slavery, it does seem like we DO know the troubles she has seen... but have we? 

It is constructed of watercolored cardboard
resembling bricks with pen drawn onto it. The material it is placed on is very significant to the picture itself... it is a cotton cloth... 

It is connected to DuBois's quote that I have copied above because I could imagine the fine details within bricks: the cracks, air pockets, that could tell a story while sitting on the crimson red surface of the brick that makes Jubilee Hall. I've included a picture of Jubilee Hall (below) as well and did some research into its history. Now it is a residence hall at Fisk University, but historically, it is one of the first structures built for the education of African Americans in the South. Its musical connection is tied to being constructed with funds from the historic 1871 Jubilee Singers' tour, which was a nine-member choral ensemble. For my project I wanted to create it to look like the bricks of toil described by DuBois as well as draw a scene of what a song does. The woman is working, but the less obvious aspect to notice is that she is looking somewhere else. Not at the cotton, not at the baskets of cotton in the foreground either, but away. The songs take us away to the past, or what we hope for in the present. 

LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) brought an important concept to the table in Blues People of the fact that slavery was not simply cruel for its obvious reasons of forced labor and toil since (slavery had also been practiced in Africa), but it was even crueler because the Africans were thrown into a foreign country with "a completely alien philosophical system" that led to the white American slave masters to view the Africans as mere savages (Jones, 7). This non-subtle change in environment for the Africans was filled with restrictions cast upon them by the "Western white man," of which included the suppression of African religion and rituals by the white masters, as well as songs that were tied to those (or any song, really) (Jones, 19).

From this background I can see what LeRoi Jones meant when he said that "the music was our history" and that because of a song's intangible nature, it could not have been taken away, suppressed, or destroyed by white masters (Jones, xi and 16). This was interesting in the creation of blues. Since the history of blues runs its creek through backwards along predecessors of work songs, religious music, then the deepest roots of original African music, blues is a product of the adaptations the slaves made to their African culture in coping with their foreignness in America. In LeRoi's own words, "blues could not exist if the African captives had not become American captives." (19). With the threat of punishment looming for singing African religious songs, work songs took place in the fields of the slaves to deal with their hours of labor. This change from African culture having a place in the songs led to the work songs being "stripped of any purely African ritual," which was interesting to me because I always thought work songs were created simply from working in the field, but they really were transformed from their African roots to provide comfort while working and comply - somewhat - with the white masters' restrictions.

Before looking it up, my prediction of the difference between "spirituals" and "gospel" after listening and watching the YouTube videos posted on Tony's blog, seems to be that spirituals were created by the slaves and for the slaves to help push through their troubles at the present times, while gospels are to give hope to achieve the future, for instance, heaven. Thomas Dorsey's "If You See My Savior" he sings at the very end "I am coming home some day," that home being heaven. From what I found online regarding the difference between the two, I am not that far off. Spirituals were indeed sung by slaves and passed down orally, and gospels came after the spirituals with more secular content and I believe would have been better preserved than the orally passed down spirituals. It may be that the spirituals are more personal to the African Americans. 

You Are My Sunshine

Jimmie Davis, the singer, film star, and governor from Beech City, Louisiana recorded “You Are My Sunshine” in 1940. This was around the time that his music career was taking off (1930s). His success with “You Are My Sunshine” didn’t conclude his fifteen minutes of fame as has also served two non-consecutive terms as Governor of Louisiana and still kept his musical identity by singing at the campaign stops. He lived a long life… to be about 101 years old! This is probably because of his deep roots in Louisiana that kept him nourished...

One precedent of “You Are My Sunshine” is “Heavenly Sunshine” by Laura Henton and an earlier Christian Hymn called “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” Both of these have a more religious tone to them and show how Davis evolved them into a love-focused song of “You Are My Sunshine” by mixing together ideas about sunshine from Laura Henton and the famous melody from “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

“Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” was written in 1907 and was a popular gospel song, then in 1967 Bob Dylan sang and recorded it, maybe that is why he thinks “You Are My Sunshine” is one of the greatest songs… because he appreciated its history through its precedents. In “Heavenly Sunshine” (1927), the chorus goes “There is sunshine  in the shadows... there is sunshine in the rain… there is sunshine when we pray;” sunshine could mean love in this song because it seems to be a bonding element. For example, a group praying together in church, then since it also has a presence in shadows and in the rain, it must be a force that overcomes darker or sullen times, like love. Then in Jimmie’s version, his love is his “sunshine,” which is his driving force in life that he longs to keep. Of course, sunshine must go away and is never eternal. Maybe he is implying that love and sunshine are forces that have the power to maintain life but also limits it. Sunshine in the scientific sense for vitamin D and providing light for photosynthesis, then it is a correlate of love which propels people to want to achieve it, never lose it, and live on.

After listening to the precedents of “You Are My Sunshine” and the song sung by different artists, I came to find my own meaning of the song, which I expressed in my painting. The singer pleads to “please don’t take my sunshine away,” which is the loss of a loved one or a loved one leaving. I wanted to address that we can do everything we can to fight life’s changes with our relationships whether that is losing someone through the end of a relationship or through death but there is only so much we can fight the change. But just as we cannot control the sunsetting every evening, we cannot control the unpredictable force of love. My painting shows some of the cultural ties of Jimmie Davis with Louisiana in the depiction of a bayou at sunset. There is a woman riding her bicycle away and her shadow is the main focus that tells us the most about her. The shadow is created from the setting sun that is just as uncontrollable as a loved one’s fate of leaving. My mom was singing this song every now and then towards the end of this summer before I left to come back to Berkeley, now I know why.

Ollie Gilbert’s version of “You Are My Sunshine” is sung without instruments (in the recorded version) and her voice sounds more monotone, however, she expresses alot through her voice. Her voice is linked to the Great Depression and that part of her life is heard through her voice in the way she sings the song. In Jimmie Davis’ version, I feel that he is singing about love that himself AND other people have experienced, so he sings through shared experiences, whereas Ollie makes it her own. I found other recordings done by more contemporary singers like Johnny Cash and Jamey Johnson that put their own sound into the song but was unable to discover a version of the song covered by a black southern singer.

Now I will ask my first of three questions regarding the Lomax reading, which is why were blacks more usually found singing in groups while the whites usually sung solo or with just one other partner? My thoughts on this were that each party follows different roots that direct the way they express song. Lomax tells us that most of the American Negro slaves were familiar with singing as a “group activity” as most were from West Africa and found comfort in a cultural tradition (Lomax, xx).

My second question comes from Alan Lomax’s Preface where he recalls a time in his childhood where a black man would join them in their folk song singing. Lomax tells that the man would sit very near the fire where it would look as though it would “scorch him” and he would continue playing the fiddle. Did Alan Lomax believe in the superstition that fiddlers were sons of the devil and is this what he thought in this case? Lomax said that during this event his “hair would rise up on” his head (Lomax, x). Of course, in his introduction he discusses how the “Devil was generally held to be the king and principal instructor of fiddlers,” but this was regarding fiddlers and folk song, not specifically applying to blacks (Lomax, xxiv). Then that may lead to asking if he was somewhat weary of blacks… From reading Lomax’s introduction I do not detect this type of tone from him because it seems equal in the way he describes each culture and its role in folk music. The question rings on…

Lastly, I ask if the Lomaxs’ creation of their volume of folk songs takes away some of the songs’ authentic nature? He says that the songs are their “own versions of the songs” that combine the “best stanzas” they could find (Lomax, x). This brings much value to the songs they retraced and put together, but it makes me wonder because songs seem perfect in their original form. Maybe they found pieces of each song and sew them together. Or this could be a great contribution to the songs ever-changing history since it was common for the singer to “change an old song slightly to fit a new situation,” which in this case would be that of reconstructing the past through America’s folk songs (Lomax, vii).  

Down in the Valley Project

After listening to the various versions of "Down in the Valley" and "Birmingham Jail" by each of the singers, I decided to incorporate different pieces of each song into my watercolor painting that I found significant in the story the singers tell. Each song version has a slightly different line in each stanzas but the majority of the song versions have similarities. In the Darby & Tarlton version of "Birmingham Jail," they say "hear the train blow" rather than "hear the wind blow;" however, they still say "send me a letter, send it by mail, send it in care of Birmingham Jail" just like Burl Ives' "Down in the Valley" (and several others). The key points I captured in the painting are the quality of the train rolling through the valley where it would be heard, and a woman or the jailed man's lover on the caboose of the train with her hair blowing. This was to twist the stories into one. The mystery of the painting, which I also find in the songs, appears where the woman is either tossing her letter to Birmingham Jail or if she accidentally let it fly out of her hands.

Since she is so close to the jail, it may seem as though she is obviously intending to throw it to the jail, but then the viewer may ask why she didn't mail it or properly deliver it? It evokes a sense of indecision for the woman. Maybe she decided not to mail it and as her train traveled by she was looking at the jail that she never sent the letter to and the valley's wind blew it from her hand. Her pose indicates that she may not have wanted the letter to blow away... or maybe that is the normal reaction anyone would have if something blew away from them out of a train? If so, she may find herself overjoyed that the forces of nature made the decision for her to let the letter go. The man sitting with his guitar outside of Birmingham jail is one of the Darby and Tarlton singers. The unknown of the intentions of the woman mirror how I felt and thought when listening to "Down in the Valley" and "Birmingham Jail."

Whether the song is sung to "hear the train blow" or to "hear the wind blow" both give a feeling of quietness or loneliness in the setting of the song. According to Alan Lomax, "gentler folk were sometimes troubled by the vast landscapes" that encompassed them, which was a major factor in the production of "lonesome tunes" (Lomax, xvii). I find "Down in the Valley" and "Birmingham Jail" to be very lonesome songs as the different versions incorporate loneliness through themes of solitude in a jail, wondering if a lover loves them back, and listening to the sounds the valley creates like train whistles and wind. I wanted to capture these expressive qualities of the song in my painting, where the valley surrounds the scene and the train holds the woman and expresses her uncertain and mysterious feelings.

The personal component I added was the1920s car in the back and the choice of the caboose being in the picture. I figured the car would belong to the guitarist since he is either Darby or Tarlton who recorded the song in 1927. Both machines are personal because this reminded me of Plasticville. My dad and I set up a big train platform with a plastic town in the middle of it every Christmas, which reflects the train and car. Maybe I am the woman riding on the caboose? I was pleased that my personal component tied in with the cultural stream of the song's context, that of a quaint town with a jail in a valley that a train passes through. The train may be a main daily attraction for people to see and hear run through their lives in the valley.

I also tried to listen to each of their "voices" and understand why they sing the songs the way they did. Solomon Burke's voice as he sings "Down in the Valley" epitomizes what Lomax describes as African singers' tendency to be "animated and expressive" while singing with "playful" voices (xx). This version shows a lot of contrast to the Darby & Tarlton version of Birmingham Jail where the two white singers sing with a more "tense throat" and have "rigid bodies" from what the photo depicts (Lomax, xix). Then there is the voices of the couple in the Andy Griffith show where they give the song a loving quality through the melody and lyrics. It is interesting that the songs are all from the same roots but have developed their own meaning from the voice that sings it.

Labor Day Weekend

Right now I am in the Oakland Airport. So sorry to have to miss class today for Visual Studies 185X, but excited to go home for a few days. I get homesick so often! I thought that since I am a sophomore now, I would not miss home as much compared to freshman year, but it is the same. Luckily it was at its worst only during the first few weeks of school before classes get busy and before mountain bike racing season begins.

That made a major difference in my life last year, was getting involved with Cal Cycling. I have been mountain bike racing since freshman year of high school at Rim of the World in Lake Arrowhead. This will be my 6th year racing! I'm looking forward to the upcoming season.

At home I plan to take my mom mountain biking, as I have been teaching her all summer, swim in the lake, go wake boarding with my family and boyfriend, and do as much as I can with my family.

First Song Project 

The first song that I recall was sung to me by my mom whenever she would give me a bath. The song is sung in Chinese, so I do not know the words but I always have remembered the melody (and some of the words but I may not have them quite right in my head). It is called "八個娃娃," which translates to "Eight Precious Babies" and is about a young Chinese woman who gets married and later has eight babies. The song's trail has a life in my mom's side of the family, which is Chinese. She learned it from her aunt in Malaysia and brought it with her to America when she moved here for college. When my mom would sing this to me, it was usually in the bathtub and occasionally when I went to sleep and I always could feel the love expressed in her voice. 

This song has always made me feel very close to my mom emotionally as well as physically because her bathing me as a child is a very intimate experience, especially because of how young I was and the need for my mom to take care of me was essential. I always felt her love through this song, although sometimes I would get frustrated because she sang it with such love and when I was that age there was some sort of invisible barrier that made me resist it coming in. Due to this, now that I look back, the song was sung less and less both because of me being unappreciative and getting older. Since the song is about eight precious babies, and I was my mom's precious baby, it has not faded away from our lives but has grown up with me. I like to think that the song has grown up rather than disappeared as I have gotten older. Now I understand how to appreciate the songs that I hear, especially those that come from the heart of someone I love. This appreciation has shined a light on what I used to take for granted that my mom and family does for me both in the present and looking back.