Folkways Reflections

I did this early on in the semester in my sketchbook, I hope it shows all of the talent, knowledge, and enthusiasm Tony has every Thursday night!

Songs and Places has come to an end. I have so many emotions as I look all the way back to the beginning of the class, then remember different moments throughout the course, and to the present. I have learned so much about the history of folk songs, what they mean, what I think about them, the artists who sing them, and ideas related to art.

The Lomax's

The Lomax recordings were an essential component in not only documenting but exposing folk songs to the world. The process of locating each artists by journeying to rural towns was entertaining to read about. It shows that hard work pays off. This didn't just benefit the Lomax's, but also some of the artists like Leadbelly who worked his way to become well-known (although still very much under the control of Lomax, working for him). Then of course the world has the opportunity to hear the folksongs recorded as original as it gets.

Learning about the African Americans' history in America through their songs was a unique way to think about it. From the tribal songs to work songs and gospels all the way to blues... The music really tells it all. What is great is that it is a pure telling of history, through the music because it is sung by the people who experienced it. This was a successful way of re-learning the history of slavery because songs bring different emotions to the listener than the written word. One song that is a great example of these is "O Mary Don't You Weep." I had never connected the Hebrews struggles with those of the African Americans.

The songs in this class gave a vast spread of folk music. My favorite song is the first one we sang, Leadbelly's "Rock Island Line" because of it's upbeat tempo and it's about trains (I love trains). This is the song that got me hooked on the class. My dad and I set up a train platform called Plasticville every Christmas. We set up his Lionel trains that he got when he was two years old (about 1950). The trains drive around the electric tracks that encompass the town.

"Down in the Valley," and "Red River Valley" were also more of my favorites. When we first sang them I felt a deep connection to these songs... I am not sure what it as exactly but it made my eyes water a little bit. I remember my project for "Down in the Valley" was one of the most literal paintings. That is something the songs and especially the class has given me is to accept the challenge of not being so literal in artwork that expresses songs. It is in my nature to be! But it is a good exercise to think in a more abstract realm. It was great to see how everyone else in the class thought of the songs too through their art.

Making the artwork every week in response to the songs made me engage with the songs on a more intimate level. Art can be very personal or impersonal, but with these songs, I drew or painted or crafted from a personal level. Maybe this is because not only was it coming from a visual sense but also the hearing sense. 

Appalachia in the 1930s winter.

The research involved in really getting to know what the songs, artists, and places were about also got me very involved. One of the most interesting places this class took me was Appalachia. It has a history that is intriguing from the myths about the Appalachian people to the diversity of immigrants who live there. It is the image that initially came to mind when I thought about folk songs, but now my knowledge has spread to the black south and throughout the United States to California... 

I really enjoyed reading Woody Guthrie's "Soldiers in the Dust." It was well written, just like a novel. I enjoyed the places his songs explored, such as the hopes of prosperity in California and the imagery of the entire American continent in the song "This Land is Your Land." Guthrie was another artist I enjoyed learning about because his story is fascinating. I appreciate that he not only was a talented guitar player, he also knew how to use tools and craft things. Speaking of interesting stories, Mississippi John Hurt's is another golden one. I had always heard the name Mississippi John Hurt but never really knew who or what he sang (same with Bob Dylan) until this class. MJH is unique in the timing of his musical career. 

I also had fun finding out about pieces of American history that I never knew about like medicine shows and Vaudeville! There were so many opportunities to break off and find out more from each week's theme. 

Songs and Places gave me more than I could have asked for. It gave me songs, adventures through time, art, chance to create artwork each week, a chance to have fun and sing, and an awesome professor who is an exceptional guitar player, entertainer, and has a soul full of truth. Tony is one of the professors I will always remember from all of his knowledge he shared in the class through art, history, and music, and especially tips for playing the guitar! The songs I've learned and places I've been have changed me and some will always stay somewhere inside. 

One last touch: my project from a few weeks ago during Leadbelly, here is the finished glazed ceramic form. It brings a completely different feeling to it; it almost brings me a new meaning of the song because of the sleek and shine, which is not what I find from Leadbelly, but maybe it does work... I chose "Bring Me Little Water Sylvie" and now the shine reminds me of water. I am pleased with the two faces this piece took!

"I Feel Like Going Home" Chicago Blues

The song I chose for my final project this week is “I Feel Like Going Home” by Muddy Waters. I love his guitar playing. It is as if he and the guitar are singing their own parts of the song. This song, for me, represents the Chicago Blues entirely with its electric blues sound and the lamenting quality from the blues origins. I made Muddy Waters blue to symbolize his major influence on the Chicago blues scene with his telecaster red guitar as the second color. The darkness is either engulfing him or he is escaping the darkness, which is the blues.

Muddy Waters, as his name tells, was from the Mississippi delta, played there, and was also recorded by Alan Lomax, but it was in Chicago where he began recording music. I thought this was interesting that he was discovered in the city rather than from the recordings the Lomax’s did, like other musicians who became well known from their country roots. His success in the city is probably from the delta blues background he had mixed with the new energy from the urban environment to create songs that made Muddy Waters unique and appealed to the Chicago music world. In my research I found that his style of music is not only urban blues but called electric blues too since each song was not an acoustic version (like so many of our other blues songs). After his death he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame… this makes me wonder how close electric blues and rock and roll sound? After listening to Muddy Waters’s songs it seems that the sound specifically is what ties these genres together, not the meanings.

The youtube video of Muddy Waters singing “Hoochie Coochie Man” has a very showman like quality to it and the sound is very full. This is different from the Lomax recording that can have a single person singing with one instrument or no instruments at all. I would call the Chicago blues a plugged in and on-stage version of the rural blues.

Muddy Waters's guitar - a telecaster

Little Walter is also in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! I see why the blues were turning more rock and roll sounding; it is because of the electrification of instruments. Little Walter was famous for his harmonica playing because he was one of the initial people who began amplifying it by holding it up to the microphone. Muddy Waters and Little Walter had also recorded and played songs together.

“Blues With a Feeling” might be about having the blues mixed with a love-filled passion to get his love back, or find her. He sings about his love living somewhere else… perhaps he is really feeling the way his lover feels when he moved to Chicago? And unknowingly singing about his blues but truly he knows how is absence affects the girl.

Howlin’ Wolf also began in the country blues scene and translocated himself to the city. He even looked up to singers like Charlie Patton and learned the blues from local musicians. Howlin’ Wolf had done performances and signed on with a record company and soon after traveled to Chicago. “Sittin’ On Top of the World” is one of his songs, which now listening to it compared to when we heard it quite a few weeks ago, has to completely different visual in my mind. I used think of “Sittin’ On Top of the World” as a song for the impoverished people living in the rural country suffering the Great Depression. Now it has changed with Howlin’ Wolf’s place in Chicago, although he travelled there later… “Sittin’ On Top of the World” can be seen as a song about overcoming the difficulties that can be found no matter where someone calls home… country or city.

In Howlin’ Wolf’s song, “Little Red Rooster,” is an interesting song especially because of his unique style of playing and singing. I would guess that Howlin’ Wolf’s name was born from his vocals, the power in his voice is rather wolf-like. Since the rooster usually represents males, and he sings about it needing to be found and go home to the barn. I feel that a majority of the Chicago city songs have to do with the place the singers have come from and are currently now. They always seem to wish to go home. For example, Muddy Waters’s “Feel Like Going Home.” The rooster might represent this desire? But the visuals provided in this song with so many warm colors like the red rooster and barn are not as “blue” as the genre they are sung as, providing a stark contrast.

Howlin' Wolf playing the harmonica.

“How Many More Years” in the video where the Rolling Stones introduce Howlin’ Wolf brings back what I touched on earlier where the blues and rock and roll are merged in urban blues. This changes the rural blues to appeal to city folk and popularize the songs further with the sounds from all of the instruments.

In the video where only Howlin’ Wolf is performing the song in the beginning he says, “any time you thinkin’ evil, you’ve got the blues,” which is one of the truest statements I’ve ever heard.