end of a journey. or beginning?

i remember the first day of class, wurster 170 was bursting with nervous people unsure if they would be in the class, trying to impress the teacher, weird topical tangents that took us to Ukraine, Oceanside, and Argentina.  every week, from 6-10 on thursday, instead of working on my math 54 problem set, i left my ordinary, talent-less life, to this magical room with the low hung lights to sing.  what makes singing such a transformative process? we traveled through time and to different places on these songs, emotionally visiting the different eras of american history, i've never been.  at home, the process is replicated, my little netbook playing songs that were sung decades ago.  looking back on my artwork, i improved...laterally...my technical skill is still severely lacking but i had, through weeks on self-reflection and listening to tony's advice to other people, realized what art making was about.  its a feeling, its an inspiration.

i'm really grateful to have this place and time as a refuge from my daily troubles that would melt away as we sang; as we poured our frustrations and annoyances into "goodnight irene" the people, the conversations, the activities, were all a little bit extraordinary.  by half way in the semester, we'd started to recognize each other identity's in the artwork; what cultivation!

i can't really put what i learned from this class into words but if there were words they would be lifeline, white, occupy, front porch, dylan, important, where does this come from.

   

Last touch of not-publication leanne!

I have a personal blog that I keep of my day and how I feel.  In the comments section, I put down songs that carry me through that blog post or what happened...etc.

Songs have a particular way to sway you, make you FEEL.  So far this semester, I have been fortunate to connect to the songs we have in class emotionally, being able to take me through hard times.  The imagery of the songs take me to a windswept place at sunset. Some kind of calm, away from the bustle of Berkeley and school.

This week-ish has been strange and bizarre but I find myself singing Freight Train to remind me of what is good and pure : )
A song written by a little girl about the some movement in life towards inevitable death.  profound!

Banks of the O hi O

found an interesting version! that resonates with me....you'll see (hear) why! Banks of the Ohio!

i looked for different versions of the song and naturally found joan baez's music--i think her version is the first famous female version of a song we have heard so far in class.  I wonder why folk songs are sung (or rather, performed) predominantly by men? Funny considering Banks of the Ohio is gender specific--the murder of the a beloved woman.  I hadn't thought of singing as a gender specific practice--it is a form of expression and can be originated by any participant of a culture.

I go on mudcat to find an answer and the first one to pop up is a thread titled "Are ballad singers predominantly female?" Interesting....apparently a lot of women, more than men join folk singing groups and teach folk singing.  Thinking about our class--I don't know how many joined because of the folk song content but our class breakdown is also slightly more females than males (I THINK...not too sure...).  But this is seems to be like cooking--women might traditionally do the cooking at home (so most of all cooking) but famous chefs are usually men.  I found another interesting post of mudcat

"Some of the most bestest songs are occupational, such as mining, fishing etc. Women were of course underrepresented shall we say, or lucky perhaps, or whatever. Of course, wonderful weaving songs come to mind...lullabies, mg"

and

"Excluding traditional songs I think one of the major problems is that most female songwriters write about "feelings", and love and its many problems. Male writers tend more to write about "life" and its many problems. Male writers are more likely to write in the abstract, creating a character or telling a story. Women writers tend to write more from the personal I/me point of view. Yes there are exceptions others will now pile in to quote, but I'm making a generalisation based on listening over many years."

This is interesting--there is in fact a divide among females and males in the context of folk music, even specifically for lyrics (I think the issue with the thread was whether songs written by one gender can be sung by the other).  I remember "Down in the Valley" there was a gender-ambiguous line "Build me a castle forty feet high/So I can see him as he rides by," though I just took it to mean the postman with the letter...but could really be interpreted differently if a woman were singing it.  I think this is what makes Joan Baez's version compelling, the switch in gender, especially in a murder ballad--she, in a way, personifies the drowned woman in the song.  Joan Baez  Looking on mudcat, the hardcore folk singer crowd seems to have a divided opinion on her, with threads titled "Joan Baez is a fraud" or "Joan Baez kicked out of Walter Reed."  I like the Joan Baez version!

Another version I liked The Blue Sky Boys

Artwork: this one is bit difficult--I think I want to take this one a little far...I've been hearing a lot of about Banks and murder and betrayal...why that sounds like the financial crisis we are in now?!  haha, that's kinda taking it too far and too literal.  I don't know why this one is harder to be inspired from--I really like singing it!

Reader reflections

I haven't gotten all the way through with the readings but I just wanted to jot some ideas down before I start working on my project.

Apparently America's social and political history is incredibly conducive for the creation of unique folk-song culture.  From the melting pot in American culture, we have so many influences coming into our folk songs--which across the world, is a medium to bring people together.  From Irish tunes to Quaker hymns to West African traditional songs, we now have two major strains of folk-song--the Black and White.  Of course this dichotomy is not hard and fast or even accurate (Solomon was invited to a KKK meeting...) but an interesting dominant culture (presumably, historically the White folksong) and an underground black, resistance culture (Mary, don't you weep!).

After all, music (and art I suppose) is an exercise to elevate the soul.  The song, as an activity with low barrier to entry (of course, unless you are tone-deaf) and public, is perfect for projecting personal or social expectations, to convey the values and desires of who is singing.  We talked about it last week, how our singing folk songs now is almost a primary source while the lyrics on the page is a secondary source.  Just the act of singing invigorates the spirit of the song in us.  Lomax does say, "try to feel these songs as they were intended to be sung and felt." Actually, this makes me sad now--where are the folk songs of today?  Are musicologists going to dig up our digital remains and try to sing Justin Beiber or Nicki Manaj and "try to feel" this music?  Yikes! This is actually pretty scary!

We also talked about this last week too--the democratization of the Internet and information/technology in general.  Has it eroded the concentration of our content or "zeitgeist?"  I think as a member of this generation, I have to lament the demise of our culture but I am really curious how future generations will come to see us--will we be mythogized like the kids of the 60's? Or thought of backwards and ignorant like the kids of the 50's (I Love Lucy and white picket fences and Cold War).  How did I get here from songs?  I don't know but I think this class brings back to life what we felt like are bygone eras and really is a lifeline.

I don't know why reading the reader made me feel so profound but I think the language of what Lomax wrote reminded me that the world had not always been this way--jaded, impersonal, and isolated.  

MUCATTING down in the valley

before I look on mudcat, I have some questions which may or may not be answered: The Birmingham jail is a reference I don't understand!
Are the references to "roses" and "violets" connected to the children rhyme: Violets are blue, Roses are red?
The castle reference seems European or Western-centric...who added this lyric? What is its history?


Mudcat findings:
There's a WWII version (I guess the melody of this song very flexible and conveys a feeling of comfort and home so easily adapted into funny songs)


Down in Ruhr Valley, valley so low,
Some chairborne bastard, says we must go.

Flak loves big bombers, fighters do too.
P-51 boys, whe-ere are you?

Write me a letter, send it to me,
Send it in care of, Stalag Luft III.


So I couldn't find anything relating to "roses are red..." on mudcat, but I looked on straight dope, a myth debunking site, and it claimed that the construction of "roses are red and violets are blue," comes from Down in the Valley. 


Looking on mudcat, I realize how many different versions of this song there are; especially with lyrics.  "Birmingham Jail" is most prominently sung by Leadbelly but there are earlier versions with Tom Darby and Jimmie Tarlton.  


I think this begs the question that was posed in the email--what is authenticity?  Even in this songs history (and others too), authorship is often disputed, especially for these tunes that have been floating in the public for a long time before anyone got a pen and jot it down.  Authentic as a result is just the simple act of singing the song with word that you personally charge with the emotional intention.  We can be singing authentically in class, or in jail!






Incidentally...my first exposure to Down in the Valley was a movie starring my favorite actor Ed Norton. In Down in the Valley, he has delusions that he is a cowboy and falls in love with a teenager.  The valley he refers to is the San Fernando Valley, home of the insufferable Valley girls.  




Funny, hopefully relavent quote from the movie:  "I've tried living down in the valley again, really tried this time. Walked up and down it looking for one open face, but most people I've meet hardly seem like human beings to me anymore."

Down in the valley

This song, as we had sung it in class, was gorgeous.  We were slow and we seemed to say to the wind mentioned in the song.  The lyric line that stayed with me was Hang your head over, hear the wind blow..  This was a powerful imagery because I could see hair blowing in the wind.  My project will be based on this

I listened to the other versions of the song and Solomon Burke's version is "song to be performed," not the soft, flow-y song we sung in class.  Listening to his story about playing with the KKK and reading about Burke and his life on wikipedia was illuminating--he was fascinating and a large character.

Leadbelly version is more organic and lulling.  haha, and his voice--absolutely dvine!

you are my sunshine. part 2

I didn't want to draw a overly sensationalized woman but one who is more real, maybe with a folksy sensibility?

sorry for the blurry picture...

You are my SUNSHINE!

This song is popular, even I've heard of it.  I think it's one of those songs that are part of the collective consciousness of Americans, covered by countless artist, and is intimately connected with Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis.  


Artwork: I wanted to convey the pulsating energy of the sun and a simple object of adoration, like in the song.  I chose to do a "color scratcher" like we did in grade school (coloring the paper with swatches of color and then covering it with a layer of black oil pastel and using a toothpick to scratch a picture.  The literal part of this technique is to present color peeking through "when skies are grey." But I also feel like this technique allows for precise lines and more liberal lines.  


Subject: The first image in my mind I had were Crepuscular rays/God rays through the trees (too literal?) and a woman with her back to us, basking in the sun.  I hope my technical skills are up for the challenge!


You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away. 


The last line was particularly affecting; inspired one of my favorite modern songs.

Irene

Goodnight Irene.


The name Irene has been rolling a lot this weekend, started by our class rendition of "Goodnight Irene."


I am thinking about a project that combines the elements of the hurricane and the tumultuous relationship described in the song, "Sometimes I have a great notion/To jump into the river and drown..I wished to God I'd never seen your face/I's sorry you ever was born."


When we sang this song in class, I was struck by how many people knew this song; I think some people even mentioned how their mothers/grandmothers sang this song to them when they were younger.  


Coming from an immigrant background, I recognize that these folk songs we will explore in this class is not part of my upbringing.  My parents would sing songs about three wheeled carts as lullabies.  I grew up listening to Taiwanese music: ranging from mellow ballads or our version of folk song ("Rainy Day").


In fact, one of the words in "I Ride an Old Paint" refers to coolies ("They feed in the coolies, they water in the draw"), which is a historical term for manual labor from Asia, my ancestors!  But the great thing about America is our diversity--my membership in both American and Chinese/Taiwanese culture is not mutually exclusive.  


I think this class will be really interesting for me to explore the folk songs of my adopted country, part of a culture I know only as historical facts.  I have no personal/historical connection with slavery or Cowboy/Indian culture but these songs is a spiritual connection with the participants of history.  


Another thought of our class session, my contribution for our mother-feeling-hugged project was in contrast to everybody else's way more nuanced, abstract work.  I think as we go forward in the class, my pieces should be less literal, less obvious.  


Favorite version of "Goodnight Irene": Weavers


Edit: We are actually doing a project on "You are My Sunshine!"