“Down By the
“It was down by the
She passed the
She bid my take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree
But I, being young and foolish, with her did not agree
In a field by the river my love and I did stand
And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow white hand
She bid my take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs
But I was young and foolish, and now I am full of tears”
Snow white hands. Little snow white feet. Grass grows on the weirs. The lyrics are so fantastic, like the rest of the song. Why can’t music always sound like this?
“I like spontaneity; I live by it”- Tony. The incredibly unique and diverse Visual studies class of American folk songs concentrated on learning music through memory. How do we make music part of ourselves? If I were to narrate my experience for this class, I would have a very long list of talented musician folk who most people probably would not have a clue what I am talking about. I started off knowing very little, almost zip, about folk music. The closest song I knew was “O death,” from the “O Brother Where Art Thou” movie. But that’s the point of the class: learning folk music through practice, as Tony would say, “These songs save your life.”Now I am equipped with countless rapid share files of Gospel, delta blues, Chicago blues, Ballads, Woody Guthrie, Songsters, Cowhands and Sailor music, which I often made a top 5 playlist for myself...but ended up with way more than 5 songs. It was routine to pick a song each week that inspired us and create an artistic project about it that we decorated the walls with.
Coming into this class, I couldn’t recognize a Mississippi John Hurt song if it was played right before me. Why haven’t I heard of the king of blues music? John Hurt lived and farmed in Avalon
Muddy Waters was inspired by Delta blues of
The murder ballads week of “Barbara Allen” was a lot of fun. Starting off with a competition between Bill Monroe and Doc Watson playoff…who could outplay the drums? “Folk Bloodbath” by Josh Ritter was really special, because it was a combination of several classics, such as Stackalee, Duncan and Brady, and Barbara Allen.
Lead Belly was a whole ‘nother animal. Lead Belly got out of the first prison he was held at because the governor appreciated his religious songs. What does it mean when records are recorded in prison? When Leadbelly sang with Martha, it was like heaven. While playing on his antique, weathered guitar, Leadbelly had the qualities of Mississippi John Hurt, where I could feel the genuine nature of his voice and his passion for singing. Possibly because of his passion for Martha? At that point, he did not seem like the hard edged, stern faced person he earlier was portrayed as. While his face is naturally bold and stern, that seemed to fade.
“Red River Blues,” by Henry Thomas…Well I had to mention it because of the awesome combination of the ol’ time singing, and the pan pipes that completely captivated me.
The spiritual music, did you know it came from the slavery, as the people worked better singing in the fields about the toils of life? Their sweet melody, messages about Moses and the great escape through the night had so much spirit. Leroy Jones writes about spiritual music in a beautiful way: “This is the history. This is your history, my history, the history of the Negro people…the music. The music, this is our history. The music was explaining the history as the history was explaining the music.” The stories were passed on from the elders to the young, as the “expression issued from life was beauty.”
Sam Cook’s song about the resurrection of the chain gang in
During cowhand week, I loved Hank Williams version of “Lonesome Whistle Blow.” (“The Wa, wa, wa, whistle blow”)…..The
“O if you aint got the do re mi folks,
If you don’t got that do re mi
Why you better go back to beautiful
“Don’t swap your old cow for a car, you’d better stay right where you are”…
The lyrics are so playful. I love it.
Finally, I think this class is all about important quotes and song lyrics that are really powerful.
“Roses love sunshine, violets love dew
Angels in heaven, know I love you”
-Down in the Valley
“Mary wore three links of chain,
Every link was freedoms name”
-O Mary Don’t you Weep
Some of my favorite quotes from this semester, I wrote about in my blog, but I have to mention again:
Paul Robinson: “We should not be moved, we should not be moved. Just like a tree that grows by the waterside, we should not be moved.”
“For water clarifies the spirit even more that a perfect friend.”
In all my classes at
To end this essay without Good Night Irene would be just plain crazy:
“Irene Goodnight, Irene Goodnight
Goodnight Irene, Good night
Now, quite ramlin’ ….These songs will save you...
....if you let them.
~Miss Pineapples
Melissa
