Goodnight Irene, Good Night Visual Studies 12.15.11

“Down By the Sally Gardens” is by far the song I am going to miss the most next semester. I can hear the sweet melody of the classroom with a trio of guitarists and an accordionist….why cant the song be longer?! It is so sweet and wonderful; I wish we could just keep singing it over, and over and over… its on pg. 5 of our song sheets…circle it!!!

“It was down by the Sally Gardens my love and I did meet,

She passed the Sally Gardens with little snow white feet

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 Mississippi for 30 years without a recording due to the Great Depression: there was no money for records to be made. What happens when a political figure sings blues music? Jimmy Davis was singing for his position in office, but there is so much more energy coming from Hurts’ southern roots. I could picture him singing on the front porch of his home in Mississippi, whereas I could see Jimmy Davis with a microphone in his hand, onstage and singing for a crowd of followers. “Since I’ve Laid My Burden Down,” is a classic Mississippi blues type of music by John Hurt that involved a fast, self taught finger picking style. The bluegrass music was really a treat.

Muddy Waters was inspired by Delta blues of Mississippi. Delta style is so expressive and unique because it links to the voice of the musician and the expressive playing on the guitar (Skip James and Robert Johnson). More topics included “Freight Train” written by the famous Mrs. Elizabeth Cotton when she was 11.

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 Alabama in 1995 was intense. And how could I forget about Mahalia Jackson (“Amazing Grace,” “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”) who was entwined with the civil rights movement as she sang for Martin Luther King. In addition, how could I not mention Thomas Dorsey and Sally Martin. Thomas Dorsey’s songs come out of experience with him when his spirit was broken (Precious Lord ).

Janice Joplin’s “Careless Love” seemed more edgy, as if her experience with careless love was more regrettable, and truly “broke that heart of hers.” Skip James singing “Worried Blues,” really dug his fingers into his guitar, feeling the beat and rhythm through his feet and body and his song “Crow Jane.” Charlie Rich was the “Silver Fox,” who grew up on a big cotton farm in Arkansas, where he learned how to play the piano… “Feel like going home” was definitely a classic.

During cowhand week, I loved Hank Williams version of “Lonesome Whistle Blow.” (“The Wa, wa, wa, whistle blow”)…..The Wyoming cowboy himself, Skip Gordon, sang the gritty songs, and how they were played along the emigrant trail for years in the American West. They are some of the best loved American songs about the ranch life.

“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 Texas,

Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee”

“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 Cal, Visual Studies was quite a nice change up from the stressful and dreary Wurster Hall. I really looked forward to a class I could just go to and sing great songs, and make artwork about….

To end this essay without Good Night Irene would be just plain crazy:

“Irene Goodnight, Irene Goodnight

Goodnight Irene, Good night Irene, Ill see you in my dreams”

Now, quite ramlin’ ….These songs will save you...

....if you let them.

~Miss Pineapples

Melissa