Crawdaddy! The Magazine of Rock

Graphic by Greer Ashman “I’m obsessed with him. He’s my favorite performer,” said Kurt Cobain. “No Lead Belly, no Beatles,” claimed George Harrison, and the same may as well be said for Led Zeppelin, as Jimmy Page was rocking “Cotton Fields” back in 1957. According to Van Morrison, “If it wasn’t for Lead Belly, I may never have been here.” And yet, Lead Belly—born Huddie Ledbetter near Mooringsport, Louisiana in 1888—is rarely the first traditional American musician historians credit with the creation of rock ‘n’ roll or the bands of the British Invasion. His contribution to rock is as fundamental and profound as those of Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, so why is it we don’t hear that much anymore about his legend? Perhaps it can be blamed on the boll weevil he sung about—and it indeed may have something to do with cotton—though the diminishment of Lead Belly’s influence on rock is likely just another case of the forgotten origins of song.

The Louisianan’s sound first came to impact the young lads who would go on to form the classic rock bands of the ’60s via the British Isle’s mid-’50s skiffle craze. Rooted in the jug band style of the 1920s, skiffle’s homemade and improvised style relied on the wacky sounds of household items like washboard, comb, and homemade instruments—the stuff that makes for its irresistible, ecstatic sound. Glaswegian Lonnie Donegan’s frantic version of “Rock Island Line”, first popularized by Lead Belly, swept across the land like skiffle-mania, boosting guitar sales and launching a thousand bands, like young Jim Page’s combo as well as the Quarrymen (who we all know by now birthed the Beatles). For Morrison—who’d already developed a taste for the blues voices of the American South—skiffle provided confirmation of the potential for what an Irishman could do with a black American folk sound. The Lead Belly repertoire meeting English skiffle marked the beginning of his long association with rock ‘n’ roll; though stateside he was more of a singular phenomenon, as well as a folker.

published: September 10, 2009 in column: Origin of Song

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Questions and Answers with Jim Musselman

How do you start out as a progressive Washington lawyer working alongside Ralph Nader and end up as a record label boss? Just ask Jim Musselman, founder of Appleseed Recordings, who is celebrating his label’s 100th record release this month. Musselman may have left his lawyering days behind, but he’s remained remarkably committed to social justice and a host of progressive causes. Indeed, Appleseed Recordings has a distinct political identity, fostering a kind of liberal ideology that hearkens back to the 1960s. The label has released recordings by influential artists from Pete Seeger to John Wesley Harding, garnering nine Grammy nominations and notching a Grammy win along the way. By offering artists full creative control, Musselman has managed to recruit some musicians who gave up on recording for years: Folks like Roger McGuinn, Donovan, Tom Rush, and David Bromberg. The label counts albums of Underground Railroad songs and a fundraising CD to combat homelessness among its first 100 releases. Musselman is a true believer in the ability of a song to change the world, a remarkable rarity in today’s music business. We caught up with Musselman to congratulate him on his label’s milestone and talk about putting the message over money, writing songs with the Boss, and bringing music to the masses.

Crawdaddy!: First of all, congratulations on the release of your 100th record. Did you ever think when you started Appleseed Recordings that you’d reach that kind of milestone?

published: September 1, 2009 in column: The Smoke-Filled Room

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Arlo Guthrie Celebrates the Music of His Father

by: j. poet

Woody Guthrie: Courtesy of Wikepedia Arlo Guthrie, son of folk singing legend Woody Guthrie, has never let his father’s considerable accomplishments stop him from forging his own unique identity. Although he entered his father’s business, he didn’t fall prey to offspring-of-a-famous-parent syndrome. Growing up around people like Pete Seeger, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Cisco Houston, and Lead Belly exposed Guthrie to all kinds of folk and blues music, but when he combined the roots music he knew with his skewed sense of humor, he wrote songs stamped by his own character. The fact that he was Woody Guthrie’s son never held him back; he was clearly his own man.

Arlo has never denied his birthright, nor has he tried to capitalize on his dad’s accomplishments. Over the years, he’s come to terms with Woody’s legacy without the problems that have made the careers of many children of rock musicians seem like afterthoughts. This past year, Guthrie dealt directly with his father’s enormous legacy when he launched the Guthrie Family Rides Again Tour. The shows featured Arlo and his extended clan—daughter and son-in-law Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, his piano-playing son Abe and Abe’s son, drummer/guitarist Krishna Guthrie, daughters Cathy and Annie, and assorted grandchildren. It’s the first time Arlo devoted a show to the songs of his father, and the project has clearly energized him. read more

by: j. poet

published: August 21, 2009 in column: Feature Story

Music Books of the Last Six Months: Summer Edition

by: The C! Team

illustration by Tanith Connolly

Well, it’s that time of year again where we all collectively attempt to slow down the pace of our roundabout lives, and for good reason. Shit, we all need to partake in some summertime activity, like some going to the beach or pool, or some eating of some hot dogs and drinking of some beers at a baseball game, or, you know, in some being especially lazy. Let the summer breeze blow through the jasmine of your mind, as it were. Record releases come to a proverbial halt, so we’re following their lead, however inanimate they are. What we’re trying to say is that we aren’t publishing for the next week, due to a twice-a-year necessity to hit the reset button and come back refreshed and ready for more rollickin’ rock journalism. The good news is that we’re keeping up the tradition of our bi-annual book review! This summertime edition features music-related books that have come out in the last six months. You should pick up a few and add them to your summer reading list, and really, really focus on taking things down a notch. Enjoy!

Family
Photographs and text by Lauren Dukoff
(Chronicle Books)

by: The C! Team

published: July 1, 2009 in column: Book Reviews

Nina Simone: Rock’s Unlikely Rebel

Courtesy of Nina Simone “I want to shake people up. I want to shake people up more.” These words were once spoken by international super-artist Nina Simone. It’s safe to say she succeeded with her mission: More than 50 years after her debut, few can match Simone’s supreme gifts as a vocalist, pianist, and arranger, the diversity of her repertoire, and the way those songs rattled consciences. Her music’s agelessness, as well as her delivery, has kept the melodies, as well as her message, fresh. And though her contribution to rock ‘n’ roll isn’t the first thing you may think of when it comes to her virtues, Simone was what we call a rocker: Her fierce attitude and the way she adapted some of rock’s best-known songs contributed toward getting across her message of true liberation.

“What we were looking for then was to shake people out of their complacency,” says Al Schackman, Simone’s musical soulmate and foremost collaborator. Schackman served as the genre-defying artist’s musical director, as well as a multi-instrumentalist, guitarist, and musical companion for just about the entirety of her career; the pair shared what both have described as a rare, telepathic communication that served them onstage as well as off. Much of their work together was compiled in 2008 on the four-disc set To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story, which includes a hefty slice of Simone’s “rock” repertoire alongside the jazz, folk, standards, and originals for which she is otherwise famous.

“If you wanted to classify her, she said she was a folk artist,” says Schackman, a Greenwich Village folk scene regular himself, though that isn’t necessarily the kind of folk Simone was talking about. She sang the songs indigenous to a country’s and people’s origins, from New Orleans and the “House of the Rising Sun” to Nigeria and Olatunji’s “Zungo”; she also interpreted Jacques Brel’s “Ne Me Quitte Pas” and the European ballad “Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair”, among other folk tunes.

published: June 5, 2009 in column: Feature Story

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Questions and Answers with Patterson Hood

Patterson Hood: Photo by Jason Thrasher Here in the Smoke-Filled Room, we often find ourselves bemoaning the dearth of political activists on the scene these days. Not today. Today we extend our heartfelt birthday wishes to a man who has largely shaped our very concept of the protest singer. That man, of course, is the incomparable Pete Seeger, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday in high style with a star-studded concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Not surprisingly, all the proceeds from the event went to a good cause—the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, a non-profit organization created to defend and restore the Hudson River. Among the dozens of A-listers who showed up to pay tribute to Seeger were Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, and a good friend of the Smoke-Filled Room, Ani DiFranco. Most importantly, for our purposes, was the involvement of Patterson Hood. Hood, who is best-known for leading the powerhouse Southern rock group Drive-By Truckers, is a formidable activist in his own right, and his new solo record, the delightfully titled Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs), is due out later this month. We caught up with Hood to talk about sharing a stage with the Boss, what to expect from Obama, and the cause closest to his heart.

Crawdaddy!: First of all, congratulations on the release of your new album, which comes out next month and will mark the end of a very long process of writing and recording. Are you relieved? Sorry to see the end of it?

Patterson Hood: Very relieved. It’s been an extremely long process. I’m very proud of the album and have wanted to see it come out for a long time. It also clears the way for me to do other things, too.

published: June 2, 2009 in column: The Smoke-Filled Room

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Questions and Answers with Slaid Cleaves

Photo by Karen Cleaves Here in the Smoke-Filled Room, we make it our business to keep a keen eye on politics and current events. But with the presidential election, legislative politics, and everything else going on in the world (pirates!), we haven’t quite had the time to delve into our current economic troubles. But who better to talk declining economic fortunes than Texas troubadour Slaid Cleaves? Cleaves is an Austin-based rock and folk guitar-slinger in the tradition of Woody Guthrie—though he’s a bit more subtle in his delivery of the truth. From his early days playing Texas honkytonks to the release of his new album, Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away, Cleaves has painted extraordinarily vivid portraits of ordinary men and women just trying to stay sane and make ends meet. We caught up with the gravelly-voiced Cleaves to talk about Stephen King’s taste in music, Woody Guthrie and the Death Star, and the fragmentation of American culture.

Crawdaddy!: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us. So, you mentioned you just finished pumping gas. Are you out on the road touring?

Slaid Cleaves: Yeah, the record comes out tomorrow (April 21st). I thought it’d be out earlier this year, so I booked all these tour dates and now I’m out here and the record’s not out yet. But I’m out here playing shows and telling people about it.

published: May 4, 2009 in column: The Smoke-Filled Room

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott

by: j. poet

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott
A Stranger Here
(Anti-, 2009)

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is 77, and his legend looms large. Live, his charisma is palpable; even today his boyish charm and dazzling smile can turn an audience of strangers into a group of adoring fans. He doesn’t write many of his own tunes, but he breathes new life into ancient folk songs, cowboy tunes, and blues classics. His long, between-song narratives—kaleidoscopic tales of his life and times—may sound fantastic, but they’re mostly true. His nickname, in fact, doesn’t refer to his inability to stay in one place for very long, but rather to his habit of jumping from subject to subject in conversation. He was one of Woody Guthrie’s last traveling companions, mentored the young Bob Dylan, and hung out with Pete Seeger, Odetta, Jesse Fuller, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac.

Elliott’s had a strong cult following on the folk circuit most of his life, but over the past 15 years, he’s been getting some mainstream recognition—a Best Traditional Folk Album Grammy for South Coast in 1995 and a National Medal of Arts in 1998. Anti- Records signed Elliott in 2006 and his first album for the label, that year’s I Stand Alone, introduced him to generations of listeners that weren’t born when he started ramblin’. Elliott has never made a bad album, but there are a few hit-or-miss titles in his back catalog, and A Stranger Here is one of them.

by: j. poet

published: April 1, 2009 in column: Reviews

Ed Pearl: Back to the Ash Grove

Courtesy of AshGroveMusic.com “What the Ash Grove did,” says Ed Pearl, “was change the face of popular music.” Of course, Pearl would think that: He is the folk impresario (if that’s not an oxymoron) behind the Ash Grove, a fabled roots music club that stirred it up on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles from 1958-1973. It was the kind of place some folks dream about, a place where legends the likes of Muddy Waters and Doc Watson, as well as Flamenco dancers and street poets, took the stage on the same bill; a community center where everyday people—activists and laborers, millionaires and grifters—all made the scene. So why would anyone want to burn it down, not once, but three times?

The gospel of the Ash Grove, according to Pearl, demonstrates how the traditional music of the American South came to the West Coast, entered the popular culture in the early ’60s, launched the folk revival followed by the creation of folk-rock and its protest-orientated repertoire, and contributed to the transformation of culture. Though what you are about to read may or may not prove that claim, like one of those traditional ballads that gets handed down and slightly rearranged over time, it’s the writer’s hope that the essence of the song is pure, while its mystery remains.

The Step Into Tradition