Rock Evolution – The History of Rock ’n’ Roll - Country & Folk (pg 29)

[threespires]

to be fair...they might not have known...

In fairness they kind of make that kind of joke in the film themselves.

 

[mancity111]

Long before rappers started back and forthing using songs, Kitty Wells was telling Hank Williams to do one with a song that's been sung by loads of female artists since.

It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels - Kitty Wells

Don't know if it's the first 'wronged woman' country song but certainly one of the most famous early ones.

Francis Rossi eat your heart out.

You won't believe this TS but I was going to nominate After Dark as my contribution to the playlist.

One might say great minds think alike or perhaps more felicitously one should say Kitty Wells carved out some career for herself.

If memory serves me correctly her three children have all had abiding careers in music.

Bob Dylan has had 6 children with only one following suit I believe to contrast this.

Francis is 8 for 8 which would take some beating but I digress and children of famous musicians who went beyond the endowment of their parent could be the discussion of a future thread.

Excellent choice from you I cannot do better so I will abstain from a second choice and enjoy this list as is to bring back some really old memories from the ether of my failing neurons.

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

Any proper "country & folk" playlist has to have this standard, popular, and often borrowed tune by many over the decades.

This was a 20th-century American folk standard, written in 3/4 time, first recorded by American blues and folk musician Huddie William Ledbetter in 1933. That artist was better known from his stage name as 'Lead Belly', he based this song off of an 1886 published song from Gussie Lord Davis. The lyrics of the song have some similarities to suggest that Lead Belly's song was based on Davis' lyrics. Lead Belly's account was of performing this by 1908, in a way he learned from his uncles Ter(r)ell and Bob. By the 1930s, he had made the song his own, modifying the rhythm and rewriting most of the verses.

A version of this was recorded by the Weavers and became a #1 hit in 1950, one year after Lead Belly's passing. This song is also sung by supporters of the Bristol Rovers, and was covered by Tom Waits, Keith Richards, and others since.

"Goodnight Irene" - Lead Belly

 

[RobMCFC]

"Goodnight Irene" - Lead Belly

This song was on the Blues playlist a couple of weeks ago.

 

[threespires]

Francis Rossi eat your heart out.

You won't believe this TS but I was going to nominate After Dark as my contribution to the playlist.

One might say great minds think alike or perhaps more felicitously one should say Kitty Wells carved out some career for herself.

If memory serves me correctly her three children have all had abiding careers in music.

Bob Dylan has had 6 children with only one following suit I believe to contrast this.

Francis is 8 for 8 which would take some beating but I digress and children of famous musicians who went beyond the endowment of their parent could be the discussion of a future thread.

Excellent choice from you I cannot do better so I will abstain from a second choice and enjoy this list as is to bring back some really old memories from the ether of my failing neurons.

It's easy, from a distance, to underestimate or misunderstand how ground breaking she was.

Patsy Cline is probably more burned into public consciousness because she had a crossover career and died young so is frozen in time. No doubt Cline is a great but it was Wells who got the ball rolling for women.

 

[threespires]

This song was on the Blues playlist a couple of weeks ago.

Happy that B&W has mentioned it though, as I meant to comment when Sadds put this on the other playlist. In the 80s a family member ran a pub that had regular live music and one of the most popular bands, who would have the place rammed to the gunwales, would always finish their set with this song. The entire pub would sing along swaying side to side, to the extent they could given how packed it was. It was a properly communal experience, it's a brilliantly singable song so it's fitting I think that it's been brought up again in the Folk week.

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

This song was on the Blues playlist a couple of weeks ago.

Ouch, should have done the overall search vs. looking at this playlist. More folk than blues, but Lead Belly blended both genres.

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

This song was on the Blues playlist a couple of weeks ago.

Ok, then this song wasn't, and I'm hearing more folk than blues and that's how it is listed online. *

Good enough for Nirvana and many others too...

"Where Did You Sleep Last Night" / "In the Pines" - Lead Belly

(* "In the Pines" is a traditional American folk song originating from two songs, "In the Pines" and "The Longest Train", both of whose authorship is unknown and date back to at least the 1870s. The songs originated in the Southern Appalachian area of the United States in the contiguous areas of East Tennessee and Kentucky, Western North Carolina and Northern Georgia.)

 

[threespires]

Rob mentioned the Carter Family in his write up but we don't yet have anything from them on the playlist, which given their stature in Country should be rectified. I'll hold fire till till the weekend in case anybody else wants to nominate something by them in the interim?

 

[fanatic1]

"Sinnerman" by Nina Simone well worth a listen. Originally a traditional African American negro spiritual with the message that you cannot escape God's wrath for past sins in the final judgement. A bit different to many country songs about women going to the bad and long trains running.