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The Holy Modal Rounders

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David Harrison Macon (October 7, 1870 – March 22, 1952), known professionally as Uncle Dave Macon , was an American old-time banjo player , singer , songwriter , and comedian . Known as "The Dixie Dewdrop", Macon was known for his chin whiskers, plug hat , gold teeth, and gates-ajar collar; he gained regional fame as a vaudeville performer in the early 1920s before becoming the first star of the Grand Ole Opry in the latter half of the decade.

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143-597: The Holy Modal Rounders was an American folk music group, originally the duo of Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber , who formed in 1963 on the Lower East Side of New York City. Although they achieved only limited commercial and critical success in the 1960s and 1970s, they quickly earned a dedicated cult following and have been retrospectively praised for their groundbreaking reworking of early 20th century folk music as well as their pioneering innovation in several genres, including freak folk and psychedelic folk . With

286-645: A buck dancer to their act, Their tours on the Loew's circuit now included comedy, buck-dancing and old time music. In late 1925, Macon met guitarist Sam McGee , who was to become Macon's regular recording and performance partner. On November 6, 1925, Macon and Harkreader performed at the Ryman Auditorium —the future home of the Grand Ole Opry — in a benefit for the Nashville police force. The show

429-482: A chuigushou . Ensembles consisting of mouth organs ( sheng ), shawms ( suona ), flutes ( dizi ) and percussion instruments (especially yunluo gongs ) are popular in northern villages; their music is descended from the imperial temple music of Beijing, Xi'an , Wutai shan and Tianjin . Xi'an drum music, consisting of wind and percussive instruments, is popular around Xi'an, and has received some commercial popularity outside of China. Another important instrument

572-619: A pipa , as well as other traditional instruments. The music is generally sorrowful and typically deals with love-stricken people. Further south, in Shantou , Hakka and Chaozhou , zheng ensembles are popular. Sizhu ensembles use flutes and bowed or plucked string instruments to make harmonious and melodious music that has become popular in the West among some listeners. These are popular in Nanjing and Hangzhou , as well as elsewhere along

715-474: A tune is a short instrumental piece , a melody , often with repeating sections , and usually played a number of times. A collection of tunes with structural similarities is known as a tune-family . America's Musical Landscape says "the most common form for tunes in folk music is AABB, also known as binary form ." In some traditions, tunes may be strung together in medleys or " sets ." Throughout most of human history, listening to recorded music

858-512: A "Traditional music" category that subsequently evolved into others. The term "folk", by the start of the 21st century, could cover singer-songwriters, such as Donovan from Scotland and American Bob Dylan , who emerged in the 1960s and much more. This completed a process to where "folk music" no longer meant only traditional folk music. Traditional folk music often includes sung words , although folk instrumental music occurs commonly in dance music traditions. Narrative verse looms large in

1001-420: A "classic of demented archaic country with rhythmic hints of rock, Stampfel's helium vocals, and his skewed lyrics." In 1972, the two albums were combined by Fantasy Records on the double-LP Stampfel & Weber . In 1999, Fantasy reissued it as 1 & 2 , with the addition of two unreleased songs, to positive reviews. Tom Hull , writing in 2004 for the fourth edition of The Rolling Stone Album Guide , gave

1144-648: A career spanning 40 years, the Holy Modal Rounders proved to be influential both in the New York scene where they began and to generations of underground musicians. As the Holy Modal Rounders, Stampfel and Weber began playing in and around the Greenwich Village scene, at the heart of the ongoing American folk music revival . Their sense of humor, irreverent attitude, and novel update of old-time music brought support from fellow musicians but

1287-446: A center for Macon and his growing musical interests, and was frequented by artists and troupers traveling along vaudeville circuit and circus acts. In 1885, he learned to play the banjo from a circus comedian called Joel Davidson. He attended Hume-Fogg High School in Nashville. Macon's father was murdered outside the hotel in 1886. His widowed mother sold the hotel and the family moved to Readyville, Tennessee , where his mother ran

1430-401: A class dynamic to popular understandings of American folk music. This was the final element of the foundation upon which the early folk music revivalists constructed their own view of Americanism. Sandburg's working-class Americans joined with the ethnically , racially , and regionally diverse citizens that other scholars, public intellectuals, and folklorists celebrated their own definitions of

1573-410: A crucial missing link between early- and late-20th-century pop." The band's first two albums have been called early forerunners of the genre freak folk , with music critic Robert Christgau , while reviewing the 1999 reissue that combined the albums, declaring that "freak folk started here." In 1983, The New Rolling Stone Record Guide called Stampfel and Weber the "cocreators and lone practitioners of

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1716-585: A cult act... Their audience was small because their music was too strange, idiosyncratic, and at times downright dissonant for mainstream listeners to abide." The band's frequent drug use as well as Stampfel and Weber's creative differences also hindered a breakthrough. After observing Stampfel and Weber's interactions during the filming of the documentary Bound to Lose , Paul Lovelace said "they really are like an old married couple. They love each other to death at times, but they also just can't stand being around each other at times." Peter Stampfel reflected that "there

1859-405: A fuck while remaining both charming and musical." Jason Weiss observed that "from the start, [Weber] was recognized for his technique and divine spontaneity he brought to old-time music." The New York Times also noted Weber's "mastery of traditional guitar styles." While Stampfel was dismissive of the Holy Modal Rounders' influence in the late 1990s, calling it "practically nonexistent" outside of

2002-587: A great body of English rural traditional song, music and dance, under the aegis of what became and remains the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS). Sharp campaigned with some success to have English traditional songs (in his own heavily edited and expurgated versions) to be taught to school children in hopes of reviving and prolonging the popularity of those songs. Throughout the 1960s and early to mid-1970s, American scholar Bertrand Harris Bronson published an exhaustive four-volume collection of

2145-538: A memorable duet of "Take Me Back to My Carolina Home" with Dorris in which the 69-year-old Macon jumps out of his seat and dances throughout the second half of the song. Although Macon toured with Bill Monroe in the late 1940s, he was neither impressed by the new bluegrass style nor by the banjo picking of Monroe's bandmate Earl Scruggs . Macon continued to perform until shortly before his death on March 22, 1952, at Rutherford County Hospital in Murfreesboro. He

2288-432: A new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called the (second) folk revival and reached a zenith in the 1960s. This form of music is sometimes called contemporary folk music or folk revival music to distinguish it from earlier folk forms. Smaller, similar revivals have occurred elsewhere in the world at other times, but the term folk music has typically not been applied to

2431-436: A number of radio shows playing the song, including Dr. Demento 's. From 1971 to 2022, Demento played it 167 times. "Boobs a Lot" was also featured on Demento's compilation album Dr. Demento's Delights in 1975. Much has been made of the band's legacy as a cult act. Rolling Stone magazine dubbed the Holy Modal Rounders "one of rock's greatest cult bands." The Seattle Times said "in the subculture of obscure music groups,

2574-404: A particular interest in folklore. Carl Sandburg often traveled the U.S. as a writer and a poet. He also collected songs in his travels and, in 1927, published them in the book The American Songbag . Rachel Donaldson, a historian who worked for Vanderbilt, later stated this about The American Songbird in her analysis of the folk music revival. "In his collections of folk songs, Sandburg added

2717-695: A possible better system, through the lens of the Great Depression. Woody Guthrie exemplifies songwriters and artists with such an outlook. Folk music festivals proliferated during the 1930s. President Franklin Roosevelt was a fan of folk music, hosted folk concerts at the White House , and often patronized folk festivals. One prominent festival was Sarah Gertrude Knott 's National Folk Festival , established in St. Louis, Missouri in 1934. Under

2860-399: A real scene. We helped each other out if we could and generally hung out at the same places." The duo was also friendly with and occasionally performed with Karen Dalton and Luke Faust , who briefly played the jug with the duo, during their original incarnation. "Got my psychedelic feet in my psychedelic shoes/I believe, Lordy mama, got the psychedelic blues" – "Hesitation Blues" by

3003-621: A reference to beautiful women, while in the past they were notorious for their erotic content. The village "mountain songs" ( shan'ge ) of Jiangsu province were also well known for their amorous themes. Other regional song traditions include the "strummed lyrics" ( tanci ) of the Lower Yangtze Delta, the Cantonese Wooden Fish tradition ( muyu or muk-yu ) and the Drum Songs ( guci ) of north China. In

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3146-553: A revolutionary tool to preserve vanishing musical forms. The earliest American folk music scholars were with the American Folklore Society (AFS), which emerged in the late 1800s. Their studies expanded to include Native American music , but still treated folk music as a historical item preserved in isolated societies as well. In North America, during the 1930s and 1940s, the Library of Congress worked through

3289-575: A series of reunions for the duo. They then released Too Much Fun! , with contributions from Dave Reisch and guest slide guitarist Don Rooke, under the Rounders name in 1999. In 2003, the duo intended to reunite for a 40th anniversary show but Weber unexpectedly did not show up. This was captured in the 2006 documentary film The Holy Modal Rounders: Bound to Lose , which was directed and produced by Paul Lovelace and Sam Douglas. Weber later explained that he did not show up because he felt misrepresented by

3432-888: A set on the sketch comedy television show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In in October. They continued playing shows of high notability after leaving California, opening for the Velvet Underground in Boston in January 1969, playing at Carnegie Hall with the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers in September 1969, and sharing a bill with the Grateful Dead , also in September 1969. Not long after

3575-536: A similar combination of traditional music and psychedelia to Indian War Whoop . Richie Unterberger retrospectively reflected that "no acid folk album mixed inspiration and lunacy in as downright deranged a fashion as The Moray Eels ." The album opens with "Bird Song," which was written by Antonia and notably included in Dennis Hopper 's 1969 counterculture film Easy Rider and its soundtrack. Stampfel later expressed dissatisfaction with The Moray Eels citing

3718-479: A simple distinction of economic class yet for him, true folk music was, in Charles Seeger 's words, "associated with a lower class" in culturally and socially stratified societies. In these terms, folk music may be seen as part of a "schema comprising four musical types: 'primitive' or 'tribal'; 'elite' or 'art'; 'folk'; and 'popular'." Music in this genre is also often called traditional music. Although

3861-415: A stagecoach inn. Macon began entertaining passengers at the rest stop, playing a banjo on a homemade stage. In 1889, Macon married Matilda Richardson and moved to a farm near Kittrell, Tennessee, where they raised six sons. Around 1900, Macon opened a freight line between Murfreesboro and Woodbury, Tennessee . It was called The Macon Midway Mule and Mitchell Wagon Transportation Company. Often, when Macon

4004-499: A subsequent June session. These two sessions produced the material for the Fugs' debut studio album The Fugs First Album , which was released on ESP-Disk in 1965. The album included Weber's cult classic "Boobs a Lot" (the Rounders would record their own version of the song on Good Taste Is Timeless ). Outtakes from these sessions were released by ESP-Disk as the Fugs' third studio album Virgin Fugs in 1967. Additional outtakes from

4147-640: A tour of the south-eastern United States , joined by fiddler Sid Harkreader and five other acts. By now, the Sterchi Brothers Furniture Company , distributors of Vocalion Records , had noticed Macon and realised his potential as a recording artist. On July 8, 1924, Macon and Harkreader made their first recordings for Vocalion in New York City . The session extended over several days and eighteen songs were recorded. In 1925, Macon and Harkreader added "Dancing Bob" Bradford,

4290-567: A traditional song would undergo a process of improvement akin to biological natural selection : only those new variants that were the most appealing to ordinary singers would be picked up by others and transmitted onward in time. Thus, over time we would expect each traditional song to become more aesthetically appealing, due to incremental community improvement. Literary interest in the popular ballad form dates back at least to Thomas Percy and William Wordsworth . English Elizabethan and Stuart composers had often evolved their music from folk themes,

4433-434: A tragic or regretful nature, prominently figures in many folk traditions. Nursery rhymes , children's songs and nonsense verse used to amuse or quiet children also are frequent subjects of traditional songs. Music transmitted by word of mouth through a community, in time, develops many variants, since this transmission cannot produce word-for-word and note-for-note accuracy. In addition, folk singers may choose to modify

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4576-493: Is a thoroughly bizarre listening experience" with "neo-psychedelic fiddle-and-guitar freakouts and free-form (and often radically altered) interpretations of traditional folk tunes." Because Weber had refused to rehearse before recording Indian War Whoop (which led to an uneven and unfocused project in the eyes of Stampfel), Stampfel did not intend to reunite with him. However, the Moray Eels signed to Elektra Records under

4719-408: Is an ancient folk song from India, a country of Asia, of Meiteis of Manipur , that is an example of Asian folk music, and how they put it into its own genre. Archaeological discoveries date Chinese folk music back 7000 years; it is largely based on the pentatonic scale . Han traditional weddings and funerals usually include a form of oboe called a suona , and apercussive ensembles called

4862-416: Is considered the ultimate bridge between 19th-century American folk and vaudeville music and the phonograph and radio-based music of the early 20th-century. Music historian Charles Wolfe wrote, "If people call yodelling Jimmie Rodgers 'the father of country music,' then Uncle Dave must certainly be 'the grandfather of country music'." Macon's polished stage presence and lively personality have made him one of

5005-530: Is generally no "authoritative" version of song. Researchers in traditional songs have encountered countless versions of the Barbara Allen ballad throughout the English-speaking world, and these versions often differ greatly from each other. The original is not known; many versions can lay an equal claim to authenticity. Influential folklorist Cecil Sharp felt that these competing variants of

5148-631: Is listed on the National Register of Historic Places . In 2014, the bridge over Cripple Creek in Kittrell was renamed the Uncle Dave Macon Bridge. While Uncle Dave Macon recorded over 170 songs between 1924 and 1938, in his day he was most notable for his polished and lively stage presence. Bandmate Kirk McGee later described Macon's personality as a never-ending performance— "All day long, from morning till midnight, it

5291-417: Is played on traditional instruments, music about cultural or national identity, music that changes between generations (folk process), music associated with a people's folklore , or music performed by custom over a long period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles . The term originated in the 19th century, but folk music extends beyond that. Starting in the mid-20th century,

5434-486: Is simply "Folk music is what the people sing." For Scholes, as well as for Cecil Sharp and Béla Bartók , there was a sense of the music of the country as distinct from that of the town. Folk music was already, "...seen as the authentic expression of a way of life now past or about to disappear (or in some cases, to be preserved or somehow revived)," particularly in "a community uninfluenced by art music" and by commercial and printed song. Lloyd rejected this in favor of

5577-402: Is the sheng , a type of Chinese pipe , an ancient instrument that is ancestor of all Western free reed instruments, such as the accordion . Parades led by Western-type brass bands are common, often competing in volume with a shawm/chuigushou band. In southern Fujian and Taiwan , Nanyin or Nanguan is a genre of traditional ballads. They are sung by a woman accompanied by a xiao and

5720-672: Is the provenance of the American Folklife Center" at the library of Congress. Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. The music of North Africa for the most part has a different history from Sub-Saharan African music traditions . The music and dance forms of the African diaspora , including African American music and many Caribbean genres like soca , calypso and Zouk ; and Latin American music genres like

5863-432: Is to punk : the patron saint of lost causes and good times in spite of them." Robert Christgau had similar high praise, believing that the Holy Modal Rounders, like Bob Dylan , "greatly transcend" the New York folk scene they began in and that "next to Bob Dylan, Stampfel is the closest thing to a genius" to come out of the 1960s folk revival. Christgau also praised Weber, calling him an "ace guitarist" who "can just not give

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6006-475: Is understood that folk music is the music of the people, observers find a more precise definition to be elusive. Some do not even agree that the term folk music should be used. Folk music may tend to have certain characteristics but it cannot clearly be differentiated in purely musical terms. One meaning often given is that of "old songs, with no known composers," another is that of music that has been submitted to an evolutionary "process of oral transmission ...

6149-602: The Delmore Brothers and a few years later in 1938 he recorded with Glenn "Smoky Mountain" Stagner. Between 1930 and 1952, Macon was often accompanied by his son Dorris who played the guitar. In 1940 Macon— together with Opry founder George D. Hay , rising Opry star Roy Acuff , and Dorris Macon— received an invitation from Hollywood to take part in the Republic Pictures movie Grand Ole Opry . The film contains rare footage of Macon performing, including

6292-474: The Great Depression . Regionalism and cultural pluralism grew as influences and themes. During this time folk music began to become enmeshed with political and social activism themes and movements. Two related developments were the U.S. Communist Party's interest in folk music as a way to reach and influence Americans, and politically active prominent folk musicians and scholars seeing communism as

6435-752: The PRC . Folk songs have been recorded since ancient times in China. The term Yuefu was used for a broad range of songs such as ballads, laments, folk songs, love songs, and songs performed at court. China is a vast country, with a multiplicity of linguistic and geographic regions. Folk songs are categorized by geographic region, language type, ethnicity, social function (e.g. work song, ritual song, courting song) and musical type. Modern anthologies collected by Chinese folklorists distinguish between traditional songs, revolutionary songs, and newly invented songs. The songs of northwest China are known as "flower songs" ( hua'er ),

6578-481: The Traditional 18 Dances display the dancing of birds and animals. For example: Musical types include: The classical Sinhalese orchestra consists of five categories of instruments, but among the percussion instruments, the drum is essential for dance. The vibrant beat of the rhythm of the drums form the basic of the dance. The dancers' feet bounce off the floor and they leap and swirl in patterns that reflect

6721-439: The samba , Cuban rumba , salsa ; and other clave (rhythm) -based genres, were founded to varying degrees on the music of enslaved Africans , which has in turn influenced African popular music . Many Asian civilizations distinguish between art /court/classical styles and "folk" music. For example, the late Alam Lohar is an example of a South Asian singer who was classified as a folk singer. Khunung Eshei/Khuland Eshei

6864-561: The 1960s and 1970s, they have since earned significant praise, in particular for their groundbreaking reworking of early 20th century American folk music. Music journalist Greil Marcus used the Holy Modal Rounders as the earliest example of old-time music being reinvented with modern aesthetics, commenting that they were "incapable of taking anything seriously, but nevertheless [got] to the bottom of folk songs other people sang as if they were obvious." The band has frequently been lumped into what Marcus coined as "old weird America," which refers to

7007-411: The 40th anniversary show. While Sam Shepard was still a drummer for the band, the Holy Modal Rounders played a brief set on season 2, episode 5 of the sketch comedy television program Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In in 1968. Stampfel believes this is the only film of Shepard playing with the band. In 1969, the Holy Modal Rounders' "Bird Song" was included in Dennis Hopper 's film Easy Rider and

7150-432: The American folk, definitions that the folk revivalists used in constructing their own understanding of American folk music, and an overarching American identity". Prior to the 1930s, the study of folk music was primarily the province of scholars and collectors. The 1930s saw the beginnings of larger scale themes, commonalities, and linkages in folk music developing in the populace and practitioners as well, often related to

7293-575: The Association for Cultural Equity, is "distinct from the thousands of earlier recordings on acetate and aluminum discs he made from 1933 to 1942 under the auspices of the Library of Congress. This earlier collection—which includes the famous Jelly Roll Morton, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, and Muddy Waters sessions, as well as Lomax's prodigious collections made in Haiti and Eastern Kentucky (1937) —

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7436-684: The Bottlecaps, who would release three albums. In 1998, Stampfel won a Grammy Award for writing part of the liner notes for the CD reissue of the Anthology of American Folk Music . In 1995, Weber left Portland and returned to his native Pennsylvania after years of substance abuse issues. With Weber back on the East Coast, Stampfel and Weber reunited in 1996 at the Bottom Line , which began

7579-654: The Fruit Jar Drinkers, composed of Macon, Sam McGee, Kirk McGee and Mazy Todd. The Fruit Jar Drinkers recorded for the first time on May 7, 1927. Although the group's repertoire was mainly traditional songs and fiddle numbers, they occasionally recorded religious songs, for which Macon would alter the group's name to the Dixie Sacred Singers. In December 1930, Macon recorded for Okeh Records and later in 1934 for Gennett Records . On January 22, 1935, he began recording for Bluebird Records with

7722-501: The Fugs after the performance, with Stampfel noting that band previously had only Ken Weaver 's hand drum to back up Tuli Kupferberg 's and Sanders's lyrics. Richie Unterberger later reflected that the Rounders joining the Fugs "instantly multipl[ied] the group's instrumental skills many times over... A real, albeit ragged, band was beginning to take shape." Continuing to play with the group for several months, they both participated in an April studio session, but only Weber participated in

7865-469: The Fugs, the duo released two albums that experimented with psychedelic folk before they expanded their lineup to a full rock band by the end of 1968. The Holy Modal Rounders' expanded lineup notably included famed playwright Sam Shepard as a drummer and many short-lived members before it stabilized in 1971, with a band that would later back Jeffrey Frederick as the Clamtones . In 1972, Weber relocated

8008-618: The Grand Ole Opry as the Fruit Jar Drinkers until the early 1980s. During the second full weekend in July the city of Murfreesboro celebrates "Uncle Dave Macon Days." The event is held on the grounds of historic Cannonsburgh Village. This celebration hosts the national competitions for old-time clogging, buckdancing and old-time banjo. Macon's house, Uncle Dave Macon House , still stands on Old Woodbury Pike in Kittrell, Tennessee , and

8151-429: The Grand Ole Opry. Macon peppered his performances with jokes and comedic monologues, and often engaged in witty repartee with sidemen such as Sam McGee and Sid Harkreader. Other country entertainers marveled at Uncle Dave's skill as a performer. Grand Ole Opry star Roy Acuff said of Macon, "There was never a person that I have come in contact with in the entertainment world that was more individual than Uncle Dave Macon. He

8294-537: The Holy Modal Rounders In 1963, the duo was signed to Prestige Records by Paul A. Rothchild for two albums. Recorded the day before John F. Kennedy's assassination , their first album The Holy Modal Rounders was released in 1964 and produced by Sam Charters . The album mainly featured covers of traditional songs with rewritten lyrics. Most notably, the album contained a rewriting of the lyrics of " Hesitation Blues ," during which Stampfel sings

8437-407: The Holy Modal Rounders to Portland, Oregon in late 1972. Stampfel stayed behind in New York, effectively leaving the group. In 1975, Jeffrey Frederick also moved to Portland where he utilized the Rounders minus Weber as his backing band the Clamtones . The band continued to play with Weber as the Holy Modal Rounders. A live album Steve Weber and the Holy Modal Rounders, B.C. from a 1976 radio show

8580-402: The Holy Modal Rounders were "overtly inspired by both Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music and drugs." From the beginning, the duo's unorthodox approach to covering old-time music was negatively received by some folk purists. Ariel Swartley of The New York Times retrospectively remarked that they stood out in the New York folk scene, in which performers were usually reverential to

8723-553: The Holy Modal Rounders. A double bill performance of Shepard's The Unseen Hand and Forensic and the Navigators in April 1970 had the Rounders play a set during the intermission with Shepard on drums. In the same year, Shepard played a gig with them, after which he met soon-to-be lover Patti Smith for the first time. Smith, not yet a musician herself, was there as a journalist to review the Holy Modal Rounders' show. In Nashville,

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8866-505: The Portland area and reunited annually. In 1979, Stampfel and Weber reunited when Weber visited the East Coast. They recorded Going Nowhere Fast , their first album as a twosome in over 15 years, which was released in 1981. During the Rounders' time in Portland, Stampfel took a day job at his wife Betsy Wollheim 's publishing company DAW Books in 1981. He continued to stay active musically during this time, however, most notably forming

9009-408: The Portland music scene, others have disagreed. Writing for New Haven Independent , Eleanor Polak discussed how the band had not just had significant influence, but that they had also inspired "countless other musicians to take deep dives into American folk music to find the dark and weird within." In 1999, Dave Van Ronk reflected: "they were hugely influential in New York and on college campuses around

9152-457: The Rounders may be in a class of their own for deficiency of fame as well as longevity. For more than 40 years, this freakadelic folk-rock band... had lasting influence on fans wild and crazy enough to be in on the acquired-taste secret of their art." For the band's retrospective compilation I Make a Wish for a Potato , John Swenson reflected that the Rounders "resolutely pursued their eccentric muses despite an almost complete lack of interest from

9295-574: The Rounders. According to Stampfel, he and Weber began performing together in New York City not long after being introduced, eventually settling on the name the Holy Modal Rounders. "Everywhere we go people ask us what kind of music we play. Most people have not understood when we explained that no one has ever played music like us before, so of course no one ever bothered naming it. Steve calls it rockabilly and I call it progressive old-timey but I doubt if that helps much." – Peter Stampfel in

9438-604: The Space Needle in tribute to the Rounders' 1968 album. Rounder Records was named partially as a tribute to the Holy Modal Rounders. The label would release several of the band's studio albums after its formation in 1970. In 2008, the Holy Modal Rounders were inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame for their long stay in the state and their influence on the Portland music scene. Intervals for Tyler, Remaily, Deane, Reisch, North, and Shepard are included in

9581-714: The Spoonful's version of "Blues in the Bottle" was released. "Euphoria," written by Robin Remaily, was also featured on their debut and was soon covered by the Youngbloods and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band . Ariel Swartley later observed that the song "did for marijuana what Grace Slick 's ' White Rabbit ' did for LSD three years later." Their second album, The Holy Modal Rounders 2 , followed in 1965 and

9724-699: The band recorded their 1971 album Good Taste Is Timeless , which saw the band move away from the psychedelia of their past two albums. Not long before the album's recording, Robin Remaily joined the group as a multi-instrumentalist while bassist Dave Reisch replaced Annis in February 1971 after the album's recording. Later in the year, the band relocated to Boston, Massachusetts, where they added saxophonist Ted Deane and replaced McCarty with drummer Roger North (previously of Quill and inventor of North Drums ). During their time there, they also briefly played with Jeff "Skunk" Baxter . In 1972, Rounder Records , whose name

9867-512: The band returned to New York City in early 1969, Shepard left the group to focus on a movie meant to star the Rolling Stones . While Michael McCarty, a friend of Annis, replaced him on drums that year, Shepard remained an occasional associate of the band. In November 1969, Shepard played drums with the Holy Modal Rounders at his wedding. In March 1970, Shepard's play Operation Sidewinder premiered and included music written and performed by

10010-433: The band to Portland, Oregon , while Stampfel stayed behind in New York. Although Stampfel would describe Weber as his "long lost brother," they often had a hostile relationship and the two would only reunite sporadically following the band's Portland move. After Weber returned to the East Coast in 1995, the duo began a series of concert reunions starting in 1996 before breaking up for the last time in 2003. Stampfel explained

10153-487: The band's first manager. Peter Tork of the Monkees was an early fan, reminiscing the duo was "absolutely hilarious" and brought "a whole new level of authenticity" to the scene. Sterling Morrison of the Velvet Underground similarly praised the Rounders, saying that " the Fugs , the Holy Modal Rounders, and the Velvet Underground were the only authentic Lower East Side bands. We were real bands playing for real people in

10296-527: The behest of ESP-Disk founder Bernard Stollman and recorded another Holy Modal Rounders album. Released the same year, Indian War Whoop also included contributions from Shepard and keyboardist (and ex-member of the Fugs) Lee Crabtree. A departure from the old-time music Stampfel and Weber had previously played, Mark Deming of AllMusic later noted that "even by the standards of The Holy Modal Rounders' first two albums, 1967's Indian War Whoop

10439-465: The classical suite was based upon stylised folk-dances, and Joseph Haydn 's use of folk melodies is noted. But the emergence of the term "folk" coincided with an "outburst of national feeling all over Europe" that was particularly strong at the edges of Europe, where national identity was most asserted. Nationalist composers emerged in Central Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, Spain and Britain:

10582-404: The complex rhythms of the drum beat. This drum beat may seem simple on the first hearing but it takes a long time to master the intricate rhythms and variations, which the drummer sometimes can bring to a crescendo of intensity. There are six common types of drums falling within 3 styles (one-faced, two-faced, and flat-faced): Other instruments include: Uncle Dave Macon Macon's music

10725-492: The condition that Weber would join the recordings. Thus, Weber came with the Moray Eels, who by this time had added bassist John Annis (sometimes spelled Annas) and dropped Levi, as they briefly moved to California in March 1968 to record an album. During the band's time there, Antonia stopped performing with the group. The Moray Eels Eat The Holy Modal Rounders was released in 1968 as the Rounders' fourth studio album and featured

10868-508: The country. Those albums were played in dorms from coast to coast." Ben Sisario similarly wrote that the band's music has served as inspiration to "generations of underground musicians." Jeffrey Lewis has cited the band as an influence for his brand of anti-folk . NPR mentioned Yo La Tengo and Espers as newer bands influenced by the group. The Anniversary named the Rounders as an influence on their 2002 album Your Majesty . Space Needle named their 1997 studio album The Moray Eels Eat

11011-521: The documentary The Holy Modal Rounders: Bound to Lose . The list below is adapted from the list the film provides during the credits. Folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival . Some types of folk music may be called world music . Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers, music that

11154-522: The duo "pursued traditional American music with an archival passion to rival that of the New Lost City Ramblers ." NPR echoed this, saying the band "wasn't doing parodies of old folk songs. Its members knew the music inside and out." While some saw their approach as disrespectful, the band attracted a small and devoted following. Terri Thal, Dave Van Ronk's first wife, thought the songs they wrote were "brilliant" and subsequently became

11297-404: The early 2000s, the band's former road manager Jack Gallagher recalled that "managing them was like herding snakes" but put the band's lack of success more squarely on Weber, questioning whether Weber would even complete the band's current tour and saying that Weber "never crashes until the money gets real good." Despite the band's limited critical and commercial success during their initial run in

11440-546: The elements of nature, and have been enjoyed and developed in the Buddhist environment. The music is of several types and uses only a few types of instruments. The folk songs and poems were used in social gatherings to work together. The Indian influenced classical music has grown to be unique. The traditional drama, music and songs of Sinhala Light Music are typically Sri Lankan. The temple paintings and carvings feature birds, elephants, wild animals, flowers, and trees, and

11583-406: The end of 1965 for being unreliable. After leaving the Fugs and the Holy Modal Rounders, Stampfel decided to form a rock band with his girlfriend Antonia. Although Antonia did not play any instruments, she and Stampfel began a fruitful songwriting partnership during this time. An early attempt at Stampfel's rock band included Stampfel, Antonia, Sam Shepard , Nancy Jeffries, and Bill Barth . Shepard

11726-481: The end of the 1930s these and others had turned American folk music into a social movement. Sometimes folk musicians became scholars and advocates themselves. For example, Jean Ritchie (1922–2015) was the youngest child of a large family from Viper, Kentucky that had preserved many of the old Appalachian traditional songs. Ritchie, living in a time when the Appalachians had opened up to outside influence,

11869-706: The fact that he, the rest of the band, and the producer used amphetamines excessively during recording and Weber again refused to rehearse any songs before entering the studio. When the album was completed, Weber and the Moray Eels officially combined to reform the Holy Modal Rounders. While in California, the band played a number of notable shows, opening for Pink Floyd in August in San Francisco, opening for Ike and Tina Turner in Los Angeles, and performing

12012-505: The fashioning and re-fashioning of the music by the community that give it its folk character." Such definitions depend upon "(cultural) processes rather than abstract musical types...", upon " continuity and oral transmission ...seen as characterizing one side of a cultural dichotomy , the other side of which is found not only in the lower layers of feudal, capitalist and some oriental societies but also in 'primitive' societies and in parts of 'popular cultures'". One widely used definition

12155-620: The filmmakers and was disappointed at the lack of attention directed to the band's days in Portland. Bound to Lose , shot primarily between 2000 and 2003, included appearances from fellow musicians Dave Van Ronk, Peter Tork, John Sebastian, Loudon Wainwright III , John Cohen , Ed Sanders, Tuli Kupferberg, Ira Kaplan and Sam Shepard. Weber died on February 7, 2020, aged 76, in Mount Clare, West Virginia. Stampfel noted after Weber's death that he hadn't seen Weber since 2002 and they had last corresponded via email in 2003 when they were arranging

12298-658: The first recorded use of the term "psychedelic" in popular music. Stampfel reportedly added these lyrics in hopes to achieve this feat. The duo's arrangement of the traditional song "Blues in the Bottle" opens the album and went on to be covered by the Lovin' Spoonful and the Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band. Stampfel and Antonia would write the liner notes for the Lovin' Spoonful's 1965 debut album Do You Believe in Magic , where

12441-401: The general public." While nevertheless praising the Rounders' early work, The Mojo Collection: The Greatest Albums of All Time opinioned "that the band ever got to make a [debut] album is remarkable; that there was a second later that year [ sic ] smacks of complete madness on the part of their record label." Writing for AllMusic, Richie Unterberger called the band "almost the very definition of

12584-438: The genre known as acid folk." The band's two psychedelic albums are also of historical significance, with The New York Times saying that they "still stand as extreme examples of acid-tinged folk music." Both Stampfel and Weber have been singled out for praise when reviewers discuss the Rounders' legacy. Music critic Eric Weisbard , writing for Spin in 1999, declared that "Stampfel has become to roots music what Jon Langford

12727-399: The laborers who sing them to coordinate their efforts in accordance with the rhythms of the songs. They are frequently, but not invariably, composed. In the American armed forces , a lively oral tradition preserves jody calls ("Duckworth chants") which are sung while soldiers are on the march. Professional sailors made similar use of a large body of sea shanties . Love poetry , often of

12870-563: The last 20 years of his life working on an Interactive Multimedia educational computer project he called the Global Jukebox , which included 5,000 hours of sound recordings, 400,000 feet of film, 3,000 videotapes , and 5,000 photographs. As of March 2012, this has been accomplished. Approximately 17,400 of Lomax's recordings from 1946 and later have been made available free online. This material from Alan Lomax's independent archive, begun in 1946, which has been digitized and offered by

13013-438: The least." Stampfel himself described his approach to music at the time: "I got the idea in 1963: What if Charlie Poole , and Charley Patton , and Uncle Dave Macon and all those guys were magically transported from the late 1920s to 1963? And then they were exposed to contemporary rock 'n' roll. What did they do? And that sounded way, way, way more interesting than" faithfully imitating the original arrangements. This realization

13156-408: The loss of traditional music is slowed in nations or regions where traditional folk music is a badge of cultural or national identity. Much of what is known about folk music prior to the development of audio recording technology in the 19th century comes from fieldwork and writings of scholars, collectors and proponents. Starting in the 19th century, academics and amateur scholars, taking note of

13299-525: The manager of the Velvet Underground). Warhol was a noted fan of the Fugs and frequented their shows. Featuring Weber performing with the Fugs, the reel was listed in the Warhol's filmography as The Fugs and the Holy Modal Rounders . Although it is unclear if the film still exists, photographs by Billy Name document the band's visit. Weber continued performing with the group until he was fired by

13442-471: The material they covered, for "shoe-horning one old-time melody into the middle of another, slipping updated references into archaic laments, making scatological asides or a casual segue to an unrelated fiddle tune and throwing in enough grunts, woofs, whistles and squeals to put both an aging steam engine and a seventh-grade classroom to shame. In short, they offered something to offend everyone." Despite their seemingly irreverent approach, however, Swartley noted

13585-457: The modern movie Songcatcher . One strong theme amongst folk scholars in the early decades of the 20th century was regionalism , the analysis of the diversity of folk music (and related cultures) based on regions of the US rather than based on a given song's historical roots. Later, a dynamic of class and circumstances was added to this. The most prominent regionalists were literary figures with

13728-623: The most enduring figures of early country music . Macon was born in Smartt Station (about five miles south of McMinnville ), Tennessee , the son of Confederate Captain John Macon and his wife Martha Ramsey. He was the great-great nephew of Nathaniel Macon . In 1884, when David Macon was 13 years old, his family moved to Nashville, Tennessee , to run the Old Broadway Hotel, which they had purchased. The hotel became

13871-496: The movie's soundtrack . According to Stampfel, the song caught the attention of co-writer Peter Fonda who thought it would be perfect for the movie. However, it has also been reported that it was Hopper who first heard the song. The soundtrack charted at number 6 on the Billboard Top Ten and went gold. In early 1974, the Rounders' version of "Boobs A Lot" bubbled under Billboard's Hot 100 at 103. Sales were driven by

14014-567: The music of Dvořák , Smetana , Grieg , Rimsky-Korsakov , Brahms , Liszt , de Falla , Wagner , Sibelius , Vaughan Williams , Bartók , and many others drew upon folk melodies. While the loss of traditional folk music in the face of the rise of popular music is a worldwide phenomenon, it is not one occurring at a uniform rate throughout the world. The process is most advanced "where industrialization and commercialisation of culture are most advanced" but also occurs more gradually even in settings of lower technological advancement. However,

14157-646: The musical traditions being lost, initiated various efforts to preserve the music of the people. One such effort was the collection by Francis James Child in the late 19th century of the texts of over three hundred ballads in the English and Scots traditions (called the Child Ballads ), some of which predated the 16th century. Contemporaneously with Child, the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould and later Cecil Sharp worked to preserve

14300-472: The new music created during those revivals. This type of folk music also includes fusion genres such as folk rock , folk metal , and others. While contemporary folk music is a genre generally distinct from traditional folk music, in U.S. English it shares the same name, and it often shares the same performers and venues as traditional folk music. The terms folk music , folk song , and folk dance are comparatively recent expressions. They are extensions of

14443-408: The offices of traditional music collectors Robert Winslow Gordon , Alan Lomax and others to capture as much North American field material as possible. John Lomax (the father of Alan Lomax) was the first prominent scholar to study distinctly American folk music such as that of cowboys and southern blacks. His first major published work was in 1911, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads . and

14586-758: The origin of the name in the webzine Perfect Sound Forever : Fiddle and banjo player Peter Stampfel and country-blues guitarist Steve Weber were introduced to each other in May 1963 by Stampfel's girlfriend Antonia Duren (or Antonia Stampfel), who was mononymously known as Antonia. Stampfel grew up in Wisconsin and moved to New York City in 1959, where he soon became entranced with Harry Smith 's Anthology of American Folk Music . Weber grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania , where he met musicians Michael Hurley and Robin Remaily, both of whom would later collaborate with

14729-438: The original liner notes for The Holy Modal Rounders (1964) Although taking inspiration from classic jug bands and Anthology of American Folk Music , the duo quickly showed an inclination to "update old-time folk music with a contemporary spirit." Music critic Richie Unterberger noted that they "twisted weathered folk standards with wobbly vocals, exuberantly strange arrangements, and interpretations that were liberal, to say

14872-705: The other. In the proliferation of popular music genres, some traditional folk music became also referred to as " World music " or "Roots music". The English term " folklore ", to describe traditional folk music and dance, entered the vocabulary of many continental European nations, each of which had its folk-song collectors and revivalists. The distinction between "authentic" folk and national and popular song in general has always been loose, particularly in America and Germany – for example, popular songwriters such as Stephen Foster could be termed "folk" in America. The International Folk Music Council definition allows that

15015-805: The outcomes of battles or lament tragedies or natural disasters . Sometimes, as in the triumphant Song of Deborah found in the Biblical Book of Judges , these songs celebrate victory. Laments for lost battles and wars, and the lives lost in them, are equally prominent in many traditions; these laments keep alive the cause for which the battle was fought. The narratives of traditional songs often also remember folk heroes such as John Henry or Robin Hood . Some traditional song narratives recall supernatural events or mysterious deaths. Hymns and other forms of religious music are often of traditional and unknown origin. Western musical notation

15158-449: The pace of many activities such as planting , weeding , reaping , threshing , weaving , and milling . In leisure time , singing and playing musical instruments were common forms of entertainment and history-telling—even more common than today when electrically enabled technologies and widespread literacy make other forms of entertainment and information-sharing competitive. Some believe that folk music originated as art music that

15301-400: The preservation of songs as artifacts of deceased cultures. "Functional" folklorists (e.g. Botkin and Alan Lomax) maintained that songs only retain relevance when used by those cultures which retain the traditions which birthed those songs. "Left-wing" folk revivalists (e.g. Charles Seeger and Lawrence Gellert) emphasized music's role "in 'people's' struggles for social and political rights". By

15444-570: The reissue a four and half star rating, saying "it may have sounded weird way back when, but it sounds fresher than ever today." On February 24, 1965 at Ed Sanders 's bookstore Peace Eye, the Fugs performed their first gig, which was attended by Andy Warhol , George Plimpton , William Burroughs , and James Michener . The Holy Modal Rounders were also hired to perform and joined the Fugs onstage during their set. Inspired by their political views, humorous and explicit songwriting, and do-it-yourself attitude to music, Stampfel and Weber officially joined

15587-723: The song "Rock About My Saro Jane" from black stevedores working along the Cumberland River in the 1880s. The song "Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line" was inspired by the Coal Creek War , an East Tennessee labor uprising in the 1890s. In the song "From Earth to Heaven", Macon describes his days hauling goods between Woodbury and Murfreesboro for his shipping company. "Wreck of the Tennessee Gravy Train", recorded in 1930, served as political commentary on

15730-471: The songs they hear. For example, around 1970 the song Mullā Mohammed Jān spread from Herat to the rest of Afghanistan , and Iran where it was recorded. Due to its repetitive refrain and the predictability of the second half of each verse, it allowed for both its popularization, and for each singer to create their own version of the song without being overly-concerned for a melody or restrictive poetic rhythm. Because variants proliferate naturally, there

15873-497: The southern Yangtze area. Jiangnan Sizhu (silk and bamboo music from Jiangnan ) is a style of instrumental music, often played by amateur musicians in tea houses in Shanghai. Guangdong Music or Cantonese Music is instrumental music from Guangzhou and surrounding areas. The music from this region influenced Yueju (Cantonese Opera) music, which would later grow popular during the self-described "Golden Age" of China under

16016-643: The sponsorship of the Washington Post , the festival was held in Washington, DC at Constitution Hall from 1937 to 1942. The folk music movement, festivals, and the wartime effort were seen as forces for social goods such as democracy, cultural pluralism, and the removal of culture and race-based barriers. The American folk music revivalists of the 1930s approached folk music in different ways. Three primary schools of thought emerged: "Traditionalists" (e.g. Sarah Gertrude Knott and John Lomax ) emphasized

16159-536: The term folklore , which was coined in 1846 by the English antiquarian William Thoms to describe "the traditions, customs, and superstitions of the uncultured classes". The term further derives from the German expression Volk , in the sense of "the people as a whole" as applied to popular and national music by Johann Gottfried Herder and the German Romantics over half a century earlier. Though it

16302-565: The term "folk music": newly composed songs, fixed in form and by known authors, which imitated some form of traditional music. The popularity of "contemporary folk" recordings caused the appearance of the category "Folk" in the Grammy Awards of 1959; in 1970 the term was dropped in favor of "Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording (including Traditional Blues)", while 1987 brought a distinction between "Best Traditional Folk Recording" and "Best Contemporary Folk Recording". After that, they had

16445-490: The term can also apply to music that, "...has originated with an individual composer and has subsequently been absorbed into the unwritten, living tradition of a community. But the term does not cover a song, dance, or tune that has been taken over ready-made and remains unchanged." The post– World War II folk revival in America and in Britain started a new genre, Contemporary Folk Music , and brought an additional meaning to

16588-526: The term is usually only descriptive, in some cases people use it as the name of a genre. For example, the Grammy Award previously used the terms "traditional music" and "traditional folk" for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. Folk music may include most indigenous music . From a historical perspective, traditional folk music had these characteristics: As a side-effect, the following characteristics are sometimes present: In folk music,

16731-947: The texts of 217,996 Latvian folk songs, the Latvju dainas . In Norway the work of collectors such as Ludvig Mathias Lindeman was extensively used by Edvard Grieg in his Lyric Pieces for piano and in other works, which became immensely popular. Around this time, composers of classical music developed a strong interest in collecting traditional songs, and a number of composers carried out their own field work on traditional music. These included Percy Grainger and Ralph Vaughan Williams in England and Béla Bartók in Hungary. These composers, like many of their predecessors, both made arrangements of folk songs and incorporated traditional material into original classical compositions. The advent of audio recording technology provided folklorists with

16874-530: The then-known variations of both the texts and tunes associated with what came to be known as the Child Canon. He also advanced some significant theories concerning the workings of oral-aural tradition. Similar activity was also under way in other countries. One of the most extensive was perhaps the work done in Riga by Krisjanis Barons , who between the years 1894 and 1915 published six volumes that included

17017-402: The time. Everybody knew it, they made no bones about it, and they were having fun." Reflecting on the early music the Rounders (as well as fellow folk musician Michael Hurley) made, Stampfel said "it [was] a confluence of traditional folk music and, um, drugs, basically, with the latter having a very active influence on the former." Author Jesse Jarnow also recognized these influences, commenting

17160-478: The traditional folk music of many cultures. This encompasses such forms as traditional epic poetry , much of which was meant originally for oral performance, sometimes accompanied by instruments. Many epic poems of various cultures were pieced together from shorter pieces of traditional narrative verse, which explains their episodic structure, repetitive elements, and their frequent in medias res plot developments. Other forms of traditional narrative verse relate

17303-658: The twenty-first century many cherished Chinese folk songs have been inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity . In the process, songs once seen as vulgar are now being reconstructed as romantic courtship songs. Regional song competitions, popular in many communities, have promoted professional folk singing as a career, with some individual folk singers having gained national prominence. The art, music and dance of Sri Lanka derive from

17446-435: The two sessions were released on Fugs 4, Rounders Score in 1975, also on ESP-Disk. In July 1965, Stampfel left the Fugs and quit the Holy Modal Rounders, later citing his frustration with Weber, who would not work on new songs and whose drug abuse was making him increasingly erratic. Soon after, possibly in July, the Fugs were filmed and photographed at Andy Warhol's The Factory (later in 1965, Warhol would famously become

17589-427: The type of music collected on Anthology of American Folk Music . Michael Simmons also noted the band's trail-blazing aesthetics, saying that "the story of the Rounders is one of the grand secret histories of 20th-century American music. If music history is often a game of Who Came First?, then the Rounders can be said to be the first psychedelic hippie freak band and the first aggressively anti-purist folkies, making them

17732-448: The year for his ballot in the annual Pazz & Jop poll. Richie Unterberger noted in 1998 that Have Moicy! was "one of the most critically acclaimed folk records of the last 25 years." In 1977, when the Holy Modal Rounders visited the East Coast for a funeral, Stampfel reunited with them and recorded Last Round , which was released in 1978. Also in 1978, the Portland incarnation of the Rounders broke up, but they continued to live in

17875-519: Was a self-made entertainer who seemed to copy nobody." Macon played an open-backed Gibson banjo on most of his recordings, and while contemporary musicians didn't consider him a particularly skillful banjo player, modern musicologists have identified no less than 19 picking styles on Macon's recordings. Macon's favorite tunes included "A Soldier's Joy", "Bully of the Town", " The Arkansas Traveler ", and "Sail Away, Ladies". Macon claimed to have learned

18018-508: Was a show." While playing, Macon would often kick and stomp, and shout sporadically, taxing the skills of WSM's early volume-control engineers. His performance style can be discerned to some extent from his early recordings, in which he whoops and hollers amidst relatively aggressive vocal deliveries. Macon was famous for his outrageous and funny performances, whether playing on the Vaudeville stage, at school and community socials, or at

18161-634: Was already a noted playwright when Stampfel met him in September 1966. This lineup never played live but Jeffries and Barth lived with Stampfel and Antonia for a few weeks before they moved into Luke Faust's building. Faust, Barth, and Jeffries went on to form the Insect Trust with Robert Palmer and Trevor Koehler circa 1966. By 1967, Stampfel's rock band, now called the Moray Eels, had a new lineup of Stampfel, Antonia, Shepard on drums, keyboardist Richard Tyler (then on bass), and Dave Levi on guitar. In June 1967, Stampfel and Weber briefly reunited at

18304-456: Was also produced by Charters. Although neither of their first two albums received much attention upon release (a review in Sing Out! dismissed the debut as "parody of folk song and folk content... with a sort of fear written into it - fear of coming out into the open as serious performers"), the albums have since increased in status, with Michael Simmons of LA Weekly describing the debut as

18447-587: Was approached by the manager of Loews Theatres in Birmingham , who wanted to hire him to perform there. Macon's salary was several hundred dollars a week. This led to offers from other theaters in the Loew's Vaudeville circuit. At age fifty, Macon found himself a successful entertainer. A rival vaudeville circuit, the Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation, tried to hire him away from the Loew's circuit, but he refused. In 1923 Macon began

18590-538: Was arguably the most prominent US folk music scholar of his time, notably during the beginnings of the folk music revival in the 1930s and early 1940s. Cecil Sharp also worked in America, recording the traditional songs of the Appalachian Mountains in 1916–1918 in collaboration with Maud Karpeles and Olive Dame Campbell and is considered the first major scholar covering American folk music. Campbell and Sharp are represented under other names by actors in

18733-480: Was buried at Coleman Cemetery near Murfreesboro. His funeral was visited by more than five thousand people and his pallbearers were George D. Hay, Kirk McGee, Roy Acuff , and Bill Monroe . He was inducted posthumously into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966. A monument was erected near Woodbury. His son Dorris and several bandmates (often including Sam and Kirk McGee) made sporadic appearances on

18876-424: Was changed and probably debased by oral transmission while reflecting the character of the society that produced it. In many societies, especially preliterate ones, the cultural transmission of folk music requires learning by ear , although notation has evolved in some cultures. Different cultures may have different notions concerning a division between "folk" music on the one hand and of "art" and "court" music on

19019-413: Was controversial amongst some folk traditionalists who saw it as disrespectful. In 1964, the Rounders made history with their self-titled debut , which included the first use of "psychedelic" in popular music. After their first two studio albums, the duo briefly joined the newly formed underground rock band the Fugs in 1965 and helped record the band's influential debut album . Following their exit from

19162-556: Was driving along with his mules, hauling freight and produce, he would entertain people by singing and playing the banjo at various stops along the way. In time, his sons became part of the company as they grew up. But the arrival of an automobile-based competitor threatened his mule company, and he was forced to close down in 1920. His brother, E. L. Macon, was a businessman who purchased the Brevard-Macon House in 1926. Although Macon had long performed as an amateur and

19305-555: Was just three weeks before the WSM Grand Ole Opry was founded. Macon was one of the first performers at the new WSM radio station. On December 26, 1925, Macon and fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson appeared together on the WSM Saturday night program. Macon's career with WSM lasted twenty-six years, but as he continued touring, he wasn't a regular performer in the years of the Grand Ole Opry. In early 1927, Macon formed

19448-536: Was just too much drugs, alcohol, and bad attitude in the band" to "capitalize on our positive aspects." NPR noted that the band exhibited "self-destructive behavior" that led to an early breakup and an inability to capitalize on the inclusion of "Bird Song" on Easy Rider' s commercially successful soundtrack. Dave Van Ronk thought similarly: "that was their moment right there. If they had been able to capitalize on [ Easy Rider ], they would have been two very very wealthy men. But somehow or another it just didn't happen." In

19591-405: Was not possible. Music was made by common people during both their work and leisure, as well as during religious activities. The work of economic production was often manual and communal. Manual labor often included singing by the workers, which served several practical purposes. It reduced the boredom of repetitive tasks, it kept the rhythm during synchronized pushes and pulls, and it set

19734-411: Was originally created to preserve the lines of Gregorian chant , which before its invention was taught as an oral tradition in monastic communities. Traditional songs such as Green grow the rushes, O present religious lore in a mnemonic form, as do Western Christmas carols and similar traditional songs. Work songs frequently feature call and response structures and are designed to enable

19877-554: Was partially inspired by Stampfel seeing an early Bob Dylan perform folk music with a rock and roll phrasing. With these intentions to update traditional music in mind, Stampfel began to change the words and add new verses to the traditional songs they played, once noting "I made up new words... because it was easier than listening to the tape and writing words down." The duo's lyrical changes often featured references to their frequent and open drug use. Fellow folk singer Dave Van Ronk recalled that "they were stoned out of their birds all

20020-490: Was partially inspired by the group, wanted to record a Stampfel and Weber album. Luke Faust and Remaily participated in the sessions that became the band's sixth album Alleged in Their Own Time but it mostly featured recordings of just Stampfel and Weber. The album would not be released until 1975. Soon after the band's return from a three month tour of Europe which Stampfel did not participate in, Weber relocated

20163-517: Was released in 2006 by Frederick Productions/Red Newt Records. It is the only commercial album featuring Weber and the Portland band. In 1975, Stampfel and Reisch (without Weber) formed the short-lived Unholy Modal Rounders. The group joined Michael Hurley , Jeffrey Frederick, and the Clamtones in the studio and recorded the collaborative and critically-acclaimed 1976 album Have Moicy! . Rock critic Robert Christgau ranked it his favorite album of

20306-499: Was university educated and ultimately moved to New York City, where she made a number of classic recordings of the family repertoire and published an important compilation of these songs. In January 2012, the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress , with the Association for Cultural Equity, announced that they would release Lomax's vast archive of 1946 and later recording in digital form. Lomax spent

20449-628: Was well known for his showmanship, his first professional performance was in 1921 at a school in Morrison, Tennessee , during a Methodist church benefit. In 1923, during a performance for the Shriners in Nashville , Macon was seen by Marcus Loew of Loews Theatres , who offered him fifteen dollars if he would perform at a theater in Alabama . Macon accepted and went to Alabama. After the show he

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