American Folklife Center8,172 likes · 340 talking about this · 27 were here
8,172 likes · 340 talking about this · 27 were here
American Folklife Center shared a link.
We hope you all have recovered from the election!
Take a listen to "Goodbye Booze," from 1939, a song about election day and an Ohio mayor who is ousted from office.
From our American Memory collection. Recorded in California, vocals and piano by Charles Fulton.American Folklife Center shared a link.
Please Join us for our next Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture!
I Feel So Good: The Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy, a book talk by Bob Riesman.
November 16, 2012, 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm
Whittall Pavilion, Thomas Jefferson Building
...See More
A major figure in American blues and folk music, Big Bill Broonzy (1903–1958) left his Arkansas Delta home after World War I, headed north, and became the leading Chicago bluesman of the 1930s. His success came as he fused traditional rural blues with the electrified sound that was beginning to emerge in Chicago. This, however, was just one step in his remarkable journey: Big Bill was constantly reinventing himself, both in reality and in his retellings of it. Bob Riesman's groundbreaking biography tells the compelling life story of a lost figure from the annals of music history.- RecommendationsSee All
Will KrethStories upon stories within stories.about 9 months ago
Beverly EdbergGreat site -about 10 months ago
Stephanie DuncombeI love the Folklife Center!about 10 months ago
- We are all recovering from election day and election night! Woody Guthrie always had something to say about elections...at the following links, read Woody's writings on the subject from 1940:
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=afcwwg&fileName=037%2F037page.db&itemLink=S%3Fammem%2Fafcwwgbib%3A%40field%28TITLE+%40od1%28Vote+for+Bloat%29%29
http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcwwg/038/0001v.jpg
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- The Library of CongressGovernment Organization · Historical Place · Library
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Happy Birthday to Roy Rogers (1911-1998). Rogers was an actor and singer who was also one of the most heavily marketed stars of his era, starring in over 100 ...movies and giving his name to a popular restaurant chain. Although he was not a working cowboy, many real cowboys loved his songs and his films. He also sang some real cowboy songs, including "The Night Herding Song," which he performed with his wife, Dale Evans. "The Night Herding Song" was collected by John Lomax from Harry Stephens, a one-time student of his at Texas A&M University, who was also a working cowboy. Years after publishing Stephens's version in print, Lomax reunited with his friend Stephens and made a sound recording of the song for the Library of Congress, which you can hear at the AFC archive. At the link below, hear Roy Rogers and Dale Evans sing "The Night Herding Song." At the link above, see the AFC catalog card for the song.See More
http://www.myspace.com/music/player?sid=38793322&ac=now
American Folklife Center shared a link.
Happy Halloween! The Library of Congress's "Today in History" site features a selection of Halloween materials from the collections, including photos, ghost stories, and fiddle tunes from the American Folklife Center. Enjoy!- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhSFg8joWsk
This post is for all our friends in the eastern United States affected by Hurricane Sandy; our thoughts are with you! In 1934, John Lomax recorded a preacher named Sin-Killer Griffin singing "Was...n't that a Mighty Storm," about the hurricane and flood that hit Galveston, Texas in 1900. Eric Von Schmidt learned it from the archival recording and passed it on to Tom Rush. Rush popularized it in the folk revival. At the link above, see a video of James Taylor performing the song, confirming it as one of AFC's most influential archival treasures.See More
American Folklife Center shared a link.
The American Folklife Center, like all non-emergency-related Federal Government offices in Washington DC, is closed today because of Hurricane Sandy. Please join us in hoping for the safety of everyone in the path of the storm. Some of our ...staff members were stranded in New Orleans last night when the planes carrying them home from the American Folklore Society meetings there were canceled. Looking back at our last few days in New Orleans, and ahead to the mighty storm that has already started pounding us, let's look at an innovative project in which folklorists, supported by the AFC, have helped survivors of Katrina and Rita to document their own stories. You can watch a webcast featuring folklorists Carl Lindahl and Pat Jasper at the link.See MoreAmerican Folklife Center shared a link.
http://www.expressnightout.com/2012/09/musical-detective-work/
Many members of the AFC staff are currently attending the American Folklore Society meeting in New Orleans. Yesterday we saw a presentation by folklorist Stephen Wade, who has...spent 16 years researching some of AFC's most popular recordings. Years ago, Wade and AFC research librarian Gerald Parsons selected materials for the CD A Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings. Wade's new book takes an in-depth look at some of the most important of those recordings. See the link for a brief article on the book!See MoreAmerican Folklife Center shared a link.
Three years ago this week, the Illustrated Guide to the American Folklife Center went online. Originally a book published in 2004, the Illustrated Guide highlights the history and collections of AFC. It also has 36 audio files of song, speech, and music from the collections. It's the best way to learn more about who we are and what we do. Find it at the link!
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/guide/- Will he or won't he? In honor of "No Beard Day," just one of the wacky holidays celebrated on October 18, here is a photo of Louis McDowell preparing to give AFC fieldworker David Taylor a shave during our Working in Paterson fieldwork project in 1994. Strangely, Taylor still has a beard to this day.
October 18 is also Chocolate Cupcake Day. Enjoy!
American Folklife Center shared a link.
Please join us this Saturday afternoon for a free concert of folk and early music from Joel Frederiksen and friends. The program is an afternoon of Americana from the stunning, widely acclaimed Rose of Sharon project, which enjoyed a well-d...eserved spot in the Billboard Top 10 for 2011. Echoing some of the earliest voices in American music, Frederiksen and his colleagues weave a beautiful tapestry tracing the nation’s history and heritage in ballads, folksongs, Shaker hymns and spirituals, music from revival meetings and battlefields – and the new products of America’s first composers, Francis Hopkinson and William Billings. Joel Frederiksen is a former American Folklife Center intern who has been strongly influenced by folk music. Ticket info at the link (scroll down!), or call the Library's music division during business hours at (202) 707-8432 and ask them to hold tickets for you. Once again, it's free!See MoreAmerican Folklife Center shared a link.
http://lcweb4.loc.gov/natlib/ihas/service/afc9999005/AFS_4234-4999_B2/0424r.jpg
In 1977, Irish filmmaker Tiernan MacBride created a short film set to Paul Brady's 1976 recording of the song "Arthur McBride and the Sergeant." Conceived as ...a short dramatic film, it has few of the characteristics of music videos, which would become popular only a few years later. See the film at the link!See More
Paul Brady's recording of this song was destined to become a classic of the Irish folk revival. Few people know that his version came from American oral tradition; he learned it from a transcription of the singing of Carrie Grover of Gorham, Maine. As far as we know, there is only one place researchers can hear a field recording of Mrs. Grover singing the song: The American Folklife Center. We can't place it online at the moment, but you can see the catalog card at the link above.- http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcreed/137/13705b06.mp3
On this day in 1859, the radical abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the federal armory at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. The raid failed, and he was captured and later hanged. A number of ...related folksongs and fiddle tunes commemorate this incident, including Henry Reed's "John Brown's a-Hanging on a Sour Apple Tree," which you can hear at the link.See More
Alan Jabbour notes: "Henry Reed's air is evidence of the folksongs in circulation about John Brown that became the basis for Julia Ward Howe's patriotic hymn 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic.' His version implies a verse and refrain using essentially the same melodic material, as is the case with 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic.'"
- http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afccc/audio/a387/a3873a2.mp3
Today is the Birthday of pioneering American astronomer Asaph Hall, after whom Hall crater on the moon is named. In his honor, let's hear "Serenade to the Moon," by Alice Lemos Avila ...and friends, recorded by Sidney Robertson Cowell in Oakland, California on January 23, 1939.See More
Hall was an astronomer with the U.S. Naval Observatory from 1862 until 1891. According to published biographies of Hall, early in his tenure there, he was recording observations at night and received an impromptu visit from President Abraham Lincoln and one of his cabinet secretaries. Hall allowed his visitors to observe the moon through the telescope. A few nights later, alone in the middle of the night, President Lincoln returned to ask Hall why the image in the great telescope was inverted!
Hall continued on to a distinguished career in Astronomy, most famously discovering the moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos, in 1877.
Asaph Hall is the great-grandfather of folklorist and AFC staff member Stephanie Hall, a member of our facebook team.
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