Old-old-old-time country

Nowadays, pop music critics go on and on about how far into Hell modern country music has dropped, about how much they long for the real thing. And I'm just sure the critics are talking about Don Richardson, Charles Ross Taggart, Mellie Dunham, and The Hillbillies--people like that. Right?

No?

Oh. Well, I'll play some of those folks anyway:

Old Country Fiddler in New York, Charles Ross Taggart, 1914. From Victor 78.

Violin Mimicry, Charles Ross Taggart, 1914. Victor 78.

Mountain Rangers, Mellie Dunham, 1926. From Victor 78.

Old Zip Coon, Don Richardson, 1916. From Columbia 78.

Mississippi Sawyer, Don Richardson, 1916. From Columbia 78.

Ragtime Annie, Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, 1926.

Walking in the Parlor, The Hill Billies, 1926.


Wow. While I was writing this post, Box.net utterly changed its basic display.

Far out....


Lee

The latest from Ohio, a.k.a. New Florida

So, it seems that the Republicans are spreading rumors that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland and his wife are gay. That's right--gay.

A Mount Vernon, Ohio lawyer named Scott Pullins published the rumors at his blog, and they were picked up by the Ohio Republican Party's "social conservative coordinator" (whatever the heck that is), who spread them by way of an e-mail called "10 Things to Know about Ted Strickland." The social services coordinator was exposed (by the Toledo Blade, it looks like), after which he was fired by Ohio Republican Party chairman Robert T. Bennett, who sent a comically backhanded letter of apology to Strickland. Strickland didn't buy the apology.

At the Pullins blog, you'll have to page down to the middle of the page--the post is called "Article Adds Fire to Strickland Gay Rumors." Pullins is referring to a Toledo Blade piece that in no way, shape, or form suggests that Strickland or his wife is gay. Not to anyone in possession of a healthy mind and normal values, anyway. The suggestions are all Pullins'. (Those last two sentences are not to be taken together, meaning-wise. Pullins may, or he may not, have a healthy mind and normal values. I'm not suggesting that he does or doesn't. Nor would I suggest that he does or that he doesn't.)

Somewhere on his blog, Pullins offers his view that conservative bloggers, unlike liberal bloggers, are capable of disagreeing without resorting to name-calling. Which, of course, explains why he libeled the Stricklands by asserting, utterly without evidence, that they may be gay. Because conservative bloggers don't resort to name-calling. This is a great example of how conservative bloggers never resort to name-calling. I admire the way they never do that.

Anyway, I just wanted to show everyone how low things have gotten in Ohio politics. Everything you've read about Ohio politics--believe it all.

You might notice that Pullins isn't a very good writer--"who's" for "whose," for instance. We have a lawyer in our family who's highly literate, so poor writing doesn't necessarily go with the profession. But Pullins' poor English is not the issue. Rather, his poor values are.

By the way, it seems that Pullins sued a state representative for calling him a "liar, cheat, and a scoundrel." I can't imagine why anyone would call Pullins those things. He seems like a really neat guy, don't you think?

Signing off from New Florida, this is

Lee

Cool reminiscences from Baby Dolls member Angie

These comments just appeared at my November, 2005 post of The Bell That Couldn't Jingle, as sung by Bobby Helms. The song was written by Burt Bacharach and Larry Kusic.

"So strange to find this on the net! Just looked out of curiousity really! My sister and I recorded The Bell That Couldn't Jingle by Bacarach-Kusic as 'The Baby Dolls' in 1964 at Abbey Road Studios,London (we are English) I was 10 years old and my sister 12 years old. We bumped into The Beatles in the corridor as they were also recording there at the time :) We sang the song twice in the studio for the recording. I remember we laughed at the end of the song and they decided to keep it on the track. The orchestra was Geoff Love and his orchestra and the backing vocals were provided by The Ladybirds. Some great memories from my childhood, meeting the stars of the day, performing etc spring to mind each time I hear the record played...usually once at Xmas! Singing not too bad for a couple of youngsters! I have the original 7" vinyl in front of me. We were signed to EMI and recorded on the Columbia label. The B side is We're No Angels,(which we preferred) written for us by our agent Ponte-Johnson. Sorry If I've bored you with this info! lol Angie x :) "

I wouldn't call that account boring! Quite the reverse. Angie picked the right time to enter show biz, no? I'll bet that's one fun record. Never heard it, unfortunately.

Just thought I'd share Angie's cool comments with everyone. Talk about being part of pop music history!


Lee

Perry very fine.

Here's Perry, just back from his animal clinic visit and with his paws in good shape. The doc says Pear's purple pads are looking much better (as in less purple, and less inflamed), and he doesn't think tissue samples are needed. That is great news. Perry's certainly pleased.

For a big cat, Perry is surprisingly easy to get into a cat carrier--he doesn't put up much of a fight. He's a sweet-natured guy, and always a big hit with the vet assistants, all of whom happen to be female. No doubt, they like his strong-but-sensitive demeanor. And the fact that he's cute. And an attention hound.

Hard to believe this is the same cat who, when he first arrived at this address, played Charles Bronson with the other felines and went on a three-month mark-athon. He's over that episode now, thankfully. He's not much for bonding with other cats, though he makes instant friends with every human he meets. Some cats are like that. I'm very fond of my Perry.

I had a fifteen- or twenty-minute wait at the clinic, during which stretch a lady came in with a poodle wrapped in a towel. The poor dog had been attacked by an unsupervised chow while on a walk, and the woman--who recently had a heart operation!--had to fight the thing off with the leash. Good grief. The poodle had been bitten in two spots, but not, luckily, in the neck. He was amazingly calm, all things considered. I don't think I'd be that brave....


Lee

Timely post, Pear, other news

Wow. About the same time I posted a few ghost photos, Beware of the Bog put up an interview with one (a ghost, not a photo). I quote: "For more insight on Harvey Job Matusow, here is an interview with Emile de Antonio shortly after his death."

How was it possible to interview Emile de Antonio (1919-1989) after his death? By Ouija board?

Did they get photos? Anyway, the link to this amazing interview can be found at the blog in question.

The author of that sentence, Station Manager Ken, doesn't take himself all that seriously, which is refreshing. "And like so many good hoaxes," he wrote a while back, "I wanted to believe it (a demo tape by a singing family) so bad that it was hard to accept that it wasn't real." I guess we all feel like hoaxes from time to time.

In other news, Perry is about to take a trip to the vet's--whether he knows it or not. His infected paw is much better, but he's still sporting purple spots that won't go away. Dr. Mike will likely do biopsies. Pear won't like it, but so it goes. It's for his own good.

In other news, um....

Well, there must be other news. I'll get back to you.


Lee

Spirited humor for Thursday

GHOST-PHOTO FUNNIES!


"Hey, dude! You're blocking the shot!" (Below)



















A bizarre but fascinating style of juggling found only in the spirit world. (Below)


















"So, how are things in the mortal realm?"
"Oh, pretty boring. How are things in the spirit world?"
"Same. Just wanted to see if anything was happening over here."
"Nope--things are pretty dead. Oops--sorry."
"That's O.K." (Below)












THE END

Romance for Parlor Organ (1889)

So, I've got all of these old music books--by "old," I mean a century old, on average. From 1818 to whenever. And I've been thinking about someday entering them into/onto music software. Now that I've got the software, I've started my first paper-to-software transfer. Took about an hour. Romance for Parlor Organ, the piece is called. All the M's, C's, and X's add up to 1889, and the composer is listed as Karl Herz. Assuming that was his real name.

I've only got the first section done--it's a tricky thing to enter (why didn't I start with something less polyphonic?). But we get a good idea of what Herz' Romance sounded like. Here's the first page of the music, followed by the first 34 bars (repeated) as they sound with the "reed organ" MIDI patch:


















Romance for Parlor Organ (Karl Herz, 1889), Entered onto software by Lee Hartsfeld, 2006.

Arkansas Traveler, Parlor Queen March, and The Spider and the Fly will make for merrier files, I'm guessing, but I like this one. Not all of my music folios are in such lousy shape, I should note. This one was made on the cheapest paper available to the publisher, looks like....


Lee

"Riders in the Sky, Scott-Style" again

Blogger/composer Lee Hartsfeld (shown here not looking at the camera) recommends MAGIX's "Studio-Surround" setting.

And with a new sound. I changed the sound patches and accidentally got the vibraphone sound I'd wanted in the first place--Organ 3, the patch is called. The official vibraphone patch doesn't sound nearly as good, and it's distorted, to boot. So, Organ 3 it is.

I used the MAGIX sound contour called "Studio-Surround" and removed all but a little of the reverb from it. Then I EQ'd everything to lighten and flatten out the dynamics. The idea being to get something that sounds akin to a Raymond-Scott-era recording. Pushing up the highs at about 10 KHz helped a lot, too--I reckon it mimics a lower high-frequency rolloff point. (As if I knew what the heck I was talking about....)

So... here's the latest version of Riders in the Sky, as Raymond (Powerhouse) Scott may have arranged it. Keep in mind that I didn't use any of my program's woodwind patches, since they sound like the buzzing of annoyed insects, especially when the sound is punched up:

Riders in the Sky, Scott-Style (Hartsfeld), 2006.

Someday, I'll have some decent-sounding woodwind patches. But I'm having fun in the meanwhile....


Lee

"Shaffer gives back"

Walt linked me to this wonderful article about a benefit concert for DC5 keyboardist/singer Dave Smith given by Paul Shaffer of the David Letterman show. I was never a big fan of Shaffer, but I am now. The man spares nothing to portray himself as unhip, but a cooler person never existed.

More DC5 to come....


Lee

The Dave Clark Five and The Mexicali Singers

These two chased one another up the charts for a couple of years, starting in 1965. Which is weird, because the latter group didn't make its first album until 1966.

No, just kidding. There was, to my knowledge, no DC5-Mexicali Singers chart feud. Anyway, the Dave Clark Five was led by one Dave Clark. The Mexicali Singers were led by one Anita Kerr. I'm not sure why the AK Singers recorded under an assumed name, in this case. Maybe so that, years later, collectors looking through thrift store bins wouldn't say, "Oh, another Anita Kerr LP" and flip to the next record. She was planning ahead.

However, being the clever collector I am, I figured out pretty quickly that the Mexicali Singers were, in fact, the AK Singers. The back cover provides an important clue: "Produced by Anita Kerr," it says. Nothing slips by me. Unless I'm not paying attention.

AK's arrangements were always skillfully done, and her singers (including AK) always did an awesome job. And her stuff pretty much bores me to tears. Which is weird, because I love all manner of bland pop music. However, there are the occasional priceless AK tracks, and the Mexicali Singers recorded several. Three of these follow.

Whenever I listen to this wonderful first track, I try to suppress all memories of the idiotic Benny Hill show:

Yakety Sax (Rich-Randolph), The Mexicali Singers, 1966. From W.B. LP The Mexicali Singers.

I remember when Spanish Flea (Herb Alpert's version, of course) played on the radio every ten minutes, just about. (It was also a regular feature on The Dating Game, apparently.) My only issue with the tune is that few people can hum or whistle along without losing the melody during the modulation. I had an otherwise neat high school teacher who whistled this nonstop and consistently massacred the key change. It made me cringe. My Dad had the same issue with people who couldn't track tunes while humming or whistling. Some weirdness that runs in my family:

Spanish Flea (Julius Wechter), The Mexicali Singers, 1966.

More scary vocal virtuosity--Zorba the Greek, of all themes. Damn show-offs:

Zorba the Greek (Theodorakis), The Mexicali Singers, 1966.

And, for the remainder of our Sunday afternoon concert, here are three loud, wild, and first-rate Dave Clark Five numbers. We'll pretend not to notice that the first and second selections are virtually the same tune, and in the same key, no less. Chuck Berry penned the first; Dave Clark and Mike Smith penned the second. The third would qualify as a "rave-up," I'm pretty sure:

Reelin' and Rockin' (Berry), The Dave Clark Five, 1965. From Epic LP.

Don't Let Me Down (Clark-Smith), The Dave Clark Five, 1966. Same LP.

All Night Long (Clark-Payton), The Dave Clark Five, 1966. Same.

I just Googled "Mike Smith" to make sure I had the right name, and I found out that the former DC5 keyboard player and vocalist was paralyzed in a 2003 fall and is still in the hospital. This link goes to the latest medical news about Mr. Smith. That is really sad news, but Mike appears to be a person of exceptional character and courage, and he's obviously very well-loved in the musical community. My prayers are with Mr. Smith and his family.

Lee