It's
1927, the jazz age, with poet Carl Sandburg toting a funny little
guitar and strumming carelessly to the old tunes: "Whisky Johnny,"
"Where O Where Is Old Elijah?" The Galesburger/Chicagoan
published his wildly popular American
Song Bag with 280 songs
from sailors, cowboys, railroad hands, pioneers, prisoners, and
preachers. Sandburg, motivated by
The People, Yes, finds
democratic merit in these common songs.
Next, in 1931, John Lomax, a musicologist at the Library of Congress, begins lugging gear out into the field to document "real" American music. Lomax and Charles Seeger, father of young Pete, start a musical-ethnography project that continues to impact the music scene. It was the Depression, it was government make-work, it was a nonsensical Waste of the Taxpayer's Buck. Lomax and Seeger went a-mining for music across the American south, the west, the north, and the east.
In Illinois, a similar search for historic folk songs took place in the 1950s at Southern Illinois University under the leadership of David McIntosh. At the University of Illinois, librarian Archie Green helped orient the university press toward publishing popular music titles connecting with the folk boom. The Old Town School of Folk Music began its first classes in Chicago in 1957.
Harry Smith, inveterate record collector, a guy who scouted dusties across the continent, came after the Library of Congress team. Smith's collection of thousands of old 78s was sorted and shaken to pull out songs for his epochal Anthology of American Folk Music in 1952. This collection helped spark the 1950s and 1960s folk boom. The impact of Lomax, Seeger, and Smith is seen in the music of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Odetta, Peter, Paul & Mary, The Byrds, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, the Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Petty. Entering the digital age, Roger McGuinn's Folk Den project tosses out 24/7 folk music via the Internet.
Just
released this year is a three-disc collection, Folksongs
of Illinois, published by
the Illinois Humanities Council and distributed by the University of
Illinois Press. (Interestingly enough, 2007 also saw the publication
of Dear Old Illinois,
a book and CD set by Garry Harrison, with hundreds of old songs from
within the prairie state's borders.)
What comes to mind with this Folksongs of Illinois title? Sodbuster songs? Coal-miner songs? Under the auspices of musician/Illinois Humanities Council program officer Bucky Halker, we find a far-reaching collection of songs. It veers right and left, and up and down, and holds to no firm notion of what constitutes a "folk song." We find home recordings, field recordings, and commercial recordings, of all kind and make, of all types of music (except rock and roll), some newly taped and some quite old, all thrown together one after another. Just what is a folk song? Who writes them? Is Pete Seeger the only guy who can tell you this?
Here what counts is that the music is by an Illinoisan or recorded in the state. In this sprawling collection are proud fiddling Norwegians. There are husky-voiced gospel singers. There are the Irish and their jigs. Czechs going full-tilt. Chicago blues and union songs. If you merely listen to music, you'll find more than a few that you like, and a number you simply won't want to hear again. If you are a musician or a student of music, this set will be much more to your taste: Here are gobs of musical notions and ideas, specimens of musical styles, and enough content to merit weeks of study.
Illinois, says Halker, is one and everything, with people and their music coming and going. The story of Illinois music includes the Poles, the Mexicans, the Slavs, the Swedes, the Irish, the Southern bluegrassers, the German fiddlers, and the Old Town School. The popularity of commercial country music began with the old WLS National Barn Dance. Adding heft to the state's musical clout was Chicago's role as a music-publishing center. Folksongs of Illinois holds this cheek-to-cheek smorgasbord of sound.
It's
worth noting some of the better-known performers and groups here:
Burl Ives, Pete Seeger, Big Bill Broonzy, Mahalia Jackson, Win
Stracke, Art Thieme, and Janet Bean. Groups include Special
Consensus, the Staples Singers, the Prairie Ramblers, and Alison
Krauss & Union Station.
Disct two of the collection is devoted to fiddle tunes, the popularity of which soared during the 1920s and 1930s. Some of the fiddle tunes are reminiscent of old Popeye cartoon soundtracks. Yet some help you recognize the utility of the fiddle in various kinds of folk music.
Folksongs of Illinois makes an excellent surprise introduction to many kinds of music. This is "rarely heard" music, so much of it is sure to be new to you. If you like to play music, you'll find interesting stuff here. If you're stuck in a rut in your listening options, here are plenty of suggestions. Added bonuses are the CD booklets: You get a great little music history lesson in each one, along with extended program notes.
Carl Sandburg's American Song Bag called itself "a ragbag of strips, stripes, and streaks of color from nearly all ends of the earth." Give it a hear: The Folksongs of Illinois collection has this same ear-opening, sound-exploring appeal. You'll find something you like and then some.
The Folksongs of Illinois series by the Illinois Humanities Council is available from the University of Illinois Press (http://www.press.uillinois.edu) for $12.99 per disc.
