Music From The South – Vestapol

Featuring Clark Kessinger, Kilby Snow, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Mose Vinson, Napolean Strickland, Jimmy Driftwood, Canray Fontenot, Alphonsos “Bois Sec” Ardoin, Ed and Lonnie Young and others.

The Folksong Revival was a dynamic cultural event with its origins in the early 20th century. By the mid-1960s, it had captured American popular music, inspired a generation of folklorists, and served to reintroduce the United States to its vernacular musical roots. Fortunately some of the legendary artists of the 1920s and 1930s were rediscovered and performed at festivals and concerts.

This program illustrates well the mingling of old and new within the framework of old-time, cajun, blues and folk music. It focuses on traditional instruments, i.e. the ancient mouth bow, autoharp, fiddle, banjo, accordion, diddley-bow, as well as the piano and guitar.

Clark Kessinger, who was rediscovered in the 1960s, stands out as one of a handful of old time musicians who lost nothing in the years he was out of the spotlight. His playing is as beautiful and clear as it was during the height of his first career in the 1920s as a recording artist. The five Creole performances of Alphonse “Bois Sec” Ardoin and fiddler Canray Fontenot, two caretakers of the Creole tradition, show how Cajun and Creole sounds joined together in Louisiana. Canray and “Bois Sec” had put their first band together, the Duralde Ramblers, in 1948.

Kilby Snow’s autoharp playing incorporates old and new compositions. From songs of the hills to tunes by Bill Monroe. The Memphis piano player, Mose Vinson, illustrates how the Delta blues standard, Roll and Tumble can be played in both the “old style” as well as modern. Traditional artists are constantly discarding songs and styles and incorporating newer ones into their repertoires.

Napolean Strickland, Compton Jones and Glen Roy Faulkner show how a wire strung up on the side of a house can produce eerie and evocative sounds. These African retentions are again echoed dramatically by Ed and Lonnie Young and the Fife & Drum Band, residents of the Mississippi highlands whose riveting, ritualized performances powerfully portray the continuity of African elements in the New World.

Titles include: CLARK KESSINGER Sally Ann Johnson, Poca River Blues, Wednesday Night Waltz, Billy In The Lowgrounds, Leather Britches, Chicken Reel KILBY SNOW Shady Grove, Please Don’t Take Advantage of Me, Wildwood Flower, Close By JIMMY DRIFTWOOD Old Joe Clark, Galloping Horse FIDDLE GROUP Turkey In The Straw COON CREEK GIRLS East Virginia Blues, Sight Of a Pretty Girl CANRAY FONTENOT AND ALPHONSOS”BOIS SEC” ARDOIN Eunice Two Step, Bon Soir Moreau, Lacassine Special, Jeune Gens de la Campagne, Les Barres de la Prison ED AND LONNIE YOUNG AND THE FIFE AND DRUM BAND Oree, Snake Dance Jessie Mae Hemphill & Group Get Right Church COMPTON JONES Working On The Railroad NAPOLEAN STRICKLAND Roll and Tumble Blues, Bottle Up and Go GLEN ROY FAULKNER Bo-Diddley Blues, When I Lay My Burden Down MOSE VINSON Blues Jumped The Rabbit (Version One), Blues Jumped The Rabbit (Version Two), Roll and Tumble Blues JOHN (PIANO RED) WILLIAMS Roll and Tumble Blues BOOKER T. LOW Roll and Tumble Blues