This was brought up in another thread.It got me to thinking of where much of my information on folk music came from, when as a teenager I'd read anything I could get my hands on. Certainly both Lomaxes wrote extensively on Huddie Leadbetter (Leadbelly) and the implication was that his violent nature (although somewhat romantically depicted) kept them both on their toes constantly during collecting trips. Many years later I saw copies of the contract they had with him. Talk about "violence inducing!"
For years I'd read about Professor John Greenway's research into folk song being "tainted" because of his conservative political stance. Any thoughts on this?
Not music-related, but a few nights ago, I watched a "new" documentary on the "Shroud of Turin", that appeared at first glance to be the most current scientific thoughts on it's authenticity. It wasn't until the program was nearly over that I realized that the "experts" were "Creation-Scientists", folks belonging to the "Messaianic Judaism" group, and Biblical scholars affiliated with (and apparently funded by) the 700 Club!! All fine fellows and Gals, I'm sure..but hardly likely to arrive at any conclusions that might run counter to those of Pat Robertson! In other words, not as objective as I'd like to see in a documentary. Their conclusion, by the way? It's REALLY real!
This has come up several times in the discussions of sources used in fleshing out the meanings in old folk songs. Some folks site certain authors as the "last word", while others can hardly believe that the same authors are even taken seriously. Needless to say I'm not qualified to be anything but a curious onlooker in this area, but the subject fascinates me. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks
Rick