roscoe holcomb

Subject: roscoe holcomb
From: The Sandman
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 05:50 PM

I have been listening to him on you tube,absolutely brilliant.
really cool guy,looks like his chewing gum while hes singing.

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 06:14 PM

Roscoe was a real character and an important person in the old-time music. He got very caught up in the stories in the songs.....sometimes refusing to sing more because a ballad made him so sad..

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: wilco
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 06:59 PM

There ara a number of video tapes and DVDs of Roscoe. Check with your local or your state library system. Homestaed tapes ahs a few of them for sale.

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 07:12 PM

I actually saw Roscoe live at the Smithsonian Folk Festival in the mid 70s...I have a few slides of him playing and standing about.

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 07:36 PM

YouTube videos of Roscoe Holcomb (search results).

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 07:49 PM

couple years ago Hank Bradley talked about him at fiddletunes in port townsend wa. and said Roscoe was the guy who came up with the term 'potatoes' for that bit of shuffle bowing just before starting an old time tune.. He said is there a name for that .. lets call it 'potatoes'

Hank also wrote a great bluesy fiddle tune called Roscoe's Gone (as a tribute) its based on a raga scale.

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 10:22 PM

There are some nice photos of Roscoe in my folk scene photos collection that Bruce Kallick made room for at his site. I took them at the University Of Chicago Folk Festival in 1962 or 1963. Go to:

http://rudegnu.com/art_thieme.html

Art

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: The Sandman
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 04:31 AM

Bill d you wouldnt be kind enough to put them on you tube,Ihope Iam not being presumptious

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 04:50 AM

Absolutely wonderful singer, although definitely not for the faint hearted.

The only solo CD I know of him is An Untamed Sense of Control. Smithsonian Folkways. SFW CD 40144. He also appears on Friends of Old Time Music: The Folk Arrival 1961 - 1965. Smithsonian Folkways SFW40160 2006.

Roscoe made several LPs for Folkways, namely;

The Music of Roscoe Holcomb and Wade Ward FA 2363
Close to Home FA 2374
The High Lonesome Sound FA 2368

The Untamed CD is drawn from these. I've never checked, but it's likely they wouldn't have got all the material from those LPs on. However, any surplus stuff can be downloaded from the Global Smithsonian site (http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/) for 99c a track.

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 04:55 AM

I've just checked the YouTube address, which isn't working very well at the moment. However, the first video listed is from Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest tv series c1960s. Stefan Grossman has compiled several videos of old time performers from this series, so the RH clip may be on one of those.

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 05:44 AM

I notice that in the above postings that no-one has acknowledged the important role of John Cohen in bringing Rosco to the attention of the outside world. It was John who first recorded and filmed Rosco and for that he deserves a huge round of applause.

By the way, in describing Rosco you cannot seriously use the word 'cool'. The way 'cool' is used today is just another way of saying 'that's OK' or 'OK', Holcomb was raw and impassioned, never ever OK. Even when the term 'cool' was first commonly used among US musicians it would never have been used in decribing Rosco or his music.

Hoot

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: The Sandman
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 06:55 AM

Ithink he is brilliant,I used the term cool, because he looks relaxed,unruffled,pacific,perhaps because he is chewing gum while he is singing[that must be difficult], I love his singing and playing.

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: Bill D
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 10:45 AM

umm..Captain....what I have are photographic slides....just still images. They are not scanned into any format for posting

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 12:07 PM

The Real Thing.

Russ (Permanent GUEST)

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 02:08 PM

It's just been pointed out to me that there's another Roscoe Holcomb CD on Folkways; The High Lonesome Sound. Smithsonian-Folkways CD SFCD 40104. In fact checking the Smithsonian Global site, on being advised of same, I find there's quite a number of discs which feature him. Looks like I've got some catching up to do.

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: RangerSteve
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 03:02 PM

Mr. Holcomb's performance on Pete Seeger's "Rainbow Quest" TV show is available on DVD.

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: Sean Belt
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 03:40 PM

Hearing Roscoe Holcomb for the first time was a huge infulence on me. I doubt that I'd be playing old-time music today if it wasn't for that experience. I brought one of his Folkways LPs home with me from the library when I was about 12 years old. When I put it on the turntable it completely changed how I thought about music. It was thrilling and beautiful and scarily intense all at the same time. I thought, "That's what I want to do when I grow up."

I'm sure I'll never achieve the genius that Roscoe had, but I keep trying!

Sean R-B

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: Anglo
Date: 24 Aug 07 - 01:40 AM

There are sound samples of him here at the Smithsonian Folkways page. (They don't work for me, but that's no reason they shouldn't work for you).

Roscoe was also on a number of Alan Lomax's Southern Journey volumes, as I recall.

I believe he was also the brother of Texas Gladden, a fine ballad singer, also recorded by Lomax.

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: GUEST,Linus
Date: 24 Aug 07 - 02:36 AM

Anglo is confusing Hobart Smith (brother of Texas Gladden) with Roscoe Holcomb. Smith & Gladden were recorded by Lomax & John Cohen recorded Roscoe Holcomb.

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: GUEST,fretless
Date: 24 Aug 07 - 09:17 AM

I heard RH live at the Brandywine festival in the mid 70s. Mike Seger was with him on stage and when Holcomb was done, Mike looked up and said "How does he DO that with his thumb?" Holcomb's musical ability was simply staggering. A note for note tab of his playing of Little Birdie or Old Smokey, for example, would be work of art.

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: Anglo
Date: 24 Aug 07 - 02:26 PM

Oops, thank you Linus. I am indeed confusing Hobart Smith with Roscoe Holcomb. Shame on me. My apologies for adding confusion.

Subject: RE: roscoe holcomb
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 24 Aug 07 - 07:35 PM

And, of vourse, all the CDs featuring Roscoe Holcomb are available from CAMSCO Music. Of course.