Review: carl sandburg recordings

Subject: Review: carl sandburg
From:
Date: 20 Apr 05 - 09:03 AM

i recently bought the american song bag by carl sandburg.its an old 78rpm 4album set by musicraft.its in a yellow album book with a photo of sandburg holding a guitar.the photo looks like it was taken from life magazine 1935.i cant find any info. on the album.the recordings are nm/ex.is this a collectable set.any resale value that you know of. i would like any info. i can get.

Subject: RE: Review: carl sandburg
From: Amos
Date: 20 Apr 05 - 09:22 AM

Dunno about resale value generally but it is priceless for sentimental reasons!

Here's one essay on the Songbag reviewed which gives it a historical perspective. It was produced before Leadbelly, Woody, or Pete Seeger had ever been heard of.

A

Subject: RE: Review: carl sandburg
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Apr 05 - 10:35 AM

If you're asking about it's intrinsic value, Sandburg's work is priceless. If you're looking for a dollar valuation, you're better off checking with some of the online auction sites--that's where many of us look. In a quick scan of the sites like Book Finder and ABE Books they don't cross the line and list any recordings, they only have his books listed.

SRS

Subject: RE: Review: carl sandburg
From: Chris in Wheaton
Date: 20 Apr 05 - 10:38 AM

Ol' Carl came to Oak Park High (where Hemingway went) in Spring '58, when I was a freshman. He gave a lunchtime program - read poems and played his guitar. Quite a showman.
Sure wish they had camcorders back then.
Chris

Subject: RE: Review: carl sandburg
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Apr 05 - 10:49 AM

Book Finder made a liar of me--sort of. I see a 10" LP recording of him reading some of his own work. The only American Song Bag entry is a bit odd. From Between the Covers Rare Books, Inc. via ILAB [United States]:

(No place) Musicraft Albums (no date - c.1940?) First One page folded to make four. Horizontal crease else near fine. Probably an insert from an LP record. From the papers of Catherine McCarthy, permissions editor for Harcourt, Brace, and close friend of Sandburg. Very scarce.

Scarce it may be, but it evidently DOESN'T contain the LP they ponder in this bookshop. The price for the LP holder is $100. I suspect this might be a pre-publication item, if they're pricing it so high. Considering it's missing its crucial something, the LP, maybe they they are hoping to get lucky selling the jacket, looking for someone else who has just the LP and wants the two together to give their LP more value.

I see another store has his Flat Rock Ballads for $10. No information at all about the condition, age, etc.

SRS

Subject: RE: Review: carl sandburg
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Apr 05 - 11:51 AM

did he make some records with Josh White?

Subject: RE: Review: carl sandburg
From: GUEST,Uncle DaveO
Date: 20 Apr 05 - 12:13 PM

I have a red, translucent 10" LP of Carl Sandburg singing folk songs. I'm too lazy to go look right now, but I think the title just might be "The American Songbag".

I'm just guessing this LP was a reissue of the songs on ggb701's 78 album.

Strange. Sandburg couldn't play guitar for beans, and his so-called singing voice was somewhere between pitiful and nonexistent, but somehow the songs came across just fine, thank you!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Review: carl sandburg recordings
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 21 Apr 05 - 09:25 AM

I have an LP called _The Great Carl Sandburg_ (Lyrichord Stereo LLST 766; no date). The Good Boy; Boll Weevil Song; Careless Love; In de Vinter Time; Moanish Lady!; Foggy, Foggy, Dew; I Wish I Was a Little Bird; I'm Sad and I'm Lonely; Cigarettes Will Spoil Yer Life; We'll Roll Back the Prices; The Horse Named Bill; Jay Gould's Daughter; He's Gone Away; Casey Jones; I Ride an Old Paint; Man Goin' Roun'; Gallows Song [= Sam Hall].

I like his voice. Makes me want to get drunk with him.

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: Sometimes I don't know where my last meal is going to. :||

Subject: RE: Review: carl sandburg recordings
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 21 Apr 05 - 03:36 PM

The above-mentioned Lyrichord CD is available, of course, from CAMSCO Music.

Subject: RE: Review: carl sandburg recordings
From: cetmst
Date: 22 Apr 05 - 06:29 AM

Carl Sandburg discography is at this site: http://www.wirz.de/music/sandbfrm.htm - sorry, can't do blue clickys yet. I have the first two listed on 78's but they are down in Maryland and I don't know whether they have survived the eight or ten moves since the 1950's. Also have excerpts from other albums transcribed from Mary Cliff's Traditions or Prairie Home Companion.
Unique voice and delivery. Yes, he did make a recording with Josh White. Also have The American Songbag, 1927 edition, The New American Songbag, 1950 and a book called Sweet Music by his daughter,
Helga Sandburg, 1963. The latter contains some songs he collected but did not include in earlier works.

Subject: RE: Review: carl sandburg recordings
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 22 Apr 05 - 08:57 PM

many thanks for answering my question. i remember in the Penguin Book of American folksongs , which was an essential part of any self respecting student's bookshelf in the 1960's, people talking of him with immense respect.

we have SO much to learn from that generation that made us first look at our heritage of folksong, and realised that it was a folio of work that would sustain a living theatrical tradition, rather than be a preserve of old folksingers and museum collections.

As the folk revival bandwagon got in motion, there started a craze for authenticity -which I believe, misunderstood the enormity of what these guys had achieved.

most urban people cannot relate to the delivery and exclusivity of genuine folksingers. Thats why the folk revival has lost such a lot of its power to communicate. if we wish to be understood we must use the language and vocabulary of the society we live in.
all the best
Big Al Whittle