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Help: What's high and lonesome?

17 Sep 00 - 09:24 PM (#299550)
Subject: What's high and lonesome?
From: GUEST,JTT

What exactly is meant by the term "high and lonesome" in country or old timey music?

17 Sep 00 - 10:47 PM (#299590)
Subject: RE: Help: What's high and lonesome?
From: RWilhelm

No, it's not how I spent the 70's. It's the sound of Bill Monroe's voice.

17 Sep 00 - 10:54 PM (#299597)
Subject: RE: Help: What's high and lonesome?
From: Oversoul

I usually think of "high and lonesome" as being descripitive of bluegrass. You know, the high pitched singing and the "blue notes" borrowed from the African-American experience. Some old-timey music has these elements, Roscoe Holcomb (hope I spelled his name right) and Doc Boggs among many others. Maybe it has something to do with the use of minor chords, too.

18 Sep 00 - 12:08 AM (#299638)
Subject: RE: Help: What's high and lonesome?
From: Lonesome EJ

Wind through the last stands of pine just below the timber line,when you're all alone on the mountain,and it's like a song that you are part of.The far away whistle of a freight train at night.Music that conjures these images.

18 Sep 00 - 12:13 AM (#299641)
Subject: RE: Help: What's high and lonesome?
From: Bill D

Roscoe Holcomb had a record called "The High Lonsome Sound"...old ballads, mountain imagery, tenor voice that made the hair stand up on you neck....

18 Sep 00 - 01:54 AM (#299707)
Subject: RE: Help: What's high and lonesome?
From: Lepus Rex

I believe that... God, I forget his name... John Cohen? (someone correct me if I'm wrong) created this term to describe Roscoe Holcomb's singing, and since then it's been applied to other musicians (like Bill Monroe).

---Lepus Rex

18 Sep 00 - 01:59 AM (#299712)
Subject: RE: Help: What's high and lonesome?
From: Seamus Kennedy

Ralph Stanley

18 Sep 00 - 02:05 AM (#299714)
Subject: RE: Help: What's high and lonesome?
From: GUEST, Banjo Johnny

Bluegrass players have sort of adopted the phrase as a synonym for bluegrass music in general. == Johnny in OKC

18 Sep 00 - 04:27 PM (#300135)
Subject: RE: Help: What's high and lonesome?
From: Lepus Rex

If anyone cares, here's more... :)

From the liner notes, written by John Cohen, to 'Roscoe Holcomb---The High Lonesome Sound,' on Smithsonian/Folkways:

"His style of singing contained church and blues elements: bending notes, extending phrases, singing sharp, singing flat, the ways of ornamenting certain notes, and especially the breathing and the intense energy level. Roscoe's singing has become known as 'the high lonesome sound.' I made up that phrase in 1962 to describe his special qualities, and the term has travelled widely since then. Today it is the generic term for all bluegrass singing."

---Lepus Rex

18 Sep 00 - 04:51 PM (#300154)
Subject: RE: Help: What's high and lonesome?
From: Sorcha

I love LEJ's description--been there, and that is exactly it.

18 Sep 00 - 08:35 PM (#300313)
Subject: RE: Help: What's high and lonesome?
From: bseed(charleskratz)

There's also a "High and Lonesome" Roscoe Holcomb video out--available at such as Elderly or Mandoweb or Larkinam (all .com).

--seed

18 Sep 00 - 08:57 PM (#300325)
Subject: RE: Help: What's high and lonesome?
From: Hutzul

What's High and Lonesome? A six foot woman when her man's away.

19 Sep 00 - 04:30 PM (#300907)
Subject: RE: Help: What's high and lonesome?
From: GospelPicker (inactive)

Bill Monroe used to say that when he was a boy, he would go out into the woods in Kentucky and sit near a stream or walk a trail and just sing to himself... a little shy and afraid no one would like his voice... Later, a love for the blues and his childhood experiences with gospel music led to the development of his awesome falsetto range combined with touching lyrics and the same kind of raisin' like Mr. Holcolmb...

that's the "high lonesome" sound.

GospelPicker

@:()[+]

19 Sep 00 - 06:37 PM (#301016)
Subject: RE: Help: What's high and lonesome?
From: Bud Savoie

The two people the term has been specifically applied to were Holcomb and Monroe, for the reasons stated in previous posts. Oddly, Bill Monroe did not especially like Roscoe Holcomb's style.

19 Sep 00 - 06:39 PM (#301018)
Subject: RE: Help: What's high and lonesome?
From: Bud Savoie

The two people the term has been specifically applied to were Holcomb and Monroe, for the reasons stated in previous posts. Oddly, Bill Monroe did not especially like Roscoe Holcomb's style.