Songs about farm folk

Subject: RE: Help: Songs about farm folk
From: Orwill
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 08:59 PM

Dear Pastorpest: What you learned from Pete Seegar was said by Yip Harburg ("Over the Rainbow"). Here's the way I remember it. Words make you think thoughts. Music makes you feel feelings. A song makes you feel a thought.

Subject: RE: Help: Songs about farm folk
From: Willie-O
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 08:37 PM

Well, what do you want to do with these songs?

My neighbour Gary Glover is a Canadian farmer/songwriter. His stuff is poetic and...well, different, and frequently a bit on the dark side (life and death in the barnyard, ya know.) He's currently trying to get a demo tape made of some of his material with the intention of marketing some songs to other people. If you're interested, send me a personal message.

Speaking of Canadian farmer/songwriters with a dark twisted streak, it's odd that no one has mentioned Fred Eaglesmith. A very intense voice from rural Ontario.

Willie-O

Subject: RE: Help: Songs about farm folk
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 07:57 PM

Like Susan I did a search using @poverty, which among others yielded Brother Can You Spare A Dime (I posted the tune some time back) and the rather apt Seven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat. Regards, John

Subject: RE: Help: Songs about farm folk
From: Susan of DT
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 07:43 PM

a search for @farmer in the Digital Tradition yields 77 songs. Also look for [Copper family] since many of their songs are about farming communities and rural pursuits.

Subject: RE: Help: Songs about farm folk
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 07:42 PM

Australia has a rich culture of songs and poems about life and hardship in the bush. The one that springs immediately to mind is 'Broken Down Squatter'. The chorus reads in part "When the big-wigs are brought to the Bankruptcy Court, what chance for a squatter like me?" The lyrics are in the DT. I know that I posted the tune some time ago. Please let me know if you would like a refresh. Regards, John

Subject: RE: Help: Songs about farm folk
From: Stewie
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 07:33 PM

For the early stuff, get hold of 'Hard Times Come Again No More: Early American Rural Songs of Hard Times and Hardships Vols 1 and 2' Yazoo 2036 and 2037. These are compilations of songs from black and white artists of the 1920s and 1930s and include classics such as the Bentley Boys' 'Down on Penny's Farm', Blind Alfred Reed's 'How Can A Poor Man (Stand Such Times and Live', Allen Bros 'Price of Cotton Blues', Barbecue Bob's 'Bad Time Blues' etc.

Cheers, Stewie.

Subject: RE: Help: Songs about farm folk
From: Dan Evergreen
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 07:22 PM

"Homestead on the Farm" as sung by Flatt and Scruggs and probably others, is simple and lovely in sort of a slow-bluegrass style. Somebody gave the lyrics on a thread a year or so ago. It's something you can use.

Subject: RE: Help: Songs about farm folk
From: GUEST,Eric Johnson
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 07:13 PM

I recommend some of the old country material from the '20s and '30s that was recorded on 78 rpms. Bands like Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers and the North Carolina Ramblers and Uncle Dave Macon. Here's a must: Fiddlin' John Carson playing "The Farmer is the Man Who Feeds Them All."

The County and Rounder record labels include compilations of these artists.

For something more recent, try the Clinch Mountain Boys "The Fields Have Turned Brown."

Subject: RE: Help: Songs about farm folk
From: Lanfranc
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 07:08 PM

From the English Tradition, how about "The Farmer's Boy"?, "Scarborough Fair" (tell him to plough me ... etc). I'll try to come up with others.

I attend several singarounds out in rural parts of eastern England, and there a several "old boys" who turn up and sing obscure songs with a farming theme, some from the Music Hall ("Jollity Farm") and others from the point of view of the farm labourer ("Did you ever see a farmer on a bike")

I'll trace the thread and set some pointers when I get time.

Subject: RE: Help: Songs about farm folk
From: wysiwyg
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 07:08 PM

Pastorpest--

go to:

http://www.seorf.ohiou.edu/~xx042/r_ctr/r_ctr.html

I think you'll like it.

Subject: RE: Help: Songs about farm folk
From: wysiwyg
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 07:06 PM

On a Priscilla Herdman tape there's one that's quite rural, about seasons changing and lovers/spouses, I'll try to dig it up.

There's a good rural ministries web site. If I can did it out of my bookmarks I'll post it to you.

My husband is an Episcopal priest and fiddle/banjo/mandolin player. We are currently serving in rural land too. He hasn't visited Mudcat much but can be e-mailed at our home e-mail; if you want that, pls see me on the Personal Page.

Subject: RE: Help: Songs about farm folk
From: Clinton Hammond2
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 07:00 PM

Stan Rogers "Lies" Lots of stuff from Tamarack, especially the 'Fields Of Rock and Snow album... Keelaghan has a few prarie tunes... Jethro Tull has allkinda of rural stuff, especially "Farm On The Freeway" on the album Crest Of A Knave...

Just off the top of my head...

Subject: Songs about farm folk
From: pastorpest
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 06:44 PM

I am involved with the "Rural Life Committee" of a church denomination, United Church of Canada, that is primarily urban. Getting people to hear, let alone understand what is being lost as farm families disappear is never easy. People do not "feel" statistics about farm economics. With a good song you can think a feeling and feel a thought (I read that in Pete Seeger stuff and I am not sure he takes credit for it). We are looking for songs about farm folk and farm life that express both their joys and sorrows. For me Stan Rogers "Field Behind the Plow", Connie Kaldor's "Harsh and Unforgiving" and Ron Hynes "Sonny's Dream" are good examples. Please add to the list and if you can point me to where to find lyrics and music all the better. In advance, thanks!