Joe Bethancourt: Who Fears the Devil Req

Subject: RE: Joe Bethancourt: Who Fears the Devil Req
From: reggie miles
Date: 27 Nov 21 - 07:52 PM

I just Googled him and there are lots of videos, he also had a ReverbNation site that still has his videos posted there. So, all is not lost. Here is the material in question posted on a site call sonichits.com

Who Fears The Devil?

Subject: RE: Joe Bethancourt: Who Fears the Devil Req
From: cnd
Date: 27 Nov 21 - 05:36 PM

It is indeed Joe Bethancourt singing that rendition

Subject: RE: Joe Bethancourt: Who Fears the Devil Req
From: cnd
Date: 27 Nov 21 - 05:36 PM

It is indeed Joe Bethancourt singing that rendition

Subject: RE: Joe Bethancourt: Who Fears the Devil Req
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Nov 21 - 04:54 PM

nine yards of other cloth.... i think this is Joe Bethancourt singing, but it was posted by someone else... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9vc9mJhOMo

Subject: RE: Joe Bethancourt: Who Fears the Devil Req
From: GUEST,open mike
Date: 25 Nov 21 - 04:42 PM

CND.....cnd
i would be very intereted in the Who Fears the Devil c.d. I was friends with Joe Bethancourt, and had several of his recordings and played them on my radio show...my c.d .collection was destroyed by fire and I would dearly ike to replace the Bethancourt recordings. If there is any way to reach you or i fit is possible to get a copy to me that would be wonderful!! I am at [e-mail] if you can contact me, that would be appreciated. thanks in advance, Laurel

Subject: RE: Joe Bethancourt: Who Fears the Devil Req
From: cnd
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 03:48 PM

Bethancourt's song "Eva Dare's Song" is a medley of songs from two stories, starting with a stanza from "Pretty Little Pink" (from Nine Yards of Other Cloth) before quoting the courting game song "Needle's Eye" (from Trill Coster's Burden), before circling back to Pretty Little Pink.

Subject: RE: Joe Bethancourt: Who Fears the Devil Req
From: cnd
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 02:24 PM

I just received the 2004 CD in the mail this afternoon. Much of the information from the physical CD can be found fairly easily online, but being able to listen to the tunes and confirming some of my stabs at song recordings from the Manly Wade Wellman thread (link) are actually correct.

Some other interesting details about the album:

 - Bethancourt intentionally recorded the album to have a "field recording" feeling, so not all of the songs are super clean and polished. This is more noticeable on some recordings than others; for example, Mole In the Ground clearly has a thinness to the recording quality and has a jokingly ad libbed "quick Luke, think up another one. Here comes that Lomax fellow again" quietly in the recording

 - Bethancourt used old and authentic instruments on all his albums; this was no exception. The recordings featured a hand-made fretless banjo, a Whyte Lady #2 Banjo (a traditional open-backed banjo), and a Martin New Yorker guitar strung with real silver strings

 - The album features the following artists:
 Joe Bethancourt: vocals, guitar(s), banjo(s), mandolin, harmonica, etc.
 Austin Brooks: fiddle
 Cher Bethancourt: vocals
 Sharon Bradford: vocals
 Coleen Parker: vocals
 Lora Trimble: vocals

I will be making relevant corrections to the other thread as well.

Subject: RE: Joe Bethancourt: Who Fears the Devil Req
From: cnd
Date: 29 Mar 20 - 10:59 AM

John, sorry I missed your response, but thanks for your answer! As best as I can find it was produced by "White Tree Arizona" but that could be false. Thanks for the FilkCast link, I'll have to look into it.

I did just find this link which allows you to listen to the title song Silver John, and the Nine Yards of Other Cloth song linked by Starship.

It also has a pretty detailed writeup about the song from Bethancourt.

A version of Bethancourt's website, for anyone interested in the singer, is still *sort of* running here, though many of the links no longer lead to the correct place

Subject: RE: Joe Bethancourt: Who Fears the Devil
From: John C. Bunnell
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 09:17 PM

I'm not sure I can be much help on this one. It's true that before Joe Bethancourt passed he was an icon in the filk community (and hosted a highly regarded field guide to filk traditions on the Web), but that Web site evidently died with him (and its successor, as mentioned above, appears to have been infiltrated by questionable actors).

And unfortunately, my particular filk network is both in the wrong part of the country and just a little too young for its collective memory to yield a source-connection for this particular request. Worse, such online sources as I've been poking at have failed to produce clear answers as to the publisher of the album in question -- it doesn't seem to have been either of the nominally major filk producers from the relevant period.

I did come across a mention of Bethancourt's work having been featured on at least one episode of FilkCast; your best bet for tracking down the album might be to contact the producers of that show to see what information they have.

Subject: RE: Joe Bethancourt: Who Fears the Devil Req
From: cnd
Date: 07 Mar 20 - 09:49 AM

Thanks for the help Starship, that does raise a few red flags to me too

Subject: RE: Joe Bethancourt: Who Fears the Devil Req
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 06 Mar 20 - 10:19 AM

http://mootube.ru/release-idejbahee/Who-Fears-The-Devil-The-Songs-Of-Silver-John

I am posting that site but not hot-linking it because it raises too many suspicions on my part.

Subject: RE: Joe Bethancourt: Who Fears the Devil Req
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 06 Mar 20 - 09:37 AM

Apologies. It was released in 2004. BUT, still no luck.

Subject: RE: Joe Bethancourt: Who Fears the Devil Req
From: cnd
Date: 05 Mar 20 - 01:05 PM

Thanks for your help Starship.

I know it's a very long shot for a CD that is a) very old and b) produced and sold regionally at c) very small and informal settings, but I know there are some filkies on here (see the "Heroine Barbarian" thread as a recent example) and was hoping one of them may have stumbled across it somehow.

Way back in the 2000's some 'catters appear to have known Joe but it looks like they've all stopped visiting sadly.

Subject: RE: Joe Bethancourt: Who Fears the Devil Req
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 05 Mar 20 - 09:07 AM

I found one song on YouTube from the CD you're looking for. It is at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9vc9mJhOMo

I expect it will be very difficult to locate a copy of the CD (it was released in 2000 CE), but if I locate one I'll post to this thread. Good luck.

Subject: Joe Bethancourt: Who Fears the Devil Req
From: cnd
Date: 03 Mar 20 - 06:21 PM

Does anyone have a copy of the CD or tape of Joe Bethancourt's "Who Fears the Devil"? I read Manly Wade Wellman's short stories collected under the same name recently and was fascinated by his mashup of American folk music and the supernatural and would love to be able to hear the songs performed.

Unfortunately, Joe himself passed away about 6 years ago now, and attempts to reach email addresses or via paper mail at the posted address of White Tree Arizona, the company that produced most of his music, all failed. So if anyone has a copy of the CD or cassette tape they'd be willing to sell me, I'd love to know.

If you don't feel comfortable posting personal information, feel free to PM me or ask for my email and we can get in touch that way.