Ed McCurdy - Available Recordings

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: Tradition Folk
Date: 01 May 06 - 10:48 AM

Of course we always try to do the right thing - Yes, when we can(reach the artist or their estate) the artists are offered a royalty rate - It's true that the original contracts were mostly one shot deals. We try to get the artists involved and have been pretty successful so far - John Edward Niles (John Jacob's son) has been involved in both of our JJ Niles releases, has done interviews about the releases on public radio etc. Nobody's making a mint on these releases - including us - its all about getting the music out there and preserving history.

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: Don Firth
Date: 30 Apr 06 - 12:50 PM

WHat Stilly said! Indeed! Amen!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Apr 06 - 04:16 PM

"The Best of Dalliance" from the Elektra Dalliance" LPs are available from Rhino Handmade http://www.rhinohandmade.com/browse/ProductLink.lasso?Number=7835.

I don't know if any of McCurdy's other Elektra albums are on somebody's plans for reissues, but I'd bet that WEA would license them if somebody waved enough money at them.

I'd be less optimistic about his Prestige and Riverside albums, which are among McCurdy's best. Those labels are owned by Fantasy Records, who have been less than cooperative about licensing material in their catalog for CD reissues.

Tradition Folk, (whoever you are), do you now control the entire original Tradition catalog? Seems like it has passed through a bunch of hands over the years.

And do you plan to pay royalties on the stuff you reissue? It's my impression that most of the original contracts that Dianne Hamilton and the Clancys wrote were for one-time payments, but it would sure be nice to learn that the musicians on those records who are still with us (Jean Ritchie, the Kossoy Sisters, Peggy Seeger, among others)are getting some kind of payment for their early work.

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: Bill Hahn//\\
Date: 29 Apr 06 - 03:21 PM

Oscar Brand's "Bawdy" songs could be played for your parents---the writer states. True---Oscar, however, did (or does) have an album that came in a plain brown sleeve and had no name which I purchased at the Speakeasy in NY and he autographed in the 1980s (or late 1970s). Trust me---if you were a kid you would not play it for your parents.

         I remember what he wrote on it---don't play this in public places.

Bill Hahn

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Apr 06 - 11:31 AM

Nice post, Jim!

Tornado siren was a jolt, I got out the weather radio and set up for "just in case," but the bulk of the storm passed north of us.

I was attempting to say about Dyer-Bennett that I know his material is out now, but I just wish there was more of it! For someone of his calibre, it would have been nice to have a much larger body of work to draw from today.

I think the same can be said of McCurdy. What is out there is good, but it would be wonderful if there was a lot more available. We need to see "lost recordings" from this or that occasion turn up.

SRs

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 29 Apr 06 - 10:37 AM

I was lucky enough to be Ed's chauffer when he played at Cobourg's Waterfront Festival many years ago. He had many interesting stories to tell about Joan Baez, (He had a monsterous crush on her*)Judy Collins and Stacey Keach and Merrick Jarrett. He said he completed Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream at Merrick's kitchen table and Merrick was not overly enthusiastic about the song when he showed it to him. He was also a shameless flirt and flirted with my wife whether or not I was present.

*I saw him play the Strangest Dream with Jamie snyder on guitar at Mariposa and part way through, Joan Baez walked out and started to put on a harmony. He said that was one of his finest memories.

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 29 Apr 06 - 09:16 AM

SRS - I hope the tornado passed without incident!

Richard Dyer-Bennett's recordings are available from Smithsonian Folkways. They own the rights to several of the older folk labels such as Dyer Bennet's self-produced label. They have issued a few collections which were restored, and the orignal LP's are available as custom CD's (as are the entire Folkways catalog of recordings).

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 06 - 10:57 PM

The one I wish had recorded so much more because he had a great voice and repertoire and managed to exert tremendous control over his product was Richard Dyer-Bennett. Have you read the liner notes from his first CD, the turquoise one (duplicating the record cover) that came out about a dozen years ago or more? He had such high quality recording equipment and conditions that today it still sounds marvelous.

Shit. I heard the tornado siren.

SRS

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 28 Apr 06 - 05:52 PM

There is a "best of" the Dalliance CD available from another label, but frankly it wasn't re-issued with the same care as Empire Musicwerks has been showing on their re-issue series.

Ed recorded for several labels. I feel that there are a few on the Elektra label that are among his best.   I hope Empire is successful with the Tradition label and can license some of the others! "Blood, Booze and Bones" should be in print!!!!

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: Tradition Folk
Date: 28 Apr 06 - 04:32 PM

We're going to release ALL the Ed McCurdy stuff that was on Tradition - we have no control over the Dalliance stuff unfortunately - we'll research it though - and if it's available for licensing (I'm pretty sure it's not)we'll attempt to license it. Same goes for all the RCA John Jacob Niles stuff that BMG has in their vaults.

Don't forget to join our Mailing List!!!

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 06 - 04:06 PM

I have several tapes my Dad recorded for me from his McCurdy albums years ago. Through a series of unfortunate events, some of those albums passed out of my hands after Dad died and I haven't been able to retrieve them. (I do have the Dalliance albums, though). I will be pleased to see these all turn up on CD. Before the LPs left my possession (part of an estate thing) I made copies of the album covers and liner notes for reference purposes, since Dad learned so many songs from those LPs.

SRS

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Apr 06 - 03:32 PM

I mean JJN... hehe.

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: GUEST,TraditionFolk.com
Date: 28 Apr 06 - 03:31 PM

agreed - Oscar Brand's brand of bawdy was quite safe compared to the McCurdy stuff. The McCurdy stuff kids played in a private secret place at camp while they were smoking banana peels whereas the Oscar Brand stuff you could play for your parents ;)

Also Ron you should be reciving a 4 track sampler in the mail this week on the An Evening With... JJJ. Let us know when the show airs.

s.

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 28 Apr 06 - 01:53 PM

oops.. that sentence should have read "the music that he did was erotic songs".

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 28 Apr 06 - 01:52 PM

Ed would have stopped you if you called his songs "bawdy". He did that to me!   He reminded me that Oscar Brand sings bawdy songs, the music that he did was "erotic songs". He was right! There is a huge difference.

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: GUEST,Traditionfolk.com
Date: 28 Apr 06 - 01:39 PM

There are more Ed McCurdy releases coming - I believe the next one will be a children's album. Ed didn't record any of the bawdy stuff for Tradition - those are on another label. Thanks for catching that typo i just fixed it... ;)

The banjo player in question is Erik Darling who played on quite a few Tradition releases. Remember we're talkin' 1956 here - I think Barry Kornfeld was still just a kid hanging out at Washington Square Park back then...

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: fretless
Date: 28 Apr 06 - 12:55 PM

"Dirty" McCurdy, as he was occasionally known back in the old days, was also an acknowledged performer of bawdy ballads. The downloads from the web site sound quite good. Was that Barry Kornfled playing banjo on Pretty Saro?

Subject: RE: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 06 - 12:51 PM

A Ballad Singer's Choice is a great start. Are there any more in the works?

(There is a typo in the ad you might want to fix--it says "Ballads Singer's Choice)

SRS

Subject: Ed McCurdy - The Tradition Years
From: GUEST,TraditionFolk.com
Date: 28 Apr 06 - 12:43 PM

Out NOW!!!!

ED McCURDY, aside from being one of the early folk movement's greatest progenitors - has the distinction of being one of the most recorded of all American folksingers, yet today most of his great recordings are sadly out-of-print. Ed McCurdy paved the way for many of today's modern folk / country / Americana artists and was once considered America's premier folk balladeer. His albums of Cowboy songs and children's songs were staples of life in 1950's America and found their way into America's school systems and libraries all across the land. Ed was one of the first responsible for bringing folk music to television and was a frequent performer on children's shows and musical specials. His original composition "Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream" was one of the key anthems of the Anti-War movement.

Please check www.traditionfolk.com for sound samples and more information on this and other Tradition Folk releases.

Subject: RE: BS: Ed McCurdy
From:
Date: 04 Aug 01 - 07:20 AM

Thanks Ron. If it's archived, then I can download it to listen. I just can't listen to these things "real-time".

Subject: RE: BS: Ed McCurdy
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 03 Aug 01 - 10:02 PM

There were two other recent CD releases - a 1950 childrens songs recording and there was a re-release of some of the Dalliance recordings on CD. The Dalliance re-release apparently wasn't authorized and it went under the title of English Bawdy Songs, which Ed would have hated since he was adament that his music was "erotic", not "bawdy". I saw both recordings in a catalog from one of these bargain bin CD companies, the type that has 75 different recordings of "Songs from the 40's" and "101 Strings Play Dylan", etc. I don't know if they are still available, but hopefully somebody will release these magnificent recordings soon.

I plan to archive the interview, and perhaps the tribute show, I did with Ed here on Mudcat in the Traditions section on the radio page. I will post a note when it is online.

Ron

Subject: RE: BS: Ed McCurdy
From: SINSULL
Date: 03 Aug 01 - 10:36 AM

Ebay. Ed McCurdy's "Dalliance" series, Sea Chanties, etc. are always available.

Subject: RE: BS: Ed McCurdy
From: Hollowfox
Date: 03 Aug 01 - 09:21 AM

I know for sure they have some at Last Vestige Records http://www.lastvestige.com and I'm pretty sure there are some at Still Records after All These Years http://www.stillrecords.com.

Subject: RE: BS: Ed McCurdy
From: IanC
Date: 03 Aug 01 - 06:31 AM

Perhaps this discography page is suitable? There's also a bio here and another here which may have some more useful info.

Cheers!
Ian

Subject: Ed McCurdy
From: GUEST,Roberto
Date: 03 Aug 01 - 05:49 AM

Can somebody tell what recordings by Ed McCurdy are available, in CD or LP, beside the one about Cowboy Songs, and from where? Thank you. Roberto