Bloody War: Songs 1924-1939
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Bloody War: Songs 1924 – 1939
This is a bit of a TM oddity in that its currently a CD-only release (it may see a vinyl release someday according to Josh Rosenthal) and I don’t own it. Yet. I received an email from Josh of Tompkins Square Records giving me the heads up on this new release so I gave it a listen and loved it. Tomkins Square, if you didn’t know, has a wonderfully diverse catalog that includes Ran Blake, Giuseppi Logan, Peter Walker, E.C. Ball, James Blackshaw and more. And they release vinyl like this very cool 7″ from 12-string picker Suni McGrath who studied with the Rev. Gary Davis and Mississippi John Hurt.
Bloody War: Songs 1924 – 1939 is what the title says – “This newly minted collection presents performances captured between 1924 and 1939 of songs originating from the American Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and the “war to end all wars,” the First World War. These recordings were the folk foundation both of the common soldier’s perspective of the battlefield and of the family and loved ones that were left behind.“
Here’s a tasty taste - Everybody Help The Boys Come Home by William & Versey Smith (1927)
These songs let us listen back to we’re all in this together Americanness which nearly hurts when compared to our current state of divisive partisan pomp represented by pudgy white whiny pricks with a pulpit. Dough boys. Part of what’s so extraordinary about these songs is a sense of facing the inevitable with whatever it takes including a big helping of humor – All ya can do is do what you must. You do what you must do and ya do it well (to borrow from Mr. Dylan who borrowed so much from this music). Even when what you must do is some horrid shit or the nearly always sensible alternative from “The Battleship of Maine” (1927) -
Why are you running?
Are you afraid to die?
The reason I am running
is because I cannot fly.
Amen. Or as Bob Marley explained “He who fight and run away, lives to fight another day.”
It’s also a lesson in how much you can communicate through such simple means – an analog recording of live acoustic music cut to shellac at 78rpm. Of course there is some irony here seeing as I listened to this music via MP3s which always feel like I’m renting the music (CDs being akin to a lease whereas an LP is my copy of the real thing. A home for music. But that’s just me) i.e., Bloody War: Songs 1924 – 1939 wants to be a vinyl release.
Produced by Christopher King and Josh Rosenthal, with art-design by Susan Archie and liner-notes by country music historian Tony Russell. A portion of all proceeds from the sale of this album will be donated to Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA.org).
Tracks:
Just As The Sun Went Down – Zeke Morris
Bloody War – Jimmy Yates’ Boll Weevils
Faded Coat Of Blue – Buell Kazee
Army Mule In No Man’s Land – Coley Jones
Rainbow Division – Tom Darby & Jimmie Tarlton
Battleship Of Maine – Red Patterson’s Piedmont Long Rollers
Long Way To Tipperary – Frank Hutchison
Dixie Division – Fiddlin’ John Carson & His Virginia Reelers
That Old Vacant Chair – Dixon Brothers
Johnnie Get Your Gun – Earl Johnson & His Clodhoppers
Uncle Sam & The Kaiser – Ernest Stoneman
He Is Coming To Us Dead – G.B. Grayson – Henry Whitter
Captain Won’t You Let Me Go Home – Tom Darby & Jimmie Tarlton
Not A Word Of That Be Said – Wade Mainer & Sons of The Mountaineers
Everybody Help The Boys Come Home – William & Versey Smith
