Recorded period music

[Coon Dawg]

Does anyone know of where I could find recorded period music besides that of the 2nd South Carolina String Band. They are great; however, I would like to hear others.

Joel Phillips

[AZReenactor]

Re: Recorded period music

A careful search and review of previous discussions in this very same forum will point you to quite a number of suggestions worth checking out.

[Parault]

Re: Recorded period music

Does anyone know of where I could find recorded period music besides that of the 2nd South Carolina String Band. They are great; however, I would like to hear others.

Joel Phillips

Joel;

Have you heard of the Prairie County Avengers? They are just two gentlemen that play period instruments & have four CD's out. They do not play in front of microphones,nor do they use any modern instruments during recording. Here is their website:

http://www.pcavengers.com/

I have three of the CD's and they are very good and very Authentic

[Coon Dawg]

Re: Recorded period music

Thanks a bunch.

Joel Phillips

[Southernlady1862]

Re: Recorded period music

I'll try to make this as unbiased as possible.. lol. ....

Here's a list of bands I have seen at re-enactments:
"The 8th georgia regiment band" (brass band)
"The Orphan Brigade band" (brass)
"The 52nd regimental string band "

I've also heard of the "Saint andrews string band" , though I've never heard them play. I don't know if any of these bands have websites/cd's, or anything about their level of authenticity. This is just the bands I know of.

And I play with "Un-reconstructed" . You can click on the banner in my signature to go to our myspace. It has some songs off our celtic cd playing.

I hope this helps!

[DJCasey]

Re: Recorded period music

I am a big fan of David Kincaid's music. He has one album that is music of the Irish Union Volunteer and one that is for both Confederate and Union. You can find them with sample of his music at: http://www.hauntedfieldmusic.com/

[Trish Hasenmueller]

Re: Recorded period music

Others that I think haven't been mentioned:

Allendale Melodians, available at http://www.carterandjasper.com/amusements.htm

Old Towne Brass: http://www.otbrass.com/

also with many older tunes: Kim and Paul Caudell: http://caudellmusic.tripod.com/

Trish Hasenmueller

[bhutton]

Re: Recorded period music

Have you heard the 97th regiment collections ?

[Professor Sable]

Re: Recorded period music

You might want to try Professor Sable's Songster--it is an entirely accurate recording of various minstrel songs. It is available from Eara Barnhouse Goods.

William Gay

[Silas]

Re: Recorded period music

I purchased a copy of Prof. Sable's Songster at Mill Springs after sitting in with them during the minstrel show. It's great. In addition to the audio, there is a true songster. There are a couple songs on here I had not heard before and will be trying to locate in archived songsheets then tabbing them for banjo.

Another source for recorded music is the Banjo Clubhouse at http://www.milfordmusic.com/Banjo%20Audio.htm There are only a couple hundred songs posted there. Hope that's enough music for you.

[Danny]

Re: Recorded period music

Have you heard the 97th regiment collections ?

...the 2nd South Carolina String Band... They are great; however, I would like to hear others. Joel Phillips

...Here's a list of bands I have seen at re-enactments:
…"The 52nd regimental string band"...And I play with "Un-reconstructed"...

Those particular string bands are great but alas, a significant portion of their recordings are more authentic to post-1900s than they are to the 1860s.

The good news is that three of these groups, except for the 97th, have of late improved their impression through research. Some have gone to using gut-stringed instruments and the proper (usually lower) pitches used in those times (like the fine period brass bands mentioned in this thread) and have also gone to the less-harmonized style of singing that CW soldiers would have actually heard.

To my ear the other bands mentioned to this point, particularly the ones in the style of the Allendale Melodians, are the most authentic, then the 2nd S. Carolina (my favorite, even if not absolutely authentic) with their latest albums. Listen to their great fife-and-drum interludes between the string music.

Below those I would put UnReconstructed (the nicest folks and easiest listen you can imagine), then the 52nd (it's about gusto and sincerity) and at the bottom the 97th (with their great sounding 1960's folk sound, and - yikes - mandolin).

Dan Wykes

[DonH]

Re: Recorded period music

You can ALWAYS listen to Camptown Shakers!!! They have three CDs out now I believe.

Donald

[amity]

Re: Recorded period music

Look for County Records' field recordings of actual period musicians, or pretty close to it. These were made in the early 1900s through the depression, some made by the WPA in the 1930s. I think they are compilations of recordings now in the Library of Congress. If you know what to listen for, some of the musicians learned to play during the civil war or shortly after. These are especially good for southern traditional fiddle music, etc. Obviously avoid the ragtime and other later styles. I love a family group called Carter Brothers and Son. They were a local Mississippi group consisting mainly of two brother fiddlers who were youngsters during the civil war.

The thing that surprised me on listening to the older traditional music was that it did not feature the devices that were (apparently) later developed to ensure that musicians all began and ended together, like four potatoes. On these old field recordings one musician will start, followed gradually by others and the tune just gradually coalesces out of the fog of sound. They end the same way, just sort of peter out without a "shave and a haircut, two bits" effect. I don't know the correct musical term for this, so have to resort to metaphors, sorry! Apparently the coherent abrupt beginnings and endings were developed at the end of the 19th century as part of what was called the Galax sound, and were a post-civil war phenomenon. I actually did a bit of research into this a couple of decades ago, but can't remember where I found sources describing what had happened. It was the development of a performance style for stage, and even later for recording and radio play that changed the music.

Terre Schill

[Danny]

Re: Recorded period music

...Apparently the coherent abrupt beginnings and endings were developed at the end of the 19th century... and were a post-civil war phenomenon... It was the development of a performance style for stage...that changed the music. Terre Schill

Terre -

I have advocated listening to recordings from that same period because some recorded players were of a generation having first-hand (eared?) knowledge of the music as played during the Civil War, and some of their playing patterns likely came from that tradition. (Uncle Dave Macon, in particular, is a study of Minstrel stage performance carried forward from his childhood in the 19th century). Of course none of the actual sound was much like that heard during the Civil War - the instruments and the pitches used were quite different by early 2oth century.

Your theory about "coherent abrupt beginnings and endings" developing in the 20th century I feel is wrong. The thing you mention, I feel, should only apply to the late 19th vs. early 20th century string band development. Long before 'old-timey' folk string bands became popular; fiddles, banjos and guitars were playing together on stage with those "Coherent abrupt beginnings and endings" that were the norm from back before the Civil War. Popular sheet music and period guitar, fiddle and banjo tutors bear that out.

Could it be that what you're noticing in the first recordings of string bands - the staggered beginnings and endings - besides being typical of recording techniques at the time (level adjustments made as the song progressed to save on re-takes with the expensive materials used) was the developmental form of what we know today as a old-time jam or Bluegrass jamm, where each instrument and player gets a 'break' to show off. That's not the way of a CW period performance, where all instruments supported a singer or a tune from an abrupt beginning note to a satisfying end note.

IMHO there's way to much old-timey and Bluegrass 'string band' and not enough 'period' string performance at reenactments today.

- Dan Wykes

[Old Cremona]

Re: Recorded period music

Terre -


IMHO there's way to much old-timey and Bluegrass 'string band' and not enough 'period' string performance at reenactments today.

- Dan Wykes

Dan'l, that wouldn't be a problem if you could pull yourself out of the mainstream.