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:D Thought those of you that love period music might enjoy this review. The review was written by a member of our unit for our newsletter.
The CD is first rate, I have nothing to gain by it's promotion except I hope it does well and additional albums may be made in the future.
Enjoy!
Canebrake Minstrels: historically
correct, politically incorrect
By David Hare
Drummer, 6th New Hampshire
The minstrel show was a unique form of purely American entertainment and it gained in popularity and acceptance throughout the 1800s. While members of the upper class enjoyed classical music, the entertainment for the common man (and eventually even the social elite) was the minstrel show. Many of the day's best musicians and comedians were minstrels and these shows were the start of what evolved into vaudeville and then variety shows; combining comedy and music together to entertain the public.
It was not permissible to joke about sex, so a lot of the accepted period humor was geared toward race. White musicians poked fun at blacks and played and sang African American songs.
For us, as living history historians, knowledge about this important art form is very difficult to access. While the Minstrel show was popular before and after the Civil War, it has vanished today … almost.
A small group of musicians from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut with a considerable amount of talent have done a lot of research into period sources and have produced a new CD of a 19th century minstrel show. The group is known as The Canebrake Minstrels. There are two reasons that this is a must have new CD.
The first of course is the music and minstrel banter. Some of these pieces you will be familiar with, like Old Dan Tucker, and the way they are done and the instrumentation is very much early and mid 19th century. I love the sound of real gut strings on a banjo, an old fiddle, an original 1820s flute and nice, crisp bones that were "original to the cow." Selections also include a tin whistle in the original 1843 Clark design, a tambourine with correct heads and jingles, and an original Este pump organ, circa 1840-1850. But these are not simply museum pieces; these instruments are all played well by accomplished musicians with the stage names of Juba Lee, Justin Case, Amos Nandy, Moses Likum, and Williub Weaber -- or "Mistah Bones."
The second reason, and really equal to the first, is the extensive notes included with the CD. The line notes include some great research as to the history and background of each tune and background on the minstrel show as an art form. This research is worth the price of the CD itself but when you combine it with actually hearing the tunes, it becomes an enjoyable educational experience, worth considerably more than "the price of admission."
There is an obvious dilemma with this music and hard choices need to be made. I'm not just talking about using gut strings or steel on a banjo, either. Should the music be presented the way we would enjoy it today, or in its pure form just the way it was done? To present this music, as we would enjoy it today, fundamentally re-writes history and to present it as it was originally done, to the modern ear is insulting. So what to do? The decision that was made will not make the CD a commercial success, but for historians who want to gain real insight into entertainment of the common person of the mid 1800, this is a great resource. The title of the CD is "Finer than frog hair" and it is.
So this is not a CD to play when your kid's friends come over and is not intended for general public consumption. Play it at your own discretion, but do play it!
More information and sample tracks of the CD are available online at CD Baby. To find it, either go to www.cdbaby.com and search for the Canebrake Minstrels, or go directly to the CD's hompage at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/canebrake.
Pvt. R.C.Tarbox
6thNHVI
The CD is first rate, I have nothing to gain by it's promotion except I hope it does well and additional albums may be made in the future.
Enjoy!
Canebrake Minstrels: historically
correct, politically incorrect
By David Hare
Drummer, 6th New Hampshire
The minstrel show was a unique form of purely American entertainment and it gained in popularity and acceptance throughout the 1800s. While members of the upper class enjoyed classical music, the entertainment for the common man (and eventually even the social elite) was the minstrel show. Many of the day's best musicians and comedians were minstrels and these shows were the start of what evolved into vaudeville and then variety shows; combining comedy and music together to entertain the public.
It was not permissible to joke about sex, so a lot of the accepted period humor was geared toward race. White musicians poked fun at blacks and played and sang African American songs.
For us, as living history historians, knowledge about this important art form is very difficult to access. While the Minstrel show was popular before and after the Civil War, it has vanished today … almost.
A small group of musicians from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut with a considerable amount of talent have done a lot of research into period sources and have produced a new CD of a 19th century minstrel show. The group is known as The Canebrake Minstrels. There are two reasons that this is a must have new CD.
The first of course is the music and minstrel banter. Some of these pieces you will be familiar with, like Old Dan Tucker, and the way they are done and the instrumentation is very much early and mid 19th century. I love the sound of real gut strings on a banjo, an old fiddle, an original 1820s flute and nice, crisp bones that were "original to the cow." Selections also include a tin whistle in the original 1843 Clark design, a tambourine with correct heads and jingles, and an original Este pump organ, circa 1840-1850. But these are not simply museum pieces; these instruments are all played well by accomplished musicians with the stage names of Juba Lee, Justin Case, Amos Nandy, Moses Likum, and Williub Weaber -- or "Mistah Bones."
The second reason, and really equal to the first, is the extensive notes included with the CD. The line notes include some great research as to the history and background of each tune and background on the minstrel show as an art form. This research is worth the price of the CD itself but when you combine it with actually hearing the tunes, it becomes an enjoyable educational experience, worth considerably more than "the price of admission."
There is an obvious dilemma with this music and hard choices need to be made. I'm not just talking about using gut strings or steel on a banjo, either. Should the music be presented the way we would enjoy it today, or in its pure form just the way it was done? To present this music, as we would enjoy it today, fundamentally re-writes history and to present it as it was originally done, to the modern ear is insulting. So what to do? The decision that was made will not make the CD a commercial success, but for historians who want to gain real insight into entertainment of the common person of the mid 1800, this is a great resource. The title of the CD is "Finer than frog hair" and it is.
So this is not a CD to play when your kid's friends come over and is not intended for general public consumption. Play it at your own discretion, but do play it!
More information and sample tracks of the CD are available online at CD Baby. To find it, either go to www.cdbaby.com and search for the Canebrake Minstrels, or go directly to the CD's hompage at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/canebrake.
Pvt. R.C.Tarbox
6thNHVI
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