Otis Gibbs- “Surviving in the margins”

Another individual who sparks interests for possible diss work.  Otis Gibbs is a singer-songwriter who identifies with Indiana, lives in Nashville (largely due to the fact that Indiana doesn’t support its own – although I’m not sure if Nashville does either), and tours mostly in Europe.  He embodies the working class idealism, wobblie sentiments, leftist politics, and country aesthetics.

He’s tatted up, played a Martin dreadnought exclusively, wears a IWW cap and sings songs of hard living, labor history, good women, and perhaps the most American of Americana themes, loneliness.

He presents a real problem for musicians, which is how to remain a region identity in a place that doesn’t really value it, and how he has become an emissary for American culture, tropes, and ideals in Europe, where if often tours with Billy Bragg.

Here’s a video from my local radio station WFHB, with a bit of interview by Jim Manion with some good questions.

And one of my favorite songs (many people’s favorite) shot at what must have been the greatest house concert ever.

Thinking about a dissertation

While there are plenty of stupid things about graduate school.  But one really nice thing is to contemplate dissertation topics (much, MUCH different from working on or writing a prospectus for said diss).

In my program, Folklore and Ethnomusicology, dissertation work involves several months of ethnographic fieldwork.  It’s fun to imagine who I might work with.  I’ve had a lot of thoughts about diss work.  Including labor songs, black country and white blues, roots music organizations and other less formed ideas.

Since I saw him at the Black Banjo Gathering Reunion in North Carolina a few months ago, I’ve been thinking a lot about Carl Johnson from Tennessee.  A great bluegrass banjo player and a truly amazing singer.

Here are some videos I took in Boone, NC, last spring.

John Hardy:

Rock Salt and Nails:

Snobbery in Old-Time

Yesterday I was listening to my fantastic community radio station WFHB and their live show hosted by the fair, interested, and knowledgable Jim Manion, who was interviewing an ex-Bloomingtonian old-time musician who currently lives in California but was touring the midwest.

She was in the middle of telling a story about how she came to write a song, and talking about coming home late one night, turning on the television, and seeing the Nutcracker on.  She said, “being a good musician, the only channel I got was PBS.”

I understand that it was a quip, and it was live and she didn’t think it through, but it struck me as a terrifically arrogant, snobbish, and classist thing for an old-time musician to say.  I understand that PBS is sympathetic to the lives and interests of old-time musicians, but the suggestion was that it was the only thing worth watching. I would have prefered if she’s said, “being a broke musicians, I can’t afford TV and the only thing I get is PBS, which was showing the Nutcracker for the fucking millionth time!”

And the song that followed, inspired by the PBS Nutcracker, had nothing on the Rev. Peyton Big Damn Band song “Your Cousin’s on COPS.”

old blog, new space

So as I discovered the hard way, blogspot has terrible spam filters.  So I’m moving it here, and maybe someone will followed me.

I’m not going to transfer old posts to this new blog.  Old posts are here: http://casketshroudandgrave.blogspot.com/

From here out, this is where I will be.