The Ship is In: Traditional Songs from Europe and America

08/18/2006 11:03AM

Author: Patty-Lynne Herlevi

Oscar Brand
Pie in the Sky & Other Folk Song Satires

Ewan MacColl & A. L. Lloyd
Blow Boys Blow (Songs of the Sea)

Music and Song from Italy
The Travel Series

Music and Song from Germany
The Travel Series

all recordings on Empire Musicwerks/Tradition

Anyone who has participated in a peace rally will have heard folk song satires. That is when the crowd isn't belting out John Lennon's Give Peace a Chance. These folk song satires provoke belly laughs and release tension in the air. They are songs of camaraderie and good humor, not so much an "us verses them" stance, but thought-provoking satire which causes us to question the world we live and start thinking of solutions to a myriad of problems.

Canadian-born folk singer and archivist Oscar Brand featured 16 of these satire classics on his Pie in the Sky album, originally released in the 1950's. In 2005, Oscar Brand celebrated his 60th Anniversary of host of the "Folksong Festival" on New York City's municipal radio station, WNYC, making his show the longest running television or radio show.

The collection of songs that appears on Pie in the Sky comments on everything from labor organizing compliments of Joe Hill, overpriced food or inflation, slow trains through Arkansas and even the Revolutionary War. Oscar, who accompanies himself on guitar and David Sears who also sings and plays banjo bring us this collection of songs with much gusto. You know that they put their hearts into their performance.

Surprisingly, despite the sell-by-date of these songs, they seem timely today, especially Ninety Cents Butter or a song that poke fun at a mayor, Give My Regards. This recording might be over 50 years old, but the tradition of folk song satires lingers on. It will be interesting to see what generations 20 or 50 years from now think of these songs which by then, hopefully will be archaic relics simply because we humans learned how to get along with one another.

Back in 2003, the Seattle based Northwest Folklife Festival hosted a concert featuring sea shanties as well as, songs of contemporary fisherman. This wasn't the first time I had heard sea shanties since a friend of mine back in my college days was obsessed with sea shanties for a spell. And I am certain that I heard sea shanties sung in Hollywood movies about seafaring men during my childhood. I remember sleeping through the movie, "Moby Dick" so perhaps those songs worked their way into my subconscious. (I will admit I don't like the idea of killing whales, especially ones that have already been named).

Fortunately, the archival recording of Ewan MacColl & A.L. Lloyd's Blow Boys Blow, released in the late 1950's, does not promote the killing of whales, at least not directly. The original liner notes included with the CD ease listeners into a world they might not be familiar with and that is the world of the sailors, deckhands, captains and northwesterly winds.

"These are songs from the days when ships were moved by white canvas, hemp rope and brute force. Songs from the days when a skipper would forecast his arrival-date partly by the weather and partly by the heart of the deck-hands put into their singing.

The sailing-ship sailors had shanties to ease their working hours, and 'forebitter' songs to embellish their leisure time. For the backbreaking jobs of heaving at the halyards and manning the capstan or the pumps, they had hard-driving salty work songs set in primitive leader-chorus patterns. For the spells off-watch, when time might hang heavy even for the mat-makers, coconut carvers and fashioners of model ships in gin-bottles, there were the ballads, sentimental or ironical, bawdy or nostalgic, to fit the mood of the moment."

MacColl and Lloyd bring you 16 such songs representing, all of the above categories. Accompanied by Alf Edwards on concertina, Ralph Rinzler on guitar, banjo and mandolin and Steve Benbow on guitar, listeners can soak in all the stories of seafaring life presented in these shanties. Songs such as The Handsome Cabin Boy, which had been covered by Kate Bush during the late 1980's might sound familiar to non-seafaring listeners. While the remaining songs sung in a robust manner will either conjure up romantic images of sailors or erase romantic images of life at sea, all together.

The Tradition label's The Travel Series visits old folk traditions of countries from around the world. So far the series includes folk traditions from Italy, Germany, Australia, Israel and Ireland. For now, we will travel to Italy and Germany. I listened to the Italy compilation twice and only excerpts from the Germany compilation. I will admit I am disappointed with this series since the CDs remind me of "postcard" type recordings.

In fact, if you want authentic field recordings with a variety of regional instruments, you might need to unearth Alan Lomax's collection of European field recordings or search through Smithsonian Folkways' catalogue of field recordings (I am not familiar with Folkways catalogue so this is an educated guess). The Music and Song from Italy is pleasant enough with some hearty favorites performed on accordion, a traditional lute and guitar. The opener La Giaconda appeared on least one American television commercial in the past, although I am not a trivia buff, so I cannot tell you which commercial. But I assure you that you'll recognize the song.

O Sole Mio and the Drinking Song from the opera Traviata will also ignite the memory part of your brain. While this recording can hardly hold water with field recordings of the past, it certainly could enhance the atmosphere of an Italian bistro or an Italian meal shared with friends. The description in the liner notes certainly caused me to think that I would be hearing regional music performed on a variety of instruments, but the end result is slightly disappointing.

"The tradition of Italian music turns out to be the least spoiled, most vigorous and most varied of all Western Europe. The swift rise of high culture in Italian cities during the Renaissance erected barriers between the habits of town and countryside. The gap between city and country widened until they spoke different musical languages."

Unfortunately, the music on this CD speaks the language of tourist shop and musical postcard. Certainly the CD could enhance memories of traveling in Italy and the songs are hum-worthy. But more scholarly types will not find a list of musicians or regions in the liner notes nor will you find any historical information of the songs' origins.

Although I guess for some less informed listeners, TV commercials might be confused with musical origins. Ah, such the world we live in. And you think I'm joking.

I cannot say that I care for the Music and Song from Germany CD. I will preface this review by saying that I find loud people jarring to my senses. And that I would rather hang out in a spiritual temple with complete strangers than in a room full of familiar faces drinking to get drunk. I would be overly concerned about their livers and not too happy with their foul moods the following morning. And for those of you who are unaware, in Chinese medicine a connection exists between the liver and the emotion of anger.

Germany brought us many great classical music composers, (Bach and Beethoven come to mind), and some wonderful folk song traditions, although I cannot think of any of these folk song traditions off-hand. Here is a description in the liner notes that describes the German drinking songs and atmosphere that appears on this recording. Perhaps, you will be enticed…

"A quality of Germans that isn't always valued by foreigners is that if they are happy, they are rather boisterous. They sing, speak in loud voices and laugh even louder. On such occasions, certain songs are sung in loud voices."

Listeners are even given instruction of how best to enjoy this album. " 1. Pour yourself a stein of beer. 2. Turn on the CD. 3. Sit down in a comfortable chair, take a sip and visualize this scene…"

Of course, the liner notes romanticize the scene a bit and tosses in snow-capped mountains and merrymaking. But I picture, people falling over drunk on the street and ending up in hospital emergency rooms or police stations.

No thanks. I think that I will pass and save my healthy liver cells.

World Music Central
http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/2006081811030351