Author Archives: Easy Ed

Many Musicians Make Millions. Most Don’t.

Photo by Thomas Loyens/CC2.0

A few months ago MusiCares, a nonprofit organization that provides a range of safety net resources for musicians, partnered with the Princeton University Survey Research Center to publish a report highlighting the challenges and opportunities that musicians face. The 1,277 musicians who responded to the questionnaire were asked not only about their financial state, but also about topics that included health issues, discrimination, and sexual harassment. Take this as a spoiler alert, because I’m going to jump right to the conclusion of the report:

The survey findings described in this report suggest that many professional musicians face a multitude of problems, including high levels of depression and anxiety, high rates of substance abuse, relatively low incomes, and work-related physical injuries. And while many musicians find features of a musical career particularly alluring, the life a musician presents many challenges … and the rather disturbing findings call for further monitoring of the conditions faced by many musicians, and support for those musicians who suffer from severe emotional, physical, and financial hardships.

When you’ve chosen to follow your artistic passion, hopes, and dreams, this report reads like the directions to a highway from hell. I’ll bullet point a few of the statistical findings:

* The most common income source is live performances, followed by music lessons and performing in a church choir or other religious service.

* The median musician in the U.S. earns between $20,000 and $25,000 a year.

* Sixty-one percent of musicians said that their music-related income is not sufficient to meet their living expenses.

Many musicians shared that they most liked the “opportunity for artistic expression, performing, and collaborating with others,” as well as the “aspirational and spiritual aspects” of being a musician. So much for the good news.

Performers have higher rates of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse than the general population, and 72 percent of women musicians — who are already disproportionately underrepresented throughout the music industry — report that they have been discriminated against because of their sex. Sixty-seven percent report that they have been the victim of sexual harassment. And 63 percent of non-white musicians stated that they have faced racial discrimination.

While Americana-branded music and all its various “inside the big tent” sub-genres has grown in popularity over the past dozen years, my personal unscientific observation is that for the majority of musicians there is a marked deficiency in the nine‐factor analytic model of conceptions for the desire to be famous. That’s a fancy way of saying they don’t necessarily strive for “superstar” status and financial success and even if they did, it’s doubtful they’d be very happy if they accomplished it.

Edward Deci, a professor at the University of Rochester who was speaking about his research into success and happiness in 2009, put it like this: “Even though our culture puts a strong emphasis on attaining wealth and fame, pursuing these goals does not contribute to having a satisfying life. The things that make your life happy are growing as an individual, having loving relationships, and contributing to your community.” (This man clearly has never flown on a private jet to Paris for a lunch date at the Guy Savoy restaurant with 21-year-old billionaire Kylie Jenner to munch on whole-roasted barbecued pigeon, oyster concassé, and monkfish among aubergine caviar with sautéed ceps.)

Let’s flip the switch and talk about what it looks like to be defined as successful by many people: money. Take a look at Forbes‘ list of the wealthiest musicians for the year 2017, beginning with the top ten:

1. Diddy ($130 million)
2. Beyoncé ($105 million)
3. Drake ($94 million)
4. The Weeknd ($92 million)
5. Coldplay ($88 million)
6. Guns N’ Roses ($84 million)
7. Justin Bieber ($83.5 million)
8. Bruce Springsteen ($75 million)
9. Adele ($69 million)
10. Metallica ($66.5 million)

Bruce is probably the closest thing on this list to a down-to-Earth working-class-value folkie musician (cough, cough), and if you want to find the people who occasionally wear cowboy hats you’d find Garth at #11 with an annual income of $66 million, followed by Kenny Chesney at $48 million. Going deeper on the list, the elder generation are represented by Elton John, Sir Paul, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. (Both Flea and Anthony Kiedis turn 56 this year.) Hip-hop artists dominate the rest of the top 25, along with a few women who are best defined as pop singers that can dance like crazy and have superb social media skills.

Almost every musician in the survey reported that 75 percent of their income is from live performances, but there should be a giant asterisk next to Jimmy Buffett’s name, since most of his $50 million annual take was not directly from music but rather his chain of restaurants, hotels, and casinos. In discovering that Buffett has a net worth of over half a billion dollars, I’ll never look at a parrot, lime, or bottle of tequila the same way. And ditto with Diddy: He made $70 million by simply selling his Sean John fashion line and cashing out.

When I consider many of the musicians I know who travel by car or van from gig to gig, hang out at the merch table after their show to make a couple extra bucks selling stuff, and either crowdsource or borrow from friends and family to record an album, pigs are likely to be seen flying across the sky before they make the Forbes list. And with the exception of maybe three dozen Americana performers that I can think of, they’re destined to stay mainly in the world of small venues, house concerts, and, if they’re truly lucky, a slot on the festival circuit and a month or two each year in Europe and Scandinavia. They likely won’t be making a fortune, but success is best measured by your heart rather than a bank statement. Keep on truckin’.

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.

Many of my past columns, articles, and essays can be accessed here at my own site, therealeasyed.com. I also aggregate news and videos on both Flipboard and Facebook as The Real Easy Ed: Americana and Roots Music Daily. My Twitter handle is @therealeasyed and my email address is easyed@therealeasyed.com.

The Days Between: A Celebration of Jerry Garcia

My autographed cover of Garcia/Photo by Easy Ed

Jerry Garcia was born on August 1, 1942, and died on August 9, 1995. In what has become an almost institutionalized acknowledgement and commemoration of his life and musical accomplishments, the first nine days of August have become known as The Days Between, with worldwide celebrations, concerts, radio tributes, film screenings, informal gathering of fans, curated playlists on the streaming sites, and shared memories of the people he touched. This is mine.

Very late on a cold night in October 1973 our car was parked with the engine running and the heater blasting. We were on a desolate service road that led to the freight and cargo terminal of the Philadelphia International Airport waiting for a shipment to be delivered from California. At the time my wife and I were 21 and had been married for almost two years, and we both worked together at a local independent record distributor. We had eagerly volunteered to assist our newest client, Grateful Dead Records, who were just days away from the release of the band’s new album, Wake of the Flood.

Jerry’s first known studio sessions as recorded at Stanford’s KZSU radio station in 1962.

With artist Rick Griffin creating an exquisite cover design, it was decided that they would print up posters of the album with the word ‘Here” on the top and ‘Now” on the bottom and have them stuffed into each box of 25 at the Columbia Records pressing plant in New Jersey. When record stores received their orders they could hang the posters in the window. Seemed to be a better marketing concept than the original idea of selling the album directly to fans from ice cream trucks.

Jerry and his first wife a week after their wedding.

It was after midnight when we pulled up to the loading dock and stuffed a dozen or so boxes into the trunk and backseat of our old sky blue English Ford Cortina. Throughout the evening as we were waiting, we alternated between listening to eight tracks and the radio while inhaling pretty much everything we had rolled and brought along, and the rides across the bridge to the plant in Pittman and then back home to Philly remain a bit hazy. But the mission was accomplished and Garcia and Weir stopped by our office in the afternoon of August 4, 1974. I was out that day attending a class at Temple University, but Jerry signed a copy of his latest solo album for me, wrote “Thanks” on it, added a sketch of a flower pot, and left it for me with my wife. It still hangs on my wall and you can see it at the top of this article, the ink slowly fading over time.

Recorded at the Festival Express, Canada in 1970.

For a fan of the Dead and Garcia in particular, the period between 1970 to 1975 was an amazing and unheralded burst of creative output. In those five years the band released Workingman’s Dead, American Beauty, the self-titled two-disc live album also known as Skull and Roses, the three-disc Europe ’72, Wake of The Flood, From the Mars Hotel, and Blues For Allah. In addition, Garcia both performed live and played pedal steel for the New Riders of the Purple Sage, appearing on their debut album; had a separate band along with Merl Saunders that released two albums; made one with Howard Wales; did two solo albums; and debuted his bluegrass band, Old and In The Way. He also appeared as a guest on 18 albums from artists that included Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, the many offshoots of Jefferson Airplane, Brewer and Shipley’s “One Toke Over The Line,” Art Garfunkel, It’s a Beautiful Day, David Bromberg, and solo projects from Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and Keith and Donna Godchaux.

Early version of NRPS with Jerry Garcia – Cold Jordan (a.k.a. “Better Take Jesus’ Hand”) Canada 1970.

In the first week of August 1974 the Dead were scheduled to perform two nights at the Philadelphia Convention Hall (aka the Civic Center) and those concerts were recorded, preserved, and released as Dick’s Picks Volume 31. In the days leading up to the show the legendary radio promotion man Augie Blume came to town from his home in San Francisco in advance of the band’s arrival, and my wife and I acted as his driver and guide to the city as he set up press and radio interviews for Weir and Garcia, brought fans to his hotel room to share smoke and stories, and generally be the record label’s goodwill ambassador.

April 17, 1972. Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen Denmark.

On the night of the first show we waited for Augie outside the hotel to take him to the venue and accompany him backstage. He walked out with the group and a few dozen other people who piled into a fleet of rental cars, and as he got into our beat-up old car, Garcia noticed and gave us a quick wave. The experience to witness and immerse ourselves from behind the curtain to not just the music but also the familial dynamics of what can best described as a mystical traveling carnival of intensely creative and intelligent artists and endless cast of characters who drew energy from each other, the audience, and an endless infusion of chemical enhancement was an indelible watermark in my life. And I’m most surprised that I can still remember it.

April 17, 1972. Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen Denmark.

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.

Easy Ed’s Guide to Roots Music Videos

Alan Lomax filming American Patchworks

Hardly a day goes by when I’m not visiting YouTube multiple times, and it’s usually to search for music-related clips or the occasional instructional video on things like how to clean my Magic Bullet smoothie maker, fix a busted radiator hose, or the best way to store bananas. If I’m ever stuck on a tech problem, it seems like there are thousands of 14-year-old kids who have filmed and uploaded detailed solutions. Education, art, fashion, politics, news, old radio shows and television commercials, speeches, health, fitness, 5K parachute jumps off the roof of Dubai skyscrapers, cute cats, funny dogs, and kitchen sinks: If you can think of something you want to know more about, I guarantee you’ll find it. While YouTube is probably the easiest and my favorite roots music video source, there’s a few other places you might want to explore.

I thought I’d share some search tips and links to some of the long-form and historical musical content I’ve come across through the years. But it’s accompanied by a warning and advice: video content often comes and goes like a case of beer and a bag of chips on Super Bowl Sunday. It’s often a now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t proposition, as content owners have the absolute right to demand that it gets pulled off the site, or if they prefer, they can choose to let it stay up and share in the advertising revenue. So keep that in mind. If I share a link that’s dead by the time you read this, just search the title and it’ll likely pop up from another user’s account.

Lost Highway: The Story of American Country

This four-part series was produced back in 2003 and it first aired on BBC and then again on CMT in the United States in 2010. For the latter version, Lyle Lovett was hired to replace the original English narrator. The series traces the history of country music from the Appalachian Mountains and up to the present-day multibillion dollar industry it has become. It is not quite definitive, and there are a number of small but annoying inaccuracies. Nevertheless, it’s a pretty interesting series and you can try this link to start you out. I’ve only found the BBC version so far, but I’ll keep looking for Lyle.

Mother Maybelle’s Carter Scratch

I’m clueless what the origin is of this one, and I wonder if it was perhaps released under a different name. It’s not a documentary per se, but offers a number of clips with an oral history provided by Johnny Cash, Maybelle’s daughters, and a few others. Guitarists will enjoy the focus on her playing style, but it’s not technical in the least. I think much of it comes from The Nashville Network archives, Johnny’s television show, and the Grand Ole Opry. It’s an interesting way to spend an hour. Here’s a sample for you.

Alan Lomax: Archives and Documentaries

Not only did Lomax travel around the world making audio recordings, he also shot a huge amount of film stock. The official Alan Lomax Archive has its own channel on YouTube, and “is a resource for students, researchers, filmmakers, and fans of America’s traditional music and folkways. Shot throughout the American South and Southwest over the course of seven years (1978-1985) in preparation for a PBS series, American Patchwork, which aired in 1991, these videos consist of performances, interviews, and folkloric scenes culled from 400 hours of raw footage, many of which have never been seen publicly.”

American Patchwork consisted of five one-hour documentary films that focused on African American, Appalachian, and Cajun music and dance. While you can search for the individual titles on YouTube, the complete series is best found here. These are the titles of all five: The Land Where the Blues Began, Jazz Parades: Feet Don’t Fail Me Now, Cajun Country, Appalachian Journey, and Dreams and Songs of the Noble Old.

Folkstreams

Connecting documentary filmmakers with niche audiences, Folkstreams is a nonprofit website streaming major films on American vernacular culture. The films on are often produced by independent filmmakers and focus on the culture, struggles, and arts of unnoticed Americans from many different regions and communities. The site is divided into various categories, and if you choose music we’ll probably lose you for a few weeks. There are well over a hundred 30-90 minute documentaries posted covering every area of roots music, including some you never knew existed.

The Johnny Cash Show

This 58-episode series ran from June 7, 1969, to March 31, 1971, on ABC and was taped at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Many of the episodes are scattered throughout YouTube in their entirety or broken into hundreds of individual clips. This was far from the schlock production you might think would have been produced back then, with the first show’s guests featuring Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Doug Kershaw. Other guests represented all areas of music from blues, folk, country, pop, jazz … you name it. If you haven’t seen it, go forth. Here’s two scoops.

Pete Seeger’s Rainbow Quest

From 1965 to 1966, Pete Seeger hosted 39 episodes of Rainbow Quest. It was taped in black-and-white and featured musicians playing in traditional American music genres such as folk, old-time, bluegrass, and blues. The shows were unrehearsed, there was no studio audience, and songs were often traded between Seeger and his guests.

Odds and Ends

Here’s a few more I’ve found this bottomless well, and I’m sure to have only skimmed the surface.Historic Films Stock Footage Archive seems to have thousands of clips, with a large proportion devoted to music. A&E’s Biography episodes are up on YouTube, and while most aren’t music-related, there are a few gems, including The Everly Brothers and Hank Williams. And in no particular order: Rebel Beat: The History of LA Rockabilly, Rock N’ Roll Country Blues Archive Videos, Grand Old Opry Classics, Town Hall Party, and Smithsonian Folkways channels all deserve two thumbs up.

https://youtu.be/XTn61eEUuz4

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.

Americana and Roots Music Videos: RPM 4

WikiMediaCommons

An occasional series of Americana and roots music videos. Sharing new discoveries, and revisiting old friends.

Those of you who have been reading my weekly No Depression columns over the years or following my daily Facebook posts at The Real Easy Ed: Americana and Roots Music Daily hopefully view me as an observant musical news aggregator and occasional agitator. I usually spend an hour or so each day on the hunt for interesting articles, news stories, photography, art, and video clips that are hiding in plain sight but require a bit of sleuthing to assemble in one place. It’s done only out of curiosity, and to expand my own musical knowledge while staying on top of the new and discovering the unique. The act of sharing it with y’all is simply my hobby; no different than assembling little boats inside a bottle or building birdhouses in the workshop. So instead of picking one topic for this particular Broadside, here are a few things I hope you find of interest.

The Queen of Rockabilly Partners with a Runaway

Wanda Jackson, the 80-year-old singer-songwriter and guitarist who began performing back in 1955 and often toured with (and briefly dated) her friend Elvis Presley, is not quite ready to retire. In a 20-year period, she hit the charts with 30 singles and to date has released over 40 albums. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009 and two years later released a collaboration with Jack White titled The Party Ain’t Over, and followed that up a year later with Unfinished Business, produced by Justin Townes Earle.

The new project will be released in 2019, and Joan Jett will be producing a set of new songs co-written by Wanda along with some Nashville-based folks including Angaleena Presley of the Pistol Annies and “Ex’s and Oh’s” singer Elle King.”The songs on this project are very dear to my heart, as a lot of them are based on my own life experiences,” said Jackson. “I’m really looking forward to sharing what Joan and I have been working on.”

The Elmore James Tribute Album

To celebrate the 100th birthday of Delta blues master Elmore James, last January Sylvan Songs Records released a tribute titled Strange Angels: In Flight With Elmore James that features Tom Jones, Bettye LaVette, Keb’ Mo’, Warren Haynes, Billy Gibbons, Shelby Lynne and others with all profits going to charity. Since it came out just after the holiday season, it’s possible you may have missed this gem, although it was written up in Rolling Stone (who reads that anymore?) and posted on the NPR website.

Music Radar has recently published an excellent biography of Elmore that I highly recommend, and it includes interviews with a number of the tribute’s participants.

The Sweetheart of the Rodeo Tour

You may have heard by now that Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman are teaming up with Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives for a number of concerts to celebrate the release of The Byrds’ 1968 classic album (McGuinn and Hillman are unable to use the band’s name — it’s owned by David Crosby but you never know, he might pop up as a surprise guest along the way). Tickets went on sale recently here in NYC for a September show at Town Hall.

Although I went to buy mine the day they were released to the public, it was already sold out to folks who had Ticketmaster’s “platinum” access and could snatch them up in a presale two days earlier. Now they’re being scalped at $350 each, so unless someone out there wants to help me out, I’ll be home alone that night watching Netflix. It’s interesting to note that the show in Nashville at the Ryman had (as of this writing) quite a few seats available at $35 face value. Check out this Brooklyn Vegan article to see if the show is coming to your town.

John Coltrane Goes Top 40

John Coltrane’s posthumously released Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album, with songs recorded back in 1963, was just released debuted at #21 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart. In an article published on Forbes‘ website, tenor saxophonist and one-time Coltrane collaborator Sonny Rollins likened The Lost Album‘s discovery to “finding a new room in the Great Pyramid.”

Coltrane’s legend as one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time sadly didn’t blossom until after his death in 1967 at 40 years old. While Giant Steps and A Love Supreme would each offer excellent entry ramps to his music for the new listener, this new album also offers a fresh insight into what made Coltrane so unique.

An Albert Lee Interview

Australia’s wonderful Beat Magazine recently reported on Albert Lee’s current tour with Peter Asher that is taking him throughout the world. At age 74 the versatile guitarist, known for his super-fast guitar picking based on the styles of Chet Atkins and James Burton, is doing a set with Asher that is acoustic and focused on both stories and songs.

“There are a lot of good players out there,” Lee says. “I started out loving country music, but country has changed a lot and I can’t say that I really like a lot of the stuff coming out of Nashville now — they’re good players, good singers — but the kind of music I like is called Americana. It was always country music until about 20 years ago when it became more pop. You don’t seem to hear a clean guitar on those Nashville records any more, it’s more of a rock and roll guitar.”

Keith Richards

Every night at The Real Easy Ed: Americana and Roots Music Daily I post a video to close out the day. I like to mix up the old and new, and try to find things lost or forgotten. One night it could be Jackie Wilson on The Ed Sullivan Show, and on another maybe June Carter and Don Gibson doing a duet of “Oh Lonesome Me.” This one is likely something you’ve seen before, but I just came across it recently and it’s one of my favorites. Let’s go with Keith down to South Carolina, where I hear there are many tall pines.

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.

Many of my past columns, articles, and essays can be accessed here at my own site, here at therealeasyed.com. I also aggregate news and videos on both Flipboard and Facebook as The Real Easy Ed: Americana Roots Music Daily. My Twitter handle is @therealeasyed and my email is easyed@therealeasyed.com

Desert Island Discs: My Eight Favorite Songs

Desert Island Discs/BBC Radio 4 -Illustration from The Daily Mail 2012

I’m probably the last person on the planet to discover that Desert Island Discs wasn’t merely a feature in Tower Record’s free monthly Pulse magazine, but a 76-year-old radio show on BBC Radio 4. The idea for the program came from Roy Plomley, an aspiring actor who had supported himself with odd jobs. It worked out pretty well for him, as he became the host on the first broadcast on Jan. 29, 1942, and stuck with it for another 43 years. There’ve been well over 3,000 guests and the concept has remained the same over time: as a castaway on a desert island, you can bring eight discs (that would each have just a single song), one book, and a luxury item.

While music is the dominant part of the program, that “luxury item” is the most interesting. Bruce Springsteen picked a guitar, author Norman Mailer wanted just “one stick of marijuana,” and Simon Cowell chose a mirror so he wouldn’t miss himself. According to a 2012 New Yorker article on the show’s 70th anniversary, “other luxury items have included spike heels, footballs, a Ferris wheel, garlic, cigarettes, a dojo, mascara, wine, a globe, an ironing board, a symphony’s worth of musical instruments, a cheeseburger machine, and, in the same category, albeit much grander, Sybille Bedford’s desire for a French restaurant in full working order.”

When Tower’s Pulse was still around I used to read the lists that were sent in, and it always seemed to be put together with the need to be eclectic, unique, and super cool, which makes sense. If you’re going to etch something in stone that will be around long after you’ve gone, you don’t want people saying “What an idiot … he’s got Vic Damone on his list.” On the other hand, any and all choices are going to be judged somewhere between brilliant and laughable, so I’ll be happy to give it a go and y’all can think what you want.

My luxury item: Now please get your mind out of the gutter when I say this because she’s young enough to be my granddaughter, but my first thought was Kylie Jenner. She’s a mom, reality TV star, cosmetics mogul, has really cute dogs and is currently worth $900,000,000. And most important: there is no way her mother-manager Kris will let her top client escape her grasp, so a fairly quick rescue shall occur. C’mon, isn’t it better than Simon’s mirror?

My book: Music USA: The Rough Guide by Richie Unterberger. Released back in 1999 by the travel and reference publishers, it is the best American big-tent roots music resource book of its kind that I’ve ever come across. It’s big and dense and written beautifully.

Eight songs in no particular order. Could be different if you ask me tomorrow. But for now, try these on for size. Oh … I’ve decided to leave Kylie home and bring a guitar instead.

Moby Grape – “8:05”

Jules Shear and Rosanne Cash – “Who’s Dreaming Who”

The Tuttles and AJ Lee – “Hickory Wind”

Leonard Cohen – “Dance Me to the End of Love”

ANOHNI and Lou Reed – “Candy Says”

Meg Baird – “The Finder”

The Handsome Family – “Gold”

Ana Egge with The Stray Birds – “Rock Me (Divine Mother)”

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.

Many of my past columns, articles, and essays can be accessed here at my own site, therealeasyed.com. I also aggregate news and videos on both Flipboard and Facebook as The Real Easy Ed: Americana Roots Music Daily. My Twitter handle is @therealeasyed and my email is easyed@therealeasyed.com

Captain America and Old-Time Music In Dittyville

Erynn Marshall and Carl Jones/ oldtimetikiparlour.com

On the fourth day of July I took a southbound train and sat across the aisle from a famous superhero. With temperatures expected to soar into the mid-90s, his red, white, and blue latex head-to-toe costume did not seem to be the best option, nor did the bulky round shield he navigated to fit into the empty seat next to him. As I looked around, I estimated that eight out of ten passengers on the crowded train were staring at their devices while listening to music or podcasts, unfazed in the presence of Captain America, who also was plugged in. The mask he wore covered his entire head, nose, and mouth, allowing you to see only his eyes. Every now and then he’d pull it down just a bit to scratch a scruffy beard. For much of the ride I tried to imagine what sort of music the good Captain might be listening to and whether the latex over his ears distorted or muted the sound. And I highly doubted that he — nor anyone else in that car — was listening to the same old-time music that was being pumped into my own aural cavities.

The dictionary defines bogtrotter as a mildly insulting epithet, which led me to spend too much time researching exactly what a bog is. If you’re interested, it’s a wetland that accumulates peat, and they are either classified by their location in the landscape and source of water or by their nutrients. The next time you visit Latvia you might want to check out the Great Kemeri Bog Boardwalk, which may not offer the same thrills as Atlantic City or Venice Beach. That aside, the video above is from a band neither Irish nor Latvian, but that represents some of the finest old-time music from the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. As they explain it on their website, “The Galax Bogtrotters are one of a number of local bands over the last century to use the bogtrotters nickname for the Scotch-Irish settlers who migrated to America to find a better life. The first band to embrace the term was the original Bogtrotters — a popular group in the 1930’s featuring fiddler Uncle Eck Dunford.”

Old Time Jubilations was released a little over a year ago and I recently came across it as I was making my way through the various projects of Erynn Marshall, the Canadian-born old-time fiddle player, teacher, and ethnomusicologist who is now based in Galax, Virginia, along with her husband and musical partner Carl Jones. For this project he plays mandolin and they are joined by Eddie Bond doing vocals, fiddle, and banjo; Bond’s wife, Bonnie, on bass; and Eric Hill playing guitar. These videos were shot during their 2017 tour of Australia, and Joseph Dejarnette is subbing on bass. Every track on the album showcases a tight and energetic band of virtuoso players, and it’s interesting to note that this is somewhat of a side project since each member also performs solo or with other musical configurations.

If you are fans of Jason and Pharis Romero there’s a good chance that Erynn Marshall is a familiar name, as she was the third member of The Haint’s Old Time Stringband, which released only one album, back in 2009, titled Shout Monah. Erynn’s move to Virginia allowed her to fully immerse herself in the culture, history, and musical traditions of the area, and along with Carl they established Dittyville, a state of mind as much as it is a website, that lets them offer online lessons for fiddle, mandolin, banjo, and guitar, and post their extensive itineraries. They actively perform at the ever-growing number of old-time music festivals that span the globe and they each lead classes and seminars at summer camps that offer anyone the opportunity to learn from the masters.

That’s an original song written by Carl, and it appears on their first “official” duet album. Sweet Memories … never leave which came out in 2015. They each have released solo, duet, and ensemble albums, produced two instructional DVDs, and are currently working on their own books. The aforementioned online classes can easily be accessed through Concert Window and are downright cheap, with a minimum donation of only $10.

As it turns out, Captain America is himself an old-time throwback who first appeared in 1940 as a patriotic supersoldier who fought the bad guys in World War II and even punched Adolf Hitler in the nose. Over the decades the story arcs have changed, his comic books have had three different publishers, he died and was reborn, and for a time he resided in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook, which is also the home of the Jalopy Theater and School of Music. Being New York’s epicenter of traditional music, it may not be so farfetched to imagine that my train companion was also tappin’ his toes to an Appalachian tune. Brothers in arms, all is well down in Dittyville.

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.

Many of my past columns, articles, and essays can be accessed here at my own site, therealeasyed.com. I also aggregate news and videos on both Flipboard and Facebook as The Real Easy Ed: Americana Roots Music Daily. My Twitter handle is @therealeasyed and my email is easyed@therealeasyed.com

A Ride Across America in Elvis’ 1963 Rolls Royce

Mike Coykendall, left, and M. Ward in the documentary “The King.” (David Kuhn / Oscilloscope Pictures)

For a film that only a few thousand people have probably seen to date, Eugene Jarecki’s The King has been receiving an extraordinary amount of press coverage and positive reviews. Formerly titled Promised Land and filmed against the backdrop of the 2016 election and ascension of Trump-ism, it is less a documentary and more one man’s celluloid essay on the American Dream. It is certainly not another biopic about Elvis Presley, so there is nothing you’ll learn about the man that you already don’t know. Playing at two theaters in New York and another in Los Angeles, it is a gem in search of a jewelry store. And while it will do a limited summer run of art houses throughout the country, it won’t likely end up at your suburban multiplex popcorn palace alongside this summer’s superhero blockbusters. So keep this film in the back of your mind for when it gets picked up by Netflix or Amazon, because it’s one to be seen.

It’s described by the filmmaker as “a musical road trip across America.” The concept of taking Elvis’ restored 1963 Rolls Royce on a countrywide cruise along the highways and backroads is brilliant, but dropping a few dozen people in the backseat for only brief snippets of conversation and edited performances leaves a music fan only wanting more. Thirty seconds of The Handsome Family is barely a tidbit of an appetizer for a potential feast featuring John Hiatt, Emi Sunshine and The Rain, the Stax Academy All-Stars, M. Ward, and Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers. The full performance of “Rich Man’s World (1%)” from rapper Immortal Technique has been released as a music video, and I am hopeful that more left on the cutting room floor will be forthcoming.

Using thoughts and recollections to measure the impact of Elvis on our society, Jarecki relies on observations from Alec Baldwin, James Carville, Rosanne Cash, Chuck D, Peter Guralnick, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Hawke, Van Jones, Ashton Kutcher, Greil Marcus, and Elvis’ friends, sidemen, and others to illustrate where we once were and what we’ve become today. There is a parallel that I see in the rise and fall of the boy from Tupelo, and the trajectory of post-WWII America. Take a look around you on all fronts: economics, politics, the division between wealth and poverty, loss of jobs and manufacturing, the increase of xenophobia and racism, and the corrosion of addiction from inner-city to suburb to rural. America in 2018 is Elvis in 1977: a body neglected and in decline, a drug-addled brain and a cadre of enablers.

Whether you buy into this premise or not, the film is no less compelling to watch. The cinematography is exceptional, allowing one to connect with the expansiveness and beauty of our country as well as the deterioration. The scenes shot inside the Rolls Royce are cloistered and claustrophobic, successfully illustrating what Elvis must have felt for much of his public life. There is no spoiler alert needed … you already know the ending. But I’ll close this out with the King’s final scene: Elvis performing live in concert as his life is about to slip away. He’s clearly a man on the edge of death, and in four minutes he gives you everything he has left. It’s a last gasp. Welcome to America, now go home.

This article was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column over at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music.

Most of my articles are available here at therealeasyed.com. I also aggregate news and videos on both Flipboard and Facebook as The Real Easy Ed: Americana and Roots Music Daily. My Twitter handle is @therealeasyed and my email address is easyed@therealeasyed.com .