She is representative of the great artists out there who aren’t charting hit makers or mainstream pop culture icons. But they have a loyal following because they are good.
Music blogger, Bob Lefsetz, has said that he’s not a fan of hits, but a fan of music and that we need a “filter” to find the good music out there—there is so much of the other kind. He thought someone could make money by presenting really good music and artists, not just performers with deep pockets.
Musical talent was discovered in a somewhat unusual way in the 1930s.
It was the Thirties’ version of a government stimulus package—part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.
This is from an intriguing history, “Highway 61 Revisited The Tangled Roots of American Jazz, Blues, Rock, & Country Music,” by the master sax musician, Gene Santoro.
“Under the New Deal, the government sent out squadrons of researchers, writers, artists, and collators to document and disseminate local American folkways and history. This was part of the broader push to put to work the armies of unemployed, but it also reflected a country awakening from the social elite’s Eurocentric cultural dominance, partly thanks to emerging mass media…”
John and Alan Lomax were part of this unique effort.
“Alan Lomax worked with his ex-banker father, John A. Lomax, from age 17, crisscrossing the South making irreplaceable field recordings… adding oral histories and interviews that nest among the jewels of the Library of Congress.
“The biggest prize the Lomaxes snared on their 1933 Library of Congress trip to Louisiana’s Angola State Penitentiary was Huddie 'Lead Belly' Ledbetter. …
He carried in his head a fathomless bag of Americana.”
The Lomaxes were enthralled by Lead Belly and were able to get his release. He was turned over to Moses Asch, an independent label head with a small studio just off New York’s Time Square.
“Asch is one of those independent label heads who played vital roles in postwar American music. At Folkways, Asch recorded culture that was vanishing beneath urbanization and the growing mass media. He ran his several labels on love and a shoestring.”
“Lead Belly was the first folk artist Asch recorded, and his songs fed a powerful underground stream into folk and rock music of the 1950s and 1960s: songs he claimed to write…include 'Goodnight Irene' and 'Cottonfields,' which were covered by everyone from [Pete] Seeger to Creedence Clearwater Revival, and defined others like 'House of the Rising Sun.'"
I was fascinated by an “under the radar” DVD, “Deep Blues, a Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads,” by Robert Palmer and others, captured much in the same way as the Lomaxes did—recorded in tucked away roadhouses, bars, and front porches in the Deep South. It is “real” blues and soul music that is about as far away from mainstream as one could get.
It made me realize that there are live music places, much like the ones where Taylor Hicks “cut his musical teeth” all over the country in out of the way byways and housed in old buildings on busy city streets where good music is humming. Raw talent is performing on Wednesday night hoping just to get a Friday or Saturday night gig.
It makes you want to go out to the local bar or club and check out the talent. Support live music!
If you are lucky enough to be in or around New Orleans, one of the most fascinating cities I’ve ever had the privilege to visit (yes, to see Taylor Hicks), Irma Thomas has an impressive musical resume and is appearing there in December.
And she is good.
From Rounder Records: "She remains one of America’s most distinctive and classic singers, a treasure from the golden age of soul music who remains as compelling and powerful as ever..."
Check out Miss Irma, New Orleans’ Soul Queen:
http://www.irmathomas.com/
If music is your passion or your diversion, Gene Santoro’s comprehensive history of 20th century Americana music is outstanding. As a non-musician, I didn’t understand much of the music lingo, but the histories of great musical legends from Woody Guthrie to Bruce Springsteen were fascinating. It is an in-depth study of the people and influences that create the basis for our Americana music scene today. It is not just about Southern roots, but also the legacies of the West Coast, New York City, and Detroit.
All of these musical treasures are available on Amazon!
Miss Irma’s soulful albums
“Deep Blues, A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads” by Robert Palmer and others “Highway 61 Revisited The Tangled Roots of American Jazz, Blues, Rock, & Country Music,” by Gene Santoro, Oxford University Press
Taylor Hicks’s music, “Taylor Hicks,” “Early Works,” “The Distance,” and “Whomp at the Warfield,” live performance DVD.
And all are wonderful presents for the music lover on your holiday gift list!
Final Reflection:
The music I have discovered in the past few years, not only from Taylor Hicks, but from friends and online communities has enriched my life anew. I have always loved music—sang in church choirs as a teenager, studied a little bit of it in college, and then I got busy with life. Except for an occasional concert, popular vinyl album, or a radio in the background, I missed a few decades of music.
The last four years has been a reconnecting with music from the past and good music of today.
I am forever grateful to Taylor Hicks for that!
~~~
To subscribe to The Lefsetz Letter, visit: www.lefsetz.com
Photos: Miss Irma Thomas from www.irmathomas.com; Taylor Hicks at Museum of Tolerance International Film Festival.
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