November 25, 2015

The New Lost City Ramblers: Modern Times

Folkways Records FTS-31027

Format: Vinyl, LP
Country: US
Released: 1968
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Bluegrass, Folk
[Tracklist]
A1 Shut Up In The Mines Of Coal Creek (2:50)
A2 '31 Depression Blues (3:10)
A3 That Little Lump Of Coal (3:15)
A4 Union Man (2:40)
A5 Got The Farm Land Blues (3:08)
A6 We Are Up Against It Now (2:41)
A7 From Earth To Heaven (2:45)
A8 Henry Ford's Model A (2:00)
A9 Truck Driving Man (2:42)
B1 Dollar Down And A Dollar A Week (1:55)
B2 Dear Okie (2:12)
B3 From 40 To 65 (2:53)
B4 Private John Q. (2:02)
B5 Weaver's Life (3:05)
B6 The Death Of Ellenton (2:09)
B7 Take Them For A Ride (2:50)
B8 Timetable Blues (2:43)
B9 Bye, Bye, Black Smoke Choo Choo (2:44)
[Credits]
Mike Seeger (banjo/guitar/harmonica/dobro/autoharp/vocals) John Cohen (guitar/vocals) Tracy Schwarz (fiddle/banjo/guitar/vocals)
Photographer: Robert Frank, Designer: Craig Mierop
[Notes]
As Southern mountaineers and farmers moved into an industrialized era of coal mines and weaving mills their rural songs evolved to express the confrontation with new modes of life and the ensuing conflicts. This album chronicles just that through songs originating in the 1920s and 1930s demonstrating a mix of styles and influences brought to older folk modes with modern subject matters (machines, cars etc.). Producer John Cohen says in the liner notes: "The study of folklore is not simply to preserve the past, but to make the present more comprehensible."

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