Gems of Bluegrass 1107 Heavy Bluegrass Burdens
Series: Gems of Bluegrass
From: Philip Nusbaum
Length: 00:07:05
The old Scots Irish ballads had plenty of blood and gore and that’s true for some of the old bluegrass, too. Some say it means that the audience for the music enjoys being just close enough to violence to view it but not get involved. But it just may be that violence is just one way to load a song with the feeling that everything is on the line. And burdens, too, of guilt, of getting up the nerve, and of having the moxie to listen. Now in the House Carpenter, the old boyfriend is back on the scene and he has a little proposition for his old flame.
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Related Pieces
Piece Description
The old Scots Irish ballads had plenty of blood and gore and that’s true for some of the old bluegrass, too. Some say it means that the audience for the music enjoys being just close enough to violence to view it but not get involved. But it just may be that violence is just one way to load a song with the feeling that everything is on the line. And burdens, too, of guilt, of getting up the nerve, and of having the moxie to listen. Now in the House Carpenter, the old boyfriend is back on the scene and he has a little proposition for his old flame.
Transcript
Label Artist CD Song
County Clarence Ashley Greenback Dollar House Carpenter
Smithsonian Folkways Various, Carolina Tar Heels American Folk Music Peg and Awl
Lonesome Day Larry Cordle Took Down and Put Up I’m a Lie
Compass Dale Ann Bradley Catch Tomorrow Run Rufus Run
MCM Merle Haggard The Bluegrass Sessions Momma’s Hungry Eyes
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
in: music
out: UA
7:05
Intro and Outro
INTRO:The old Scots Irish ballads had plenty of blood and gore and that’s true for some of the old bluegrass, too. Some say it means that the audience for the music enjoys being just close enough to violence to view it but not get involved. But it just may be that violence is just one way to load a song with the feeling that everything is on the line. And burdens, too, of guilt, of getting up the nerve, and of having the moxie to listen. Now in the House Carpenter, the old boyfriend is back on the scene and he has a little proposition for his old flame
OUTRO:You might play something like John Henry as an example of a song relating to a person with a heavy burden. The Lilly Bros gersion is great, taken from a County CD.
Additional Credits
The Bluegrass Review is supported by a grant by the National Endowment for the Arts.
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