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Of Maine, learned from an obscure record- There’s harmonica from Phil Wiggins and
ing from the twenties, first recorded by Larry Wise, and diminutive Flora Moton sings
NLCR in 1960 and played on a regular basis gospel with the film’s producer (and editor)
by them since, is updated to provide a refer- Eleanor Ellis glimpsed playing guitar back-up
ence to the war in Iraq. Perhaps it is me, but behind her. Sadly, some of those musicians are
I detected just a little tension in the back- no longer with us, so this 58-minute film (not
stage discussion of the song when Seeger a minute wasted) provides a lasting legacy to
did not give unqualified approval to the these musicians, their Piedmont-style blues
changes. This sits with a Cohen interview music and their delightful houseparty events.
elsewhere in the film where he reacts to an
www.lyrichord.com
oft-voiced criticism of NLCR that they were
copyists. Irrespective, they were wonderful
Dave Peabody
flag-bearers, and the film was made even
more poignant in that it arrived a few days
NEW LOST CITY RAMBLERS
after I had learned of the death of Mike
MOHAMMED JIMMY
Seeger. He, like the other members of NLCR,
MOHAMMED TRIO &
Always Been A Rambler Arhoolie has left a wonderful musical legacy, well
Foundation AF DVD 204 documented by this excellent DVD.
HAN BENNINK
Mohammed Jimmy Mohammed Trio &
Occasionally there comes along a musical pro-
www.arhooliefoundation.org,
Han Bennink Buda [Ethio Sonic] 860172
gramme on TV or DVD that becomes so
www.alwaysbeenarambler.org
engrossing and enjoyable, you just hope it John Atkins It’s a concert filmed by Stéphane Jourdain in
will never end. Such an event is Yasha Agin- 2006 as part of the Banlieues Bleues festival
sky’s film about the New Lost City Ramblers in Paris. The lights are low. A slight man in a
that traces their career and lives back to 1958
VARIOUS ARTISTS
big baggy suit is led to his seat. Frail, not
when John Cohen, Tom Paley and Mike young, he seems too insubstantial to be any
Seeger first got together to make music.
Blues Houseparty: Music, Dance And
kind of performer at all, and his eyes are
Arriving on the cusp of the urban folk revival
Stories By Masters Of The Piedmont
clouded-over white. But Mohammed Jimmy
in the USA, NLCR were playing a form of
Blues Multicultural Media/ Lyrichord Discs
Mohammed is one of the greatest of Ethiopi-
music that had all but vanished on record
MCM 1011 DVD
an singers. Beside him, just flown in from the
with the demise of the 78 and before the reis-
This small gem was filmed and released on
USA, is the exuberant free-jazz percussionist
sue LP, but was still played live and was
video in 1989 and has now been released on
Han Bennink in red bandanna, washing over
vibrant in many parts of the country.
DVD. There’s a directness and intimacy in it
with rhythmic energy and expression even
The film starts out with live footage
that’s missing from so many other films about
before he plays a note. He is playing in tan-
from a recent San Francisco festival that is
blues. Piedmont bluesman John Jackson and
dem with Ethiopian percussionist Asnaqè
nicely cut into informal sessions, and the
his wife Cora Lee held regular get-togethers
Guèbrèyès and on electrified krar, Mèssèlè
opportunity taken to feature some of the
at their house in Fairfax Station, Virginia,
Asmamaw. And that’s all: a bare-bones outfit,
contemporary players, Ricky Skaggs, Bela
where the music and talk flowed freely. Cora
but what they play quickly shows itself to be
Fleck, Abigail Washburn and others, all pre-
Lee would cook a vast amount of food for
full-hearted and frequently magical.
sent at the same festival and keen to pay
everybody – friends and neighbours and
Jimmy’s voice is passionate, fluid and
homage to the Ramblers’ inspiration.
musicians – while John played musical host,
mesmeric; the accompaniment is risky, stately,
It then moves back in time to the one leading the impromptu jams. Director Jack-
wild. The effectiveness of the krar is amazing
personnel change in the life of NLCR when, in son Frost and his camera team use a fly-on-
– a cross between zither and lute, sometimes
1962, Paley was replaced by Tracy Schwarz. the-wall approach, getting close in on the
playing dry single strings, sometimes choppy
Whilst there were other issues aiding his action so you, the viewer, feel part of the
riffs and chords, it manages to sound simulta-
departure, the wish of Seeger and Cohen to event, listening to a bit of music here, a bit of
neously ancient and avant-garde. The
make NLCR a full-time occupation was the music there, checking out the food-laden
melodies sung by Jimmy, sometimes pathetic,
main reason Paley gives for leaving. The film tables, dropping in on different conversa-
sometimes incantatory and rousing, are given
tells how easily their recording contract was tions. It’s rare to have footage of blues musi-
odd counterpoints. Added to the unstoppable
acquired: no audition, just a conversation cians talking so naturally among themselves.
energy of outrageous drum rhythms, the
between Cohen and Moe Asch, owner of Folk-
overall effect is dislocating, inspiring. There
The atmosphere is relaxed and the music,
ways Records. As others discovered long-lost
have been a number of brilliant joint ventures
happening outside on the grass, flows free
blues artists, the members of the Ramblers
between Ethiopians and western musicians,
among the musicians who were present on
were finding Dock Boggs, Clarence Ashley, Eck
but this one is a plum. A great show; a few
this occasion. Guitarist John Dee Holeman and
Robertson and even two of the original Carter
months later Jimmy died. What an artist.
keyboard man Quentin ‘Fris’ Holloway were
Family still musically active and most are fea-
invited over from North Carolina to join local
www.budamusique.com, UK distribution
tured somewhere on the film with glimpses of
Virginia guitarists John Cephas, Archie
by Discovery: www.discovery-records.com
memorable performances. Aginsky also fit-
Edwards and John and his son James Jackson. Rick Sanders
tingly features Roscoe Holcombe, an active
musician and singer with no musical aspira-
The New Lost City Ramblers in the early ‘60s: Mike Seeger, John Cohen, Tracy Schwarz
tions other than to play and sing at home,
who was discovered by John Cohen in 1958
and subsequently recorded and filmed by him
in the classic High Lonesome Sound.
Promotion of old-time music through
others was always a large part of NLCR and as
well as the Cohen/ Holcombe, Seeger/ Boggs
relationships one learns about the Tracy
Schwarz role in the promotion of Cajun music.
Schwarz is shown in the company of the won-
derful Dewey Balfa and Nathan Abshire and
tells how Balfa approached him to help put
together a recording on how to play Cajun
fiddle as Schwarz had recently recorded on
old-time country fiddle. Surprisingly Balfa also
credited the NLCR as being the main source of
a revival in Cajun music in the 1960s.
It is NLCR’s own music that is the main
part of the film. A very early film from an
informal house session has the original trio
playing a take on the Monroe Brothers’ ver-
sion of Foggy Mountain Top with Seeger
showing perhaps forgotten dexterity on the
mandolin, but with singing and playing light
years ahead of their contemporaries, per-
haps leading Dylan to make his glowing
remarks on the influence they, and Seeger in
particular, made on his musical decisions. A
later recording of Cohen singing Battleship
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