podfolk

a podcast... and weblog section for folk music and online folklore (see the weblog front page for Bob's "Other Journalism")... and, no, this isn't about "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," unless as pod-folklore.

Friday, September 2, 2005

'Tennessee Girls' Helps Launch Podcast

Here we go... I'm not editing audio and splicing my own "folk DJ" voice onto the contents yet, but here's a tune called, appropriately, "Tennessee Girls," from the Folktunes.org collection of vintage recordings... something I plan to say a more about with the next update of this page.

The song was recorded in 1927 by Dykes Magic City Trio, complete with square dance calls. Folktunes even includes a transcript of the square dance calls heard along with the song, but one word in the transcript strikes me as wrong. It's in the line "Partners to their places like horses to the tray." Tray? Maybe someone thought that was an old word for a feeding trough, or that the horses were calling a waiter for room service.

I'm not quite old enough to remember pre-gasoline vehicles, but someplace I'd heard of a two-horse dray , so I looked it up... along with using no fossil fuels, it does fit the image of couples lining up for a dance -- even if they don't have to drag around a cart.

According to the notes at Folktunes.org, "The 'Magic City' referred to in the name of this string band was Kingsport, Tennessee, which was a planned city established by the owner of a railroad."

I'd heard of "The Secret City" right down the road, but "Magic City" was news to me... Still, it's still not the kind of news I usually put on my "Other Journalism" weblog -- even if I did accidentally post this item in both weblogs earlier today. Oops.

5:00:29 PM