Norwell "Bud" Therien

One of the great music editors, Norwell "Bud" Therien, passed away on Wednesday August 17th. Bud was a long-time employee at Prentice Hall, where he helped build the music and art lists over a long 40+ year career. I first met Bud when I was hired to be Music editor at Schirmer Books. He helped me get established as a music editor, and we were able to collaborate on a number of projects. Eventually, in 2005, I was hired at PH to be the Music Editor and I was fortunate to work with Bud on a daily basis during the last 5 years of his career. Although by then Bud was no longer managing the Music list, he was always available to answer questions, with his deep knowledge of the authors and the stories behind the many successful titles he had signed and developed. Whenever I was on the road, music professors would ask about Bud and share their memories of working with him as a high point in their lifes and professional careers. The impact he had on the field was immeasurable, yet he achieved this status in the most low-key, modest way. I will miss his good humor, guidance, and advice.

Special Talk on WORLDS OF SOUND at Artichoke Music in Portland, Oregon, Wednesday October 21st

For those in the greater Portland, Oregon, please come hear my lecture/presentation on my recent book, WORLDS OF SOUND: THE STORY OF SMITHSONIAN/FOLKWAYS. I’ll be talking about the eccentric founder of Folkways Records, Moses Asch, and the many artists he championed, as well as showing some cool photos and playing some recordings.

The talk is being jointly sponsored by the Portland Songwriters Association and Artichoke Music. Admission is free. The location and time: Artichoke Community Music, 3130 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR 97214, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 7PM-8PM. Phone, 503-232-8845.

I hope you are able to attend. Bring your friends and family! Books will be available for purchase on site.

Worlds of Sound Documentary to Premiere Sunday October 25th on the Smithsonian Channel

The documentary based on my book WORLDS OF SOUND: THE STORY OF SMITHSONIAN/FOLKWAYS RECORDS will be premiering on Sunday October 25th. For a preview or to order my book please follow this link: http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/site/smithsonian/video/pop-culture/worlds-of-sound/40053413001

Catch Richard at THE FOLK ALLIANCE -- Friday, Feb. 20th at 2 PM

I will be discussing my book, WORLDS OF SOUND, at this year's FOLK ALLIANCE meeting, in Memphis, Tennessee. Come by and hear about Folkways and Moe Asch! I will be presenting on Friday, February 20th, at 2 PM. I will also be showing a short excerpt from a forthcoming documentary on the label.

New Review of Worlds of Sound in the February Issue of DOWNBEAT

Check out the positive review of my book, WORLDS OF SOUND, in the Feb. 2009 issue of DOWNBEAT magazine on p. 81. "A big, colorful hardback, [the book feautres] an abundance of profiles, history, discographies, and photographs." http://www.downbeat.com/default.asp

Hear Richard on Dave Marsh's KICK OUT THE JAMS radio show on XM 50 The Loft this Sunday, December 7th

I'll be discussing my new book, WORLDS OF SOUND, with rock critic/radio personality Dave Marsh this Sunday, December 7th, from about 10:30 to 11 AM on his satellite radio show, KICK OUT THE JAMS, broadcast on XM 50 "The Loft" and Sirius Satelitte Radio. Hope you'll listen in!

Another Washington, DC, signing!

Hello WORLDS OF SOUND fans:

I'll be signing copies of my new book, WORLDS OF SOUND: THE STORY OF SMITHSONIAN/FOLKWAYS, at the grand reopening of the National Museum of American History, on Friday, November 21st, between 2 and 4 PM.

Hope to see you there!

More Radio Shows!

Here's links to a few more radio shows that feature me talking about my new book, WORLDS OF SOUND. Happy listening.

Tapestry of the Times: http://www.tapestryofthetimes.org/Episode10.php
Talk of the Nation: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96820123

Richard Talks It Up on WNYC's Sound Check

Hear a fascinating conversation about "Is folk music dead?" (and why is that skinny, long haired guitarist looking so gaunt??) on WNYC's Sound Check featuring me along with New Yorker contributor Burkhard Bilger. http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/episodes/2008/11/03/segments/114243

THIS SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1st! Signing/reading/Mariachi concert at Politics and Prose, Washington, DC,. for WORLDS OF SOUND

I'll be signing copies of my new book, WORLDS OF SOUND, at Politcs & Prose bookstore in Washington, DC, on Saturday, November 1st from 3 to 4 PM.

Read more:
http://www.expressnightout.com/content/2008/10/he_was_all_ears_worlds_of_sound_the_stor.php

More on Moe: Preview from WORLDS OF SOUND

Moses Asch, pictured at the controls of Cue Studios in the late '50s, believed that all sounds should be available to everyone. Today, when the music labels are busily battling against "piracy," it's interesting to remember that the problem of "who owns" sound recordings has been around as long as recording themselves. Do the major labels have the right to control recordings, even those that they themselves have allowed to go out of print? Moses Asch was a champion of the people's right to know, including an artist's right to have his recordings available even when they were not commercially successful. In my new book, WORLDS OF SOUND: THE STORY OF SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS, I tell how Moe reissued Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads at Guthrie's request because RCA had put the records out of print. Over a decade later, RCA threatened to sue Asch over this "infringement." Here's more from the book:

Photo (c) David Gahr

Asch’s attitude toward the big labels crystallized early on when Woody Guthrie complained to him that RCA had withdraw his Dust Bowl Ballads album due to poor sales. Even though the label was no longer selling the recordings, they insisted they still held the rights, and wouldn’t either issue the records or give the rights back to Guthrie. Asch simply took the matter into his own hands, reissuing the recordings himself, challenging Victor to respond.

Victor eventually responded, when the folk revival suddenly made reissuing Guthrie’s original recordings commercially viable. In 1964, Victor wrote to Asch challenging his reissue of the Dust Bowl Ballads 78s, which Asch had recently converted from the original 10 inch album (issued with Guthrie’s blessings in 1950) to a full-size LP. Asch typically replied to Victor that he had every right to issue the material, having Guthrie’s approval—in fact Guthrie had pleaded with him to make the recordings available. Further, he had bought the original records on the open market and—once RCA declared them out of print—felt that they were fair game for reissue. Asch goes on to tell how Guthrie had approached RCA twice, in 1948 and 1950, and the label had declined to reissue the recordings on both occasions. Asch closed his letter explaining his belief that:

cultural property belongs to all and is limited to individual ownership only in so far as the copyright of the material is subjected to and limited to. Since records do not carry this copyright and since Folkways is in a unique position regarding the above, I cannot see what RCA can do about this, except to make a nuisance of it. I have patience and fortitude.

Indeed, Asch did have "patience and fortitude." Rather than fight with him, RCA simply reissued the Dust Bowl Ballads on its own label, adding tow previously unissued masters to its LP. Asch could hardly complain.

For Asch the right of “the people” to have access to recordings like Guthrie’s was greater than corporate ownership rights. During the early ‘50s, when he reissued Guthrie, the Jazz series, and the Anthology, the major labels showed little or no interest in their back catalog. Soon, specialty labels like Riverside (originally started to reissue early jazz recordings), Origin Jazz Library and Yazoo (blues reissues), and County (old time country music) would rise to carry forward this mission.

Asch was correct that copyright didn’t apply to sound recordings; the law was not updated until 1978, so that technically all records made before that date were “public domain.” However Asch went further than merely copyright law, basing his philosophy on the Constitution, where he found that the people were given “the right to know” that superseded copyright:

The Constitution of the United States was to me a very basic document. When World War II began there was a shortage of metals, copper and shellac, so the big companies broke up the masters . . . of Bessie Smith and all the other early recordings. They all disappeared . . . I started to realize here the Constitution was saying “dissemination”—the right to know is a right of the people, and there the record company wasn’t caring whether people have that right or not. They were destroying property which they claimed was their own. I always claimed what they were destroying was the culture, so I started to reissue some of the records which I thought ought to be preserved.

CBS INTERVIEW

Here's a way to hear the WORLDS OF SOUND interview without having to listen to the whole program -- Download this to your MP3 player and jog to the rhythms of the tree frogs and the words of your genial author, RC.

http://www.box.net/shared/pqr4l79ho3

Enjoy

CBS World News Roundup Feature on Worlds of Sound

Here me speak!! Amaze your ears! You can hear a brief piece on my new book, Worlds of Sound, on this week's CBS WORLD NEWS ROUNDUP. The interview comes about 32 minutes into the show.

http://audio.cbsnews.com/2008/10/10/audio4513986.mp3

Enjoy.

Richard on the Radio: Forthcoming Interviews

Hey! Want to hear me talk about my new book, WORLDS OF SOUND. You're in luck, I'll be speaking on a number of radio shows, most available for podcasting over the Web. Here's the list so far:

Scheduled Programs:

· Week of October 10 Sam Litzinger, CBS News Weekend Roundup (broadcast nationally throughout the week on different CBS affiliates)
· October 14, 7-9 PM Lilli Kuzma, Folk Festival, WDCB Public Radio, Chicago
· October 16, 4:30 PM (MST) Jerry Puffer, KSEN-AM Radio, Montana
· October 29, 11 AM David Dye, World Café, WXPN Philadelphia (and NPR nationally)
· November 3, 2 PM John Schaefer, Sound Check, WNYC FM, NY
· Dec. 7th, 10 AM Dave Marsh, Kick Out the Jams, Sirius Satellite Radio

Broadcast Dates to Be Announced:

· Aaron Heinken, Tapestry of the Times, Baltimore (WYPR), WGBH (Boston), and other NPR stations. Taping November 1st
· Neal Conan, Talk of the Nation, NPR. Taping October 30th.
· Sam Litzinger and Jeff Place, Sound Sessions with Smithsonian Folkways, WAMU, Washington, DC, already recorded

Tell your friends!

New WORLDS OF SOUND Webpage

Hi Everyone:

Smithsonian/Folkways has launched its own WORLDS OF SOUND webpage to accompany my new book, WORLDS OF SOUND: THE STORY OF SMITHSONIAN/FOLKWAYS. It's just in its beginning stages, but soon it will feature full notes for the book, interview transcripts, additional photos and illustrations, audio clips, and lots more! Plus, if you order YOUR COPY of the book directly from Smithsonian/Folkways, they'll throw in a FREE SAMPLER CD that features never-before-released archival material along with samples from the many collectors profiled in the book.

So, why not visit the new site:

http://www.folkways.si.edu/projects_initiatives/worlds_of_sound.aspx

Have fun!

Upcoming Book Signings

Richard Carlin will be speaking about WORLDS OF SOUND and signing copies of his new book throughout this fall. The first confirmed dates are:
18 October: Chicago, IL Old Town School of Folk Music 6:30 PM
1 November. Washington, DC Politics & Prose Bookstore 3:00 PM
15 November Montclair, NJ Wachung Booksellers 1:00 PM

Yours Merrily, George Young

Among concertina history enthusiasts and post card collectors (admittedly a group slightly smaller than your local branch of the Star Trek fan club), many images pose mysteries that are seemingly unsolvable. In most cases, photos of proud concertinists displaying their instruments or proclaiming their virtuosity go unidentified -- who is that Salvationist? Why did he go to the trouble of having a postcard printed with his image emblazoned on it?

None is more mysterious than the ever-merry George Young, a blind concertinist apparently from the North of England. Young was certainly industrious: there are at least 4 different postcard images of him that were printed, and they must have been printed in good quantities as they turn up more regularly than photo cards of star performers like Alexander Prince. Usually portrayed holding his top-of-the-line Lachenal Edeophone -- that strange 12-sided concertina that has been described as the closest thing to a square circle -- Young's card always feature his trademark greeting, "Yours merrily, George Young."

Despite the profusion of cards, no one has been able to trace a newspaper notice marking a performance by Young, nor is there any sheet music, phonograph recordings, poster or handbill that has survived attesting to his popularity. Maybe he just played for local events or had a relative in the postcard printing business who gave him good rates on cards.

Despite his apparent lack of acclaim, he left his mark, merrily, on many lives who kept his cards as some kind of cherished memorial to a bygone recital, where the blind concertina player amazed with his repertory of the latest popular melodies. Or so we must imagine.

And think also of the countless other George Youngs who played in anonymity, self-proclaimed master entertainers, whose worlds probably extended just a few kilometers from home.

And still stubbornly he remains: Merrily yours, George Young. World's most pictured unknown concertina player. If nothing else, a tireless self-promoter. Long may his fame resound.

WORLDS OF SOUND: THE SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS STORY: Order Often and Early

If you'd like, you can preorder my new book by following this link to Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Sound-Story-Smithsonian-Folkways/dp/0061563552/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1219928469&sr=11-1

You'll also save a bunch off the list price!

Tell your friends and family . . .

Morris Dancers or Minstrel Show?

The influence of American minstrel shows on British music has been well documented. Early performers like Joel Walker Sweeney and Dam Emmett toured England to great acclaim, introducing the banjo and blackface humor to British audiences and inspiring homegrown performers to adapt the style. (See my brother's biography of Joel Walker Sweeney publsihed by McFarland as just one of many sources.)

This image, found by my friend Perry Werner, speaks to the influence of blackface and banjos but also to older British entertainments, specifically the Morris Dance and short plays associated with it. In fact, the motley crew here seems to borrow from many different traditions: the clown like figure on the far left playing the fiddle joined with the blackface banjo players, suggesting a circus connection (initially, some blackface banjo players in the US performed as part of traveling circuses, so perhaps the connection is there). On the other hand, the well-dressed bones player (in the rear center) and the top-hatted fiddler on the right seem to be parodies of British upper-crust performers.

Exactly what the occasion was for this photo -- whether this was a regular traveling performing troupe or a one-time gathering perhaps for a local village fundraiser or fair -- is unknown. (At least by me -- anyone out there with thoughts about who these folks might be, please post!) This kind of cross-fertilization--the crazy quilt of traditions that come together through the imaginations of performers uninhibited by any "rules" that might keep different performance styles apart--is to me the truest expression of what happens in traditional settings. Scholars try to categorize and separate but ordinary folks just perform for the fun of it -- and draw on whatever inspirations seem right to them.

Advance Praise for WORLDS OF SOUND

I'm thrilled to post these initial comments about my forthcoming book, WORLDS OF SOUND: THE SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS STORY. Forgive me for blogging my own horn!!

"Worlds of Sound tells a tale that sings, drums, plays, chirps, rings, trills, and thrums. When I was a boy, I stumbled onto a Folkways record of Pygmy music from Africa, and those voices sang directly into my soul. Folkways Records changed my life. Thank you, Richard Carlin, for telling the Folkways story—one of the most vibrant, exciting tales of all time.”
—Mickey Hart, musician and author

“Worlds of Sound is a monumental study that captures the vision of Moses "Moe" Asch and his lifelong effort to preserve folk music in the 20th century. Asch's unwavering commitment to social justice and his passion for folk music inspired his massive Folkways Recordings, which are a national treasure of recorded sound. Richard Carlin eloquently captures Asch's life and his recordings in a book that features stunning photography and artwork.”
—William Ferris, co-editor of Encyclopedia of Southern Culture

“This entertaining romp chronicles how some of the oddest characters in American popular culture — from drugged out record collector Harry Smith to documentarian Studs Turkel — helped Moses “Moe” Asch create a label that is now run by the Smithsonian. Few music histories are as all-encompassing as this one, but whether he’s writing about Bob Dylan or the Carter family, Carlin shows a rare combination of authority and passion that makes any reader want to pull out these dusty recordings and feel their magic once again.”— Charles R. Cross, author of Room Full of Mirrors: The Biography of Jimi Hendrix

"Richard Carlin's Worlds of Sound is an excellent document. So many of the artists featured in this book are familiar to me, and it was a treat to learn their stories through the history of Folkways Records. Carlin really finds the details that make the music come alive—like finding out that Albert Einstein inspired Moses Asch to record all the sounds of the world.”
—Roger McGuinn, cofounder and front man, The Byrds