Week 13: A shindig

Wow. What a semester. 

Coming into Songs and Places this semester, I expected it to be a class just like any other: some reading, a lecture, maybe an essay, some form of a final, and a grade. I didn't expect it to throw me out of my comfort zone as much as it did. 

I hadn't made any art since 8th grade, and even then it was very guided, thematic art. 

Every week, I enjoyed creating the art more and more and allowed myself to relax more and more while making it. It was also very humbling to be not only outside of my major, but also outside of my college. CED is a whole new world. I've never been in a class where people were so many lightyears ahead of me in terms of talent. It was a very valuable experience to be in that environment. Even though I struggled a lot with contributing to the discussion on artwork, I really enjoyed hearing about other people's perspectives and insights.

I'm also really grateful that we had a storytime at the end of each session. I'm much better at analyzing prose than visual art so I felt like I could contribute much more when we got there. 

Above all, I am grateful for the encouragement and enthusiasm. Every week, I felt like my art was treated with the amount of respect as everyone else's. Yes, it was infantilized, but not in a condescending manner. I never felt ashamed of my art. For that, I owe a huge thank you to Tony. When exams and papers pile up and everyone is stressed out, Tony still manages to have the enthusiasm to bring us out of that rut -- silly as it might appear at the time. 

Week 12: Sea Shanties and Cowhands

Of all the music, this week's was probably my favorite -- especially the sea shanties. I love being on water and everything that has to do with water so the whole time I was listening to the music, I imagined sailors on the ship singing these songs to get them through the journey.

I really liked the reading for this week as well.

In the Dawidoff reading about the evolution of country music, I found this transition to commercialism very interesting. Suddenly, "country was now fashionable in places - New York City, LA, Clereveland, Seattle - and among people - well-educated professionals, teenagers - that contradicted old assumptions about the music" (14). This quote is fantastic because you can replace "country" with anything else that suddenly becomes popular and it will explain exactly how and why something went from being organic to being commercial. As soon as something becomes popular, it brings revenue, and as soon as money is in the equation, the motivation behind doing it changes.

If you keep reading, this is exactly what happens. "the country charts were dominated by a series of handsome, video-friendly young swains dressed in boots, snug jeans, and the inevitable Stetsons that won them their nickname "'the hat acts.'" All of a sudden, there is an "image." The image sells. If country music wasn't popular, if it was something else, these hat acts would probably be the stars of that too. The whole article reiterates this point... "they've taken the heart and soul out of country music." (19)

It reminds me of a conversation about farmer's markets I had with my friend's father, an American who lived in Serbia. They had moved back to the US and he said that the thing he missed most about Serbia was the farmer's market. When I asked him why, he said, "the farmer's markets here are not real farmer's markets. These people have never been on a farm in their lives, they have no dirt under their fingernails."

A Serbian "pijaca"

My art for the week was inspired by where I was when I sang one of the songs for the first time. After listening to the playlist over Thanksgiving break, I was in rowing practice and I was rowing in a single and I kept singing "Blow Ye Winds, Heigh Ho."

Week 11: Delta Blues

This week was our first week exploring the Blues. It's a bit of a change from what we were doing before but it's also more familiar territory. 

My art for the week was inspired by "Careless Love." It was originally in reverse order, where the heart is going upwards rather than downwards, but my gut told me to reverse the order. 

Week 10: Woody Guthrie

This week's theme was Woody Guthrie. The first thing I noticed listening to his songs are that they are less emotional than some of the other songs we've listened to: they're less about broken hearts and feelings and more about surroundings and stories.

They're also more upbeat than some of the other music we've heard. Guthrie's version of "This Land is Your Land" is much more upbeat, much faster, than Dylan's version of it. Dylan's version also sounds more commercial than Guthrie's version.

My favorite favorite favorite song of the week is "Blowin' Down the Road" (and I prefer that title to the "Goin' Down the Road" title in our song books. "Blowin'" implies attitude and assertiveness. "Going" is somehow less assertive.

I really like the assertiveness and dignity and pride that this song has. It fits very well with the description of Guthrie that began the reading for the week.

"I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work"

In hindsight, I think the glitter backfired on me. I tried to convey the assertiveness that Guthrie has, but I think it made it kind of kitschy - more Liberace, less Woody Guthrie. 

Week 9: Leadbelly

The theme this week was Leadbelly. I really liked all the songs that we got to choose from. When I listen to the songs, I have a playlist on my iTunes and I play it as I walk through campus and I rate the songs that stand out. This week, I rated almost all of them.

My favorites:

1.  "Corn Bread Rough" because it is so much fun, it sounds like something you would hear in a circus. This was the first song I gave 5 stars to in this playlist.

2. "Let It Shine On Me" because it's catchy. It gave me the most vivid visual of all the songs. It's the one I did my artwork on.

3. "In the Pines" what is the connection between this song and "Goodnight Irene?" The last verse of "In the Pines" is in "Goodnight Irene."

In the introduction of the reading, I really liked the part where Lomax says "... If you could count on finding that vase and those flowers on the table every night, wouldn't that be something?" I think it fits very nicely with this theme of recording music to make it last. Whenever you need it, it's always there because someone recorded it and made it that way.

I also really like the part where he sat down and had lunch with his African-American maid. He isn't just taking advantage and profiting from their music, he has a deep respect for them as people that was present even before he was invested in their music.

Another part that struck me was after Lomax had recorded a farm worker singing about the problems they had faced and then there was "immense joy in the group because they felt they had communicated their problem to the big world." I think that's kind of beautiful. Mostly because the joy is two-way, but also because it's very true. The best way that we learn about the conditions and the history of the time is through song.  In one of the readings from week 4, there was a quote, "The music was explaining the history as the history was explaining the music." That's exactly it.

Week 8: Anthology of American Folk Music

This week, we had no class so we focused on the Anthology of American Folk Music. I was actually pretty surprised to find that I actually knew a lot of these songs from before.

A couple that I really liked: Present Joys, Georgia Stomp, Fifty Miles of Elbow Room, Ommie Wise, Fishing Blues.

Here are a few pamphlet entries about some of the songs.

Fifty Miles of Elbow Room
by Rev. F.W. McGee

"It won't be long until I pass into that city fair with fifty miles of elbow room on either side to spare"

While originally written in a spiritual sense, these lyrics can be taken very literally nowadays. Space is scarcer and scarcer with every decade due to over population. This is particularly noticeable when passing through Sproul Plaza between classes, in a large lecture hall during a midterm, or on any Economy class seat in an airplane.

Ommie Wise
by G.B. Grayson

"I'll tell you all a story about Ommie Wise, how she was deluded by John Lewis' lies."

A prime example of a misnomer. Ommie Wise may have had wisdom in her name, but the naivete in her mind prevailed.

Week 7: Mississippi John Hurt

The theme this week was Mississippi John Hurt. We'd been doing his music for a while in the course but now we're going in depth.

My favorite song is still "Since I've Laid My Burden Down," but "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor" is a close second.

However, the song that inspired me most for my artwork was "Candy Man Blues." I think the theme of the song, albeit racy, is not unusual. It's only unusual because as a general rule older songs are not as explicit, and the themes tend to be more profound and so we tend to glorify them relative to today's music. Today's music is focused on money, fame, sex, and drugs much more than music was before, but it's also much more artificial - musically, melodically, dynamically... All that aside, how different is "Candy Man Blues" thematically from "Candy Shop" or "Sexy and I Know It?"

On the reading: I really enjoyed the piece by Elisabeth Dubovsky and I appreciate that Tony put it up for us. John Hurt seems like he's very down-to-earth, very spiritual, and very disconnected from the commercial side of the music. That's also very rare today that the artist is who he says he is. There are a lot of artists that like to have a very down to earth image and anti-commercialist attitude, but it's pretty contradictory to all the publicity they get by taking on that image.

Week 6: British Ballads

Last week's class started a lot of good conversations, but the one that stuck with me the most is this issue of gendered violence in "The Banks of the Ohio."

This is such a hot topic in Berkeley right now so I'm not really surprised that it came up so quickly in class. Yet this is probably one of the hardest issues for me to grapple with because it is so far removed from my world. Where I come from, we just had our first violence free gay pride parade and the fact that it was violence free is a huge deal for the Serbian government. However, it was not without a lot of effort: there was 7000 cops, soldiers, water hoses, tanks etc out on the streets to protect 100 walkers.

Pride Parade in Belgrade

That said, the social issues at home are so different and so behind the social issues here that it's very difficult for me to be as passionate about gender issues as maybe I should be. Of course I disagree with gender inequality and of course I don't think there should be violence against women. But do I think that "The Banks of the Ohio" is particularly disgusting because the person who got drowned is a woman? Probably not... I'd probably be just as disgusted by it if it was the other way around.

On the reading: I was so impressed by Sharp's dedication and perseverance in his work. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for him to travel from England to the US and through the US while being so sick. And not only to travel, but to still be dedicated to collecting the music despite being sick. I am also impressed by Maude who stuck by his side through it all. I would imagine it would be tempting to quit on several occasions, but she must have known that Sharp was doing something that would go down in history. One thing I was confused by though was why Sharp didn't get songs from the African-Americans despite his dislike for them... I'm sure their music was excellent as well. 

On the music: I like the story of "Barbara Allen." I think it's interesting how despite her claiming to be "slighted" by his behavior, she still feels guilty and thinks the church bells are accusing her of being "hard-hearted." What is the significance of the brier? Why did the rose grow out of his chest and the brier out of hers?

The recording is really cool. It's very clean. With a song this long, it's difficult to stay in the right key and without your voice shaking when it's a cappella, but the way this is done is beautiful. I imagine this is what some of Sharp's recordings sounded like.

On the art: One thing that stuck with me from last week was when Tony said that he "didn't want to infantilize" me as an artist. I think Tony saw that that would be sort of demeaning or insulting, but my first thought was, "wait, why not?" I haven't created any artwork since about 8th grade so when I make these things I feel like a child again. It's fun to be playful. We are expected to be adults way too often in life...

Week 5: Appalachia

The songs for this week were "Can the Circle Be Unbroken," "The Banks of the Ohio," and "The Cuckoo Bird"

I thought the reading for this week was pretty interesting. I'm not sure how I felt about the definition of a folk song that they gave, "a folk song is song that survives without the necessity of commercial media." On one hand, I think this definition is too restrictive. First, there's a lot of songs -- and this was mentioned in the reading -- that get covered by pop singers and so their presence is refreshed. I guess we don't know what would be the counterfactual...

The other thing I thought was interesting was that the Fisk Singers were introduced, the article talked about them fundraising through their recordings... but isn't this a form of commercial media? Shouldn't this automatically disqualify them as being folksingers singing folksongs?

The article portrays commercialism in a negative light, and I understand that. I often find myself around people who are against commercialism (eg. Emir Kusturica) but I don't necessarily agree that it is all bad. Maybe it's the econ major in me, but I think we need it to an extent.

Part of the reading mentioned that Alan Lomax "was not a folk scholar" and that "he was less concerned with presenting authentic performances than with offering versions that showed American folk music at its best -- even if that meant adding a stanza from another version or helping his informants to remember forgotten lines." (47) How does this fit in with the anti commericalist view?

It was interesting to see Berkeley mentioned in so many parts...

My favorite song of the week was "Banks of the Ohio." I really liked the contrast of the song -- from the first two verses I was convinced it was going to be a happily ever after love song until it took a total 180.

Week 4: Oh Mary, Don't You Weep

This week, we continue with our theme of spirituals and work songs with a focus on "Oh Mary, Don't You Weep." This theme was particularly present in my daily life because of the kick off of a lot of Free Speech Movement 50th anniversary events -- Visitor and Parent Services is part of the Office of Public Affairs so we are very involved in promoting it.

One of the events this week was the concert of songs from the Civil Rights Movement by the University Chorus and the Gospel Choir on Sproul Plaza. There was one song that they sang ... I can't remember what it was called but the general idea was about suffering and how much longer they had to endure it. It reminded me quite strongly of "Oh Mary, Don't You Weep." I'll try to email someone from the choruses to see if they have a setlist.

I really like how upbeat the songs are -- this takes me back to the quote I pulled from the reading: "The music was explaining the history as the history was explaining the music." As these people are working, suffering, they are singing. This singing is a better and richer documentation of the time period than any history book.

I really like the Leadbelly version of "Oh Mary." It has almost a lullaby sound to it... reminds me of that children's song "Hush, Little Baby." I listened to that version probably about 10 times. It made me smile. The John Hurt version of it is similar melodically but not as upbeat as the Lead Belly version... it conveys a little more gravity. 

The Gomorrans version is pretty cool too -- a little more modern, very indie feel to it -- kind of a hipster thing to do. Goes to show how these songs persevere through history. I could probably imagine hearing that version on the radio. 

As for the biblical references, they make me appreciate the meaning of the song a little bit more, but I didn't really grow up with the bible so that meaning is not as rich. Nominally, I am Serbian Christian Orthodox, but I moved around a lot and church wasn't a part of our lives beyond just acknowledging that there is something up there. My family goes to church on major religious holidays but this is not nearly enough to appreciate all the symbolism and depth of the biblical references.   

Week 3: Work Songs and Spirituals

This week we got a whole bunch of music to listen to. It exposed me to a whole realm of music that I'd never heard before, as well as different renditions of songs that I had heard before.

A common theme of many of these songs is "going home" and what happens when it's all over... "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Since I've Laid My Burden Down"... which is what inspired my art for the week. The general sense of a better future life.

"Since I've Laid My Burden Down" was my favorite song of the week: there was something about it that really resonated inside me... Not sure what or why...

In one of the YouTube videos Tony posted, someone said that "a moan turned into a song." I found that to be symbolic. Despite the conditions and the context in which they were sung (the cause of the moan), there is a positive mood to all the songs.  The songs were a way to persevere and an effort to make the work they had to do easier. The ability to do this is arguably one of the most impressive things about all of these songs (again with the positive psych).

Of course, not all the songs were like that. For example, "Sometimes I Feel Like a Moteherless Child" reflects more closely what Leroi Jones was talking about when he explained that Africans were brought to the US to be slaves where their culture and their basic human rights were completely disregarded.

Yet all the songs revealed quite a bit about the history. As Leroi Jones puts it, "the music was an orchestrated, vocalized, hummed, chanted, blown, beaten, scatted, corollary confirmation of history ... The music was explaining the history as the history was explaining the music."

Below is the artwork from last week:

Week 2: You Are My Sunshine

The theme this week was "You Are My Sunshine," recorded by Jimmie Davis in 1940. Jimmie Davis was the governor of Louisiana. His first wife was Alvern Adams, who was by his side while he was in office, but passed away in 1967. I'd like to think that he's singing "You Are My Sunshine" to her following her death, although the dates don't really make sense, nor does the mood of the song. The version that is on the Box would suit that idea much better.

He later married Anna Carter Gordon, who was in the Chuck Wagon Gang Gospel Choir.

I also listened to the Ollie Gilbert version of the song and the differences were striking - while Jimmie Davis' version was more melodic and more rhythmic, Ollie Gilbert's version is more raw... she seems to be more upset than Jimmie Davis. He seems to be singing about the hypothetical situation, while she is in the reality. Sort of goes back to the point I made last week about how regardless of how you sing the song, as long as you have the passion, the emotion will come through.

I never thought about the idea that the song is about place. Having moved around quite a bit, I struggle with identifying a place that I could feel so strongly about. Whenever I try to think of one, the only thing that comes to mind is my family. I guess my sunshine is wherever my family is.

The reading this week was two forewords by Alan Lomax, who was a renown ethnomusicologists and a big collector of folk music, as well as a passage by Charles and Ruth Seeger who were musicologists and parents of Pete Seeger. My favorite part of the reading was in the first foreword by Alan Lomax, where he describes the folk song as a "continuum of performances, each one varying in great or slight degree, and thus it grows as it lives, acquiring fresh material or losing bits of the old and spawning variant forms, which continue to evolve."

What a beautiful way of putting it... It's almost like a snowball effect, where one person's interpretation inspires the next person and so on.

But what I found especially interesting is a few pages later, when describing how to sing he says "it is most important to sing and especially to try to feel these songs as they were intended to be sung or felt." Are these two sentences not somewhat contradictory?

I find them contradictory in two ways. First, if there is this pile up of variations of folk songs, then how do we know "how they were intended to be sung or felt?" Second, if everyone is singing with the same way, where does the variation come in?

Below is my artwork for the week:

Week 1: Down in the Valley

This was the first week of Visual Studies 185X and the theme was "Down in the Valley," a song that was recorded by everyone from Burt Ives to little girls with musical bells.

My favorite version of the song is the one by Solomon Burke that Tony posted on his blog. Songs that are classics and that have a lot of meaning are meaningful regardless of the musical interpretation. "Down in the Valley" is a sad song, but it doesn't necessarily have to be performed as a ballad for that sadness to be conveyed. Passion seems to be the only necessity. Solomon Burke clearly has it.

Here was my piece of art for the week:

Not very artistically sophisticated, but I had fun making it.

I've been doing a lot of research on positive psychology so that was really the reason why I drew what I did in the way that I did. Apparently, if you change the way you think (ie think positively) you become happier. Sounds easier said than done. But what if the person singing the song wasn't in a valley in the negative sense of the word (an emotional rut, an inescapable place, somewhere he didn't want to be?) What if he was in the valley relaxing? What if things were actually pretty good for him? His letter was coming, the love of his life is committed to him, nothing was really wrong, all he had to do was be patient. Nothing in the song really suggests it, but that's the scenario I was trying to depict.

In class, Tony asked what the river represented... I still don't know. I kind of like the idea of it representing the flow of time... everything will eventually pass... how temporary everything in life is. The river itself is permanent, but the water in it keeps moving.