Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents information about the Carolina Chocolate Drops and showcases the song "Country Girl" performed by Carolina Chocolate Drops.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the Carolina Chocolate Drops for their musical legacy. Thanks to the producer of this video and all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the publishers of these examples on YouTube.
****
SHOWCASE EXAMPLES
Example #1: Carolina Chocolate Drops - Country Girl [Official Video]
ccdrops, Published on May 9, 2012
© 2012 WMG This is the official video for "Country Girl" from the album Leaving Eden.
-snip-
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaving_Eden_(Carolina_Chocolate_Drops_album) the personnel on the "Country Girl" track in that album are "Giddens, Lalenja Harrington, [and] Adam Matta. However, the three "main" musicians who are shown in these two videos that are embedded in this post [i.e. They are shown eating at the restaurant in the Official Video for this song] are Rhiannon Giddens, Don Flemons, and Hubby Jenkins.
I'm not sure what genre of music Carolina Chocolate Drop's "Country Girl" song is. A few commenters categorized it as Bluegrass music.
Selected comments from this video's discussion thread are found in the section with that title below.
****
Example #2: Carolina Chocolate Drops :: 'Country Girl' via Liveset
liveset, Published on Jun 21, 2012
Carolina Chocolate Drops performed a live, intimate session with Liveset from an old church space, Esplanade Studios, in New Orleans.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Chocolate_Drops
"The Carolina Chocolate Drops are an old-time string band from Durham, North Carolina. Their 2010 album, Genuine Negro Jig, won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards,[1] and was number 9 in fRoots magazine's top 10 albums of 2010.[2]
Career
Formed in November 2005, following the members' attendance at the first Black Banjo Gathering, held in Boone, North Carolina, in April 2005, the group grew out of the success of Sankofa Strings, an ensemble that featured Dom Flemons on bones, jug, guitar, and four-string banjo, Rhiannon Giddens on banjo and fiddle and Súle Greg Wilson on bodhrán, brushes, washboard, bones, tambourine, banjo, banjolin, and ukulele, with Justin Robinson as an occasional guest artist. All shared vocals. The purpose of Sankofa Strings was to present a gamut of African American musics: country and classic blues, early jazz and "hot music", string band numbers, African and Caribbean songs, and spoken word pieces.[3]
The Chocolate Drops' original three members: Giddens, Flemons, and Robinson, were all in their twenties when the group formed after Flemons' move from Phoenix (where he and Wilson lived), to North Carolina, home of Giddens and Robinson. Wilson, nearly a generation older than the other Drops, was occasionally featured with the group into 2010, including contributions to the recordings, Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind, CCD and Joe Thompson, Heritage (with songs culled from Sankofa Strings' independently-released CD, Colored Aristocracy and nearly half of Genuine Negro Jig. All of the musicians sing and trade instruments including banjo, fiddle, guitar, harmonica, snare drum, bones, jug, and kazoo. The group learned much of their repertoire, which is based on the traditional music of the Piedmont region of North and South Carolina,[4] from the eminent African American old-time fiddler Joe Thompson, although they also perform old-time versions of some modern songs such as Blu Cantrell's R&B hit "Hit 'em Up Style (Oops!)."...
-snip-
This excerpt was reformatted for this post to enhance readability.
****
From
https://indyweek.com/music/features/one-original-member-carolina-chocolate-drops-remains-group-s-mission-spreads/ Only one original member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops remains, but the group's mission spreads
BY JORDAN LAWRENCE MAR. 12, 2014
"When Rhiannon Giddens walks onto the stage of Raleigh's grand Meymandi Concert Hall for two appearances this weekend, the Carolina Chocolate Drops will no longer be with her. For the last nine years, Giddens has been part of the groundbreaking black string band; together, they've won a Grammy, appeared in a Denzel Washington film and become something of regulars on National Public Radio.
But since December, Giddens has been the only remaining member of the original trio. That doesn't mean they've broken up; they've actually grown. The name Carolina Chocolate Drops has become less a signifier of a band than a newly sprawling collective of like-minded folk musicians, now working in different spheres to show that the history of black music in the United States is richer than audiences might've presumed.
[...]
For the last decade, the Carolina Chocolate Drops have taken a similar tack by using antiquated folk material as a springboard for energetic albums and performances. As they've entertained, they've also offered an education about the role of blacks in the banjo and string-band music normally ascribed to white folks.
After nine years, though, the Carolina Chocolate Drops aren't the same band they were, either in regard to membership or musical choices. The jug-playing and driving guitar of founding member Dom Flemons were integral catalysts to the group's old-time beginnings. He departed their ranks following a two-night December stand at Charlotte's Neighborhood Theatre. Justin Robinson, the fiddle-playing third from the original trio, exited in 2011. For three months now, Giddens alone has led the Drops, backed by guitarist-plus Hubby Jenkins, who is beginning his fourth year with the group. Cellist Malcolm Parson and multi-instrumentalist Rowan Corbett are the newest members. Though the Drops once performed most of their shows sitting down, they stand now. And Giddens has started trying a few of her own originals with the band, something the Drops did sparingly in previous configurations.
This new iteration of the Drops faces down a daunting heritage: The original trio, which met in 2005 at Boone's Black Banjo Gathering, rallied around the songs of unheralded black string musician Joe Thompson. They've since been invited to the Grand Ole Opry and appeared multiple times on A Prairie Home Companion. They contributed several songs to the soundtrack of the 2007 film The Great Debaters and have sold out amphitheaters and concert halls across the country. Their major-label debut, 2010's Genuine Negro Jig, won the Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album.
Giddens should be accustomed to this turnover. In less than a decade, the Drops have sorted through at least eight members. Since Robinson left, the lineup has been especially fluid. New members have brought along new talents and interests Jenkins' inimitable swing and jazz chops, for instance that have expanded the outfit's once minimal palette.
[...]
The most essential aspects of the Carolina Chocolate Drops remain intact, despite the personnel shifts. The members are still black, continuing their excavation of old-time's overlooked history. Though Robinson is gone, they still adhere to one of his favorite dictums, a quote from British playwright W. Somerset Maugham: "Tradition is a guide and not a jailer."
These paradoxically complementary goals trumpeting forgotten history while not letting that pursuit shackle creativity have allowed the Drops to incorporate new tools into old tunes. The group has included a cellist (first Leyla McCalla, now Parson) for several years, while a previous lineup boasted beatboxing marvel Adam Matta.
That idea enables former members to move on and try new things, too. When the Drops were only one touring act, Flemons explains, they could only play for so many people at once. As a wider collective of like-minded artists unlimited by the expectations of a single fanbase and free to roam stylistically, the possibilities explode. For Flemons, this was always the goal.
[...]
The Drops see historical works not as dead artifacts but as interactive documents. That was the takeaway of the two years that cellist Leyla McCalla spent with the group. She exited just ahead of Flemons. Her new solo album, Vari-Colored Songs, blends seemingly unrelated traditions the poems of Langston Hughes, melodies informed by traditional Haitian numbers, cello lines picked with the assuredness of a wizened blues musician with purpose. McCalla's parents are Haitian emigrants. Her music is an attempt to expand and correct peoples' notions of her often-maligned ancestry.
"I feel like it's become part of my mission to help shift people's perception about what Haiti is in the same way that the Drops are like, 'You thought that folk music was this, but it's also this, this and this,'" she says. "There's a couple of black string bands, but the Chocolate Drops have actually engaged people on a much bigger scale."
The Carolina Chocolate Drops, then, represent more of an ethos than a simple-minded mission. Their approach to forgotten or misunderstood sounds makes room for a variety of angles and adaptations."...
****
LYRICS: COUNTRY GIRL
(Rhiannon Giddens)
[Verse 1]
I was raised in the country, that's a natural fact
Food on the table from the garden out back
Everyone working to make the land their own
Red clay crackin' where the silver queen grows
[Verse 2]
Runnin' with your cousins from yard to yard
Livin' was easy but the playin' was hard
Didn't have much, nothing comes for free
All you needed was your family
[Chorus]
I am a country girl
I've been around the world
And every place I've been
Ain't quite nothin' like
Livin' in the South
Oh honey, shut your mouth
I am a country girl
I am a country girl
[Verse 3]
Biscuits in the morning and gravy too
Fried chicken in the afternoon
Jaw draggin', eatin' sweet potato pie
Takin' half an hour to say goodbye
Blackberry patches scuffin' on by
Sweet Georgia peaches and dandelion wine
The best kind of food is made by hand
The only place to get it is from the land
[Chorus]
I am a country girl
I've been around the world
And every place I've been
Ain't got nothin' like
Livin' in the South
Oh honey, shut your mouth
I am a country girl
I am a country girl
[Verse 4]
All day I dream about a place in the sun
Kinda like where I'm from
With the tall grass blowin' in the breeze
Runnin' barefoot 'round the tall oak tree
All day, I dream about a place I've been
A place where the skin I'm in
Feels like its supposed to be
And anyone around who looks at me says
[Chorus]
I am a country girl
I've been around the world
And every place I've been
Ain't got nothin' like
Livin' in the South
Oh honey, shut your mouth
I am a country girl
I am a country girl
[Bridge]
Livin' in the south
Oh honey, shut your mouth
[Verse 5]
I was born in the country, that's a natural fact
On these long city days I wanna look back
See tobacco fields a row after row
Red clay a crackin' where the silver queen grows
Source: https://genius.com/Carolina-chocolate-drops-country-girl-lyrics
****
SELECTED COMMENTS
Here are some comments from the video given above as Example #1 [Official Video]'s discussion thread, with numbers added for referencing purposes only:
1. Amber Robertson, 2012
"country girl huh?? come on over here i'll give ya a lesson on bein country....cuz hunny this ain't country."
**
2. thinkoutsidethebox22, 2012
"It depends on what your definition of country is. If you consider someone like Luke Bryan or Jason Aldean to be country than no it is not. But if you think today's maintstream country music is more like teeny bopper pop than this is bonafide, genuine country music. Country music is suppose to have soul, they're just putting it back in there."
**
3. 1stSaintsFan, 2012
"I din't like this song when I first heard it...I was glad to get a little color into Country Music...It is growing on me...A little singing rappy ditty...Good for them, wish them the best.."
**
4. leftcoastpunk, 2012
"Some people here really need to learn some music history, not to mention ethics.
Anyways, the style isn't country, but the song is about her southern (i.e I was born in the country as opposed to the city) heritage.
I love this group, not just because they're talented, but because they've managed to fuse several genres of music together. =]"
**
5. TheFiddletree, 2012
"It never claims to be country music.... the song refers to being 'country' as in from the rural south, not as in 'country music'. It's pretty obvious from the lyrics!"
**
6. Darien Bragg, 2012
"I agree, its not soul or jazz and there's defo a bit of Old timey in there"
**
7. Jack Mitchell, 2012
"The lyric is "Oh honey, shut your mouth." Midstate rural NC that means "Don't look so surprised." As in, "Hey, the southern rural experience is my life too even though I'm not white -- don't look so surprised." Tobacco fields, red clay, Silver Queen, running around with a passel of cousins, picking wild blackberries and grapes... those things usually get depicted, and thought of, as white experiences. They're not."
-snip-
NC= North Carolina (The Carolina Chocolate Drops [music group] was founded in Durham, North Carolina).
**
8. Art W, 2012
"huh? BlackAmericans--and "country" are pretty much synonymous--per history and roots. Same with old country white folks. And both groups with those roots know that. i ain't even a discussion. it is just fact. been living for generations that way. some Black move to city--even family branches...same with whites... but those bee here for generations know they's country--at the root. ALL "native" Black Americans---roots to before the Civil War got serious country roots. that simple..."
**
9. Christopher B, 2012
"NC STAND UP!!!"
-snip-
"Stand Up" means "Stand up and be counted!". The blogger is likely from North Carolina and is publicly acknowledging that while giving props (proper respect and a shout out) to that state which is where the Carolina Chocolate Drops was founded.
**
10. highonimmi, 2013
"1:42...that's what i grew up eatin'...0:00----3:42...that's my life:) does anyone know the name of that diner they are in? "
**
REPLY
11. Susan DeLancey, 2013
"Hell white woman from southeastern ohio. If it did'nt have butter or bacon grease in it it was'nt worth eating. Always the mountain girl now I live an hour outside of charlotte n.c.just discovered this band and I can't wait to see them in concert. Brought back alot of memories!!!!"
**
12. Damien Cross, 2013
"Beat Box in Country? LOVE IT.
It's about time African Americans put together a black country group.
I AM A NEW FAN!
Damn this group is AWESOME!"
**
13. Daemon Skycloak, 2013
"Does this song convey racial tension? I'm just wondering because sometimes it sounds in this song like they label her "city" for being from a dark skinned lineage african or otherwise. And that she wants people to see her not racially but for who she truly is. That is part of what I get from this song.
**
14. highonimmi, 2013
"i agree...i don't know why people think a wonderful county life is lived by only white folks. when i was in the military i used to get raised eyebrows from my african-american buddies when i would tell them what daddy grew in the back yard & mama cooked in the kitchen. they said they didn't think a white girl ate "soul food". i asked them what that was. when they told me i said,"hell, i just thought that's what all poor country folk ate!" better than any gourmet food...hands down!!"
**
15. TawnyKay, 2013
"Oh my lord...I'm in love with this!"
**
16. stellarpiper, 2013
"As a Southern girl relocated to the big city, this is me."
**
17. Andrew Tate, 2013
"Can't understand why you have to pigeon hole or label a band, they play a mixture of Jazz Blues Country Blue grass Gospel minstrel music old timey American folk they even do English folk and all and everything in between they cover Tom Waits ( not exactly pigeon hole-able) I just enjoy the music of a great band.
Though I do agree Rhiannon is gorgeous with a voice to match. "
**
REPLY
18. Daemon Skycloak, 2013
"I'd have to respectfully disagree because there are no limits to what makes a song country anymore. I would list this as a soulful country song. The country genre has been hacked to pieces and any song made by a country artist no matter what it should be labeled as is put into the country genre. That is my only reason for personally including this into the country genre."
**
REPLY
19. Andrew Tate, 2013
"ask yourself where country comes from? Scottish Irish and English Folk mixed with Blues that's country, there are other tracks by them that mix in Jazz Gospel basically they are a roots band with all these influences ad even some modern stuff has found its way in and dovetails in nicely"
**
REPLY
20. leftcoastpunk, 2013
"You're definitely spot on in terms of no limits. I do believe the root is country, but I feel like it's transcended the genre because of the blending of styles. I guess I've just been seeing Michel Foucault's perspective on "categories." We're so intent on categorizing things that when some kind of hybridity drops in our laps, the categories we see as "fixed" are de-stablized and then complications of where to place the hybrid arise. Maybe it'll just be simpler to put it under "good music." :]"
**
REPLY
20. nilradem, 2013
"I think, to a degree, they are talking about country as a style of music and trying to reclaim part of that tradition. CCD's work is all about looking at the common roots of southern music, which crossed race, and bringing that forward like other roots artists. This is closer to traditional country than most of pop passing for country. They're more influenced by bluegrass and old time picking than Western swing, as you suggest, but still country."
**
REPLY
21. ImAnAnimeGoddess101, 2013
"Shes talking about being a country girl because she is around/in the country because she is from the south and she sings about the life in the south, pretty much the south yes"
**
22. Organicis Theway, 2014
"I saw you guys on the PBS documentary about Americana Music. As soon as I heard ya'll, I knew it was going to be amazing! I LOVE LOVE LOVE yalls sound. Thank you for sharing it with the world! I look forward to watching ya'll become a household name :D"
**
23. ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸ Hip Cat Records¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪, 2014
"Nice to hear some AA voice and input in this folk resurgence, considering what a historical import and influence AA culture had on the foundations of this country and it's music... to say the least. Great song, can even forgive the costumed attire for the taste of southern authenticity offered."
**
24. TenThumbs Productions, 2014
"The first Carolina Chocolate Drops song written for the radio. Still has a nice groove though. "
**
25. Chip Curry, 2017
"Take it from a Florida boy, this is the real deal right here. This is Gullah/Geechie music, brought straight from Africa along with the banjo. Those people did more than survive an ordeal, they set a standard for living free in the midst of it. There wouldn't be Bluegrass in Kentucky if the Gullah people never made baskets from Lowcountry sweetgrass."
**
REPLY
16. Chip Curry, 2017
"Sweetgrass baskets, rare as an honest man in Washington DC. http://www.edistosweetgrassbaskets.net
**
27. J. L. Buckley, 2017
"OMG the lady clogs too!"
**
28. Stephen Reed, 2017
"This is shrimp and grits, collards, fried chicken, and sausage gravy biscuits."
**
REPLY
29. David Allen, 2018
"Red eye gravy"
****
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Visitor comments are welcome.
Showing posts with label Black banjo players. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black banjo players. Show all posts
Friday, November 23, 2018
Friday, October 18, 2013
Dink Roberts Biographical Information & Other Online Comments
Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a two part series on Black banjo songster Dink Roberts. Part II of this series showcases a video clip of Dink Roberts and presents a partial transcriptions of information about Dink Roberts from the annotated notes from the 1998 compilation album Black Banjo Songsters Of North Carolina And Virginia. Selected information and comments about Dink Roberts from other blogs and websites are also included in that post.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/10/dink-roberts-roustabout-also-known-as.html for Part I of this series. That post showcases a short video clip of Dink Roberts' performing the song "Roustabout". Dink Roberts called that song "Buffalo". "Roustabout" is also known as "Hop High Lulu", "Hop High Lula Gal", "Lula Girl" and other similar names.
The purpose of this post is to increase awareness and access to information about Dink Roberts.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and educational purposes. All copyrights remain with their owners.
I believe that it's criminal that to date there's no Wikepedia pagee for Dink Roberts and it's very difficult to find online information about this artist. I don't have the knowledge and skills to post a Wikepedia page about Dink Roberts. I hope that someone with that ability will do so.
****
FEATURED VIDEO: Dink Roberts: Fox Chase / Old Rattler (1983)
AlanLomaxArchive, Uploaded on Feb 27, 2012
"Fox Chase / Old Rattler," interspersed with some floating verses, performed by Dink Roberts. Shot by Alan Lomax and crew at Dink's home in Haw River, North Carolina, late July 1983. For more information about the American Patchwork filmwork, Alan Lomax, and his collections, visit http://culturalequity.org. [03.29.05]
****
NOTES FROM THE 1998 COMPILATION ALBUM BLACK BANJO SONGSTERS OF NORTH CAROLINA AND VIRGINIA [Notes by Cece Conway and Scott Odell.]*
“Everybody plays music’s got a different sound”.
“Born in Chatham County, North Carolina Dink Roberts (1894-1989) learned his early music from Blacks in Alamance County and elsewhere. When he was nine years old his mother died, and he went to live with his uncle George Roberts in Little Texas, a community of light skinned African American folks like Dink. Dink’s father was apparently a White banjo player. Dink’s maternal Black uncle George also played banjo, as well as fiddle, and later guitar, as did many of his eight children who were much older than Dink. He “caught” music from his family and at local events called “gatherings”, “sets”, and “frolics”.
As a young man Dink worked as a tenant farmer near Haw River. He played music for “eight hands around” dances and other events. He said “three nights a week for Blacks, three nights a week for Whites”. Well respected for his playing, Dink “picked up” extra money from White people and once from a visiting circus troupe. In his later years Dink played mostly at home for the listening, dancing, and fun of his wife, Lily, son James, grandson Mike, and visitors.
VISITING
On our first visit Dink Roberts seemed old, wise, and mysterious, and his music jarred us...
We visitors were used to old time string bands with tunes played by fiddlers and banjo and guitar players. Some of Dink’s tunes were fiddle melodies that we recognized, but the music came out a different way. Dink also sang on all of his pieces-even fiddle tunes-and didn’t seem to have names for them. Something didn’t fit. Much later, we would understand that our cultural view didn’t fit. Dink’s tradition originated in Africa and was unfamiliar to us.
Over the years we visited these North Carolina musicians and became friends. Each visit began with the an exchange of gifts-the bringing and sharing of food and drink; then the exchange of music. As the visits progressed we realized Dink’s music was not a sequence of individual pieces or set performances of unalterable texts. Dink created musical visits that were spontaneous, non-stop exchanges with family, friends, and visitors.
Our visits reminded us that Black Banjo songsters did much more than one thing at a time. Dink playfully and sensitively orchestrated each visit from arrival to departure and interacted simultaneously with listeners and banjo...
Dink eventually played for local community events, schools, university programs, and major festivals like the 1976 Winter Folk Festival and the Festival of Eno. The Winter Folk Festival Banjo Workshop provided a fine occasion for Dink’s interactive songster banjo style. He was content when Lily jumped up to dance uninvited in the midst of his and others performances…[For his performance style, see the film Dink: A Pre-Blues Musician, which won best –in-the-show in the first North Carolina Film Festival, 1975”.
-snip-
*These notes are transcribed by Azizi Powell for the purposes indicated earlier in this post.
****
TWO OTHER ONLINE COMMENTS ABOUT DINK ROBERTS
From http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dink-roberts-mn0000217433/biography
Dink Roberts Artist Biography by Eugene Chadbourne
..."Although an old-time music enthusiast such as Conway must have appreciated the link between Roberts and Uncle Dave Macon, her book argues that the black banjo songs of artists such as [Dink] Roberts were a distinct musical genre "governed by its own African-American aesthetic standards." Of course, this argument is also made to help counter the so-called wisdom of the past, in which it was suggested black performers had ripped off this kind of material from whites. (Now there's a switch.) Scholars who seek to avoid racial conflicts have completely established another important element of Roberts' music, in that he was one of the rare banjo players whose style was formed before the fiddle became the dominant force. This aspect of Roberts' musical psyche is called "pre-fiddle exposure." It is easily heard in Roberts' clawhammer banjo style as he alternates ostinato melodic lines in a call and response relation to his vocal, a form of playing considered distinctly African."
****
From http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BlackBanjo/conversations/topics/14193
Re: Dink Roberts Banjo Playing
TonyW
Message 1 of 6 , Mar 17, 2011
..."Certai9nly as noted Lucius Smith of Mississippi who was even older than Dink also played the first string up picking, actually in a more systematic way than Dink did. While Lucius played a few tunes that he called blues in field recordings I have heard of him, he was ready at a moment's notice to launch into a declamation about how the blues had ruined the world in almost every way. He reckoned things had started going down hill when folks stopped asking for Walking in the Parlor and started asking for Handy's Memphis Blues, which would have been around 1913-1914.
I think the key thing is that the process of revivalism has created orthodoxies and schemas about traditional banjo playing that traditional banjoists never observed or even heard of. All kinds of banjo players, white and black, in the tradition occassionally up picked in what was supposed to be down picking.
More of them had styles that combined up picking and down picking. While this is not my area of expertise, styles combining the two, particularly with first finger brushing, resemble the ways some West African lutes are played. Such styule can be observed among white old time banjoists and in 1920s records of Black guitarists.
I should say that Dink was a great blues guitarist and a great slide player. Folk who had the opportunity were concerned with picturing dink as a "pre blues" musician, even though during most of Dink's life the Blues and its offspring were the major vernacular music where he lived and among those whom he lived. He apparrently did not own a guitar any more and apparently believed that in his infirmity he could handle a banjo easier than a guitar.
I have absolutely no doubt that if someone had similarly wanted to type cast dink as a piedmont blues guitar player, or as a slide blues guitar player, rather than a banjoist, we might be discussing a revelation that the famous Piedmont blues guitar player Dink Roberts also played banjo"...
****
My thanks to Dink Roberts for his musical legacy.
Thanks also to the publisher of this video on YouTube and those who are quoted in this post.
Thank you for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This is Part II of a two part series on Black banjo songster Dink Roberts. Part II of this series showcases a video clip of Dink Roberts and presents a partial transcriptions of information about Dink Roberts from the annotated notes from the 1998 compilation album Black Banjo Songsters Of North Carolina And Virginia. Selected information and comments about Dink Roberts from other blogs and websites are also included in that post.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/10/dink-roberts-roustabout-also-known-as.html for Part I of this series. That post showcases a short video clip of Dink Roberts' performing the song "Roustabout". Dink Roberts called that song "Buffalo". "Roustabout" is also known as "Hop High Lulu", "Hop High Lula Gal", "Lula Girl" and other similar names.
The purpose of this post is to increase awareness and access to information about Dink Roberts.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and educational purposes. All copyrights remain with their owners.
I believe that it's criminal that to date there's no Wikepedia pagee for Dink Roberts and it's very difficult to find online information about this artist. I don't have the knowledge and skills to post a Wikepedia page about Dink Roberts. I hope that someone with that ability will do so.
****
FEATURED VIDEO: Dink Roberts: Fox Chase / Old Rattler (1983)
AlanLomaxArchive, Uploaded on Feb 27, 2012
"Fox Chase / Old Rattler," interspersed with some floating verses, performed by Dink Roberts. Shot by Alan Lomax and crew at Dink's home in Haw River, North Carolina, late July 1983. For more information about the American Patchwork filmwork, Alan Lomax, and his collections, visit http://culturalequity.org. [03.29.05]
****
NOTES FROM THE 1998 COMPILATION ALBUM BLACK BANJO SONGSTERS OF NORTH CAROLINA AND VIRGINIA [Notes by Cece Conway and Scott Odell.]*
“Everybody plays music’s got a different sound”.
“Born in Chatham County, North Carolina Dink Roberts (1894-1989) learned his early music from Blacks in Alamance County and elsewhere. When he was nine years old his mother died, and he went to live with his uncle George Roberts in Little Texas, a community of light skinned African American folks like Dink. Dink’s father was apparently a White banjo player. Dink’s maternal Black uncle George also played banjo, as well as fiddle, and later guitar, as did many of his eight children who were much older than Dink. He “caught” music from his family and at local events called “gatherings”, “sets”, and “frolics”.
As a young man Dink worked as a tenant farmer near Haw River. He played music for “eight hands around” dances and other events. He said “three nights a week for Blacks, three nights a week for Whites”. Well respected for his playing, Dink “picked up” extra money from White people and once from a visiting circus troupe. In his later years Dink played mostly at home for the listening, dancing, and fun of his wife, Lily, son James, grandson Mike, and visitors.
VISITING
On our first visit Dink Roberts seemed old, wise, and mysterious, and his music jarred us...
We visitors were used to old time string bands with tunes played by fiddlers and banjo and guitar players. Some of Dink’s tunes were fiddle melodies that we recognized, but the music came out a different way. Dink also sang on all of his pieces-even fiddle tunes-and didn’t seem to have names for them. Something didn’t fit. Much later, we would understand that our cultural view didn’t fit. Dink’s tradition originated in Africa and was unfamiliar to us.
Over the years we visited these North Carolina musicians and became friends. Each visit began with the an exchange of gifts-the bringing and sharing of food and drink; then the exchange of music. As the visits progressed we realized Dink’s music was not a sequence of individual pieces or set performances of unalterable texts. Dink created musical visits that were spontaneous, non-stop exchanges with family, friends, and visitors.
Our visits reminded us that Black Banjo songsters did much more than one thing at a time. Dink playfully and sensitively orchestrated each visit from arrival to departure and interacted simultaneously with listeners and banjo...
Dink eventually played for local community events, schools, university programs, and major festivals like the 1976 Winter Folk Festival and the Festival of Eno. The Winter Folk Festival Banjo Workshop provided a fine occasion for Dink’s interactive songster banjo style. He was content when Lily jumped up to dance uninvited in the midst of his and others performances…[For his performance style, see the film Dink: A Pre-Blues Musician, which won best –in-the-show in the first North Carolina Film Festival, 1975”.
-snip-
*These notes are transcribed by Azizi Powell for the purposes indicated earlier in this post.
****
TWO OTHER ONLINE COMMENTS ABOUT DINK ROBERTS
From http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dink-roberts-mn0000217433/biography
Dink Roberts Artist Biography by Eugene Chadbourne
..."Although an old-time music enthusiast such as Conway must have appreciated the link between Roberts and Uncle Dave Macon, her book argues that the black banjo songs of artists such as [Dink] Roberts were a distinct musical genre "governed by its own African-American aesthetic standards." Of course, this argument is also made to help counter the so-called wisdom of the past, in which it was suggested black performers had ripped off this kind of material from whites. (Now there's a switch.) Scholars who seek to avoid racial conflicts have completely established another important element of Roberts' music, in that he was one of the rare banjo players whose style was formed before the fiddle became the dominant force. This aspect of Roberts' musical psyche is called "pre-fiddle exposure." It is easily heard in Roberts' clawhammer banjo style as he alternates ostinato melodic lines in a call and response relation to his vocal, a form of playing considered distinctly African."
****
From http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BlackBanjo/conversations/topics/14193
Re: Dink Roberts Banjo Playing
TonyW
Message 1 of 6 , Mar 17, 2011
..."Certai9nly as noted Lucius Smith of Mississippi who was even older than Dink also played the first string up picking, actually in a more systematic way than Dink did. While Lucius played a few tunes that he called blues in field recordings I have heard of him, he was ready at a moment's notice to launch into a declamation about how the blues had ruined the world in almost every way. He reckoned things had started going down hill when folks stopped asking for Walking in the Parlor and started asking for Handy's Memphis Blues, which would have been around 1913-1914.
I think the key thing is that the process of revivalism has created orthodoxies and schemas about traditional banjo playing that traditional banjoists never observed or even heard of. All kinds of banjo players, white and black, in the tradition occassionally up picked in what was supposed to be down picking.
More of them had styles that combined up picking and down picking. While this is not my area of expertise, styles combining the two, particularly with first finger brushing, resemble the ways some West African lutes are played. Such styule can be observed among white old time banjoists and in 1920s records of Black guitarists.
I should say that Dink was a great blues guitarist and a great slide player. Folk who had the opportunity were concerned with picturing dink as a "pre blues" musician, even though during most of Dink's life the Blues and its offspring were the major vernacular music where he lived and among those whom he lived. He apparrently did not own a guitar any more and apparently believed that in his infirmity he could handle a banjo easier than a guitar.
I have absolutely no doubt that if someone had similarly wanted to type cast dink as a piedmont blues guitar player, or as a slide blues guitar player, rather than a banjoist, we might be discussing a revelation that the famous Piedmont blues guitar player Dink Roberts also played banjo"...
****
My thanks to Dink Roberts for his musical legacy.
Thanks also to the publisher of this video on YouTube and those who are quoted in this post.
Thank you for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Dink Roberts - Roustabout (also known as "Buffalo"), video, lyrics, and comments
Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part I of a two part series on Black banjo songster Dink Roberts. This post showcases a short video clip of Dink Roberts' performing the song "Roustabout". Dink Roberts called that song "Buffalo". "Roustabout" is also known as "Hop High Lulu", "Hop High Lula Gal", "Lula Girl" and other similar names.
Part II of this series presents a partial transcriptions of information about Dink Roberts from the annotated notes from the 1998 compilation album Black Banjo Songsters Of North Carolina And Virginia. Selected information and comments about Dink Roberts from other blogs and websites are also included in that post which will be published ASAP.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and educational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO
Dink Roberts: Roustabout (1983)
AlanLomaxArchive, Uploaded on Feb 17, 2012
A fragment of "Roustabout" sung and played by Dink Roberts. Shot by Alan Lomax and crew at Dink's home in Haw River, North Carolina, late July 1983. For more information about the American Patchwork filmwork, Alan Lomax, and his collections, visit http://culturalequity.org [03.29.01]
****
LYRICS AND COMMENTS
From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=53820
Subject: Lyr Add: ROUSTABOUT
From:Stewie
Date: 24 Nov 02 - 10:33 PM
...Here are the lyrics to Dink Roberts' [1894-1989] version of 'Roustabout':
ROUSTABOUT ("Buffalo")
Where you been?
You - roustabout
Say, when you go a-courtin'
Yea, when you go a-fishin'
Carry a hook and line
Yea, when you go a-courtin'
Court with a willin' mind
Yea, who been here since I been gone?
Little bitty girl with the red dress on
Source: transcription in booklet in Various Artists 'Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia' Smithsonian/Folkways SFCD 40079.
The notes by Cece Conway and Scott Odell to this piece read in part:
Along with 'Coo Coo', this ['Roustabout'] is one of the important showpiece tunes in the black banjo repertory ... This tuning [gCGBD] ... was also used by the earliest minstrels. The song is likely a reminder of the older uses of this tuning that was current when whites first learned the banjo from blacks in the 1830s and later when the 5-string banjo appeared ...
Dink says that he learned this song at age 15 from his family in the Piedmont. He took it with him when he moved to Mt Airy in Surry County to farm and to work on the railroad. The 2-part structure with the striking key change is found in other black versions and also in Fred Cockerham's. An outstanding white banjo player, Fred grew up and lived most of his life in Low Gap, not far from Mt Airy, but did not remember any black musicians in the area; nor is there any indication that he and Dink ever heard each other play. Some black players, including John Tyree and Rufus Kasey, call this tune 'Hop Light' or 'Hop Along Lou', echoing the refrain used in some versions, including Cockerham's. To the best of Fred's memory, Mal Smith brought 'Roustabout' to the area from Virginia in the first quarter of the century and called it 'Long Steel Rail'. The likelihood of a Virginia source is strengthened by the complex and closely related versions of black players Rufus Kasey, Josh Thomas and others from Virginia, many of whom were working on or near the railroads during this same period.[Cece Conway and Scott Odell, pp25-26 in booklet to SFCD 40079]
-snip-
Stewie also wrote that he has an instrumental recording entitled "'Hop Along Lou' by John Tyree. This is another version of the Old Time Music song "Roustabout"/Hop High" etc.
Stewie also includes a transcription of White American banjo/singer Fred Cockerham's version of "Roustabout". It appears that that version [that begins with the words "roustabout, oh roustabout" is the one which is most familiar to most Old Time Music/Bluegrass fans.
****
From http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvo1OP1OJ0c [Viewer comment thread for the video embedded in this post.]
Tony Thomas, 2012
"Dink Roberts never called this song Roustabout. He called the tune Buffalo. Folklorists and folk revivalists label this song with that title, but Black players like dink called it either Buffalo or Hoo High or Hop High Lulu, save one I know who called it thus, but after a folklorist told him the song was Roustabout, added a verse from a record and started calling what he had called Hop High Lulu all his life Roustabout."
Reply
AlanLomaxArchive, 2012
"Directly after this performance, Lomax asks Roberts, "What do you call that tune?" He replies: "Oh, 'Roustabout.' "
-snip-
In the portion of the transcribed notes from the album Black Banjo Songsters Of North Carolina And Virginia that are included in Part II of this series there is a comment about Dink Roberts and the titles of the songs he played.
Although those notes don't indicate this, I wonder if Mr. Roberts could have heard that "Roustabout" was the title for this song that White people used and consequently gave the White man [Lomax] the title that he thought that Lomax wanted.
****
My thanks to Dink Roberts for his musical legacy.
Thanks also to the publisher of this video on YouTube and those who are quoted in this post.
Thank you for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This is Part I of a two part series on Black banjo songster Dink Roberts. This post showcases a short video clip of Dink Roberts' performing the song "Roustabout". Dink Roberts called that song "Buffalo". "Roustabout" is also known as "Hop High Lulu", "Hop High Lula Gal", "Lula Girl" and other similar names.
Part II of this series presents a partial transcriptions of information about Dink Roberts from the annotated notes from the 1998 compilation album Black Banjo Songsters Of North Carolina And Virginia. Selected information and comments about Dink Roberts from other blogs and websites are also included in that post which will be published ASAP.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and educational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO
Dink Roberts: Roustabout (1983)
AlanLomaxArchive, Uploaded on Feb 17, 2012
A fragment of "Roustabout" sung and played by Dink Roberts. Shot by Alan Lomax and crew at Dink's home in Haw River, North Carolina, late July 1983. For more information about the American Patchwork filmwork, Alan Lomax, and his collections, visit http://culturalequity.org [03.29.01]
****
LYRICS AND COMMENTS
From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=53820
Subject: Lyr Add: ROUSTABOUT
From:Stewie
Date: 24 Nov 02 - 10:33 PM
...Here are the lyrics to Dink Roberts' [1894-1989] version of 'Roustabout':
ROUSTABOUT ("Buffalo")
Where you been?
You - roustabout
Say, when you go a-courtin'
Yea, when you go a-fishin'
Carry a hook and line
Yea, when you go a-courtin'
Court with a willin' mind
Yea, who been here since I been gone?
Little bitty girl with the red dress on
Source: transcription in booklet in Various Artists 'Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia' Smithsonian/Folkways SFCD 40079.
The notes by Cece Conway and Scott Odell to this piece read in part:
Along with 'Coo Coo', this ['Roustabout'] is one of the important showpiece tunes in the black banjo repertory ... This tuning [gCGBD] ... was also used by the earliest minstrels. The song is likely a reminder of the older uses of this tuning that was current when whites first learned the banjo from blacks in the 1830s and later when the 5-string banjo appeared ...
Dink says that he learned this song at age 15 from his family in the Piedmont. He took it with him when he moved to Mt Airy in Surry County to farm and to work on the railroad. The 2-part structure with the striking key change is found in other black versions and also in Fred Cockerham's. An outstanding white banjo player, Fred grew up and lived most of his life in Low Gap, not far from Mt Airy, but did not remember any black musicians in the area; nor is there any indication that he and Dink ever heard each other play. Some black players, including John Tyree and Rufus Kasey, call this tune 'Hop Light' or 'Hop Along Lou', echoing the refrain used in some versions, including Cockerham's. To the best of Fred's memory, Mal Smith brought 'Roustabout' to the area from Virginia in the first quarter of the century and called it 'Long Steel Rail'. The likelihood of a Virginia source is strengthened by the complex and closely related versions of black players Rufus Kasey, Josh Thomas and others from Virginia, many of whom were working on or near the railroads during this same period.[Cece Conway and Scott Odell, pp25-26 in booklet to SFCD 40079]
-snip-
Stewie also wrote that he has an instrumental recording entitled "'Hop Along Lou' by John Tyree. This is another version of the Old Time Music song "Roustabout"/Hop High" etc.
Stewie also includes a transcription of White American banjo/singer Fred Cockerham's version of "Roustabout". It appears that that version [that begins with the words "roustabout, oh roustabout" is the one which is most familiar to most Old Time Music/Bluegrass fans.
****
From http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvo1OP1OJ0c [Viewer comment thread for the video embedded in this post.]
Tony Thomas, 2012
"Dink Roberts never called this song Roustabout. He called the tune Buffalo. Folklorists and folk revivalists label this song with that title, but Black players like dink called it either Buffalo or Hoo High or Hop High Lulu, save one I know who called it thus, but after a folklorist told him the song was Roustabout, added a verse from a record and started calling what he had called Hop High Lulu all his life Roustabout."
Reply
AlanLomaxArchive, 2012
"Directly after this performance, Lomax asks Roberts, "What do you call that tune?" He replies: "Oh, 'Roustabout.' "
-snip-
In the portion of the transcribed notes from the album Black Banjo Songsters Of North Carolina And Virginia that are included in Part II of this series there is a comment about Dink Roberts and the titles of the songs he played.
Although those notes don't indicate this, I wonder if Mr. Roberts could have heard that "Roustabout" was the title for this song that White people used and consequently gave the White man [Lomax] the title that he thought that Lomax wanted.
****
My thanks to Dink Roberts for his musical legacy.
Thanks also to the publisher of this video on YouTube and those who are quoted in this post.
Thank you for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
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