Just the Tsvey of Us

I had a whole different post ready for you guys, but then I read something neat, and wanted to share.

A couple of weeks ago I posted a video clip of Sister Rosetta Tharpe performing Down By the Riverside. That wasn't exactly spontaneous – I've been reading an excellent (and long overdue) biography about Tharpe, Gayle Wald's Shout, Sister, Shout! I didn't know a whole lot about Tharpe's life before, but enough that I didn't expect anything in the book to completely knock me on my ass. Then I read that Tharpe recorded a duet with Red Foley in 1952, and BANG! (KassaNostra's ass, the floor. The floor, KassaNostra's ass.)

Longtime fans of the Tolland scene will recognize Foley as the mellow baritone behind the folkdance craze Salty Dog Rag. In addition to his c&w bona fides, he was apparently a longtime admirer of gospel music, and the rare white performer who didn't shy away from the prospect of crossing over to black audiences. (Their duet – Have a Little Talk with Jesus – was released on the Decca label in 1955 as a b-side to Foley's cover of Tharpe's biggest hit, Strange Things Happening Every Day.) But the camp connection – the "Kinderland tie," if you will – is only part of this package. . . there's pertinent social significance to boot! Wald speculates that the Foley/Tharpe pairing is the first ever release of an interracial male/female duo:

"In the course of commercial popular recording, had two well-known stars of different races – people who, in Tennessee, were legally prohibited from marrying – ever appeared as a duo? When Foley and Kitty Wells, country music's two biggest stars the time, paired up in 1953 for the duet 'One By One,' listeners could imagine the two as a couple. Unlike Foley and Wells, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (married in real life), or later, the African American rhythm-and-blues duo Mickey and Sylvia, Red and Rosetta could not claim the intimacy of lovers, although their voices would intertwine in song."

Now, granted, the song itself is as chaste as an Inter sleep-out. And Decca wasn't exactly looking to make music-recording history (Wald suggests they buried the release in their catalog, albeit in deference to financial motives above all else). But still, it's nice when the people you associate with for purely aesthetic reasons surprise you by doing the right thing. Besides which, it lends credence to the KassaNostra's longstanding campaign for an Olympic team commemorating the Plato's Stepchildren episode of Star Trek.

By the way, Wald thinks this is a sub-par effort, but I like it just fine (and I hope no one's turned off by the song's less-than-Yiddishkeit nature). Foley and Tharpe balance each other in lively fashion, and it's an excellent example of the homogeneity in American roots music that the music industry has historically taken great pains to suppress. At one point in her book, Wald quotes black c&w singer/songwriter O.B. McClinton:

"You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls and two watermelons in his back pockets, and they will call him r&b. You can take a white guy in a pinstripe suit who has never seen a cotton field, take him to Nashville right out of a subway in Manhattan, and they will call him country."

Red Foley & Sister Rosetta Tharpe:

Have a Little Talk with Jesus

Anyway, I dig both the song and the backstory – hope y'all do as well. And since we've started down the male/female duet path, I thought another couple of tunes in that genre would round out this post in appropriate fashion. So next up, I give you Bob Dylan and Joan Baez performing Deportee, as part of the Rolling Thunder Revue tour. For you Dylan completists out there (or the even rarer Joan Baez freak), this is from the second leg of touring in 1976, and was recorded live on May 23rd at Hughes Stadium at Colorado State University. Just for the record, this track does not appear on the official Rolling Thunder bootleg release that came out a few years ago. Also just for the record, re: the completists, I am not one of you – the KassaNostra firmly believes that the human brain can only absorb so much Dylan music in one lifetime, and with respect to his own sanity, has made the conscious decision to draw the line at the first sixteen studio albums, unless, of course, the new stuff totally kills, including the Basement Tapes, a few dozen random bootlegs, the complete Johnny Cash sessions, about two-thirds of the Wilburys stuff, his 2003 gospel album, and his absolute brilliant effort on the Band of the Hand soundtrack.

Bob Dylan & Joan Baez: Deportee [live]

Finally, to close, here's the married duo of Kim and Reggie Harris, with a very soulful version of If You Miss Me (ably assisted by Peter Yarrow, Bethany Yarrow and Rufus Cappadocia). I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I hadn't heard of the Harrises until friend-of-the-blog Howard Glass clued me in last month. It always feels a little weird to learn about underground folk artists. There's a bunch of internet outlets that I use to track the next big thing in a few different genres, but traditional folk music in the 1950s/60s model that we generally adhere to in camp is not one of them, even though it's such a natural vehicle for independent music. I'm sure that's an extension of the word-of-mouth traditions I grew up on, wherein you learned about a new act because you saw them play the latest anti-intervention rally, or open for Pete Seeger, before Pete ascended to national treasure status. All of which only serves to prove that either me or traditional folk music needs to be dragged kicking/screaming into the new millennia, and since it's almost assuredly me, I hereby vow to voluntarily walk that plank. While you're waiting for the inevitable splashing noises, be sure to check out the Harris website for additional tunes and CD ordering info.

Kim & Reggie Harris: If You Miss Me [live]

Speaking of Seeger, I'm a complete ass for missing out on his 90th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden. If anyone scored an unauthorized bootleg, definitely send me a copy c/o the camp office (mark it "educational supplies"). Everyone else should make sure to check out Katie Halper's very Tolland-centric review.

Peace & Vinyl,
The KassaNostra