#2834: Old Folk, New Folks

New Sounds | Sep 4, 2010

Listen to some new takes on traditional folk songs for this New Sounds programs. Hear Nico Muhly's work "The Only Tune," from his record "Mothertongue," a collection of works which began as he tried to reconnect with the folk music of my childhood.

Muhly recounts, "I remember my parents singing the ballad of the two sisters - one murdering the other in a river - and I remember a disjuncture between the simple beauty of the song and the intense violence of the words. I still shiver at the memory of the miller fishing the girl's body out with 'his long, long hook,' and the ensuing phrases, in which the girl's corpse is slowly turned into a fiddle, are continuously haunting." Also, more reworkings of old folk songs, including several from The Carter Family, in renditions by Justin Adams, Carla Kihlstedt, Bill Frisell, and Joel Harrison.

PROGRAM # 2834, Music inspired by Folk Songs and The Carter Family (First aired on Monday, 8-18-08)

ARTIST(S)	RECORDING	CUT(S)	SOURCE
The Carter Family	1927-1934	Sow ‘Em On The Mountain [3:00]	JSP Records, available online at www.emusic.com
Justin Adams	Live, Joe’s Pub, the 2002 NY Guitar Festival	Sow ‘Em On The Mountain [3:00]	This recording not commercially available.
Carla Kihlstedt	Two Foot Yard	50 Miles [6:00]	Tzadik #7706** www.tzadik.com *
The Carter Family	1927-1934	John Hardy, excerpt [2:30]	See above.
Last Forever	Trainfare Home	John Doe #24 [6:00]	Nonesuch # 79604** www.nonesuch.com *
Loman Cansler	Missouri Folk Songs	The Two Sisters, excerpt [2:00]	Smithsonian Folkways, also available at www.emusic.com
Tom Waits	Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards	Two Sisters [4:00]	Anti Records. www.anti.com *
Nico Muhly	Mothertongue	The Only Tune [15:00]	Brassland #018** www.brassland.org *
Bill Frisell	Ghost Town	Wildwood Flower, excerpt [4:30]	Nonesuch #79583** www.nonesuch.com *
Joel Harrison	Free Country	Will The Circle Be Unbroken [3:30]	ACT #9419. www.actmusic.com *

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