December 9, 2024 • 42 mins
Folk music does a great job of telling the stories of people of a particular time and place. That’s likely why it had a resurgence in the 1950s and 60s during times of social and political unrest. On today’s show we explore influential albums of the mid-century folk revival and of course sprinkle in plenty of bad folk puns and Dylan impressions.
- Joan Baez – Joan Baez (1960)
- The Kingston Trio – The Kingston Trio (1958)
- Bob Dylan – Bringing it All Back Home (1965)
Other Diggins
- The Red Clay Strays – Made By These Moments (2024)
- The Felice Brothers – Valley of Abandoned Songs (2024)
- Yacht Rock – A Dockumentary (2024)
- The Milk Carton Kids – Christmas in A Minor Key (2024)
- Uniform – American Standard (August, 2024)
- Living Colour- Vivid (1988)
What do you think of these records? What’s your favorite mid-century folk revival record? Let us know on our website, albumnerds.com or email us, podcast@albumnerds.com.
Listen to more episodes and suggest topics for the Wheel of Musical Discovery on albumnerds.com. Follow us on Instagram & Facebook.
Thanks for listening!!!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Album Nerds podcast with your hosts, Andy, Don, and Dude.
(00:13):
What the folk is up?
It's the Album Nerds podcast.
I'm Dude.
I got Andy and Don with me.
Andy, I know you really love misuse of the word folk.
How are you doing today?
Big apology to everyone out there for all the ensuing puns.
Get the folk out of here.
Don?
Just excited to go on a trip upon your magic swirling ship.
(00:37):
No one's ever said that to me before.
You guys need a minute over there?
That was really moving.
My bowels.
So this is the Album Nerds podcast.
We love albums, the album format, and just spending time together.
Quality time.
We have a great show for you today.
We are each going to present a folk album of some repute.
(00:59):
Don's going to ask us a deep question.
And then we're going to have some shout outs to some albums and album related items we're
digging.
And then we'll be reaching into Santa's sack to announce what we'll be talking about on
the next episode.
Ho, ho, ho.
But this week, it's all about that folk.
It's all about the folk, the folk, the folk.
No treble.
(01:20):
That's what I'm talking about.
The mid-century folk revival spanning from the 1940s to the 1960s brought traditional
American music back into the spotlight and introduced a new generation of singer songwriters.
This movement fueled by social and political unrest saw artists like Woody Guthrie, Pete
Seeger, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan using acoustic instruments and simple melodies to address
(01:45):
issues such as civil rights and war.
The folk revival not only had a lasting impact on popular music and culture, but also established
music as a powerful tool for social change, inspiring artists and audiences alike with
its rich repository of hidden and unsettling stories about America.
Wow.
Today, each of us will present an album from the mid-century folk revival.
(02:07):
Did you get that from the History Channel?
Dang.
So yeah, folk music of that era is fascinating because of what it became.
There was a lot to choose from here.
Some of it new to me, some of it very familiar.
What other albums did you guys consider before making your final choice?
So what else did you think about?
Well, a lot of this stuff was new to me.
(02:29):
One such group that stuck out was the Brothers Four and their 1960 album BMOC.
Do you guys know what that stands for?
BMOC.
BMOC, that's right.
Big Man on Campus.
The Brothers Four were in a fraternity in Seattle, Washington and got together.
This is their fifth studio album.
Lots of four-part harmonies.
(02:51):
Where they're like, Constance Fry, Constance Fry.
Training places.
All right.
Yeah, it's the elements of blues and country mixed in there with the folk sound.
What did you find in your listening, Dan?
Well, one of the big names in folk music at the time was Peter, Paul and Mary.
(03:13):
I checked out their self-titled debut from 1962.
Peter, Paul and Mary is Peter Yarrow, Paul Stuckey and Mary Travers.
They were just all over the charts at that time.
But mainly covers, there's Pete Seger's If I Had a Hammer and the song Lemon Tree, which
is by somebody called Will Holt.
But it's a palatable folk record, I'd say.
(03:34):
As a little kid, I saw them a lot.
Their concerts would be on PBS.
And I liked them because they had that Puff the Magic Dragon song.
So one of the albums I considered was Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballad.
Woody Guthrie kind of being the godfather of this era of folk, I would say, influenced
artists like Bob Dylan.
(03:54):
He gave voice to the struggles of working class Americans during the 20th century, during
the Dust Bowl period.
And this album gets into the Great Depression and with poignant storytelling and songs like
Tom Joad and Dust Bowl Blues are featured on this one.
But it wasn't quite what I was looking for.
So why don't we get into our choo choo choices?
(04:15):
You choo choo choose me?
All right.
For my mid-century folk revival selection, we're talking about Joan Baez and her 1960
debut Joan Baez.
I mean, if I want to look happy, I'll just return Joan Baez's phone calls.
(04:36):
That's a good one.
All right.
Joan hails from the New York City area of New York State.
She rose to prominence after her performance at the Newport Folk Festival, the first one,
which was in 1959.
Let's play a little bit of the opening cut.
This is Silver Dagger.
(04:56):
Poor should have made like a really hard malt liquor that was called Silver Dagger instead
of the Silver Bowler.
Taste the Silver Dagger.
Yeah.
That would have been a perfect jingle for it as well.
Just the kind of energy that Coors is trying to sell.
(05:17):
Yeah.
Joan would have been all over that commercial.
That's a really direct song.
Something about giving up on men, probably drinking too much.
Might be a tie in there somewhere, Don.
The singer's mother has been wronged and kind of forbids her daughter to make the same mistake
of trusting men with their love.
She carries this Silver Dagger, which I assume is used to kind of threaten her daughter or
(05:42):
keep away the men from her daughter.
Pretty dark, pretty dark stuff.
I kind of love it.
My clickbait headline for Joan Baez's soft-held debut is, if Joan was a door-to-door folk saleswoman,
I'd buy us.
I'm just worried about the puns.
I do miss those door-to-door folk salesmen.
(06:02):
Yeah, I don't see them around as much anymore.
This record is very simple sonically.
It's a collection of folk standards.
None of these are originals, but Baez kind of gives them her own little spin in terms
of the arrangements.
I would say her vocal is very ethereal, very much on the high end of the register and her
guitar, which is primarily just her and the acoustic guitar, of course, as you'd expect
(06:27):
in a folk record.
And it works really well together.
It's fairly poignant.
She gives great deliveries on these tracks.
Her tone, I would say, shifts a fair amount throughout some of these songs.
So sometimes very quickly, she can go from being very soft to very loud, kind of like
the Pixies a little bit in some way.
She was a folk singer.
(06:49):
Yeah, I mean, even though vocally, it isn't like we're not talking the difference of a
scream and angelic.
It's more about like the choir of angels fills in more at times in terms of the tone.
But I know what you're talking about with the loud soft.
Yeah, she really has a powerful voice, but you don't oftentimes don't hear it or she'll
(07:10):
kind of keep it very restrained.
Because she chooses her moments.
Yes, she punctuates them nicely.
All right, let's hear another cut from the record.
This is All My Trials.
Yikes.
Yeah, folk music is a downer, bro.
(07:36):
Yeah.
I mean, this is the traditional stuff.
I actually knew that song.
You ever hear Elvis Presley's American Trilogy?
Where it has like, glory, glory, hallelujah.
It's like a medley of this song and Dixie and glory, glory, hallelujah.
Anyways, so Baez popularized this song.
It actually had been introduced to the folk scene by Bob Gibson's 1956 album Offbeat Folk
(08:00):
Songs where it was titled Bahamian Lullaby or Bahamian Lullaby.
But that's another one of those where they don't really know where it came from.
Yeah.
So many of these have like mysterious origins or they just kind of appeared and somebody
heard it.
Yeah, that's kind of the cool thing about folk music.
If you're really into it, I mean, you could really go on like a quest to find the origins
(08:23):
of this song.
That quest of course could inspire some great folk songs that you would write along the
way.
True.
So yeah, so the song tells the story of a mother on her deathbed comforting her children
with the assurance that her trials will soon be over.
Because she'll be dead.
Yes.
Yep.
Wow.
So dark.
Well, the part where there's like a, like, don't you cry, your mother's gonna die.
(08:49):
Sounds like a Metallica lyric.
Well, my clickbait headline for Joan Baez, Volume One, which I think some people refer
to it as, is Meet Donna Donna, John Reilly, Mary Hamilton, Henry Martin, Little Moses,
and most importantly, Joan Baez's voice and guitar.
(09:09):
So cast the characters on this one.
Yeah.
I guess what I was most impressed with on this album is the guitar work.
I think it's just a cool thing about folk music in general, you know, that fingerpicking
style.
Fingerpicking good.
Very good.
It's almost like it's several instruments.
(09:30):
You know, they make good use of the bass strings to provide that low end, and then you've got
the higher strings playing a melody or arpeggios or whatever.
Yeah, it's just really impressive that you don't need another instrument.
I mean, she's obviously just a talented guitarist.
It's busy at times, but it doesn't distract from her voice.
(09:54):
So like, I think the whole presentation is, you know, listen to these lyrics.
Even her voice, you know, I mean, she just speaks very clearly or sings very clearly,
good diction or whatever you call it.
Yeah.
And so, I mean, you just catch every word, you know, unlike Eddie Vedder or somebody,
you know, where sometimes you're like, what was that?
(10:15):
Yeah, it sounds like she's like right in your ear the way it's recorded, really just her
and the guitar.
There's a couple of tracks that do have some accompaniments that sound a little bit larger,
but yeah, for the most part, it's really a focused record, I would say.
Focused.
All right, why don't we hear another cut from the record.
This is track four, House of the Rising Sun.
(10:39):
It's one of those moments where the voice gets louder if you want to call it that.
Yeah, so this song has been around quite a while, dating back to the 18th century in
England.
Its exact authorship is unknown, but it was brought to the United States via Appalachian
(11:02):
ballad traditions, you know, and I think, I of course think about Eric Burden's version,
New Orleans and all that, but this is probably a more traditional presentation.
It tells the story of a person's downfall attributed to things like, you know, vices
like gambling, alcoholism, poor life choices.
(11:23):
The House of the Rising Sun is commonly interpreted as a metaphor for a brothel or a gambling
den, basically a place of moral corruption.
It ain't church.
It's a house of ill repute.
Yes, but then there's the theme of, as in a lot of traditional folk music, the narrator
is seeking to atone for their mistakes.
So there's a moral lesson to be learned.
(11:44):
My clickbait headline to describe Joan Baez's Joan Baez, the album that took old time folk
songs and made them sound fresh, timeless and totally heavenly.
Totally.
These are sad songs, but the lilting vocal range and that deep connection to the tradition
of folk music, even in a modern era of the early sixties is just a really nice way to
(12:12):
present it in its purest form and make people truly listen.
It's haunting and emotionally rich.
Yeah.
If Aretha is the queen of soul, I would say she's the queen of folk.
The queen of folk.
I think a lot of the folk singers, you're Joni Mitchell, et cetera, inspired by this
style.
Yeah.
It seemed like she was kind of right at the forefront of it, as it was kind of coming
(12:33):
into its own here in the early sixties.
Yeah.
This album has been added to the national recording registry back in 2015.
It's part of the 1001 albums you must hear before you die, et cetera, et cetera.
All those indicators are here that this is one of those important records that I think
deserves to be heard if you're not familiar with it.
I think it's a good representation of that mid-century folk revival.
(12:57):
So Joan Baez, Joan Baez.
Before we continue on our journey of mid-century folk, let's hear a word from the Abandoned
Albums podcast.
Our mission at Abandoned Albums is simple, as simple as this ad.
Our only goal is to keep the recorded work of artists on the cultural radar and showcase
(13:19):
new artists who should be on the cultural radar.
Some things in life are truly that simple.
With our tongue firmly in cheek, it's why we say Abandoned Albums is the only music
podcast that matters, and it's available wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
Thanks Abandoned Albums.
Go check them out.
(13:41):
Well, my journey to mid-century folk went back to June 1958 to the debut album from
the Kingston Trio.
They're a group formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1957.
The original trio is Dave Gard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds.
By the way, they actually tour now, but it's none of these guys.
(14:04):
There's been like 50 different incarnations of the Kingston Trio.
Yeah.
It's kind of like Minuto, where they just replace members constantly as they age out.
So this record was recorded in three days with producer Voil Gilmore, known for producing
people like Frank Sinatra.
Of Voil Rules.
Oh, sorry.
(14:24):
It features a mix of traditional songs, calypso-flavored tunes, and some contemporary numbers.
Well, here's sort of the big hit from this album, Tom Dooley.
Now the feel-good side of folk music, the Kingston Trio.
(14:50):
Totally different vibe than Joan Baez.
Yep, funny.
You know, dark subject matter, but just kind of like a presented.
Rooted in a presentation.
Yeah.
Yeah, but they're like doing cartoony voices through it and stuff.
Yeah, it's definitely...
It's wild.
It feels more like when you're in elementary school and there's an afternoon concert and
some musicians show up to teach you lessons about life.
(15:11):
Be these dudes.
So Tom Dooley is a traditional folk song based on the 1866 murder of a woman named Laura
Foster in Wilkes County, North Carolina by somebody named Tom Dooley, who I guess in
the local dialect was pronounced Dooley.
A local poet named Thomas Land wrote a song about the tragedy titled Tom Dooley shortly
(15:31):
after Dooley was hanged.
The Kingston Trio learned the song from Frank Warner, who had learned it from Frank Proffitt
and Proffitt's version had been passed down through his family.
Apparently an aunt, Nancy Prather actually knew Laura Foster and Tom Dooley.
So yeah, it was like a direct lineage.
But the Kingston Trio were later forced to pay royalties because they hadn't given Proffitt
(15:56):
credit for use of the version.
But it was a huge hit.
Yeah, and then the family profited from murder.
It's true, right?
Murder most foul.
Well, my clickbait headline for the Kingston Trio's debut album is Tom Dooley hung down
(16:16):
his head and launched a folk revolution.
So these guys were huge commercially.
In fact, this album was actually on the charts for almost four years.
Wow.
Four years.
Yeah.
Some people actually credit this album with helping kind of elevate the LP or establishing
the LP as a format.
(16:38):
It does seem like in the world of folk, the albums kind of matter more so than even rock
and roll at the time.
So the producer Gilmore actually had some significant input on this album.
He did add a session player, Elmer Buzzweeler, to play some bass to fill out the low end.
But other than that, it's just a couple of guitars and a bass.
(16:59):
And a banjo.
Oh, and a banjo, yes.
And they didn't add any orchestral accompaniment, which was typical of folk records at the time.
It sounds really good.
Yeah, it's nice.
Well, let's hear another cut.
Here's the wreck of John B.
See how the man says.
(17:29):
We should do that for the rest of the show.
And just one guy repeats the last guy, whatever they say last.
Don, that's your cue to be like, whatever they say last.
Come on.
Geez.
You missed it.
So it's a traditional Bohemian folk song first transcribed by Richard the guy.
Yeah.
(17:50):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Maybe it's more like Galeon.
I'm not sure.
In 1916, originally titled the John B. Sales or Wreck of the John B. I love how it's like
there's a million different potential titles for this thing.
It's the story of a chaotic voyage aboard a sloop plagued by drunkenness and disorder.
The Kingston Trio popularized their version, which introduced a more polished folk style,
(18:14):
but those clear harmonies and rhythmic strumming, but that whole call and response thing they're
doing.
I believe that's why this version directly influenced the Beach Boys famous rendition
sloop John B. El Jardine.
We talked about this on the Pet Sounds episode, but a member of the Beach Boys, a big folk
music enthusiast and convinced Brian Wilson to adapt the song for Pet Sounds.
(18:37):
And that's kind of in my mind, the definitive version, but this is, this is, it's cool to
hear the one that inspired it.
My clickbait headline to describe this album, murder ballads, banjo solos, humor and chart
success folk revival starts here.
I feel like bringing folk to this poppy side of things, this friendlier version of it,
(19:01):
even though it's dark stuff, where they do very interesting cartoonish voices in some
of the songs and accents.
It strikes a balance between lighthearted tunes and darker ballads and it's breezy,
but it helped redefine the genre appealing to folk purists and casual listeners.
And I think the casual listeners were the key to the success here.
(19:23):
Yeah, definitely in terms of spreading the popularity of the genre.
Feels like these guys appealed to a pretty broad audience.
Well, let's, let's hear some more.
Let's take a trip to Bay of Mexico.
Great transition.
(19:44):
What is happening here?
I'm confused by the subject of the lyrics and then the sound of the music.
Yeah, I had to get out of Globem and just verify that there was not a Bay of Mexico.
Anyway, we got a nice kind of sound with like an island vibe there.
Yeah, what's up with that?
(20:06):
Yeah, there's a handful of tracks in the album that do have kind of this Latin Caribbean
vibe going on, which I think is kind of interesting.
Blacklick Bay headline for the Kingston Trio is, they're not quite from Jamaica, but the
trio bring plenty of sunshine to the folks out.
They did live in Hawaii for a while.
What's that got to do with Jamaica, dude?
(20:26):
It's an island.
It is near the water.
No, these are three of the whitest guys you'll ever see from the Bay area.
But yeah, there's some of the music really does have a great island sound to it, which
I appreciate it.
I didn't expect that in folk music.
Kind of similar to what Harry Belafonte was doing at that time.
(20:48):
Yeah, that's where I feel like the Kingston Trio, I mean, I would definitely say that
they take folk and they mix it with other types of worldly sounds, but they completely
whitewash it and make it all sanitary for the 1958 listening audience.
The Pat Boons of folk music.
Yeah.
I think that's fair.
(21:09):
It's not to say that these aren't fun, engaging songs though, and if I was, especially if
I was a school-aged person at this time, I think I would really gravitate towards this
music.
I could see why it became popular over the next decade or so because it's just kind of
fun, engaging stuff.
Yeah, there's the guitar coming months down mentioned there that it plays a group, largely
(21:29):
rhythm focused, I would say, just kind of moving the songs forward.
But there are a couple of tracks that do diverge into some bluegrass territory, especially
with the banjo sound there.
The one I liked the most was called Saro Jane, which is kind of in the middle of the record.
So yeah, when they do stretch their legs a little bit, I think it's a little more interesting,
but still really engaging, just kind of light, fun, listen about some really dark, twisted
(21:52):
stuff.
Yeah.
And these are guys that definitely said gee whiz quite a bit, I would say.
Gee whiz, Don.
That was quite a folk experience.
Yeah, it is kind of cool.
It is sort of like a trip around the globe to the folk music of different areas, which
is very much the spirit of folk music.
(22:15):
Sure.
All right.
Well, the Kingston Trio's self-titled debut album from 1958 is a landmark recording that
helped revitalize folk music.
Check it out.
Excuse me.
I'd like to ask you a few questions.
This time again for Deep Questions by Don.
(22:36):
Well, listening to a lot of these songs, like Tom Dooley, it reminded me of music class
in elementary school.
We used to do a lot of songs like this and playing sort of those earthy instruments.
What do you guys remember about music class or music education in your younger days?
Yeah, I spent a good amount of time in the music room in my school because I was in the
(23:01):
band.
Ooh, what did you play?
Alto sax.
I did that for a year.
Yeah.
I made it a couple of them, not much more.
My strongest memory was just feeling really bad for our teacher, man.
I felt he was like 40 kids.
None of us could really play these instruments in this huge room.
(23:21):
Just chaos, just chaos and noise.
One adult trying to contain all this and make it sound like something.
What a thankless job.
I mean, all the respect to all the music teachers around the world.
God bless you.
I don't know how you do that job and still appreciate music at the end of the day.
I knew it was bad at the time and I was a young kid.
Hey, if they can just touch one life like yours, Andy, I mean, look what you've become.
(23:42):
Well, look at me now.
A music podcaster.
I know, you're a superstar.
How about you, dude?
Oh, so I was thinking back a little further than that to kindergarten music teacher, Mrs.
Hines.
She'd come in like once a week with a cart, come into our classroom with a cart full of
different instruments and stuff.
(24:03):
And we would have jam sessions.
So we'd all get to pick like a triangle or the sticks to either hit together or the ribbed
ones to rub together for different types of music or cowbells and all that kind of stuff.
And I really enjoyed it when she'd bring, you know, the art teacher did the same thing,
bring a cart of stuff in.
But was there a Les Paul on the cart?
(24:23):
No, this is all tambourines and stuff, but we'd all be skipping around in circles, run,
you know, playing our instruments and...
Yeah, that sounds really fun.
Yeah, just, you know, musical abandon.
And I'm sure it was much more adorable than what your teacher was looking at.
You know, you got a bunch of five-year-olds skipping around hitting triangles and stuff
that's cute.
When it's a bunch of middle schoolers, it's probably frustrating.
(24:47):
What about you, Don?
Well, actually, I remember joining chorus, I think like in third or fourth grade.
You?
Shocking.
You like to sing?
Really?
Yeah, but I just remember this one weird rehearsal like before our holiday concert and like four
people just like passed out.
Like it just kept happening.
(25:07):
What?
Is there like a gas leak or something?
I don't think so.
I don't know.
But our teacher told us to like wiggle our toes, you know, to keep the blood circulating.
So I don't remember if it was like particularly hot or maybe we just weren't used to standing
still for that long.
But yeah, like three or four kids like just went down.
(25:28):
I'm sorry to laugh, but that's...
I mean, everybody was okay, but you know.
I guess the music was just so overpowering.
You guys must have been a really talented bunch of singers.
You were singing Reindeer Rock, I think it was.
Ooh, yeah.
Very, very moving.
I get woozy when I sing Reindeer Rock.
Well, what do you remember from your music education?
(25:51):
Let us know on Instagram and Facebook or leave a comment on our website, AlbumNerds.com.
Well, we can't talk folk revival without Bob Dylan, can we?
And we certainly can't do it without doing that terrible Bob Dylan voice.
I'm so sorry.
So I went with the 1965 album, Bringing It All Back Home is Bob Dylan's fifth studio
(26:15):
album and kind of a turning point for folk music by introducing electric instruments
on half of the tracks, the first half and the second half for more traditional acoustic
folk songs.
It bridged the gap between folk and rock, laying the groundwork for the folk rock genre,
which became insanely popular throughout the 60s and into the 70s.
(26:35):
And it reflected the changing cultural landscape of the 60s, aligning with the rise of counterculture
and all the political unrest and whatnot.
So Dylan's ability to write intensely personal, yet politically charged songs made him a voice
for his generation.
Why don't we check out a little bit of the opening track, Subterranean Homesick Blues.
(27:03):
That was a groundbreaking Dylan track that sort of blended Chuck Berry rock beats with
poetry stream of consciousness style and those rapid fire lyrics that are about social discontent,
drug paranoia, civil rights, rebellion, all of it kind of encapsulates that mid 60s period.
And then that iconic cue card music video or film probably at the time shot where he's
(27:25):
got the cue cards with the lyrics and he's throwing the cards.
Often imitated many times.
Yes, very perfectly by NXS.
And it's a great opening track for the album to sort of set this stage for a change is
a gonna come.
My clickbait headline to describe the album.
Dylan's got a tambourine and a plug and he's going to use them, bringing it all back home
(27:49):
shocks the folk world.
Don't follow leaders.
Watch the pocket meters.
Do your own thing.
You know?
So yeah, there's not much more to say is a turning point in his career and in the trajectory
of popular music.
Why don't we jump in with the first song of side two and the first of the more traditional
acoustic Mr. Tambourine Man.
(28:11):
There's you in kindergarten.
You well known Dylan track there seems to be about seeking guidance.
Whether that's a person or music or spiritual or drugs, some kind of guidance.
Yeah, I looked into that and I always believed it was about like a musician, a folk singer
(28:37):
and apparently it was inspired by an actual guy that played this large drum that had bells
on it, kind of like a giant tambourine.
And I always thought it was just about sharing music and sharing stories.
And then in college, everyone convinced me it was about a drug dealer.
But I reject that as I've done some research.
I don't think it had anything to do with that.
But hard to say.
(28:58):
Hard to say.
A lot of these Dylan songs are pretty, pretty dense, lyrically to unpack.
My clickbait headline for bringing it all back home is Dylan plugs in, but the real
power is in his expansive lyrics.
Yeah, I mean, it's record.
You could kind of just feel like Dylan like sort of single-handedly pushing the genre
forward here.
(29:18):
I mean, obviously the electric component is controversial and kind of a big deal.
But I think even outside of just the electric component and sort of the larger rock sound,
I think Dylan is really tapping into some creativity.
Maybe some of that is the freedom that comes from having that electric sound here.
But his lyrics are just top notch on this album.
Might be some of the best songwriting I think I've heard from him.
(29:42):
Just so creative and expansive is the work I'm coming back to.
So many bold ideas and so many tracks that just really get out there.
I had never heard Bob Dylan's 115th Dream before.
That's a pretty wild psychedelic cut there.
He's rambling lyrics and goes all those different places in terms of the story.
And I mean, even the tracks later, It's Alright Mom Only Bleeding, just some really beautiful
(30:05):
lyrics in that track.
And I don't know, I honestly, I mean, I appreciate the electric rock sound.
I really think he's still at his best when he's just him on the acoustic guitar and you
can really appreciate what he's saying and how he's delivering it.
Yeah, even the folkier tracks have I think more of a blues feel than some of his earlier
(30:26):
stuff.
Yeah, for sure.
I think that also gave him some freedom.
I mean, blues music is pain.
Folk music traditionally is pain.
So he was tapping into the same pain vein, just using some new sounds to express it all.
Fair enough.
All right, so why don't we jump into another track.
(30:49):
This one is called Gates of Eden.
Of war and peace, the truth just twists its curfew goal, it glides.
Yeah, so this is sort of that traditional folk sound, but the lyrics are, this is not
blowing in the wind.
It's not good night Irene.
(31:11):
This is kind of real like surreal, again, surreal dreamlike imagery.
There's a cowboy angel searching for sun with a black wax candle.
Yeah.
It's a lot of metaphor going on.
The beat poet in him really was allowed to come out here.
Yeah, so that song consists of eight verses, each presenting a separate description of
(31:35):
a decaying society.
I read somebody said he was critiquing the notion of a forgiving afterlife, suggesting
that blind belief in that concept creates complacency in the present world.
Interesting.
So my clickbait headline for bringing it all back home is Dylan introduces surrealism to
(31:56):
rock and roll.
I'm not sure we had a lot of that before 1965.
I mean, even the Beatles were still holding your hand.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, he's influencing two genres at the same time.
I mean, basically just blurring the lines of it because is it blues?
(32:16):
Is it folk?
Is it rock and roll?
I don't know.
It's just, it's Dylan.
Whoa.
What I was impressed with on this album is even though the lyrics are goofy, and I mean,
they don't seem to make any sense, somehow there's still like a universal quality or
something.
I still feel connected to him.
(32:37):
I'm like, yeah, Bob, you're right.
But I don't really know what the hell he's talking about, but I get it.
Even if it's a line at a time, a line at a time where the feeling of the delivery can
kind of set you on the right course.
It's all over now, Baby Blue, the closing track where he's saying goodbye to his former
(33:00):
way of life, maybe a lover, maybe the music he was doing.
But even though all the lyrics don't connect directly, yeah, it's the feeling that he's
able to convey without a lot of instrumentation.
The emotion behind the words is sometimes more important than the words themselves.
Yeah.
I was reading a quote from Joan Baez who was staying with him in Woodstock when he was
(33:25):
working on this.
And she said he just was in the corner on the typewriter constantly.
So I mean, he was like writing his lyrics on a typewriter, not with an acoustic guitar
or something.
It's interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm more of a beat poet.
Yeah.
So I mean, this album changed the direction of music.
(33:46):
So I'm going to nominate this for the album Nerds Hall of Fame.
I mean, we've already all said some pretty glowing stuff about this record.
Obviously, it's a yes for me.
I'm going to leave the vote up to you guys.
Yeah.
You know, I was not that familiar with this record.
I think maybe listened to it a handful of times.
For some reason, it doesn't really come up in my Dylan catalog in my head.
(34:10):
It's not like among his classics, but man, it should be.
Yeah.
It is really good.
Yes, for me.
Yeah.
I wanted to do Highway 61 Revisited also from 1965, which is all rock, but it didn't quite
fit the full theme of this show.
And being forced to spend more time with this than I ever have before, I'm convinced it's
(34:32):
one of his best.
So I'm glad we did this.
How do you feel about it, Don?
Yeah, I love it too.
And I mean, you have to just give it credit for basically creating folk rock.
You know, I mean, there's no Simon and Garfunkel without this.
Thank you, Bob.
Thanks, Bob.
All right.
So album Nerds Hall of Famer, bringing it all back home by Bob Dylan.
(34:54):
Go check it out.
Can you dig it?
Can you dig it?
Can you dig it?
Can you dig it?
Can you dig it?
Can you dig it?
Can you dig it?
Can you dig it?
Can you dig it?
Well, we've been on a journey, you know, touring these United States and the world at large
listening to folk music.
What else have you been digging this week?
(35:15):
Well, I got a couple of things here stashed inside my acoustic guitar.
That's where you keep the drugs.
Yeah, tambourine man.
You found me out.
All right.
Well, the first one I'm going to mention here is from a country rock five piece from
Mobile, Alabama called The Red Clay Strays.
(35:35):
The album out called Made By These Moments.
Let's play track six, Drowning.
Yeah, I now remember them.
Yeah, they're sort of, what's that guy's name?
Like Chris Staplehammer or something?
I'm thinking, that was a little on the nose, Stapleton perhaps, but it's still really good.
(36:02):
I've been enjoying it quite a bit.
It's made it up all the way to number eight on my year-end list at the moment.
And that's a list of like a thousand albums usually.
That's a good ranking by them.
The other one I wanted to mention too is from the Catskill Mountain area of New York.
Talk about the Follies Brothers.
They have an album out called The Valley of Abandoned Songs.
(36:24):
They're a four piece, I would say kind of like Americana indie rock space.
Let's play the opening cut, Crime Scene Queen.
She's a crime scene queen with a laser beam.
It works, it works.
(36:46):
Got a bad dome there.
It's a handful of really catchy songs on that record.
Overall, it's pretty good.
I had it coming in at number 94 on my list.
So not quite as good as the Eric Clay stories, but still a solid record there from the Follies
Brothers.
What you been digging on, Don?
(37:07):
Well just the other day I watched a documentary film called Yacht Rock, a documentary, but
clever spelling, it's doc.
Oh, doc, okay.
Yeah.
It's a film by Garrett Price.
It's part of that Music Box series of films that HBO and Max has.
So yeah, so this one was about yacht rock and it has appearances from Kenny Loggins
(37:30):
and Michael McDonald and Toto.
Who now probably all own yachts because of their vast riches.
Yeah, I wish I had seen this documentary before we did that episode.
I think episode 199 we did Yacht Rock.
Did you learn anything new about the genre then?
Oh yeah, tons.
(37:50):
And they do a really good job of just showing how well done it was and just how good some
of it was.
The music?
The music, yes.
Okay.
Yeah.
And let's see, we got one more for your Christmas snogging.
A group called the Milk Carton Kids.
Their Christmas album is called Christmas in a Minor Key, released just this year.
(38:13):
The Milk Carton Kids are an indie folk duo from Eagle Rock, California, featuring Kenneth
Pattengale and Joey Ryan.
Kind of Simon and Garfunkel-ish sort of fits our theme this week.
Has anyone found them yet since they're on the milk cartons?
That's like missing children, right?
The search continues.
(38:34):
Too many people buy the full gallon.
You don't get the picture if you buy a plastic jug.
Here's God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.
God rest ye merry gentlemen.
Let nothing you dismay.
Cool.
Remember Christ our Savior.
Finally, something that sounds kind of interesting instead of the usual canned garbage.
(38:55):
Remember that John Fahey record?
Yeah.
That with harmonies kind of.
What are you digging, dude?
So I'm kind of in a different headspace, I guess, from you guys.
Maybe I needed to shake loose some of that heady folk.
Got a band called Uniform.
The name of the album is American Standard, released in August of this year.
(39:17):
They're an industrial metal band known for their abrasive sound and dark themes.
They were formed in 2013 in New York City.
Let's listen to a little bit of This Is Not a Prayer.
So they continue their aggressive experimental approach here.
(39:38):
Noise rock, heavy industrial.
And according to the needle drop, I quote, the feel bad album of 2024.
It's definitely not uplifting.
Let's put it that way.
On the flip side, recently added to my vinyl collection, we're going to go with something
that is uplifting.
Living Colors 1988, Vivid.
(39:59):
It's not a fancy colored vinyl, just the standard black.
It's not like a rare version or anything.
It's just nice to have it in the collection.
One color groundbreaking American rock band formed in 1984, known for their fusion of
hard rock, funk and metal.
Why don't we listen to a little bit of the big one, Cult of Personality.
(40:20):
Yeah, so it's upbeat mix of politically charged lyrics.
At the time, genre defying mix of sounds kind of solidified their place in rock history.
I think they get a lot more respect now than they even did in 1988 for their contribution.
So go check out Living Color Vivid if you haven't heard it before.
(40:42):
All right.
Well, what are you digging?
Let us know.
Join us on the socials, Facebook, Instagram and threads.
Also on our website, albumnerds.com.
It will be a discovery of extraordinary value.
Well, it's about that time on the show.
And I'm reminded of the great American singer songwriter, Woody Gunthree, who said, it's
(41:05):
a folk singer's job to comfort disturbed people and to disturb comfortable people.
Isn't that what we do?
Love it.
Very much our Goal in Albumner's Podcast as well.
But that was a pretty succinct way to do it.
Yeah.
Well, as we approach the end of the year here, we're taking a little bit of detour from our
normally scheduled programming and we'll be reaching into Santa's sack here for next
(41:27):
week.
Let's see what we got in store for you guys.
I'm going to scrape bottom, brother.
I'd rather get in Mrs. Claus's stockings.
Oh, geez.
Wow.
Okay then.
All right.
So we'll be looking for some classic Christmas albums to discuss.
(41:48):
Stay tuned.
Check it out.
Well, what's your favorite holiday album?
What else are you listening to?
Leave a comment on our website or email us at podcast at albumnerds.com.
You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and threads at albumnerds.
Also please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcast app.
And if you'd like to support the show, you can do so via PayPal at albumnerds.com slash
(42:08):
support.
Thank you once again for joining us on the Album Nerds podcast.
We'll catch you next time where we get holly jolly with some Christmas albums.
Thanks, everybody.
See you then.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
April.
We're going to get a lot of that next week.
(42:30):
Yeah, hopefully Andy will share some of his beautiful vocal pipes with us.
Bah humbug.
Oh yeah.
Welcome to the Album Nerds podcast with your hosts, Andy, Don, and Dude.
(00:13):
What the folk is up?
It's the Album Nerds podcast.
I'm Dude.
I got Andy and Don with me.
Andy, I know you really love misuse of the word folk.
How are you doing today?
Big apology to everyone out there for all the ensuing puns.
Get the folk out of here.
Don?
Just excited to go on a trip upon your magic swirling ship.
(00:37):
No one's ever said that to me before.
You guys need a minute over there?
That was really moving.
My bowels.
So this is the Album Nerds podcast.
We love albums, the album format, and just spending time together.
Quality time.
We have a great show for you today.
We are each going to present a folk album of some repute.
(00:59):
Don's going to ask us a deep question.
And then we're going to have some shout outs to some albums and album related items we're
digging.
And then we'll be reaching into Santa's sack to announce what we'll be talking about on
the next episode.
Ho, ho, ho.
But this week, it's all about that folk.
It's all about the folk, the folk, the folk.
No treble.
(01:20):
That's what I'm talking about.
The mid-century folk revival spanning from the 1940s to the 1960s brought traditional
American music back into the spotlight and introduced a new generation of singer songwriters.
This movement fueled by social and political unrest saw artists like Woody Guthrie, Pete
Seeger, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan using acoustic instruments and simple melodies to address
(01:45):
issues such as civil rights and war.
The folk revival not only had a lasting impact on popular music and culture, but also established
music as a powerful tool for social change, inspiring artists and audiences alike with
its rich repository of hidden and unsettling stories about America.
Wow.
Today, each of us will present an album from the mid-century folk revival.
(02:07):
Did you get that from the History Channel?
Dang.
So yeah, folk music of that era is fascinating because of what it became.
There was a lot to choose from here.
Some of it new to me, some of it very familiar.
What other albums did you guys consider before making your final choice?
So what else did you think about?
Well, a lot of this stuff was new to me.
(02:29):
One such group that stuck out was the Brothers Four and their 1960 album BMOC.
Do you guys know what that stands for?
BMOC.
BMOC, that's right.
Big Man on Campus.
The Brothers Four were in a fraternity in Seattle, Washington and got together.
This is their fifth studio album.
Lots of four-part harmonies.
(02:51):
Where they're like, Constance Fry, Constance Fry.
Training places.
All right.
Yeah, it's the elements of blues and country mixed in there with the folk sound.
What did you find in your listening, Dan?
Well, one of the big names in folk music at the time was Peter, Paul and Mary.
(03:13):
I checked out their self-titled debut from 1962.
Peter, Paul and Mary is Peter Yarrow, Paul Stuckey and Mary Travers.
They were just all over the charts at that time.
But mainly covers, there's Pete Seger's If I Had a Hammer and the song Lemon Tree, which
is by somebody called Will Holt.
But it's a palatable folk record, I'd say.
(03:34):
As a little kid, I saw them a lot.
Their concerts would be on PBS.
And I liked them because they had that Puff the Magic Dragon song.
So one of the albums I considered was Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballad.
Woody Guthrie kind of being the godfather of this era of folk, I would say, influenced
artists like Bob Dylan.
(03:54):
He gave voice to the struggles of working class Americans during the 20th century, during
the Dust Bowl period.
And this album gets into the Great Depression and with poignant storytelling and songs like
Tom Joad and Dust Bowl Blues are featured on this one.
But it wasn't quite what I was looking for.
So why don't we get into our choo choo choices?
(04:15):
You choo choo choose me?
All right.
For my mid-century folk revival selection, we're talking about Joan Baez and her 1960
debut Joan Baez.
I mean, if I want to look happy, I'll just return Joan Baez's phone calls.
(04:36):
That's a good one.
All right.
Joan hails from the New York City area of New York State.
She rose to prominence after her performance at the Newport Folk Festival, the first one,
which was in 1959.
Let's play a little bit of the opening cut.
This is Silver Dagger.
(04:56):
Poor should have made like a really hard malt liquor that was called Silver Dagger instead
of the Silver Bowler.
Taste the Silver Dagger.
Yeah.
That would have been a perfect jingle for it as well.
Just the kind of energy that Coors is trying to sell.
(05:17):
Yeah.
Joan would have been all over that commercial.
That's a really direct song.
Something about giving up on men, probably drinking too much.
Might be a tie in there somewhere, Don.
The singer's mother has been wronged and kind of forbids her daughter to make the same mistake
of trusting men with their love.
She carries this Silver Dagger, which I assume is used to kind of threaten her daughter or
(05:42):
keep away the men from her daughter.
Pretty dark, pretty dark stuff.
I kind of love it.
My clickbait headline for Joan Baez's soft-held debut is, if Joan was a door-to-door folk saleswoman,
I'd buy us.
I'm just worried about the puns.
I do miss those door-to-door folk salesmen.
(06:02):
Yeah, I don't see them around as much anymore.
This record is very simple sonically.
It's a collection of folk standards.
None of these are originals, but Baez kind of gives them her own little spin in terms
of the arrangements.
I would say her vocal is very ethereal, very much on the high end of the register and her
guitar, which is primarily just her and the acoustic guitar, of course, as you'd expect
(06:27):
in a folk record.
And it works really well together.
It's fairly poignant.
She gives great deliveries on these tracks.
Her tone, I would say, shifts a fair amount throughout some of these songs.
So sometimes very quickly, she can go from being very soft to very loud, kind of like
the Pixies a little bit in some way.
She was a folk singer.
(06:49):
Yeah, I mean, even though vocally, it isn't like we're not talking the difference of a
scream and angelic.
It's more about like the choir of angels fills in more at times in terms of the tone.
But I know what you're talking about with the loud soft.
Yeah, she really has a powerful voice, but you don't oftentimes don't hear it or she'll
(07:10):
kind of keep it very restrained.
Because she chooses her moments.
Yes, she punctuates them nicely.
All right, let's hear another cut from the record.
This is All My Trials.
Yikes.
Yeah, folk music is a downer, bro.
(07:36):
Yeah.
I mean, this is the traditional stuff.
I actually knew that song.
You ever hear Elvis Presley's American Trilogy?
Where it has like, glory, glory, hallelujah.
It's like a medley of this song and Dixie and glory, glory, hallelujah.
Anyways, so Baez popularized this song.
It actually had been introduced to the folk scene by Bob Gibson's 1956 album Offbeat Folk
(08:00):
Songs where it was titled Bahamian Lullaby or Bahamian Lullaby.
But that's another one of those where they don't really know where it came from.
Yeah.
So many of these have like mysterious origins or they just kind of appeared and somebody
heard it.
Yeah, that's kind of the cool thing about folk music.
If you're really into it, I mean, you could really go on like a quest to find the origins
(08:23):
of this song.
That quest of course could inspire some great folk songs that you would write along the
way.
True.
So yeah, so the song tells the story of a mother on her deathbed comforting her children
with the assurance that her trials will soon be over.
Because she'll be dead.
Yes.
Yep.
Wow.
So dark.
Well, the part where there's like a, like, don't you cry, your mother's gonna die.
(08:49):
Sounds like a Metallica lyric.
Well, my clickbait headline for Joan Baez, Volume One, which I think some people refer
to it as, is Meet Donna Donna, John Reilly, Mary Hamilton, Henry Martin, Little Moses,
and most importantly, Joan Baez's voice and guitar.
(09:09):
So cast the characters on this one.
Yeah.
I guess what I was most impressed with on this album is the guitar work.
I think it's just a cool thing about folk music in general, you know, that fingerpicking
style.
Fingerpicking good.
Very good.
It's almost like it's several instruments.
(09:30):
You know, they make good use of the bass strings to provide that low end, and then you've got
the higher strings playing a melody or arpeggios or whatever.
Yeah, it's just really impressive that you don't need another instrument.
I mean, she's obviously just a talented guitarist.
It's busy at times, but it doesn't distract from her voice.
(09:54):
So like, I think the whole presentation is, you know, listen to these lyrics.
Even her voice, you know, I mean, she just speaks very clearly or sings very clearly,
good diction or whatever you call it.
Yeah.
And so, I mean, you just catch every word, you know, unlike Eddie Vedder or somebody,
you know, where sometimes you're like, what was that?
(10:15):
Yeah, it sounds like she's like right in your ear the way it's recorded, really just her
and the guitar.
There's a couple of tracks that do have some accompaniments that sound a little bit larger,
but yeah, for the most part, it's really a focused record, I would say.
Focused.
All right, why don't we hear another cut from the record.
This is track four, House of the Rising Sun.
(10:39):
It's one of those moments where the voice gets louder if you want to call it that.
Yeah, so this song has been around quite a while, dating back to the 18th century in
England.
Its exact authorship is unknown, but it was brought to the United States via Appalachian
(11:02):
ballad traditions, you know, and I think, I of course think about Eric Burden's version,
New Orleans and all that, but this is probably a more traditional presentation.
It tells the story of a person's downfall attributed to things like, you know, vices
like gambling, alcoholism, poor life choices.
(11:23):
The House of the Rising Sun is commonly interpreted as a metaphor for a brothel or a gambling
den, basically a place of moral corruption.
It ain't church.
It's a house of ill repute.
Yes, but then there's the theme of, as in a lot of traditional folk music, the narrator
is seeking to atone for their mistakes.
So there's a moral lesson to be learned.
(11:44):
My clickbait headline to describe Joan Baez's Joan Baez, the album that took old time folk
songs and made them sound fresh, timeless and totally heavenly.
Totally.
These are sad songs, but the lilting vocal range and that deep connection to the tradition
of folk music, even in a modern era of the early sixties is just a really nice way to
(12:12):
present it in its purest form and make people truly listen.
It's haunting and emotionally rich.
Yeah.
If Aretha is the queen of soul, I would say she's the queen of folk.
The queen of folk.
I think a lot of the folk singers, you're Joni Mitchell, et cetera, inspired by this
style.
Yeah.
It seemed like she was kind of right at the forefront of it, as it was kind of coming
(12:33):
into its own here in the early sixties.
Yeah.
This album has been added to the national recording registry back in 2015.
It's part of the 1001 albums you must hear before you die, et cetera, et cetera.
All those indicators are here that this is one of those important records that I think
deserves to be heard if you're not familiar with it.
I think it's a good representation of that mid-century folk revival.
(12:57):
So Joan Baez, Joan Baez.
Before we continue on our journey of mid-century folk, let's hear a word from the Abandoned
Albums podcast.
Our mission at Abandoned Albums is simple, as simple as this ad.
Our only goal is to keep the recorded work of artists on the cultural radar and showcase
(13:19):
new artists who should be on the cultural radar.
Some things in life are truly that simple.
With our tongue firmly in cheek, it's why we say Abandoned Albums is the only music
podcast that matters, and it's available wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
Thanks Abandoned Albums.
Go check them out.
(13:41):
Well, my journey to mid-century folk went back to June 1958 to the debut album from
the Kingston Trio.
They're a group formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1957.
The original trio is Dave Gard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds.
By the way, they actually tour now, but it's none of these guys.
(14:04):
There's been like 50 different incarnations of the Kingston Trio.
Yeah.
It's kind of like Minuto, where they just replace members constantly as they age out.
So this record was recorded in three days with producer Voil Gilmore, known for producing
people like Frank Sinatra.
Of Voil Rules.
Oh, sorry.
(14:24):
It features a mix of traditional songs, calypso-flavored tunes, and some contemporary numbers.
Well, here's sort of the big hit from this album, Tom Dooley.
Now the feel-good side of folk music, the Kingston Trio.
(14:50):
Totally different vibe than Joan Baez.
Yep, funny.
You know, dark subject matter, but just kind of like a presented.
Rooted in a presentation.
Yeah.
Yeah, but they're like doing cartoony voices through it and stuff.
Yeah, it's definitely...
It's wild.
It feels more like when you're in elementary school and there's an afternoon concert and
some musicians show up to teach you lessons about life.
(15:11):
Be these dudes.
So Tom Dooley is a traditional folk song based on the 1866 murder of a woman named Laura
Foster in Wilkes County, North Carolina by somebody named Tom Dooley, who I guess in
the local dialect was pronounced Dooley.
A local poet named Thomas Land wrote a song about the tragedy titled Tom Dooley shortly
(15:31):
after Dooley was hanged.
The Kingston Trio learned the song from Frank Warner, who had learned it from Frank Proffitt
and Proffitt's version had been passed down through his family.
Apparently an aunt, Nancy Prather actually knew Laura Foster and Tom Dooley.
So yeah, it was like a direct lineage.
But the Kingston Trio were later forced to pay royalties because they hadn't given Proffitt
(15:56):
credit for use of the version.
But it was a huge hit.
Yeah, and then the family profited from murder.
It's true, right?
Murder most foul.
Well, my clickbait headline for the Kingston Trio's debut album is Tom Dooley hung down
(16:16):
his head and launched a folk revolution.
So these guys were huge commercially.
In fact, this album was actually on the charts for almost four years.
Wow.
Four years.
Yeah.
Some people actually credit this album with helping kind of elevate the LP or establishing
the LP as a format.
(16:38):
It does seem like in the world of folk, the albums kind of matter more so than even rock
and roll at the time.
So the producer Gilmore actually had some significant input on this album.
He did add a session player, Elmer Buzzweeler, to play some bass to fill out the low end.
But other than that, it's just a couple of guitars and a bass.
(16:59):
And a banjo.
Oh, and a banjo, yes.
And they didn't add any orchestral accompaniment, which was typical of folk records at the time.
It sounds really good.
Yeah, it's nice.
Well, let's hear another cut.
Here's the wreck of John B.
See how the man says.
(17:29):
We should do that for the rest of the show.
And just one guy repeats the last guy, whatever they say last.
Don, that's your cue to be like, whatever they say last.
Come on.
Geez.
You missed it.
So it's a traditional Bohemian folk song first transcribed by Richard the guy.
Yeah.
(17:50):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Maybe it's more like Galeon.
I'm not sure.
In 1916, originally titled the John B. Sales or Wreck of the John B. I love how it's like
there's a million different potential titles for this thing.
It's the story of a chaotic voyage aboard a sloop plagued by drunkenness and disorder.
The Kingston Trio popularized their version, which introduced a more polished folk style,
(18:14):
but those clear harmonies and rhythmic strumming, but that whole call and response thing they're
doing.
I believe that's why this version directly influenced the Beach Boys famous rendition
sloop John B. El Jardine.
We talked about this on the Pet Sounds episode, but a member of the Beach Boys, a big folk
music enthusiast and convinced Brian Wilson to adapt the song for Pet Sounds.
(18:37):
And that's kind of in my mind, the definitive version, but this is, this is, it's cool to
hear the one that inspired it.
My clickbait headline to describe this album, murder ballads, banjo solos, humor and chart
success folk revival starts here.
I feel like bringing folk to this poppy side of things, this friendlier version of it,
(19:01):
even though it's dark stuff, where they do very interesting cartoonish voices in some
of the songs and accents.
It strikes a balance between lighthearted tunes and darker ballads and it's breezy,
but it helped redefine the genre appealing to folk purists and casual listeners.
And I think the casual listeners were the key to the success here.
(19:23):
Yeah, definitely in terms of spreading the popularity of the genre.
Feels like these guys appealed to a pretty broad audience.
Well, let's, let's hear some more.
Let's take a trip to Bay of Mexico.
Great transition.
(19:44):
What is happening here?
I'm confused by the subject of the lyrics and then the sound of the music.
Yeah, I had to get out of Globem and just verify that there was not a Bay of Mexico.
Anyway, we got a nice kind of sound with like an island vibe there.
Yeah, what's up with that?
(20:06):
Yeah, there's a handful of tracks in the album that do have kind of this Latin Caribbean
vibe going on, which I think is kind of interesting.
Blacklick Bay headline for the Kingston Trio is, they're not quite from Jamaica, but the
trio bring plenty of sunshine to the folks out.
They did live in Hawaii for a while.
What's that got to do with Jamaica, dude?
(20:26):
It's an island.
It is near the water.
No, these are three of the whitest guys you'll ever see from the Bay area.
But yeah, there's some of the music really does have a great island sound to it, which
I appreciate it.
I didn't expect that in folk music.
Kind of similar to what Harry Belafonte was doing at that time.
(20:48):
Yeah, that's where I feel like the Kingston Trio, I mean, I would definitely say that
they take folk and they mix it with other types of worldly sounds, but they completely
whitewash it and make it all sanitary for the 1958 listening audience.
The Pat Boons of folk music.
Yeah.
I think that's fair.
(21:09):
It's not to say that these aren't fun, engaging songs though, and if I was, especially if
I was a school-aged person at this time, I think I would really gravitate towards this
music.
I could see why it became popular over the next decade or so because it's just kind of
fun, engaging stuff.
Yeah, there's the guitar coming months down mentioned there that it plays a group, largely
(21:29):
rhythm focused, I would say, just kind of moving the songs forward.
But there are a couple of tracks that do diverge into some bluegrass territory, especially
with the banjo sound there.
The one I liked the most was called Saro Jane, which is kind of in the middle of the record.
So yeah, when they do stretch their legs a little bit, I think it's a little more interesting,
but still really engaging, just kind of light, fun, listen about some really dark, twisted
(21:52):
stuff.
Yeah.
And these are guys that definitely said gee whiz quite a bit, I would say.
Gee whiz, Don.
That was quite a folk experience.
Yeah, it is kind of cool.
It is sort of like a trip around the globe to the folk music of different areas, which
is very much the spirit of folk music.
(22:15):
Sure.
All right.
Well, the Kingston Trio's self-titled debut album from 1958 is a landmark recording that
helped revitalize folk music.
Check it out.
Excuse me.
I'd like to ask you a few questions.
This time again for Deep Questions by Don.
(22:36):
Well, listening to a lot of these songs, like Tom Dooley, it reminded me of music class
in elementary school.
We used to do a lot of songs like this and playing sort of those earthy instruments.
What do you guys remember about music class or music education in your younger days?
Yeah, I spent a good amount of time in the music room in my school because I was in the
(23:01):
band.
Ooh, what did you play?
Alto sax.
I did that for a year.
Yeah.
I made it a couple of them, not much more.
My strongest memory was just feeling really bad for our teacher, man.
I felt he was like 40 kids.
None of us could really play these instruments in this huge room.
(23:21):
Just chaos, just chaos and noise.
One adult trying to contain all this and make it sound like something.
What a thankless job.
I mean, all the respect to all the music teachers around the world.
God bless you.
I don't know how you do that job and still appreciate music at the end of the day.
I knew it was bad at the time and I was a young kid.
Hey, if they can just touch one life like yours, Andy, I mean, look what you've become.
(23:42):
Well, look at me now.
A music podcaster.
I know, you're a superstar.
How about you, dude?
Oh, so I was thinking back a little further than that to kindergarten music teacher, Mrs.
Hines.
She'd come in like once a week with a cart, come into our classroom with a cart full of
different instruments and stuff.
(24:03):
And we would have jam sessions.
So we'd all get to pick like a triangle or the sticks to either hit together or the ribbed
ones to rub together for different types of music or cowbells and all that kind of stuff.
And I really enjoyed it when she'd bring, you know, the art teacher did the same thing,
bring a cart of stuff in.
But was there a Les Paul on the cart?
(24:23):
No, this is all tambourines and stuff, but we'd all be skipping around in circles, run,
you know, playing our instruments and...
Yeah, that sounds really fun.
Yeah, just, you know, musical abandon.
And I'm sure it was much more adorable than what your teacher was looking at.
You know, you got a bunch of five-year-olds skipping around hitting triangles and stuff
that's cute.
When it's a bunch of middle schoolers, it's probably frustrating.
(24:47):
What about you, Don?
Well, actually, I remember joining chorus, I think like in third or fourth grade.
You?
Shocking.
You like to sing?
Really?
Yeah, but I just remember this one weird rehearsal like before our holiday concert and like four
people just like passed out.
Like it just kept happening.
(25:07):
What?
Is there like a gas leak or something?
I don't think so.
I don't know.
But our teacher told us to like wiggle our toes, you know, to keep the blood circulating.
So I don't remember if it was like particularly hot or maybe we just weren't used to standing
still for that long.
But yeah, like three or four kids like just went down.
(25:28):
I'm sorry to laugh, but that's...
I mean, everybody was okay, but you know.
I guess the music was just so overpowering.
You guys must have been a really talented bunch of singers.
You were singing Reindeer Rock, I think it was.
Ooh, yeah.
Very, very moving.
I get woozy when I sing Reindeer Rock.
Well, what do you remember from your music education?
(25:51):
Let us know on Instagram and Facebook or leave a comment on our website, AlbumNerds.com.
Well, we can't talk folk revival without Bob Dylan, can we?
And we certainly can't do it without doing that terrible Bob Dylan voice.
I'm so sorry.
So I went with the 1965 album, Bringing It All Back Home is Bob Dylan's fifth studio
(26:15):
album and kind of a turning point for folk music by introducing electric instruments
on half of the tracks, the first half and the second half for more traditional acoustic
folk songs.
It bridged the gap between folk and rock, laying the groundwork for the folk rock genre,
which became insanely popular throughout the 60s and into the 70s.
(26:35):
And it reflected the changing cultural landscape of the 60s, aligning with the rise of counterculture
and all the political unrest and whatnot.
So Dylan's ability to write intensely personal, yet politically charged songs made him a voice
for his generation.
Why don't we check out a little bit of the opening track, Subterranean Homesick Blues.
(27:03):
That was a groundbreaking Dylan track that sort of blended Chuck Berry rock beats with
poetry stream of consciousness style and those rapid fire lyrics that are about social discontent,
drug paranoia, civil rights, rebellion, all of it kind of encapsulates that mid 60s period.
And then that iconic cue card music video or film probably at the time shot where he's
(27:25):
got the cue cards with the lyrics and he's throwing the cards.
Often imitated many times.
Yes, very perfectly by NXS.
And it's a great opening track for the album to sort of set this stage for a change is
a gonna come.
My clickbait headline to describe the album.
Dylan's got a tambourine and a plug and he's going to use them, bringing it all back home
(27:49):
shocks the folk world.
Don't follow leaders.
Watch the pocket meters.
Do your own thing.
You know?
So yeah, there's not much more to say is a turning point in his career and in the trajectory
of popular music.
Why don't we jump in with the first song of side two and the first of the more traditional
acoustic Mr. Tambourine Man.
(28:11):
There's you in kindergarten.
You well known Dylan track there seems to be about seeking guidance.
Whether that's a person or music or spiritual or drugs, some kind of guidance.
Yeah, I looked into that and I always believed it was about like a musician, a folk singer
(28:37):
and apparently it was inspired by an actual guy that played this large drum that had bells
on it, kind of like a giant tambourine.
And I always thought it was just about sharing music and sharing stories.
And then in college, everyone convinced me it was about a drug dealer.
But I reject that as I've done some research.
I don't think it had anything to do with that.
But hard to say.
(28:58):
Hard to say.
A lot of these Dylan songs are pretty, pretty dense, lyrically to unpack.
My clickbait headline for bringing it all back home is Dylan plugs in, but the real
power is in his expansive lyrics.
Yeah, I mean, it's record.
You could kind of just feel like Dylan like sort of single-handedly pushing the genre
forward here.
(29:18):
I mean, obviously the electric component is controversial and kind of a big deal.
But I think even outside of just the electric component and sort of the larger rock sound,
I think Dylan is really tapping into some creativity.
Maybe some of that is the freedom that comes from having that electric sound here.
But his lyrics are just top notch on this album.
Might be some of the best songwriting I think I've heard from him.
(29:42):
Just so creative and expansive is the work I'm coming back to.
So many bold ideas and so many tracks that just really get out there.
I had never heard Bob Dylan's 115th Dream before.
That's a pretty wild psychedelic cut there.
He's rambling lyrics and goes all those different places in terms of the story.
And I mean, even the tracks later, It's Alright Mom Only Bleeding, just some really beautiful
(30:05):
lyrics in that track.
And I don't know, I honestly, I mean, I appreciate the electric rock sound.
I really think he's still at his best when he's just him on the acoustic guitar and you
can really appreciate what he's saying and how he's delivering it.
Yeah, even the folkier tracks have I think more of a blues feel than some of his earlier
(30:26):
stuff.
Yeah, for sure.
I think that also gave him some freedom.
I mean, blues music is pain.
Folk music traditionally is pain.
So he was tapping into the same pain vein, just using some new sounds to express it all.
Fair enough.
All right, so why don't we jump into another track.
(30:49):
This one is called Gates of Eden.
Of war and peace, the truth just twists its curfew goal, it glides.
Yeah, so this is sort of that traditional folk sound, but the lyrics are, this is not
blowing in the wind.
It's not good night Irene.
(31:11):
This is kind of real like surreal, again, surreal dreamlike imagery.
There's a cowboy angel searching for sun with a black wax candle.
Yeah.
It's a lot of metaphor going on.
The beat poet in him really was allowed to come out here.
Yeah, so that song consists of eight verses, each presenting a separate description of
(31:35):
a decaying society.
I read somebody said he was critiquing the notion of a forgiving afterlife, suggesting
that blind belief in that concept creates complacency in the present world.
Interesting.
So my clickbait headline for bringing it all back home is Dylan introduces surrealism to
(31:56):
rock and roll.
I'm not sure we had a lot of that before 1965.
I mean, even the Beatles were still holding your hand.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, he's influencing two genres at the same time.
I mean, basically just blurring the lines of it because is it blues?
(32:16):
Is it folk?
Is it rock and roll?
I don't know.
It's just, it's Dylan.
Whoa.
What I was impressed with on this album is even though the lyrics are goofy, and I mean,
they don't seem to make any sense, somehow there's still like a universal quality or
something.
I still feel connected to him.
(32:37):
I'm like, yeah, Bob, you're right.
But I don't really know what the hell he's talking about, but I get it.
Even if it's a line at a time, a line at a time where the feeling of the delivery can
kind of set you on the right course.
It's all over now, Baby Blue, the closing track where he's saying goodbye to his former
(33:00):
way of life, maybe a lover, maybe the music he was doing.
But even though all the lyrics don't connect directly, yeah, it's the feeling that he's
able to convey without a lot of instrumentation.
The emotion behind the words is sometimes more important than the words themselves.
Yeah.
I was reading a quote from Joan Baez who was staying with him in Woodstock when he was
(33:25):
working on this.
And she said he just was in the corner on the typewriter constantly.
So I mean, he was like writing his lyrics on a typewriter, not with an acoustic guitar
or something.
It's interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm more of a beat poet.
Yeah.
So I mean, this album changed the direction of music.
(33:46):
So I'm going to nominate this for the album Nerds Hall of Fame.
I mean, we've already all said some pretty glowing stuff about this record.
Obviously, it's a yes for me.
I'm going to leave the vote up to you guys.
Yeah.
You know, I was not that familiar with this record.
I think maybe listened to it a handful of times.
For some reason, it doesn't really come up in my Dylan catalog in my head.
(34:10):
It's not like among his classics, but man, it should be.
Yeah.
It is really good.
Yes, for me.
Yeah.
I wanted to do Highway 61 Revisited also from 1965, which is all rock, but it didn't quite
fit the full theme of this show.
And being forced to spend more time with this than I ever have before, I'm convinced it's
(34:32):
one of his best.
So I'm glad we did this.
How do you feel about it, Don?
Yeah, I love it too.
And I mean, you have to just give it credit for basically creating folk rock.
You know, I mean, there's no Simon and Garfunkel without this.
Thank you, Bob.
Thanks, Bob.
All right.
So album Nerds Hall of Famer, bringing it all back home by Bob Dylan.
(34:54):
Go check it out.
Can you dig it?
Can you dig it?
Can you dig it?
Can you dig it?
Can you dig it?
Can you dig it?
Can you dig it?
Can you dig it?
Can you dig it?
Well, we've been on a journey, you know, touring these United States and the world at large
listening to folk music.
What else have you been digging this week?
(35:15):
Well, I got a couple of things here stashed inside my acoustic guitar.
That's where you keep the drugs.
Yeah, tambourine man.
You found me out.
All right.
Well, the first one I'm going to mention here is from a country rock five piece from
Mobile, Alabama called The Red Clay Strays.
(35:35):
The album out called Made By These Moments.
Let's play track six, Drowning.
Yeah, I now remember them.
Yeah, they're sort of, what's that guy's name?
Like Chris Staplehammer or something?
I'm thinking, that was a little on the nose, Stapleton perhaps, but it's still really good.
(36:02):
I've been enjoying it quite a bit.
It's made it up all the way to number eight on my year-end list at the moment.
And that's a list of like a thousand albums usually.
That's a good ranking by them.
The other one I wanted to mention too is from the Catskill Mountain area of New York.
Talk about the Follies Brothers.
They have an album out called The Valley of Abandoned Songs.
(36:24):
They're a four piece, I would say kind of like Americana indie rock space.
Let's play the opening cut, Crime Scene Queen.
She's a crime scene queen with a laser beam.
It works, it works.
(36:46):
Got a bad dome there.
It's a handful of really catchy songs on that record.
Overall, it's pretty good.
I had it coming in at number 94 on my list.
So not quite as good as the Eric Clay stories, but still a solid record there from the Follies
Brothers.
What you been digging on, Don?
(37:07):
Well just the other day I watched a documentary film called Yacht Rock, a documentary, but
clever spelling, it's doc.
Oh, doc, okay.
Yeah.
It's a film by Garrett Price.
It's part of that Music Box series of films that HBO and Max has.
So yeah, so this one was about yacht rock and it has appearances from Kenny Loggins
(37:30):
and Michael McDonald and Toto.
Who now probably all own yachts because of their vast riches.
Yeah, I wish I had seen this documentary before we did that episode.
I think episode 199 we did Yacht Rock.
Did you learn anything new about the genre then?
Oh yeah, tons.
(37:50):
And they do a really good job of just showing how well done it was and just how good some
of it was.
The music?
The music, yes.
Okay.
Yeah.
And let's see, we got one more for your Christmas snogging.
A group called the Milk Carton Kids.
Their Christmas album is called Christmas in a Minor Key, released just this year.
(38:13):
The Milk Carton Kids are an indie folk duo from Eagle Rock, California, featuring Kenneth
Pattengale and Joey Ryan.
Kind of Simon and Garfunkel-ish sort of fits our theme this week.
Has anyone found them yet since they're on the milk cartons?
That's like missing children, right?
The search continues.
(38:34):
Too many people buy the full gallon.
You don't get the picture if you buy a plastic jug.
Here's God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.
God rest ye merry gentlemen.
Let nothing you dismay.
Cool.
Remember Christ our Savior.
Finally, something that sounds kind of interesting instead of the usual canned garbage.
(38:55):
Remember that John Fahey record?
Yeah.
That with harmonies kind of.
What are you digging, dude?
So I'm kind of in a different headspace, I guess, from you guys.
Maybe I needed to shake loose some of that heady folk.
Got a band called Uniform.
The name of the album is American Standard, released in August of this year.
(39:17):
They're an industrial metal band known for their abrasive sound and dark themes.
They were formed in 2013 in New York City.
Let's listen to a little bit of This Is Not a Prayer.
So they continue their aggressive experimental approach here.
(39:38):
Noise rock, heavy industrial.
And according to the needle drop, I quote, the feel bad album of 2024.
It's definitely not uplifting.
Let's put it that way.
On the flip side, recently added to my vinyl collection, we're going to go with something
that is uplifting.
Living Colors 1988, Vivid.
(39:59):
It's not a fancy colored vinyl, just the standard black.
It's not like a rare version or anything.
It's just nice to have it in the collection.
One color groundbreaking American rock band formed in 1984, known for their fusion of
hard rock, funk and metal.
Why don't we listen to a little bit of the big one, Cult of Personality.
(40:20):
Yeah, so it's upbeat mix of politically charged lyrics.
At the time, genre defying mix of sounds kind of solidified their place in rock history.
I think they get a lot more respect now than they even did in 1988 for their contribution.
So go check out Living Color Vivid if you haven't heard it before.
(40:42):
All right.
Well, what are you digging?
Let us know.
Join us on the socials, Facebook, Instagram and threads.
Also on our website, albumnerds.com.
It will be a discovery of extraordinary value.
Well, it's about that time on the show.
And I'm reminded of the great American singer songwriter, Woody Gunthree, who said, it's
(41:05):
a folk singer's job to comfort disturbed people and to disturb comfortable people.
Isn't that what we do?
Love it.
Very much our Goal in Albumner's Podcast as well.
But that was a pretty succinct way to do it.
Yeah.
Well, as we approach the end of the year here, we're taking a little bit of detour from our
normally scheduled programming and we'll be reaching into Santa's sack here for next
(41:27):
week.
Let's see what we got in store for you guys.
I'm going to scrape bottom, brother.
I'd rather get in Mrs. Claus's stockings.
Oh, geez.
Wow.
Okay then.
All right.
So we'll be looking for some classic Christmas albums to discuss.
(41:48):
Stay tuned.
Check it out.
Well, what's your favorite holiday album?
What else are you listening to?
Leave a comment on our website or email us at podcast at albumnerds.com.
You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and threads at albumnerds.
Also please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcast app.
And if you'd like to support the show, you can do so via PayPal at albumnerds.com slash
(42:08):
support.
Thank you once again for joining us on the Album Nerds podcast.
We'll catch you next time where we get holly jolly with some Christmas albums.
Thanks, everybody.
See you then.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
April.
We're going to get a lot of that next week.
(42:30):
Yeah, hopefully Andy will share some of his beautiful vocal pipes with us.
Bah humbug.
Oh yeah.
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