Seasons of the Ukulele

A weekly song challenge for ukulele players - all welcome. Find out more here

Season 760 - Songs from the Great Folk Scare of the Sixties

UkeCan1

AlanDP Yankee Doodle. No macaroni.

Coincidentally, the macaroni bit won me and my trivia team 10 points and a bottle of wine last week for a tie-breaker question that isn't supposed to be worth points, except we got the answer exactly, which never happens.

The question was, according to the BBC, when did a recipe for "macaroni cheese" first appear in print?

I'd make you guess, but the song kind of gives it away - the answer was 1770 - decades or even centuries earlier than most teams guessed.

I didn't actually know the exact year, but I knew the ballpark - from this song and from a fascinating video I'd recently watched about the macaroni fashion craze of the period, which was mostly about clothing, but also included Italian food.

As the token American on our trivia team here in Australia, I'm always good for a few extra points that no one else here knows but every third grader in the US would know. 😆

I'm not sure how much use I would be on an American trivia team, but here I have my niche!

Threebird

I think Jean Ritchie's "The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore" qualifies as a folk song, especially since I know it via Michelle Shocked, so I will post it as my back track for the Season.

hands_on_lanzon

UkeCan1 a film so nice the remade it thrice!! yowza! i obviously didn't put enough research in, beside seeing a couple google entries pop up for the two others i listed.

the 2018 version got some nominations for film, actor, actress, supporting actress and Shallow won an Oscar for original song for a motion picture.

they sure cast all the films well!

potmo

"One Meatball" Josh White

Written by Hy Zarret and Lou Singer

UkeCan1

I spent far longer than planned today on theme research … and eventually I found the perfect twofer song for you @CanadaJim and David @potmo .

Just when I was getting ready to record it, my dear local friend Nina invited me to dinner. So we did this instead.

John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads"

We tweaked the locations a bit to fit our locale.

jon

one more from me Jim
a traditional Scottish ballad
thank you for a great week!
"Bonnie George Campbell"

potmo

"The Bravest" Tom Paxton

A great topic Jim. I am ashamed to say that I had not heard the name Tom Paxton before, though I do recognize a few of his songs. I am guessing that you probably met and hung out with him and he knew you by name. Some day you will have to share some of those experiences with us. In the meantime, I would love to hear whether you coined the term "Folk Scare of the Sixties" or if that was a common usage at the time, no doubt related to the red scare of the fifties. As I mentioned in my YT description. I heard this song once and it is the only song I remember from Pete Seeger's concert. That's a pretty impressive song IMO.
Somewhat appropo in the wake of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the twin towers (when everything started to really go to shit)

potmo

~~Del Griff Special~~ ~~Blast from the past~~

FLASHBACK "Coming in From Los Angeles" –Arlo Guthrie (Twofer)

OK maybe this is more Folk Rock or Folk Scare of the Seventies, but Arlo gets a path cuz of his daddy. I have to say this may be the easiest twofer Sunday in history. Traveling is to folk what booze is to country, ganja is to reggae, interjections are to The Beatles and clothing is to Elvis Costello... Love the new term Jim and sorry not sorry that @threebird opened up the floodgates to the newly coined term "Flashback"!

potmo

Five song Twofer Extravaganza "Travlin' Folk Medley"

potmo I have to say this may be the easiest twofer Sunday in history.

Here is my proof of concept.

OnlyUkeThatMatters

In 1982, during a band interview in New Zealand, Joe Strummer & Topper Headon of the Clash played a couple verses of the lovely folk song "Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet?"

And Joe was playing baritone ukulele!

UkeFoote

"Northwest Passage", by Canadian Stan Rogers, for baritone ukulele chord melody.

CanadaJim

Words Without Music - Dayle Stanley - learned from Patrick Sky
Two chords |:G / / / |Dm / / / 😐 Played on a C harp in the key of G - cross harp

CanadaJim

I'm headed to bed now, but when I wake up, Season 760 will be finished and it'll be time to do some hard travelling.

Plese let me know if I've neglected to leave your video a comment or have left you off the playlist.

UkeCan1

I spent hours yesterday finding the perfect twofer for you and David:

"Moving to Berlin" by folk singer-songwriter Fionn Regan

I would have a gone for a cleaner take, but the cockies got squawky.

UkeCan1

Here's my flashback - a folk song spoofing folk songs - "Like a River" by my dear friends, folk trio Modern Man.

This version is from last year, for the Big River theme. I first did it a decade ago, for prison Season - see if you can figure out why.

MsBean

I've picked one from Dylan's debut album, and I even listened to his version, The Soggy Bottom Boys, Miley Cyrus and one more. This might even be a twofer, since it's about going back to California (or Kentucky in Burnett's original).

The arrangement is by DoctorUke:

https://www.doctoruke.com/_player/manofconstantsorrow.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_of_Constant_Sorrow

CanadaJim

**.Well our FOLK Season 760 has come to an end and we had these contributions added:

- Jon has given us a kids' song from Woody Guthrie called CLEAN-O,
- From Steve we got a cool song called SHEEP STEALER,
- Chris gave us MAYBE IT'S TIME from A Star Is Born,
- John brought us a bluesy version of LONE STRANGER,
- Jim did an early folk-rock song from Sonny & Cher called HAVE I STAYED TOO LONG,
- Jon gave us some KISSES SWEETER THAN WINE. I hope Joo doesn't get jealous.
- Jon is an old folkie, like me (Well, maybe not that old) and he had no trouble finding songs to share this season.
* WAYFARING STRANGER
* THE FARMER IS THE MAN
* TURKEY IN THE STRAW (Always nice to hear a fiddle tune on the uke)
* HULLABALOO BELAY
^ THE BOOK OF LOVE
- Alan gave us a version of YANKEE DOODLE with no feather or macaroni
- Del brought us Pete Seeger's WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE
- From Threebird we heard a song by Jean Ritchie, the Queen of the Mountain Dulcimer, called THE L&N DON'T STOP HERE ANY MORE
- David brought us an old favourite of mine, Josh White's ONE MEAT BALL.
- Wendy and Nina gave us a duet on John Denver's TAKE ME HOME, COUNTRY
- From the Scottish tradition we heard BONNIE GEORGE CAMPBELL sung by Jon
- David gave us a Tom Paxton song called THE BRAVEST. I'm a Tom Paxton fan, but had never heard this one.
- David also shared an Arlo Guthrie song, COMIN' IN FROM LOS ANGELES
- David's Twofer was a FIVE SONG FOLK MEDLEY
- Ralf brought a lovely old folk song, WHO'S GONNA SHOE YOUR PRETTY LITTLE FOOT
- From Brian, we heard Stan Rogers' iconic NORTHWEST PASSAGE (Tune in on September 27 to hear this and many other Canuck songs from Brian and Borfus)
- Jon and I have been dipping into Payrick Sky's debut LP and I have added a ukulele/mouth harp duet called (for some reason) WORDS WITHOUT MUSIC
- Overnight, Wendy gave us two more songs. one, a perfect Twofer for David, MOVING TO BERLIN, and another, a flashback parody called LIKE A RIVER.
- And Ylle closed our season with MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW.

I was asked if I coined the term "The Great Folk Scare". I can't take credit for that and I can't recall who it was. I have heard both Dave Van Ronk and U. Utah Philips use it and I'm pretty sure that one of them is responsible but I'm not even positive of that. Anyone know?

Many thanks to all who contributed to this Season and I'm off to look for some traveling songs to wish David a happy move.**

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