{"id":493,"date":"2016-03-06T07:00:06","date_gmt":"2016-03-06T12:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=493"},"modified":"2017-03-18T14:59:50","modified_gmt":"2017-03-18T18:59:50","slug":"nottamun-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nottamun-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Nottamun Town (Jean Ritchie)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Nottamun Town\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rVT72uyPm84?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Like pretty much everybody, I got this from Jean Ritchie. I never actually had any Jean Ritchie albums &#8212; I don&#8217;t know why, since I liked her singing, but that&#8217;s how it was &#8212; but this was on a four-LP anthology called <em>The Folk Box<\/em>. <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-494 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/The-Folk-Box-300x300.jpg?resize=244%2C244\" alt=\"The Folk Box\" width=\"244\" height=\"244\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/The-Folk-Box.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/The-Folk-Box.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/The-Folk-Box.jpg?w=400&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 244px) 100vw, 244px\" \/>I must have got that set fairly early, because I can&#8217;t remember <em>not<\/em> having it, and I have very clear memories of working my way through the accompanying booklet, which had photographs of all the musicians and lyrics to all the songs. It had Dave Van Ronk singing &#8220;Don&#8217;t You Leave Me Here,&#8221; which I knew at one point, and when I look through the titles most of them are familiar, but this is the only song I remember well enough to perform.<\/p>\n<p>Given the eerie lyric, I was charmed when I began investigating and the first evidence I could find of this song was from a book published in 1911 by the Transylvania Printing Company &#8212; but, sadly, that turned out to just be the press of Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-500 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/The-Gray-Mare-small-194x300.jpg?resize=194%2C300\" alt=\"The Gray Mare (small)\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/The-Gray-Mare-small.jpg?resize=194%2C300&amp;ssl=1 194w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/The-Gray-Mare-small.jpg?w=200&amp;ssl=1 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/>Further investigation &#8212; with thanks to the Mudcat discussion group &#8212; turned up a broadside titled<a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/resource\/amss.sb30373a\"> &#8220;The Old Gray Mare&#8221; <\/a>in the Library of Congress, which has a very similar lyric performed by a comedian named W.B. Cavanagh at Barnum&#8217;s Museum. Slightly more investigation revealed that Cavanagh was a professional stage Irishman and minstrel, author of plays and folios including <span class=\"st\"><em>Jennie Angel&#8217;s Shamrock Songster<\/em> (1867) and &#8220;<\/span>the laughable farce&#8230;entitled <em>Jim Crowe, Alive Again<\/em>&#8221; (1869). And that&#8217;s as far back as I&#8217;ve been able to trace it.<\/p>\n<p>I find numerous sources that suggest one could trace &#8220;Nottamun Town&#8221; much further and farther, to the British Isles, some giving regions and dates for <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-499\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/JeanRitchie-300x263.jpg?resize=300%2C263\" alt=\"JeanRitchie\" width=\"300\" height=\"263\" \/>its possible origin, and many suggesting it is a survival of old mummers&#8217; rituals. But none seem to include any solid evidence of its existence there before it was reintroduced by Ritchie (or, for the more scholarly, by Cecil Sharp&#8217;s <em>Folksongs of the Southern Appalachians <\/em>&#8212; which at first glance seems an earlier source, since he published in 1932, but he collected the song from Jean&#8217;s sister and cousin, so the Ritchie women still seem to have a good claim), and all the British versions I&#8217;ve seen are clearly descended from hers.\u00a0 If someone out there finds a pre-Ritchie British version of a substantially similar song &#8212; not just a nonsense song with a few overlapping lines, but something at least as close as &#8220;The Old Gray Mare&#8221; &#8212; please let me know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An eerie and apparently ancient song from the singing of Jean Ritchie, with a nice broadside of a 19th century variant and some bootless  musicological musings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nottamun Town (Jean Ritchie) - Old Friends: A Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An eerie and apparently ancient song from the singing of Jean Ritchie, with a broadside of a 19th century variant and some bootless musicological musings.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nottamun-town\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nottamun Town (Jean Ritchie) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An eerie and apparently ancient song from the singing of Jean Ritchie, with a broadside of a 19th century variant and some bootless musicological musings.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nottamun-town\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-06T12:00:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-18T18:59:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/The-Folk-Box-300x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nottamun-town\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nottamun-town\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"headline\":\"Nottamun Town (Jean Ritchie)\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-06T12:00:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-03-18T18:59:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nottamun-town\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":442,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nottamun-town\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/The-Folk-Box-300x300.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nottamun-town\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nottamun-town\\\/\",\"name\":\"Nottamun Town (Jean Ritchie) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nottamun-town\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nottamun-town\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/The-Folk-Box-300x300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-06T12:00:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-03-18T18:59:50+00:00\",\"description\":\"An eerie and apparently ancient song from the singing of Jean Ritchie, with a broadside of a 19th century variant and some bootless musicological musings.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nottamun-town\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nottamun-town\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nottamun-town\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/The-Folk-Box-300x300.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/02\\\/The-Folk-Box-300x300.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/nottamun-town\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Nottamun Town (Jean Ritchie)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"description\":\"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\",\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"width\":70,\"height\":85,\"caption\":\"Elijah Wald\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nottamun Town (Jean Ritchie) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","description":"An eerie and apparently ancient song from the singing of Jean Ritchie, with a broadside of a 19th century variant and some bootless musicological musings.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nottamun-town\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nottamun Town (Jean Ritchie) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","og_description":"An eerie and apparently ancient song from the singing of Jean Ritchie, with a broadside of a 19th century variant and some bootless musicological musings.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nottamun-town\/","og_site_name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","article_published_time":"2016-03-06T12:00:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-03-18T18:59:50+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/The-Folk-Box-300x300.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Elijah Wald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ElijahWald","twitter_site":"@ElijahWald","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elijah Wald","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nottamun-town\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nottamun-town\/"},"author":{"name":"Elijah Wald","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"headline":"Nottamun Town (Jean Ritchie)","datePublished":"2016-03-06T12:00:06+00:00","dateModified":"2017-03-18T18:59:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nottamun-town\/"},"wordCount":442,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nottamun-town\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/The-Folk-Box-300x300.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nottamun-town\/","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nottamun-town\/","name":"Nottamun Town (Jean Ritchie) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nottamun-town\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nottamun-town\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/The-Folk-Box-300x300.jpg","datePublished":"2016-03-06T12:00:06+00:00","dateModified":"2017-03-18T18:59:50+00:00","description":"An eerie and apparently ancient song from the singing of Jean Ritchie, with a broadside of a 19th century variant and some bootless musicological musings.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nottamun-town\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nottamun-town\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nottamun-town\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/The-Folk-Box-300x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/The-Folk-Box-300x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/nottamun-town\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Nottamun Town (Jean Ritchie)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/","name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","description":"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9","name":"Elijah Wald","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","width":70,"height":85,"caption":"Elijah Wald"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1"}}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3642,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kuolewa\/","url_meta":{"origin":493,"position":0},"title":"Kuolewa (Jean-Bosco Mwenda)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"April 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Each lesson with Jean-Bosco Mwenda would focus on a particular song -- \"Masanga,\" \"Bibi Teresa,\" \"Kijana Muke\" -- and after I'd learned the guitar parts to three or four of these I asked if he could write out the lyrics for me. Polite as always, Bosco got out a pen\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/EW-with-Bosco-and-family.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1674,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wake-little-susie\/","url_meta":{"origin":493,"position":1},"title":"Wake Up, Little Susie (Everlys and Bryants)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"June 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When I first heard the Everly Brothers, I didn't know what to make of them. They didn't sound exactly like doo-wop, or like country, or like rock 'n' roll. In retrospect, I see them in the long tradition of country brother duets, following the Delmore Brothers, the Monroe Brothers, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"2-3 Everly Brothers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/2-3-Everly-Brothers-299x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":206,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/pay-me-my-money-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":493,"position":2},"title":"Pay Me My Money Down","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"February 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/i7FgKZ2xT54 I play this in an African-influenced guitar style I developed much later, but it is one of those songs I \"always\" knew. My original source was Phyllis Switzer (later Goldstein), who led a folksong singalong for kids at the MBL (Marine Biological Laboratories) Club in Woods Hole every summer.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Phyllis Switzer","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Phyllis-Switzer-209x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1934,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/the-boxer\/","url_meta":{"origin":493,"position":3},"title":"The Boxer (pleasures of busking)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"July 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Public performance is always a reciprocal process-- the performer does something, the audience reacts, the performer reacts, and so on, in a comodius vicus of recirculation. So when every so often someone says, \"Play your favorite song,\" my reaction -- though I sometimes try to be polite and not express\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"simon and garfunkel","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/simon-and-garfunkel.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":415,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/banks-of-marble\/","url_meta":{"origin":493,"position":4},"title":"Banks of Marble (Pete Seeger)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"March 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A more didactic \"This Land Is Your Land,\" about wealth creators, and wealth creation, and how the former very rarely see much of the latter.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Seeger Gazette","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Seeger-Gazette-298x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1031,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/black-mountain-blues\/","url_meta":{"origin":493,"position":5},"title":"Black Mountain Blues (Dave Van Ronk)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"May 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I got this from Dave Van Ronk's first album -- once again, it was the kind of violent, bragging song that perfectly suited the tastes of a teenage boy who was getting into blues. Dave had learned it from Bessie Smith's recording, and had the bright idea of combining her\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Scrapper_Blackwell and Bessie Smith","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Scrapper_Blackwell-and-Bessie-Smith-197x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2692,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions\/2692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}