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Hard Times (1854)


Bob Michel

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I was noodling on the concertina this morning and realized that I'd been playing variations on this song for several minutes. "Why not?" thinks I. So here's a spontaneous version, something a bit different from the WWI-era stuff that's been preoccupying me these last months:

 

http://youtu.be/FFGt5y12TDk

 

Nowadays, when it's firmly established as part of the canon, having been covered by the likes of Dylan, Cash, Springsteen, Harris and so on, it's easy to imagine that this was one of the Stephen Foster songs we (in the States, anyway) grew up singing in school, along with "Old Folks at Home" and "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Oh, Susannah." It wasn't, though: I'm pretty sure I first encountered it on the 1981 LP of the same name by the Red Clay Ramblers.

 

One wonders how it ever fell out of circulation. Anyway, to my ear it sits very nicely on an Anglo.

 

Bob Michel

Near Philly

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Nowadays, when it's firmly established as part of the canon, having been covered by the likes of Dylan, Cash, Springsteen, Harris and so on, it's easy to imagine that this was one of the Stephen Foster songs we (in the States, anyway) grew up singing in school, along with "Old Folks at Home" and "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Oh, Susannah." It wasn't, though: I'm pretty sure I first encountered it on the 1981 LP of the same name by the Red Clay Ramblers.

 

Another fine one. Thanks.

 

I didn't realize all those "famous" folks had covered it. I think I first heard the song in my own childhood... but definitely not in school. And that doesn't surprise me in the least. None of the school song books I remember included anything even vaguely suggestive of social ills. Although I never heard anybody say so outright, it seems that it was considered disloyal to admit that such things could ever have happened in America. :o History courses -- or "Social Studies", as we called it -- weren't all that different.

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None of the school song books I remember included anything even vaguely suggestive of social ills. Although I never heard anybody say so outright, it seems that it was considered disloyal to admit that such things could ever have happened in America. :o History courses -- or "Social Studies", as we called it -- weren't all that different.

I hadn't been thinking along those lines, but I'm sure you're right: the school-approved Foster songs were stronger on period flavor than they were on social commentary. On the other hand, they also contained lyrics one cringes even to see in print now, but which we sang blithely enough fifty years ago.

 

Bob Michel

Near Philly

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I was noodling on the concertina this morning and realized that I'd been playing variations on this song for several minutes. "Why not?" thinks I. So here's a spontaneous version, something a bit different from the WWI-era stuff that's been preoccupying me these last months:

 

http://youtu.be/FFGt5y12TDk

 

Nowadays, when it's firmly established as part of the canon, having been covered by the likes of Dylan, Cash, Springsteen, Harris and so on, it's easy to imagine that this was one of the Stephen Foster songs we (in the States, anyway) grew up singing in school, along with "Old Folks at Home" and "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Oh, Susannah." It wasn't, though: I'm pretty sure I first encountered it on the 1981 LP of the same name by the Red Clay Ramblers.

 

One wonders how it ever fell out of circulation. Anyway, to my ear it sits very nicely on an Anglo.

 

Bob Michel

Near Philly

 

 

Nice.

 

Ah, the REd Clay Ramblers. One of my all time favorite bands. Still have all the old vinyl, including Hard Times.

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Closed our Civil War era concert with this. Here's our version. The piano part is the original published one. Audience in on chorus.

 

That's a lovely arrangement, and well performed. The piano part is particularly nice, I think.

 

Bb Michel

Near Philly

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