|
Momma Don't 'LowTM is a newsletter to support home-made and roots-based music in general, as well as the readers of our music articles on various web pages, including SchoolOfTheRockTM, Creek Don't RiseTM, and Classic Train SongsTM.
- If you did not get this Momma Don't 'LowTM newsletter through your own e-mail, and you would like to get the newsletters in the future, please Click Here to sign up.
- On the other hand, if you don't want to receive our e-mail updates, please e-mail me with a "Please Unsubscribe" message (worded any way you wish), and we will graciously remove you from our list.
In this Issue - October, 2014
This is the third issue of our "Momma Don't 'Low" newsletter. Although our mailing list is small, the online version of the first one got plenty of hits, so hopefully word is getting around.
This issue's articles are:
Other countries have trains and train songs. But the railroad was so crucial to America's growth, that the trains and the songs and stories they inspired are a unique component of our cultural lifeblood. A few train songs, like "The Wreck of the Old 97," were even instrumental in bringing whole genres of music to national attention.
We started the Classic Train Songs page several years ago in response to reader questions. To give readers a chance to hear the same songs done in different styles, we included links to Amazon mp3s and YouTube performances. Last year, certain publishers filed "cease and desist" orders that got many of those performances taken down from YouTube. In addition, record companies like doing things like replacing one "Bill Monroe's Greatest Hits" with another one, republishing all the same songs, but breaking all of our links in the process. So we did an extensive revision of the site. But while we were at it, we added several songs that weren't there before for one reason or another.
We hope to add more in the future, but we'd also love to add links to well-performed, royalty-free versions of the public domain songs, to help the next generation love them as much as we do, hint, hint. YouTube or MP3. Whatcha think?
Click on the following link to see the Classic Train Songs page
Our friends at Kitchen Musician are responsible for keeping many great old songs in circulation, as their free music and songbook pages attest. For Halloween, they've added a special feature on their home page - links to several traditional tunes with creepy tunes or titles.
Click on the following link to see the Kitchen Musician page
More Banjo Madness
 After five years of telling amateur guitarists that buying a 6-string banjo will make them a banjo player overnight, some vendors have caught on that selling wannabee Scruggs pickers banjos without a drone string is a bad idea. So now they're labeling ANY 5-string banjo they sell a "Bluegrass banjo," which is still not exactly true. Yes, you can LEARN Scruggs picking on a cheap 5-string banjo (as long as the neck is straight, the frets are even, and the thing has been set up properly). But if you want to play with a real Bluegrass band, you're going to need something more.
If you want to know what that is, click on the following link to see our "What is a Bluegrass Banjo?" page:
 In addition, as you can see, for a time I owned three six-string banjos. Now I'm back down to one, after trying the electric-acoustic Dean Backwoods 6 and comparing it feature-by-feature to the "base" (non-pickup) model. You might think that the electric-acoustic one might just be the same as it's "little brother" with more bells and whistles. But it's not. It's not so much a better banjo as it is a different banjo. As it turns out, the electric-acoustic version suits my picking style better, but the "cheaper model" might be a better investment for a lot of folks.
To see why, click on the following link:
There are many songs that sound like folk songs but are still under copyright. The works of Tom Paxton and Steve Goodman (writer of "City of New Orleans") for example. But there are a lot of songs in public domain that unscrupulous printers attach a copyright to every time they include them in a collection (at no cost to them). Sometimes they even manage to collect royalties from unsuspecting people. And that's not the only reason songs that "everybody owns" wind up being more-or-less the property of a single person.
To read more, click on the following link to see our "Who Owns Folk Songs?" article.
Our Americana/Roots/Folk Music Discussion Forum - Two Months Out
Two months ago, we rolled out an online discussion forum for acoustic music, Americana, Heartland history and related topics. Only a couple people have contributed (mostly Paul), but the forum has already gotten thousands of "hits." So even if there isn't much involvement there's a whole lot of interest.
I know for a fact that there are many folks out there who are way more knowledgeable than I on many topics. Also, many of our articles attract dissenting opinions that would be great topics for group discussion. So don't be shy. The signup is manual (otherwise I open the floodgates to too many spammers), but as soon as I get you signed in, you can participate in any discussion.
To see the Creek Don't Rise discussion forum without signing up, click the following link:
To sign up for the forum (and this newsletter, if you wish), click the following link:
More from Tom Jackson
Tom Jackson, who has helped many artists create a stage show that builds a fan base and sells CDs adds another article that some of our readers will find helpful. No, it's not about lighting and smoke machines, it's about choosing songs that will help people "get to know you quickly" and remember you later, even if you only have a small time slot and someone "better" is coming onstage after you.
To see "Four Rules to be the Opening Act They Remember" click on the following link:
More to Come
If you've spent any time on any of our music sites, you know that we have a lot of topics to share about.
Again, if you did not get this Momma Don't 'LowTM newsletter through your own e-mail, and you would like to get the newsletters in the future, please Click Here to sign up.
In the meantime, if you want to see last month's newsletter, please click the following link:
Keep playing, keep singing, and keep sharing!
Paul D. Race
http://CreekDontRise.com
http://SchoolOfTheRock.com
http://classictrainsongs.com
|
More Classic Train Songs online
Kitchen Musician's Halloween Offerings
