Ascolta anche: Beans, Bacon & Gravy, "My Own House"document available in:English Español Italiano 
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In Lugano, Switzerland, just before a presentation of Manituana at "Il Molino" occupied social centre, we met Angelo Nuzzo, who's been playing mandolin, dulcimer and autoharp for almost thirty years in the band Beans, Bacon & Gravy. BB&G are veteran interpreters and aficionados of North-American "old time music". They play the tunes which European immigrants (people from England, Scotland, Ireland, France etc.) took with them to the colonies during the 18th and 19th century, laying the foundations of a music we usually regard as "quintessentially American" although part of its roots are under European ground. Those ballads, jigs, and fiddle songs are the ones the white settlers used to play and dance to at the time we chose to depict in Manituana (and the next books of the Atlantic Tryptich). Appalachia is the region where this tradition is most lively. Angelo picked two songs from the BB&G repertoire - The Coo Coo Bird and My Own House - as contributions to Manituana's communitarian soundtrack. The Coo Coo Bird (top right click, streaming audio) is a typical example of a "Frankenstein-song", as critic Andrew Hultkrans once put it. Its surrealistic lyrics - of which dozens of alternate versions exist - is a collage of lines of obscure origins, fragments of old nonsense rhymes etc. The song was made famous by banjoist Clarence Ashley (1895-1967), who recorded it for the first time in 1928. In 1953 Harry Smith included it in his seminal Anthology Of American Folk Music. Listening to those discs changed the life of Bob Dylan and heavily influenced the late 1950's / early 1960's folk revival in the US. Here's one of the existing versions of the song:
My Own House (top left click) is a Scottish waltz, also known as Me Ain Hoose or, in Gaelic, Mo Dhachaidh. Beans, Bacon & Gravy line-up: Angelo Nuzzo (Angelo) - autoharp, dulcimer, mandolin, triangle, vocals Celso Costantini (Celo) - banjo, double bass, ukulele, vocals Mauro Rogora (the Chief) - glass harmonica, banjo, guitar, violin, vocals Paolo Rusconi (Paolino) - guitar, dulcimer, vocals Sergio Tosi (Scanna) - lead vocals, spoons, hurdy-gurdy, washboard
24 June 2007 |
Audio:› downloadDownload:› Scarica l'mp3 di The Coo Coo Bird› Scarica l'mp3 di My Own House ) Beans, Bacon & Gravy in a late 1970's picture Links: |
