During their first of two trips to FSA Camp, Charles L. Todd & Robert Sonkin fortunately got to record both Price and Johnson for the Archive of American Folk Song (today: Archive of Folk Coulture).
Despite being rather short excerpts these first two recordings of Harding Price being accompanied by Ernest Alston on guitar do display proficiency and precision on both guys' instruments:
Harding Price & Ernest Alston - "Spanish Two Step"
Harding Price & Ernest Alston - "Careless Love"
Ace Johnson's train imitation is top notch technically, displaying a variety of popular train rhythms from back in the old days. His tune "Mama don't allow..." though is a great example of classic country and coffeehouse harp playing. Furthermore he appears on some other recordings as a guitarist which was very common then.
Ace Johnson - "Train"
Ace Johnson & LW Gooden - "Mama don't 'low no Swingin out in Here"
All recordings can be heard on "Voices from the Dust Bowl", a collection of about 18 hrs of audio recording as well as pictures and notes taken between 1940 and '41.
Please enjoy!
maz
1 comment:
Thank you for posting these. I have been searching for these Ace Johnson recordings forever. I'm still looking for a recording of his "Rabbit in the Garden," if anyone has any info it would be much appreciated.
Post a Comment