This is not a new book, but I finally read it during this pandemic. Originally published in 2010 by the University of Illinois Press, Ray Allen's Gone to the Country: The New Lost City Ramblers & The Folk Music Revival is a biography that looks at the history of the band and its impact on the folk revival period and continuing legacy through an academic lens.
Allen paints a portrait of a band that rode the wave of the commercial folk revival of the 1950s and '60s and weathered the storms of scant financial gains, public perception and personal conflicts to leave a lasting legacy that has influenced legions of old-time musicians since their inception in 1958.
John Cohen, Tom Paley and Mike Seeger — the original lineup of the band — first played together on a radio show in Washington, D.C., in May 1958. After that performance, Cohen took the initiative and spoke to Folkways Records founder Moe Asch about making a recording and then to Izzy Young of the Folklore Center in New York City about organizing the band's first paid gig at Carnegie Recital Hall later that summer.
The book not only chronicles the rise and fall of the New Lost City Ramblers, but also takes a critical look at each of the band's albums released through Folkways Records. Therefore, Allen provides both historical context and a dissection of the Ramblers' musical output.
Allen also provides the details on how the members of the New Lost City Ramblers helped "rediscover" older folk musicians such as Elizabeth Cotton, Dock Boggs, Roscoe Holcomb, Eck Robertson and others.
What I was most surprised to learn about was the feud that led to Paley departing the the New Lost City Ramblers in 1962, whether he left on his own accord or was fired, the attempt to recruit Doc Watson as a replacement, as well as the legal battle Paley waged over Cohen and Seeger continuing to use the band's name after Tracy Schwarz joined the group.
Despite the commercial success of a number of musicians associated with the folk revival period, the Ramblers struggled throughout their career to survive as a full-time touring band. Eventually, the lack of income and interpersonal strife within the band led to their breakup in 1979. However, Allen notes that Cohen rejected the idea that the band truly broke up, as they continued to play occasional reunion concerts and released their final album in 1997.
Throughout the book, Allen constructs a clear message about the role of the New Lost City Ramblers in realm of folk music and the study of so-called "revival" vs. "authentic" musicians. He views these classifications as outdated, and argues that the discrimination against urban practitioners of folk music styles in the academic field needs to end.
"Academic and government folklorists in particular should recognize that there very practices they once accused urban revivalists of perpetuating — romancing the folk, inventing tradition, and imagining community — are deeply inherent in their own discipline, whose roots spring from the romantic nationalism of the eighteenth and nineteenth century," Allen writes in Chapter 10. "Moving beyond these outmoded paradigms will be well worth it. Our knowledge of folk music's role in the modern world will be greatly enhanced, as will our appreciation of musicians and cultural activists like the Ramblers who sought to connect worlds that were eagerly waiting to discover one another."
As a longtime fan of the New Lost City Ramblers, this was a very enjoyable book. The academic language and intrusive endnotes can sometimes bog down the reading experience, and there are a few annoying editing problems with book, primarily the correct spelling of certain people's names. Poor Jenny Clelend of the Highwoods Stringband is referred to as Jenny "Cleveland" throughout.
However, placing those issues aside, Allen provides an in-depth look at one of the most popular and most important old-time string bands of the last 60 years. The book is well-researched and includes some of the last interviews with the Ramblers while they were all still alive. It was fascinating to learn about internal politics of the group and their efforts to spread the love of old-time music to future generations of fans and, hopefully, tradition bearers.
John Cohen, Tom Paley and Mike Seeger — the original lineup of the band — first played together on a radio show in Washington, D.C., in May 1958. After that performance, Cohen took the initiative and spoke to Folkways Records founder Moe Asch about making a recording and then to Izzy Young of the Folklore Center in New York City about organizing the band's first paid gig at Carnegie Recital Hall later that summer.
The book not only chronicles the rise and fall of the New Lost City Ramblers, but also takes a critical look at each of the band's albums released through Folkways Records. Therefore, Allen provides both historical context and a dissection of the Ramblers' musical output.
Allen also provides the details on how the members of the New Lost City Ramblers helped "rediscover" older folk musicians such as Elizabeth Cotton, Dock Boggs, Roscoe Holcomb, Eck Robertson and others.
What I was most surprised to learn about was the feud that led to Paley departing the the New Lost City Ramblers in 1962, whether he left on his own accord or was fired, the attempt to recruit Doc Watson as a replacement, as well as the legal battle Paley waged over Cohen and Seeger continuing to use the band's name after Tracy Schwarz joined the group.
Despite the commercial success of a number of musicians associated with the folk revival period, the Ramblers struggled throughout their career to survive as a full-time touring band. Eventually, the lack of income and interpersonal strife within the band led to their breakup in 1979. However, Allen notes that Cohen rejected the idea that the band truly broke up, as they continued to play occasional reunion concerts and released their final album in 1997.
Throughout the book, Allen constructs a clear message about the role of the New Lost City Ramblers in realm of folk music and the study of so-called "revival" vs. "authentic" musicians. He views these classifications as outdated, and argues that the discrimination against urban practitioners of folk music styles in the academic field needs to end.
"Academic and government folklorists in particular should recognize that there very practices they once accused urban revivalists of perpetuating — romancing the folk, inventing tradition, and imagining community — are deeply inherent in their own discipline, whose roots spring from the romantic nationalism of the eighteenth and nineteenth century," Allen writes in Chapter 10. "Moving beyond these outmoded paradigms will be well worth it. Our knowledge of folk music's role in the modern world will be greatly enhanced, as will our appreciation of musicians and cultural activists like the Ramblers who sought to connect worlds that were eagerly waiting to discover one another."
As a longtime fan of the New Lost City Ramblers, this was a very enjoyable book. The academic language and intrusive endnotes can sometimes bog down the reading experience, and there are a few annoying editing problems with book, primarily the correct spelling of certain people's names. Poor Jenny Clelend of the Highwoods Stringband is referred to as Jenny "Cleveland" throughout.
However, placing those issues aside, Allen provides an in-depth look at one of the most popular and most important old-time string bands of the last 60 years. The book is well-researched and includes some of the last interviews with the Ramblers while they were all still alive. It was fascinating to learn about internal politics of the group and their efforts to spread the love of old-time music to future generations of fans and, hopefully, tradition bearers.
Thanks for the review, sounds like an interesting read!
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