On Feb 10, 5:36 pm, Lyle Lofgren <lylelofg...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Towards the end of our interview with the Canebrake Rattlers (Old Time
> Herald, Feb.-Mar. 2008), we talked a little about their attraction to
> what Pat called "crippled music." That part of the interview didn't
> make the cut in the article (it was already long, and the question was
> more about the Otis Brothers than the Rattlers), but I think it's
> interesting and relevant to what attracts some of us to certain weird
> renditions in OT music.
>
> Lyle
>
> (P = Pat Conte; T = Tom Legenhausen):
>
> Q: This is a little off subject, but the Otis Brothers, the Flying
> Crow record, has "Casey Jones" on it...
> P: I play both bass and accordion on that.
>
> Q: What was there about the Virginia Traditions recording (by Isaac
> Curry, on Blue Ridge Institute LP BRI-001, "Virginia Traditions: Non-
> Blues Secular Black Music," which was Pat's source) that attracted you
> to it? The original is one of the strangest pieces of music I've ever
> heard. You could have listened to it and said "This is an incompetent
> old guy who can't even play the accordion."
>
> P: That's what attracted me. I can't play the accordion. It sounds
> good in a bad way, but in a good way. There's something about crippled
> music in general that, if the spirit is there, it doesn't matter. And
> I thought I had that guy's spirit -- at least I tried. There's some
> struggle and some fun, and they're both mixed in there. Then again,
> that's another caricature. There isn't a bass on the original, but I
> heard a bowed bass, so I put a track on there -- you know, I can't play
> bass, either -- and when two things I can't play come together, it sort
> of makes something. If you remember the Virginia recording, the guy
> doesn't even remember the words, you know he's about on his last legs,
> and that's what I loved about him. He's so fragile. It's such a bent,
> fragile sound, it sounds like he's gonna topple over at any time.
>
> Q: I haven't heard anyone else cover that piece. As a band, are the
> Rattlers attracted to similarly crippled music?
>
> P: Absolutely, yes.
>
> T: One of the first pieces we wanted to do was "Indian War Whoop," so
> we were on an esoteric bent from the start.
>
> P: That was a kind of old-time equivalent to "Casey Jones." Something
> that's really crippled and tottering. But we were also attracted to
> very simple things that had very stark contrasts. Like that thing with
> the fiddle and a slide guitar behind it. These guys were not good
> players, but when they come together, it's good.
Ming's Whoop isn't crippled. It's fit, vigorous and demented.
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