Music Arcades: Various: The Rose and the Briar - Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad

The Rose and the Briar book that gave rise to this CD has come up a few times already around these parts (1, 2, 3).

My dad complains about his failing memory (which is at least partly down to the medication he's on, as well as his 82 years). He can pick up a book, start reading it, and not remember that he read it all the way through a few weeks previously. If I pick up a book, I can remember pretty reliably (I think) if I've read it before. But what good is knowing you've read it, if you can barely remember anything of what it said? That's almost more frustrating than forgetting that you ever saw it before.

Though forgetfulness also has its advantages. If you don't remember how Dolly Parton's Down from Dover ends, it socks you in the solar plexus all over again. (Let's just say that I can't tell Lucy about this song just now — but you can view an over-egged version on YouTube.) It's comfortably the most powerful song on this listen.

Overall, it's an eccentric collection of songs. Greil Marcus has made something of a career out of his archaeological approach to old murder ballads and what they say about the birth of America as a nation. Yet, from this perspective and that of the title of the book/CD, many of the tracks are some way 'off message'. The inclusion of Bobby Patterson's Trial of Mary Maguire is just one example — I've got a vague recollection that the chapter about this song might even admit as much.

The other fly in the ointment of Marcus's meta-narrative, it seems to me, is that the songs in whose lines the soul of America is said to be inscribed also exist on our side of the Atlantic. For every Appalachian version of Pretty Polly, there is a British analogue. On Friday I was privileged to hear Alasdair Roberts sing an a capella version of On the Banks of Red Roses, which is more or less the same song.

I also have a vague feeling that Marcus has an answer to this objection, but I can't remember what it was. One thing I can remember a bit about is the chapter about Buddy Bolden, a key figure in the founding of the blues. The reason it sticks in my mind, sad to say, is probably that it involves a smelly fart and swearing (apparently the word 'funk' was once even more profane than that other four-letter f word is now).

It's a little bit of a rip-off, this book tie-in compilation business (I paid a lot more for it than Amazon is selling it for now). Particularly when there are so many recordings of the older songs now freely available in the public domain. Three years ago, when I read the book, I created a playlist on Webjay that linked to freely available online versions of many of the songs. Sadly Webjay is no more, but you can still see another version of the playlist on Upto11.net and on FIQL. There's a playable version of the abridged playlist on plurn.com.