...Sung by a guy who wasn't a hillbilly:
He was a Brit. The late Lonnie Donegan, the King of Skiffle.
Donegan taking on "Rock Island Line" twice -- 1970s style and more traditionally. Either way, it's a long trip from the 1934 John Lomax prison recording.
(How is "Tom Dooley" not Hillbilly music? I suppose it is; skiffle isn't. While there was indeed a real Tom "Dooley" (Dula), who did indeed hang for a murder he either committed or deliberately took a fall for in North Carolina in the 1860s, the various forms of "doule" are Scots terms for a place of hanging, as in "Doule tree." Art, life, hillbillies and Scots/Irish/Gaels: small world.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
4 comments:
Many hillbillies -are- Scots/Irish/Gaels. From Wikipedia:
"European migration into Appalachia began in the 18th century. [...] A relatively large proportion of the early backcountry immigrants were Ulster Scots— later known as "Scotch-Irish"— who were seeking cheaper land and freedom from Quaker leaders, many of whom considered the Scotch-Irish 'savages.'"
...Yes, that was my point...
I listen to iHeart now and again, and a couple of my stations (the Waylon Jennings and the Bob Wills, if memory serves) will set me up some Lonnie Donnegan when I crank the "variety" knob up a notch or two.
That "70's version" is a lip-synch to the Lonnie Donogan and Friends album version with Rory Gallagher on the screamin' Strat.
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