Introduction

Our first post this week dealt with the lyrics and the provenance, as well as we can know it, of the ballad “Willie Moore.”  If you’re looking for information and discussion along those lines, I encourage you to click back to that rather long post.  Today’s post will be shorter, and will take you through a curated look at some of the other best professional recordings and performances of that ballad. Note that in that first post we heard classic performances by Happy Traum, Joan Baez, Burnett and Rutherford, and Doc Watson, but I’ve linked them up here in this sentence so, if that’s what you’re looking for, you don’t have to click back.

Now, obviously the choices here will mainly conform to my aesthetic.  For example, though I love bluegrass, I just don’t see how this song works in that format.  So, if you don’t like being ‘curated to’, then let me offer you my raw Spotify playlist, and you can have at it at your leisure, and hopefully we’ll see you next week!

On the other hand, if you’re willing to go for this short trip, I’m more than happy to bring you along.  You can ride shotgun, and I promise I’ll do my best to find the prettiest back roads through this country.

We’ll go chronologically, and I’ll only make a few notes about what moves me particularly about each.  Most of these performances are, unfortunately for our fans in Canada, available only on Spotify.  We wish it could be different!

The Kossoy Sisters and Erik Darling – 1956


The Kossoy Sisters, identical twins, cut their first album at age 17 in 1956 – Bowling Green, on which they were accompanied by Erik Darling.  Though more informed by the urban Folk Revival than by a rural ballad tradition, the sisters’ close harmonies set them apart from (and to my ear, above) many of the vocalists of the Revival.  It is, no doubt, part of what helped diverse listeners connect deeply to their performance of “I’ll Fly Away” in the 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou?  Their vocals on “Willie Moore” are unique and outstanding, as is Erik Darling’s evocative banjo work.

Barry Hall – 1964

Canadian Barry Hall waxed a version of “Willie Moore” on his 1964 album The Virtuoso 5-String Banjo as Played By Barry Hall  for Folkways Records.  As lofty as the title may sound, I’ve found all of the tracks on this album to be both sweet and deep – and the banjo playing is indeed of the highest quality.  His vocal approach leans away from the traditional and more towards what we might consider typical of the Folk Revival.  Though in general I am not a fan of that approach, Hall doesn’t lean past the tipping point for me and I find his voice quite soothing.

Rambling Jack Elliot – early 1960’s


No consideration of the Folk Revival would be complete without a solid chapter devoted to Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and, in my opinion, no compendium of the best versions of “Willie Moore” is complete without his.  The track was recorded during his years with Vanguard Records, some time in the early 1960’s presumably.  (Sorry, I don’t have the liner notes to be able to verify that.)  However, it was unreleased until his Best of the Vanguard Years came out in 2000.  Again, I’m not a fan of typical Folk Revival vocalists who seemed to make a point of ignoring Pete Seeger’s advice on the topic – “In short, be yourself… Simplicity above all.”  Jack Elliott’s approach on the other hand, to me, blows in as a fresh breeze from the Great Plains to dust out the streets of Greenwich Village.  I know, I know, Jack’s from Brooklyn; but Woody Guthrie’s influence was enough to change any of us, and to make us all Okies of a sort.

Hesperus – 1991


Let’s hop ahead a generation or so, to the “innovative, historically informed and multi-cultural” band Hesperus.  From the chants of Hildegard von Bingen to those high, lonesome hillbilly ballads, Hesperus is indeed innovative – and well worth a listen.  On this “Willie Moore” we’re back to a fiddle and banjo.  Bruce Hutton takes Seeger’s advice about vocals, and though he doesn’t strive too hard to sound just perfectly traditional, the effect of his ‘being himself’ vocally is such that I imagine sitting across from him in a country tavern, sharing whiskey while he gently lays on me the local bad news in song.

Roger McGuinn and Joan Baez – June 1, 2000


Roger McGuinn and Joan Baez are names almost every lover of folk music knows, but in this case we’re not listening to either of them crooning something groovy from the ’60s.  Here we’ve got something from the tail end of the 20th century, from McGuinn’s Folk Den Project, wherein since 1995 he has posted a new song, free to download, at the begging of every month.  The 2002 album on which appeared his Folk Den crack at “Willie Moore”, Treasures from the Folk Den, was nominated for a Grammy that year, competing for “Best Traditional Folk Album”.

This performance has little in common with Baez’s early solo recording for Vanguard.  Fiddle, banjo, and guitar all join with harmonies that are reminiscent of the Kossoy Sisters, but also ‘get somewhere’ that the sisters don’t.

The Dust Busters – 2009


The Dust Busters represent a new generation of urban youth taking up the traditional strains of American balladry and string-band music.  Their eponymous 2009 debut album takes its time as it rambles through a forest of pure Appalachian old-time music.  The quality that most attracts me to this particular performance is, again, its authenticity – *not* that it is authentic old-time music, but that the performers are clearly playing music they love for no other reason than that.  Here too we find again that fiddle, banjo, and guitar make for an effective instrumental combination on this particular ballad.

Walking in Sunlight – 2010


I have to admit to zero knowledge of the band Walking in Sunlight.  The little bit of information on their Bandcamp page gives a basic orientation, and I suppose if you like what you hear you might consider ‘liking’ their Facebook page.  Here’s what I like about this track: the fusion of traditional and post-modern musical elements that make this about as far from new commercial  country music as it might be, the vocal embellishment that honors but is not bound by any previous performance, and the juxtaposition of a punchy tempo with a vocal tone that evokes, for me, real pathos.  But that’s just me.

Emily Trantham – 2011

Emily Trantham is a young, 21st century voice with a connection to a family tradition that stretches back much further.  Her solo album, Emily’s Dream, is certainly no break from her family’s influence.   “It has been my dream to explore the music of my family and record a few, well chosen selections to represent the music in my life.”  This version of “Willie Moore” features her father Doug and, though delivered in traditional style, includes more lyric variation from other versions.  Whether her lyrics represent some little-known strain of the ballad or, more likely, some rationalization of her source, is not clear to me at this point.  However, the changes do lend some clarity to the narrative.

Coda

So there you go!  Again, I apologize for the lack of YouTube videos here to supplement Spotify.  There is rather little at all for this ballad in that forum, and what is there is either amateur performance or amateur recording of professionals.

Stay tuned for next week’s edition from Ken, and thanks for reading!