Release party! Congratulations, Cindy. Needless to say, the strains of your new CD have been heard wafting through the air even in stuffy old Hartford recently....


Steve Courtney
7 Union St.
Terryville, CT 06786
860-589-6412


----------------------------------------
> Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:23:26 -0400
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: This year's winner of the MT Award is . . . .
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> http://travelingwithtwain.org/2011/09/22/hannibal-mo/an-evening-of-twain-in=
> spired-bluegrass/
>
> I hope this link survives the cut and paste.
> These folks attended our CD release party
> Tuesday night and shared their thoughts.
>
> From their website:
>
> From September 18 to December 11,=20
> a Northwestern journalism student, a 2011
> journalism graduate and I will undertake a
> 9,000-mile odyssey, =93Traveling with Twain in Search
> of America=92s Identity.=94 The drive will follow trips
> taken around the United States by Mark Twain
> in the 1850s and 1860s. Our journey will
> attempt to weave together three stories about identity in America.
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Mark Twain Forum [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Harold Bush [bushhk@=
> SLU.EDU]
> Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 10:41 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: This year's winner of the MT Award is . . . .
>
> good question, Sharon. and again, as Sharon notes, this response also may
> sound controversial ....
>
> As Cindy notes: the cd is pretty much the Nashville crowd, which is pretty
> white these days. I love a lot of these artists, and some of the artists d=
> o
> tap into the old appalachian roots/Americana stuff from the old days. the
> Church Sisters (very young but quite talented) represent a pleasant trend i=
> n
> music by youngsters -- getting back to the roots (or as Dylan named what I
> think is his greatest record: "Bringin' It All Back Home"). and there are
> some of the old hands, like Jimmy Buffett or Emmylou Harris, and younger
> folks like Ricky Skaggs, whose veneration for older artists like Earl
> Scruggs and Doc Watson (a couple of my personal favorites) is well known. =
> I
> like the line-up, but again; it's all dominated by the Nashville scene, by
> Jackson's own admission; and so interpret that as you wish. Maybe John Bir=
> d
> could say more on this.
>
> A huge part of those roots, besides the race factor (and very often copuled
> with African Americans) is the religious factor. What I really miss (and I
> am this very morning writing about Du Bois and the black spirituals) is, of
> course, those spirituals. There is some irony in the fact that Nashville
> was once the original scene of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, whom Twain stated
> on several occasions were his favorite music. In representing his life, at
> least one or two old spirituals might have been nice -- and also since they
> were so prevalent in his life, and in fact were the songs he attempted to
> sing while comforting his dying wife Livy, for instance. Even the minstrel
> shows and Tom shows drew upon these great songs. I wish this were at least
> represented-- especially given the deep religious convictions of the presen=
> t
> day Nashville scene, which seems like it should know better. Emmylou is
> pretty well known for her faith, but a lot of the other more prominent
> religious artists such as Norman Blake, Alison Krause, Patty Griffin, Buddy
> Miller, or T-Bone Burnett are not represented here.
>
> Not sure why this aspect missed the cut?? Perhaps, again, the general
> misunderstanding of Twain as "not religious"?? just speculating .... but
> without a doubt, MT loved the black spirituals, and often sang them to
> guests at his home.
>
> ps -- Sharon and all; if you've not read David Reynolds' new book on UNCLE
> TOM'S CABIN, you might find the material on the Tom shows as surprising and
> interesting as I did. Not reviewed on this LIST, but certainly a must
> read. It is one of the most positive interpretations of the music of the
> Tom shows I've come across.
>
> --Hal B.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 10:00 AM, Sharon McCoy <[log in to unmask]>wrote=
> :
>
> > May I ask what may be a provocative question?
> >
> > Looking over the CD, it seems to include some wonderfully talented folks.
> > But
> > it seems odd to me, especially given what we know about Twain's taste in
> > music,
> > that a CD called "Mark Twain: Words and Music" seems to be composed
> > entirely of
> > white musicians and performers. Some of the names were unfamiliar to me=
> ,
> > but
> > when I did a quick Google search, they all appear to be white. Odd.
> >
> >
> --
> Harold K. Bush, Ph.D
> Professor of English
> Saint Louis University
> St. Louis, MO 63108
> 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
> <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>