Single Song Sunday: Summertime
(John Fahey, Colin Meloy, Pura Fe, The Zombies and five more!)
There’s a good bit of the Gershwin brothers in the folkstream, and for good reason: the best of their tunes are catchy, simple, and storied, just as the best folk is. Moreso, more than almost any other composers of popular song for the stage, the universal recognition factor of so much of their songbook marks it as folksong, or something near enough: owned by the culture-at-large, familiar on the tongue and the ear, versatile enough to take flight in the hands of the hundreds of artists and amateurs who have made the songs their own.
In the case of Summertime, a song which first came to light as a repeated motif in Porgy and Bess, the connection to folk is especially strong. The deliberate faux-African American folk spiritual tone, and the Ukranian folk-lullaby which composer George Gershwin mined for the aria, speak to a solid grounding in the musical traditions of not just one but several peoples. And the simple lyrics, co-written by brother Ira Gershwin and Porgy playwrights DuBose and Dorothy Hayward, are ecologically-grounded, deeply emotional, and culturally resonant. As such, though it also makes for an especially lush pianoblues and vocal jazz standard, the song calls to folk, and has been amply covered in the folkworld.
As promised when we last visited the songs of summer, then: a good and typically diverse set of folk and folk-hybrid takes on this cultural classic. From the light, earthy tones of favorite folk interpreters Doc Watson and Dave Grisman to John Fahey’s languid, ringing walk, the country steel wail of Mike Auldridge and the eerie lo-fi indiefolk of Decemberist Colin Meloy, the mystical ghosts of native american folk artist and lap slide aficionado Pura Fe, the mellow jamfolk of The Zombies, Janis Joplin’s bluesy wail, Eva Cassidy’s lounge blues; Bela Karoli’s strange and beautiful deconstructed stringfolk: this is summer incarnate, no matter how you slice it.
- Doc Watson and Dave Grisman: Summertime
- John Fahey: Summertime
- Mike Auldridge: Summertime
- Colin Meloy: Summertime
- Pura Fe: Summertime
- The Zombies: Summertime
- Janis Joplin: Summertime
- Eva Cassidy: Summertime
- Bela Karoli: Summertime
Cover Lay Down is proud to support direct and independent sales over mass-market commercialization and the narrowing of the cultural spectrum which the megastore model leads to. As always, folks, if you like what you hear, don’t forget to click on artist links above to pursue purchasing, in most cases direct from the artists.
Category: Single Song Sunday
August 15th, 2009 at 1:35 am
[...] more)Peter Mulvey: Ten Thousand Mornings, Redux (covers of Los Lobos, U2, The Beatles, and more!)Single Song Sunday: Summertime (John Fahey, Colin Meloy, Pura Fe, The Zombies and five more!)Covered in Pianofolk: The Keyboardist as Folk Musician (Allison Crowe, Vienna Teng, Emm Gryner, [...]
October 5th, 2009 at 2:58 am
hey, what album is the watson grisham tune off of?
theletterkarp@gmail.com
October 5th, 2009 at 5:23 am
All purchase links are in the paragraph above, Daniil; the album is Doc & Dawg, released last decade.