Rounder Songs

“Who’ll rock the cradle when I’m gone?”

Appalachian song cycle by Emily Pinkerton & Patrick Burke. For voice, banjo, flute, clarinet, electric guitar, piano and bass. Commissioned by NOW Ensemble and released on New Amsterdam Records. 5 movements, 27 minutes.

Based on tunes and folk tales from Kentucky and West Virginia that tell stories of several “rounders,” including a gambler, a murderer, and a mill worker who strikes a deal with the devil. Old-time and classical styles work hand-in-hand, and the arrangements are inspired by field recordings of the Hammons Family, Addie Graham, Arthur D. Johnson and Roscoe Holcomb. Live performances feature projected artwork of painter Joanne Wiggins.

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  • In “Red Rocking Chair,” the clarinet, flute, piano, guitar and bass create a cyclic melody that is a distillation of clawhammer banjo patterns.  The individual lines interact in a way that echoes the relationships between the banjo strings, creating a minimalist texture.

  • "Marcum and the Yankee" is an adaptation of a Hammons family legend about a mill worker who has an encounter with a demon disguised as the mill owner.  Both eerie and cathartic, it represents the intersections of industry with the environment.

  • Pretty Polly is chilling murder ballad set in 6/8 (unlike more well known versions in duple meter).  It opens with the evocative line "left nothing behind but the birds to mourn": the words the murderer speaks as he walks away from the fresh grave he has dug for his lover. 

  • “Three Forks of Hell,” a Civil War-era tune referring to a river, is an instrumental piece that explores the harmonic boundaries of old-time banjo, and suggests the movement of water through canons and counterpoint. 

  • The last movement, “Darling Corey,” is an arrangement of a song with verses that have heavily syncopated interjections by the ensemble. It draws from multiple field recordings in which the seventh degree of the scale is ambiguous, and clashing major and minor scale degrees run throughout the piece. 

 

  • Burl Hammons’ “Sugar Babe,” “Little Omie” & “The Yankee and Marcum” in“The Hammons Family: A Study of a West Virginia Family’s Traditions,” Field Recordings and liner notes by Alan Jabbour, Dwight Diller and Carl Fleischauer: 1973, AFS L65-66 (https://www.loc.gov/folklife/ LP/AFSL65andL66_Hammons.pdf)

    Addie Graham’s “Darling Corey,” “Pretty Polly” and “Poor Omie” from "Been a Long Time Traveling," released in 1978, rereleased 2008, June Appal 0020D

    “Three Folks of Hell” from “Old Time Banjo Anthology,” (AHR B2013 © 2013 Produced by Gerald Milnes from original cassette format. Originally released on cassette by Marimac Recordings on the Augusta Heritage Series, 1991, as AHS-4 and AHS-5). p. 16 “a local Civil War tune” played by Arthur D. Johnson (Randolph County).

    We are indebted to the original performers of these songs, and the broad community of musicians who taught them—from family, to neighbors, and travelers. Our gratitude extends to the folklorists and field recorders who were close to these musicians, and worked to preserve their music and history (list below). “Red Rocking Chair” comes from recordings of Sherman, Maggie and Burl Hammons’ “Sugar Babe.” Alan Jabbour categorized this tune as a “rounder song,” “cultivated especially by young men, carefree and assertive in spirit…” with musical and lyrical structure from African-American banjo song traditions. Likely a “rounder song” as well, “Darling Corey” comes from a recording by Addie Graham, whose sliding vocals may have been influenced by the music of Grant Reed, an African-American banjo player she listened to as a child. She probably learned this tune between 1899 and 1910, when Black and white laborers worked on the Ohio and Kentucky railroad. Some of Emily’s banjo rhythms pull from Roscoe Holcomb’s version of the same song. We approach this music as members of the old-time revival community, but as outsiders to the regional communities whose culture bearers performed these songs. We pursue this project with commitment to continued study of old-time’s musical roots, the “un-learning” of white-washed origin stories, and an understanding of how as present day performers, our work plays a part in either upholding or dismantling these narratives.

  • Rounder Songs is supported by grants from New Music USA, The Heinz Endowments and The Pittsburgh Foundation. The album was produced by Grammy-award winning producer Jesse Lewis, and edited, mixed and mastered at Immersive Music Project. It was engineered at Audible Images. Album art is by Joanne Wiggins with design by DM Stith. We are deeply grateful for the support of all our Kickstarter donors, in particular the generosity of Sally Bozzuto, Ellen Gozion, Molly Burke Leon, David Biedenbender, Roger Zahab, Eddie Chacon, Deb Shinkle, Colleen Merrick, Spencer Udelson, Andrew Kaiser, Cindy Kirsch & David Herndon, Danella Hafeman, Mathew Rosenblum and Sheila Carter-Jones.