Rounder Songs

Honest and intriguing, Rounder Songs unites the traditional with the modern in a stunning, beautiful fashion.  

--Andy Jurik, PopMatters

Additional live performances HERE

Rounder Songs is a song cycle for voice, banjo and chamber ensemble that brings together North American old-time music and 21st century classical music. The immersive, multi-movement work is 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—rather than one dominating the other—and the arrangements are inspired by field recordings of the Hammons Family, Addie Graham, Arthur D. Johnson and Roscoe Holcomb.

Conceived and arranged by Emily Pinkerton and Patrick Burke (who are also a married couple), Rounder Songs focuses on the common ground between their musical worlds: driving rhythms; subtle melodic variation; and tense, captivating harmonies. In the murder ballad “Pretty Polly,” the darkness of the song is brought to chilling life by the paintings of Joanne Wiggins which are projected during concerts. Emily currently performs with fivebyfive chamber players who deliver powerful performances on flute, clarinet, guitar, piano and bass—from the interlocking textures of “Red Rocking Chair” to the heart-rending harmonies of Civil War-era tune “Three Forks of Hell.”

Released in 2017 on New Amsterdam Records, Rounder Songs has been performed at National Sawdust, Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert Series, TUTTI Fest at Denison University, Music on the Edge at the University of Pittsburgh, and has had multiple features on WNYC’s New Sounds with John Schaefer. The song cycle has a solo arrangement for house concert settings, and also pairs well with workshops and community outreach activities.

With thanks...

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.

Field Recordings:

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)

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.