New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Smithsonian Folkways Recordings) What is a songster? Album co-producer Barry Lee Pearson, scholar of African American music at the University of Maryland, says that the term is an often contradictory one. While the designation originated in
Europe over a thousand years ago, by the early 20th century in
America it acquired more of a racial meaning, designating travelling African American singers with the ability to change repertoires to suit the tastes of different audiences.
Streaming Audio Preview:
Three-song sneak preview from Classic African American Songsters from Smithsonian Folkways
https://www.folkways.si.edu/radio/classic_african_american_songsters_preview/
As Pearson puts it, "[A songster] is both a keeper of tradition, disseminating folk materials wherever he goes, and tradition's worst enemy, contaminating local tradition with modern popular music. He is the inventor of blues and not a blues musician at all. Classic African American Songsters aims to set the record straight and show that there has long been much more to the African American secular song tradition than just the blues.
Classic African American Songsters tracklist:
**Previously Unreleased
1. Warner Williams with Jay Summerour - "Bring It On Down to My House"
2. Pink Anderson - "Talking Blues"
3. John Jackson - "Nobody's Blues (If I Do)"
4.
Little Brother Montgomery - "Alabama Bound"
5. Brownie McGhee - "Pallet on the Floor"
6. Bill Williams - "Chicken, You Can't Roost Too High for Me"**
7. Lead
Belly - "My Hula Love"
8. Reverend Gary Davis - "Candy Man"
9. John Cephas and Phil Wiggins - "Going Down the Road
Feeling Bad"
10. Peg Leg Sam - "Froggy Went A-Courting"**
11. Mississippi John Hurt - "Monday Morning Blues"
12. Pink Anderson - "The Boys of Your Uncle Sam"
13. Brownie McGhee - "Raise a Ruckus Tonight"
14. Marvin Fodrell - "Reno Factory"
15. John Jackson - "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down"
16. Warner Williams with Jay Summerour - "Honeysuckle Rose"
17. Big Bill Broonzy - "Bill Bailey"
18. Bill Williams - "When the Roses Bloom Again"**
19. Peg Leg Sam - "Straighten Up and Fly Right"**
20. Snooks Eaglin - "
Careless Love"
21. Martin, Bogan, and Armstrong - "They Cut Down the Old Pine Tree"**
https://www.folkways.si.edu/about_us/news_press.aspx#5_1_14-CAAS
