Monday, November 30, 2009

Jean Ritchie- Elektra LP



This is one of the oldest Jean Ritchie lp, issued by Elektra Records in the 1950's. Coming from a very musical family from Viper, Kentucky, Jean Ritchie came to New York to study in the 1950's and introduced many people there to the traditional music of the Appalachian mountains. With her sweet voice and gentle dulcimer playing, many fell in love with this type of music and the great folk revival was on his way... On this lp, her very first recordings, she sings her usual repertoire of old ballads, play-party songs and dulcimer pieces. It includes her most popular pieces like Shady Grove, The Cuckoo (2 versions here) or Black is the color...
Enjoy! (this lp is more than 50 years old so it includes a few clicks, pops and crackles...)

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a fascinating post and a piece of history. In the Electra catalogues the album (released in 1957) is titled "Songs Of Her Kentucky Mountain Family". the compilers have noted: "Some copies do not have a sleeve title"!

The music is even older and the album combines tracks from the 10-inch albums EKLP 2 (1952)and EKLP 25 (1954). EKLP 2 is regarded as the first true Electra recording to be issued and it includes tracks previously released as 78's under the 'New York State Historical Association' label but recorded by the founder of Electra.

Anonymous said...

PS. I hit Publish instead of Preview
and forgot to say thank you!

Please keep up the good work.

cdelint said...

What a cool post--thanks to Donnatv for the added history!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Janas said...

Thank you, Gadaya

Texas Pines said...

Gadaya, first let me thank you for your amazing blogs. Each and every one of them has been a treat to read and has introduced myself and all of my closest friends to the wonderful music contained within.

However it seems that this file is password protected. I can't seem to find the password, either... Perhaps it's somewhere I'm just not seeing. Regardless, I would truly appreciate it if you could either provide or point out to me where the passcode for this record is located. It would be a treat to hear this wonderful, historical record!

Kegan said...

Hello Gadaya - I don't post much in the way of comments, I always so busy with school work to look at Blogger and see what you have to offer. Jean Ritchie is my absolute favorite, and I thank you for posting this :)

I see that you and I follow one of the same blogs; I was wondering if you might be able to email me at your convenience; I have a question about the blog, and I cannot locate the blogger's address, because the blog seems to be invite only.

My address is spragues2828(at)yahoo(dot)com, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks again for the great music!

Gadaya said...

To Texas Pines, i don't understand because none of my posts have ever been password protected and others seems to be able to download the zip file. Sorry but i don't know what happened...

Texas Pines said...

Hmm... That's very odd. I've come across several of your files that people have claimed in the comments to be password protected as well, and when I downloaded them they ended up asking for a PW. Maybe it's a problem with the OS, or simply a problem having to do with our individual computers...? Regardless, I'm still thankful for all the great music you've provided and for replying to my comment. :) Thanks!

Any middle-aged German Witch in Amerika said...

Hello,

I have found your blog through a link on another blog (grapewrath), and I was very curious about this album.

Before I saw grapewrath, I had never heard of Jean Ritchie, and I was thinking (by her repertoire) this might be another June Carter (whom I loved and even saw LIVE in Hannover 1994 with her hubby and son on stage).

Unfortunately I cannot open the file. I seem to have the same problem as Texas Pines mentioned above.

I opened the zip and saw there was a kind of OS file (whatever that might mean). I saw that before, and usually I am always deleting these unknown files from the folders, since my computer cannot understand them anyway. Usually that has never any consequenses on the music.

So I deleted that unknown OS file within the zip folder before opening it, bcause it was (as Texas Pines correctly mentioned!!) password protected.

I thought, since I don't need that OS file anyway, just delete it and keep the music. Since only the OS was protected, that should be now easy - I thought! But no, I cannot extract the mp3s.

And I am not even being asked for a password. I am told that "the path cannot be found" (whatever that might mean).

I am writing this just to give you a feedback. It is not meant as criticism or so.

legally immune said...

Jean Richie appears, reminiscing, in the brilliant BBC series Folk America.

legally immune said...

OS files almost always mean 'Operating System' (i.e windows or mac system files) and shouldn't normally be in such a d/l as this.

Anonymous said...

Hi!

I hope you still read this part of your blog; I couldn't find an email adress so this would be the best option.
I think I have had the same issue as the others with this folder and its subfolder, but found a solution at least to delete or move this file. It seems that the NTSF file system has been corrupted in some way which leaves an undeletable MACOS folder & Jean Ritchie folder. While the files still can be played these folders cannot be moved. The error message reads: Cannot delete file. Cannot read from source file or disk.

There was some solution for this on the web, but the one that worked for me was the program Unlocker. The homepage is for some reason reported to Microsoft as unsafe, which seem weird since I found no problems when entering the site, but the program can be downloaded at other sites for those who are unsure.

I have not encountered this problem with the other downloads so I think this only concerns this file. However it may be a good idea to make a new upload of this LP with uncorrupted files and folders/ 2010-05-04/

As a side note: Thanks to you and your fellow bloggers who shares these near-impossible to find music.

Vega#3 said...

I haven't seen a note that this album have been reuploaded yet.

If you don't have done this already then I ask you to please do this as soon as possible. You know, no other blog with this kind of purpose has uploaded these kind of files. If there is some plans of officially release of this album, then I could understand, or if the main folder has been removed from your computer. There is also few or no interactions with those visiting your blog. Some sign of life is necessary, I think.
Otherwise, leaving undeletable files on other's computers, without giving as much as a hint in the main post, well, I hope you understand my point...

Anonymous said...

I downloaded this Jean Ritchie folders right now in 17th of July and I found the problem: When you try to open the main folder in Windows XP, it just closes and you have to open it again, and the main folders cannot be moved, but the "audio files" is accessible.

You can solve parts of the problem by accessing the sound files, select them and choose "cut" and move them to a different folder. The now empty folder locks a explorer process which causes the problem of not being able to delete the folder. The program "Unlocker" can delete both the Jean Ritchie "folder" and the "MacOSX folder".

This is from what I know the only folders that acts like this on this blog.

Best Wishes,

VegaBanjo#3 said...

A correction to my above comments:

I used ExtractNow and I have since tested Windows Explorer and Winzip. Explorer asks for a password for this file, but Winzip works alright.

Possibly some other shareware like WinRar or others work good also.

So my other comments/issues with this applies to either ExtractNow or the default extraction utility in Windows Explorer (not the Internet Explorer!)

The problem seems to be solved, for now.

Best Regards,
Robert