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Down Home Radio Show

About Me

Mission Statement of Down Home Radio: Folk music is America's cultural public secret. Live performances and recordings of our traditionally, orally schooled musicians are available to those who know about them and know where to look, but for nearly all of us they are stored in a dark and unmarked warehouse, hard to find, impossible to navigate. These old types of blues, old-time country, gospel/spirituals, Mexican and Cajun/Zydeco music are a truth telling attack on our so called "pop" culture and a window into the interior of our culture, from which the public has been systematically excluded. This music gives reality to our history and to our present by expressing the deepest thoughts and feelings of regular people from different parts of the country, different backgrounds and different time periods. Down Home Radio will give this music light and air thereby opening the warehouse and making accessible the information it stores. Listen at the roots, with a mind for detail. Given this information, you will no longer accept stereotypes of or fall for clichés about our cultural past. Let this program be your introduction and a continuing guide to this trove of material, an arms cache in the culture war. For musicians and fans of music alike you will find a fresh and clear perspective in your evolving appreciation and critique of music. In times of crisis such as the Great Depression of the 1930's and the world revolutions of the 1960's folk music, both as a mirror and a hammer, has come to the fore and played an important role in movements for social and political change. Today we are once again in the middle of a huge economic, political, etc. crisis. To address this, in addition to our emphasis on traditional music, Down Home Radio will educate our listeners as to the history of overtly political folk music and also give voice to contemporary political musicians. ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ --- ------Sample Segments: **Live Interview And Performance- Featuring the best contemporary performing artists in the field of traditional folk music. **Melting Pot and Patchwork Quilt- The former featuring American music that is something new having evolved from a hybrid of traditions and the latter old world traditions which have remained relatively intact in this country. **Focus On One Artist- Highlights one folk musician, talking about their life and music in detail and playing several recordings. **Focus On One Instrument- Highlights one instrument in the hands of different musicians playing in different styles and from different schools. **Same Old Song- Revealing the direct links between old and new songs and playing different versions of the same song across time. **Theme Segment- Playing songs in a particular theme such as work songs, songs associated with different industries and the labor movement, songs about love and intimate life, railroad songs, campaign songs, etc. This focus serves to reveal candid feelings and thoughts on a subject from a particular time our past. **CD/Book Review- Highlighting new and old releases of particular interest.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 07/06/2006
Band Website: www.DownHomeRadioShow.com
Band Members: Down Home Radio is a traditional folk music internet radio program available at www.DownHomeRadioShow.com . Down Home Radio is hosted and produced by Eli Smith.
Influences: MUSIC: Music: Roscoe Holcomb, Frank Proffit, Gus Cannon, Frank Blevins, Doug and Jack Wallin, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Gaither Carlton, Mississippi John Hurt, Woody Guthrie, Blind Boy Fuller, Emry Arthur, Ramlin' Jack Elliott, Riley Puckett, W.H. Stepp, Rufus Crisp, Clarence Ashley, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Sid Hemphill, Alec Askew, Will Head and Lucius Smith, Josh Thomas, Paul Clayton, Jelly Roll Morton, Victoria Spivey, Lonnie Johnson, Mike Seeger/NLCR, Grayson and Whittier, Burnett and Rutherford, Lucius Curtis and Willie Ford, Guy Carawan, Jim Garland, Jody Stecher, Samantha Bumgarner, Banjo Bill Cornett, Wade Ward, Big Bill Broonzy, Leadbelly, Mance Lipscomb, Golden Gate Quartet, Old & In The Way, Bill and Charlie Monroe, Delmore Brothers, Frank Stokes, Stanley Brothers, Crap Eye, Memphis Jug band, Nashville Washboard Band, Henry Thomas, Washington Phillips, Dock Boggs, Furry Lewis, Joe Hickerson, Alan Lomax, Henrietta Yurchenco, Archie Green Bob Dylan, Hobart Smith, Dave Van Ronk, Doc Watson, Jimmie Rodgers, John Fahey, Daniel Jatta, Public Enemy, Immortal Technique, Master P, Otis Brothers/Pat Conte, Charlie Patton, Abe Mandel among many others. I also like music from all other parts of the world such as gamelan music from Indonesia, George Sibanda is great from Zimbabwe, sapeh lute music from Sarawak Borneo, Malaysia, lots of Central Asian music. Basically check out the Nonesuch Explorer Series, PAN Records and the Secret Museum of Mankind on Yazoo. Also check out internet archives of Pat Conte's old radio show on WFMU. ------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------- I also check out visual art/films by Bill Traylor, Thomas Hart Benton, Harry Smith, Lotte Reiniger, Jan Svenkmeyer. Wild Style is a great folk music/art movie. ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------TELEVISION: public access ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------FILM: films of John Cohen. also check out www.folkstreams.net . ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------BOOKS: "A Mighty Hard Road" and "Around the World in 80 Years" by Henrietta Yurchenco, "Selected Writings" by Alan Lomax, "Love &; Theft" by Eric Lott, "Pastures of Plenty," "Born to Win" and "Woody Sez" by Woody Guthrie, "Making People's Music" by Peter Goldsmith, "I Say Me for a Parable" by Mance Lipscomb, "The World Don't Oew Me Nothin'" By David Honeyboy Edwards, "The Emerging Police State" By William Kunstler, "Notebook of a 60's Lawyer" by Michael S. Smith, "On a Slow Train Through Arkansas" by Thos. W. Jackson, "American Folk Music and Left-Wing Politics" by Richard and JoAnne Reuss, "Charles Seeger, A life in American Music" by Ann M. Pascatello, "Ruth Crawford Seeger" by Judith Tick, "The Incompleat Folksinger" and "How to Play the 5-String Banjo" by Pete Seeger, "African Banjo Echos in Appalachia" by Cecelia Conway, "The Mayor of MacDougal Street" by Dave Van Ronk w/ Elijah Wald, "Counter-Tradition" ed. by Sheila Delany, "Joe Hill: The IWW &; the Making of a Revolutionary Working Class Counter Culture, "The American Folk Scene" ed. by David A. DeTurk, "Gilgamesh" translated by Stephen Mitchell, "Joe Gould's Secret" by Joseph Mitchell, "You Can't Win" by Jack Black, "Our Singing Country" by John and Alan Lomax, "The Politics of Heroin" by Alfred W. McCoy, "The Trouble With Music" by Mat Callahan, "The Old-Time String Band Songbook" by Cohen/Seeger/Wood, "The Society of the Spectacle" by Guy Debord, etc. etc.
Type of Label: Major

My Blog

Save Down Home Radio! - Fund Drive...

Hello everybody. The shows been going on now for more than 3 years.  Its been a great project; a quick look through the archives will show you the depth and scope of what has been aired on Down H...
Posted by on Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:36:00 GMT

Down Home Radio makes Village Voices "Best of New York Issue"

Check out this week's Village Voice (week of Oct. 15th) for a nice write up of Down Home Radio. DHR won in the "Best Way to Compensate for the Lack of Roots-Music Radio" category."Everyone complains ...
Posted by on Sat, 18 Oct 2008 05:49:00 GMT