Quote:
Originally Posted by JonPR
You're still missing my point. I was only talking about how he played the song!
That's what I mean by saying the history "doesn't matter". It's irrelevant to the point I was making, which was simply an opinion about his performance and his arrangement. I'm sure he knew as much of the history as you and I do, but his recording is not a history lesson. You don't have to know anything about where the song came from to appreciate that he did with it.
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Yes you do because the history and tradition of the song is still alive, you need to know what Kelly Jo Phelps had heard before he came up with his version.
If all he had heard was Jaqui McShee's Pentagle recording then his arrangement would have been revolutionary but from the sound of it that's not likely or doesn't seem so to me.
If you consider that there was already a pre existing tradition of English folk songs, previously sung in the unaccompanied tradition migrating to the USA , being heard by black farm workers working alongside European immigrants and getting banjo-fied then accompanied by slide guitar then Kelly Jo Phelps version doesn't sound so revolutionary any more because maybe it wasn't such a great departure from the totality of his influences?
It's a bit like listening to Elvis Pressley's recording of Hound Dog and thinking wow! That's different without ever having heard Big Mamma Thornton's original version.