Josh White Live!

 

Josh White - Live!

Josh White

Live!

Cover Design: Joel Tanner

Cover Photograph: George Pickow

ABC-Paramount ABC-407

A Product of ABC-Paramount Records, Inc.

1961

From the back cover: JOSH WHITE RETURNS TO LONDON – The date was April 1, 1961. The city was London. Josh White, America's great blues and ballad man, walked onto the stage of London's huge Royal Festival Hall. A capacity audience of 4,000 warmly greeted the American, and he returned the greeting with a memorable concert, brought to you now on this recording.

Josh was no stranger to London, and vice versa. Here is how Peter Rachtman, writing in the July, 1961, issue of 33 Guide described an earlier visit:

"In 1950, Mrs. [Franklin D.] Roosevelt took Josh on a concert tour of Europe. In England, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Scotland, he sang to sell-out crowds. Fifty thousand people showed up for one concert in Stockholm and at an Ambassador's party in Copenhagen; even the King of Denmark sat on the floor and joined in singing spirituals. In England, Princess Margaret asked Josh to sing Don't Smoke In Bed. He set an unusual record in England when the B.B.C. booked him for all three classes of radio programs-the Light (low-brow), Home (medium-brow), and Third Programme (high-brow), an achievement not even matched by the nonpareil and ebullient Danny Kaye."

Josh White's first appearances in London were made about fifteen years ago. It was natural, after taking the American listening public by storm that he should develop a reputation and a following in Europe. To many there he is one of our leading performers. He has described his approach toward folk music in these terms:

"I was a folk singer long before I knew what it's called. Even when I was a boy, I made up and sang songs of ordinary people, trying to convey their joys and sorrows, their grievances and their hope. In this I was expressing not only my own sentiments but the feelings of humble people generally, what- ever their color or their names."

Josh White's story began on Feb. 11, 1915, in Greenville, S. C., when he was born to a poor preacher's family. Josh picked up some pennies when he was a toddler by leading a blind man around, and for the subsequent ten years that was to be his occupation.

His first music was the spiritual, and at the age of 11, under the name, The Singing Christian, he made his first disk. Later, he was to switch to making blues recordings; the first were done under the pseudonym of Pinewood Tom, to keep the peace in his religious family. The success story was not a straight upward path, for there were setbacks – in an accident to his hand and a period when he was reduced to working as an elevator operator.

But his fame was growing, and one successful engagement followed another. Here is how that period is summarized in Folksingers And Folksongs In America by Ray M. Lawless (Duell, Sloan and Pearce):

"From humble circumstances and through difficult times Josh White has come to fame and success-on the concert stage, on radio and TV, and in recordings. His many appearances over the past twenty years are next to innumerable, but some examples should be mentioned. He sang and played with the Southernairs over N.B.C. On three different occasions he performed at the White House, and he did six concerts at the Library of Congress. In 1941, he went, under government auspices, on a goodwill tour to Mexico with the Golden Gate Quartet. During the Forties he had long runs at Cafe Society Uptown (three years), the Village Vanguard (twenty-four weeks), Cafe Society Downtown, and many other places in New York. He did weekly broadcasts for the O.W.I. (Office of War Information), some of them over the B.B.C. In 1944, he had a fifteen-minute sustaining program over station WNEW, and in 1946-47 he made his first formal concert tour of over thirty Canadian and United States cities..."

The program at the Royal Festival Hall was a characteristic one for Josh. There are the old favorites like Betty And Dupree, Wandering, Head Like A Rock. There are blues like You Know, Baby and Where Were You, Baby? There is the gallows defiance of Sam Hall, the tender lyricism of Scarlet Ribbons and the playfulness of Apples, Peaches And Cherries.

Rounding out the program are three songs closely identified with the life and music of Josh White. Marching Down Free- dom Road was set to music by Josh from a poem by Langston Hughes. The Man Who Couldn't Walk Around had been dedicated by Josh to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Strange Fruit, with its anger and philosophy, reflects the early years of this outstand- ing interpreter of American folk music. –   Stacey Williams

Betty and Dupree

Wandering

Got A Head Like A Rock

Apples, Peaches & Cherries

You Know Baby

Freedom Road

Scarlet Ribbons

The Man Who Couldn't Walk Around

Where Were You Baby When My Heart Went Out

Sam Hall

Strange Fruit