{"id":1051,"date":"2021-09-03T15:14:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T15:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.nysmusic.com\/2021\/2021\/09\/03\/new-album-from-smithsonian-folkways-gathers-never-before-heard-recordings-from-doc-watson-and-more\/"},"modified":"2021-09-03T15:14:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T15:14:00","slug":"new-album-from-smithsonian-folkways-gathers-never-before-heard-recordings-from-doc-watson-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.nysmusic.com\/2021\/2021\/09\/03\/new-album-from-smithsonian-folkways-gathers-never-before-heard-recordings-from-doc-watson-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"New Album from Smithsonian Folkways Gathers Never-Before-Heard Recordings from Doc Watson And More"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A new album from Smithsonian Folkways challenges the historical conception that New York was the sole epicenter of the 1960s folk revival. The Village Out West: The Lost Tapes of Alan Oakes <\/em>compiles extensive field recordings from the revival\u2019s burgeoning center in Northern and Central California, all carefully taped by autodidact documentarian Alan Oakes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Smithsonian<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The vibrancy and creativity of the 1960s folk scene in New York has been well-documented. From the epicenter of Greenwich Village, where Bob Dylan<\/a> and Joan Baez rose to prominence, to Upstate\u2019s lasting legacy of Woodstock \u2018<\/a>69, folk music has deep roots on the East Coast, and the 1960s revival would inspire generations of artists to come. But on the other side of the country, an equally spirited musical movement was occurring in the San Francisco Bay Area, where traditional musicians came together, and up-and-comers learned from their techniques while establishing their own legacies.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cself-appointed sonic Boswell\u201d of the 1960s California folk revival, Alan Oakes<\/a> was born in Fresno in 1940. After his death in 2019, his wife Marnie Oakes connected with album co-producer Deborah Robins and shared she planned to discard some of his unknown archives of recordings. Robin\u2019s desire to properly preserve the collection, an invaluable window into the early days of the folk reemergence, resulted in the creation of the album.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oakes recordings, taken from over 60 open reels made between 1960 and 1975, capture the enthusiasm and palpable excitement of the early movement. The recordings span a variety of venues: storied festivals like the Jabberwock and Berkeley Folk Music Festival, clubs like The Cabale and the Blind Lemon, and many workshops, interviews and intimate house concerts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two-CD set features never-before-heard live performances from legendary musician Doc Watson, whose distinctive flatpicking technique on acoustic guitar helped shape the sound of bluegrass, country and folk during the 60s. A live recording of classic tune \u201cBilly in the Lowground,\u201d finds Watson joined by lifelong fiddle master Hank Bradley and banjoist Rick Shubb, whose \u201cShubb capo,\u201d which features an adjustable clamp, is still a top-stelling capo style today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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