Blues under all American Music

    New Orleans, LA;January 2015.

This week I listened to all the Work Songs / Spirituals / Gospel songs one after the other, but the experience definitely would have been much richer if there was a greater context for each song.

However, one song, My Desire, particularly stood out to me because of its singability, its raw emotion, and its unmistakable spiritual component. With my project I aimed to illustrate the depth of that passion - the desire to please the Lord. I attempted to show the human hands as the creation of God and the powerful symbolic gesture of giving them up to him, but in a way that evokes peace...




On African-American culture and its overwhelming contribution to the melting pot:

I came across this article on Amiri Baraka with a refreshing point of view on Blues People back when it was first written and how it resonates in American society today. I'm not able to post a photo of my project here right now, but I will leave a video of a street musician performing in Jackson Square, the heart of New Orleans - Tony, do you happen to recognize the song?

Sunshine and the Lomaxes

Why is "You are My Sunshine" (potentially) America's best song? It probably has a lot to do with the way Jimmy Davis associated the song so intimately to his campaign and therefore shaped it to be American. Davis' version is very folksy and upbeat; he recreates the song with a playful tune - even the gloomy line "you shattered all my dreams" is sang almost amusingly, which can only really make sense in the light of irony. Alan Lomax elegantly explains this by revealing that to Americans, "love was something you laughed at or died of" and was basically sung of as a joke.

Ollie Gilbert's version is delicate and raw, maybe perhaps because it is sung a capella, but maybe also because it clearly evokes a sense of solemness, almost sadness, and  not of cheeriness... Comparing Gilbert's and Davis' versions of the song produces radically different interpretations of its meaning. It was expressed in class that Ollie Gilbert was singing the song to just sing the song, and not to give it meaning. If this is indeed true, then why was it recorded? Or is it up to the listener (and not the performer) to assign the song some kind of meaning?

It's also interesting how the songs' precursor Heavenly Sunshine addresses God or Jesus as the sun, and the sunshine as the experience of praising Jesus. I'm curious to know the intermediate versions that rose between Heavenly Sunshine and the You are My Sunshine that we sing today...

Regarding the readings, Lomax's prefaces try so strongly to affirm that American folk music is an amalgamation of different cultures that have created America. Though he praises Black traditions for their contribution to the music, I can't help but notice his subtly prejudiced views... He emphasizes the Negros[sic] sexual and aggressive behavior as having a tremendous impact on their music - would a black American who was part of the slave culture of songs and dances express the same sentiment? How much truth can be attributed to Lomax's words? How much of this cultural movement of American folk music continues today?

Down in the Valley, the valley so low

I interpreted "Down in the Valley" as a rather sad love song about a prisoner longing for his lover. But the song also evokes a sense of serenity that suggests that the prisoner may have already accepted his fate of not being able to reunite with his lover and the possibility of his lover falling in love with someone else. He asks her to "give [his] heart ease" - the unrequited love is a reality, so perhaps the song is not merely of love but more of nostalgia.

With my visual response I tried to evoke that sense of serenity and nostalgia while also illustrating forlornness.



Yes, there are two figures in the drawing! The woman and the valley form a single entity, to illustrate nostalgia for the woman intermingled with longing for the valley.. The man is on the far right and he is facing the woman and the valley (has his back to the viewer).

I found it interesting how each student in the class interpreted one song very differently... though I believe Carlos and I had a similar interpretation of the song in recognizing the singer's melancholy.

FIRST SONG

I joined this class because although I've spent most of my growing up in the U.S., the American in the title Korean-American is quite absent of the influence of American folk music. Folk music, to my understanding, is mostly passed down generationally, and my parents undoubtedly never had the chance to learn the folk songs rooted from this country in their purest form. The interdisciplinary approach to studying American folk music in conjunction with the visual arts also peaked my interest as an opportunity to appreciate the interconnectedness of the arts. I also wanted, in part, to get in touch with my artistic side again, which has been very difficult to channel while drowning in the attempt to study science.

My first song is rather an early song that I remember my dad singing to me and my sister. My dad loved to play the guitar - he mostly played Korean folk songs that I do not remember at all, but one of his favorite songs that survived my memory was Besame Mucho. I distinctly remember this song, maybe because of its foreign yet easy chorus lyrics. When my dad sang and played guitar, my sister, my mom and I would watch him intently and even try to sing the songs ourselves though song books were rarely used. Nowadays, my dad does not pick up the guitar, but my mom has always told me that musicality is one of the most attractive qualities in a man. Besame Mucho brings me back to my childhood where these acoustic mini-concerts happened fairly often in the household. I also picked this song because it is so ubiquitous internationally and in the U.S. that it may as well be considered a folk song!

Bésame Mucho

Bésame, bésame mucho Como si fuera esta noche La última vez Bésame, bésame mucho Que tengo miedo a perderte Perderte después Bésame, bésame mucho Como si fuera esta noche La última vez Bésame, bésame mucho Que tengo miedo a perderte Perderte después Quiero tenerte muy cerca Mirarme en tus ojos Verte junto a mi Piensa que tal vez mañana Yo ya estaré lejos Muy lejos de ti Bésame, bésame mucho Como si fuera esta noche La última vez Bésame, bésame mucho Que tengo miedo a perderte Perderte después Bésame, bésame mucho Que tengo miedo a perderte Perderte después Que tengo miedo a perderte Perderte después