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Thread: Tony Rice's "House Carpenter" source

  1. #1
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    Default Tony Rice's "House Carpenter" source

    Does anyone know Tony Rice's source for "House Carpenter" on the record Church Street Blues? Did he know it from a specific record?

    (Not sure if this fits under "European Folk" for the source, or "Bluegrass" for Tony.)

  2. #2
    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tony Rice's "House Carpenter" source

    "House Carpenter" is a traditional (passed on orally from person to person) ballad (in folk song terminology, a song that tells a story), also called "The Daemon Lover," and included in English and Scottish Popular Ballads, the definitive collection of older ballads by the Harvard scholar, James Francis Child (Child Ballad #243). The song exists in many variations. American versions similar to Rice's are common (though I suspect the guitar arrangement is his own). Doc Watson, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan are among the many who have recorded the song. Doc said that he learned his version from his parents. Bertrand Bronson included many American ballad tunes in Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads (1957 - 1972). I'd be surprised if a variant close to Rice's isn't in Bronson's collection. Again, I'm talking about the basic tune, not Tony's interpretation. Clarence Ashley's version of the song was included in the Folkways record set, "Anthology of American Folk Music" (1952), a highly influential source for folk revivalists of the 1950's and early 60's, including Dylan and Baez.

    Here's Clarence Ashley's version:



    information on the ballad:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daemon_Lover

    information on Child Ballads:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Ballads

    information on "Anthology of American Folk Music":

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthol...can_Folk_Music

    Doc Watson's version:



    If the links don't work search YouTube for: "Clarence Ashley/House Carpenter" and "Doc Watson/House Carpenter".
    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

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    Default Re: Tony Rice's "House Carpenter" source

    And on the mandolin side of things, John Reischman and the Jaybirds recorded it as well on the Stellar Jays album.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Tony Rice's "House Carpenter" source

    Folks have been singing House Carpenter on both sides of the pond for centuries, and recording it for a hundred years.
    It's as old as The Devil's Nine Questions, but I don't hear that one sung over here . . .

    Rice could have picked it up anywhere-- Jean Ritchie, Judy Collins, Martin Carthy, any one of the Seeger family, and a long line of singers from both sides of the ocean stretching back into eternity [way farther back on the British side].
    Last edited by rcc56; Apr-19-2022 at 12:06am.

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