| a_s1576_30_c93-024 | "Washboard" Bill Cooke interview at the 1993 Florida Folk Festival Folklife Area (Second interview) | sound | Railroads Employees
Dancers
Singers
Musicians
Folk festivals
Florida Folk Festival
African Americans
Railroads
Oral narratives
Hoboes | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
"Washboard" Bill Cooke interview at the 1993 Florida Folk Festival Folklife Area (Second interview)
- Date
- 1993-05-28
- Description
- One audio cassette. NKwanda Jah is the interviewer. The tape stops and starts intermittently. Cooke tells stories about busking and buck dancing. Members of the Gandy Dancers can be heard in the background. Cooke tells various stories from his life, including being locked up in Waycross, Georgia for hoboing and working on a chain gang. He recounts his days hoboing before becoming a professional musician. At 15:00, Jah asks Brown about the consequences of African American men talking to white women in Alabama. At 16:30, Cooke discusses how old his instruments are. An audience member asks him to autograph his washboard. Cooke talks about "buck and wing" dancing and being born in Dupont, Fla., and moving to Sanford at eleven years old. He talks about Club Eaton in Eatonville, Fla.
- Collection
| a_s1576_30_c93-016 | "Washboard" Bill Cooke interview at the 1993 Florida Folk Festival Folklife Area | sound | Musicians
Storytellers
Singers
Railroads Employees
Folk festivals
Florida Folk Festival
Interviews
Hoboes
African Americans
Oral histories
Music industry | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
"Washboard" Bill Cooke interview at the 1993 Florida Folk Festival Folklife Area
- Date
- 1993-05-30
- Description
- Two audio cassettes. NKwanda Jah is the interviewer. On C93-16, Cooke, born in Dupont, Fla., gives a history of his early life and family. He discusses his early experiences of hoboing and tells stories about hitchhiking in Florida. He details his educational experiences, including dropping out of school. He took his last name "Cooke" from his grandfather after being adopted by him. He explains that from 1926 to 1930, he worked as a "gandy dancer" on the railways. After that, until 1941, he hoboed. He discusses being ostracized because of being a hobo. He recounts his beginnings as a washboard musician in 1946 in New York, before moving to Miami from 1947 to 1963 and working as a musician there. He explains that he learned to play the ukulele in 1979. Cooke discusses working on railroads, as well as having met Elvis Presley, Jackie Wilson, B.B. King, Gene Krupa, and Sam Cooke. He shares his opinions on the relationship between black and white musicians, using Presley and King as an example of the positive interchange of ideas. He recounts working as a washboard musician in studios and being a part of the musicians union in New York. He recorded with Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry, Pete Seeger, Pete "Guitar" Lewis and Johnny Winter. He explains that his first recording was in 1959, and that he worked on a Harry Belafonte recording in 1979. He also recounts his relationship with Sammy Davis Jr.'s grandmother. He discusses receiving social security and other government subsidies in the 1970s. He tells some stories about getting married and having children.
On C93-17, Cooke discusses his children. He recounts his life during the 1980s playing music gigs around Florida, and the difficulty of making a living as a musician. He tells a story about being robbed. He compares the joy of receiving an invitation to attend the inauguration of President Jimmy Carter with working four months on a Waycross, Ga. chain gang in 1931. He details his travels on the railroad after leaving Waycross. He explains why he joined a church. He closes by telling a story about travelling to California in 1991.
- Collection
| a_s1576_30_c93-003 | "Washboard" Bill Cooke interview at the 1993 Florida Folk Festival Folklife Area | sound | Musicians
Storytellers
Railway Workers
Folk festivals
Florida Folk Festival
African Americans
Railyway workers
Occupational folklore
Washboards (musical instruments)
Transportation
Hoboes | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
"Washboard" Bill Cooke interview at the 1993 Florida Folk Festival Folklife Area
- Date
- 1993-05-28
- Description
- Two audio cassette recordings. NKwanda Jah is the interviewer. On C93-3, Cooke tells stories about traveling the railroads as a hobo during the 1930s; beginning his career as a washboard musician after World War II in 1946; problems with living in Palm Beach; and working for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, and the Florida East Coast Railroad. He tells a story about working in St. Lucie County for Reid and Lowe Railroad Contractors on the Florida East Coast Railroad, lasting only three days due to the mosquitoes. Some of what Cooke says it difficult to hear due to background noise. Wright and Brown of the Gandy Dancers join the conversation and discuss the differences between the railway workers and the machines used to replace them. Cooke reminisces about the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, his favorite line.
On C93-4, Cooke, the Gandy Dancers, and Jah discuss blues musicians including B.B. King, Elvis Presley, and Mississippi John Hurt. They talk about the African American background of many of Elvis's songs. They also discuss integration in Birmingham and the Apollo Theater; treatment of children in the company "quarters" in the 1940s; pay; foods and their cost of living at that time. The theme for the 1993 Florida Folklife Area was transportation.
- Collection
| a_s1576_30_c93-025 | The Gandy Dancers demonstration at the 1993 Florida Folk Festival Folklife Area (Second demonstration) | sound | Railroads Employees
Dancers
Singers
Folk festivals
Florida Folk Festival
African Americans
Railway workers
Railroads
Work songs | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
The Gandy Dancers demonstration at the 1993 Florida Folk Festival Folklife Area (Second demonstration)
- Date
- 1993-05-28
- Description
- One audio cassette. Mealing and Wright recieved NEA National Heritage Fellowships in 1996. The Gandy Dancers (Mealing, Jones, Brown, Vinson and Wright) sing while demonstrating track lining and spike driving. Wright explains the strength needed to work on railroads. Mealing leads "Good Evening Everybody." Wright defines the term "gandy dancer" and the role of the "caller." This tape is an alternate recording of C93-5, the Gandy Dancers' second demonstration on May 28, 1993. It is only a seven minute fragment.
- Collection
| a_s1576_43_d93-042 | Sunday performances at the 1993 Florida Folk Festival (Stage III) (Tape 5) | Sound | Singers
Folk festivals
Folklore revival festivals
Festivals
Special events
Performing arts
Music performance
Singing
Railroad work
Labor
Occupational folklore
Occupational groups
African Americans
Tools
Dancers
Railroads Employees | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/catalog_audio.jpg |
Sunday performances at the 1993 Florida Folk Festival (Stage III) (Tape 5)
- Date
- Description
- One digital audio tape (DAT). Cornelius Wright, John Mealing, Charlie Vinson, Allen Jones, and Elder Brown discuss Gandy Dancing or railroad tie/rail installing and sing songs related to the work. Wright talks about his background, how he got into rail-laying and the process of rail-laying; the songs match the rhythm of laying rails. The theme for the 1993 Florida Folklife Area was transportation.
- Collection
| a_s1576_43_d93-041 | Sunday performances at the 1993 Florida Folk Festival (Stage III) (Tape 4) | Sound | Folk festivals
Folklore revival festivals
Festivals
Special events
Performing arts
Music performance
Singing
Arts, Scottish
Dance music
Folk dance
Singers
Musicians
Bands (Music)
Dancers | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
| a_s1576_43_d93-040 | Sunday performances at the 1993 Florida Folk Festival (Stage III) (Tape 3) | Sound | Folk festivals
Folklore revival festivals
Festivals
Special events
Performing arts
Music performance
Singing
Guitar music
Acrobatics
Old time music
Gospel music
Dance music
Folk dance
String bands
Stringband music
Gospel songs
Folk singers
Singers
Musicians
Bands (Music)
Dancers
Acrobats | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
| a_s1576_43_d93-039 | Sunday performances at the 1993 Florida Folk Festival (Stage III) (Tape 2) | Sound | Folk festivals
Folklore revival festivals
Festivals
Special events
Performing arts
Music performance
Singing
Guitar music
Clogging
Old time music
Clog dancing
Dance music
Folk dance
String bands
Stringband music
Storytelling
Singers
Musicians
Bands (Music)
Dancers
Students | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
| a_s1576_43_d93-038 | Sunday performances at the 1993 Florida Folk Festival (Stage III) (Tape 1) | Sound | Folk festivals
Folklore revival festivals
Festivals
Special events
Performing arts
Music performance
Singing
Guitar music
Clogging
Old time music
Clog dancing
Dance music
Folk dance
Latinos
Music Latin America
Singers
Musicians
Guitarist
Dancers | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
| a_s1576_43_d93-031 | Sunday performances at the 1993 Florida Folk Festival (Old Marble Stage) (Tape 5) | Sound | Folk festivals
Folklore revival festivals
Festivals
Special events
Performing arts
Music performance
Singing
Guitar music
Singers
Musicians
Guitarist | /fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg |
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