8 items found
Collection ID is exactly "1" AND Subject is exactly "Rural blues"
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Compilation of recordings from the North Florida Folklife Project

Compilation of recordings from the North Florida Folklife Project
Date
1978
Description
This audiocassette tape was composed of selections from field recordings for the North Florida Folklife Project and the Florida Record Project. Tracks 1-4 were featured on the Florida Folklife Program's compilation of African American musical traditions throughout Florida, Drop on Down in Florida.  The tracks by Moses Williams are copied from T78-321, recorded April 22, 1978; tracks by Richard Williams and family are copied from T78-328 & T78-329, recorded May 27, 1978; tracks by Brown & N. L. Williams are copied from T78-326, recorded May 28, 1978; "Trot Along, My Honey" copied from T78-322, recorded April 22, 1978; "Angel Band" copied from T78-350, recorded October 29, 1978; "Wade in the Water" copied from T78-318, recorded April 16, 1978.           
Collection
Compilation of recordings from the North Florida Folklife Project

Compilation of recordings from the North Florida Folklife Project
Compilation of recordings from the North Florida Folklife Project

Compilation of recordings from the North Florida Folklife Project
Date
1978
Description
This audiocassette tape was composed of selections from field recordings for the North Florida Folklife Project. Some tracks were featured on the Florida Folklife Program's compilation of African American musical traditions throughout Florida, Drop on Down in Florida. The tracks by Brown & N. L. Williams are copied from T78-326 & T78-327, recorded May 28, 1978; tracks by Fletcher & Blackwelder are copied from T78-322 & T78-323, recorded April 22, 1978; tracks by Moses Williams are copied from T78-321, recorded April 22, 1978; tracks by Richard Williams are copied from T78-328 & T78-329, recorded May 27, 1978 (except "Travel the Whole World Around," copied from T83-66, recorded March 16, 1980).
Collection
Compilation of recordings from the North Florida Folklife Project

Compilation of recordings from the North Florida Folklife Project
Richard Williams & Family performance at the 1977 Florida Folk Festival Main Stage

Richard Williams & Family performance at the 1977 Florida Folk Festival Main Stage
Date
1977-09-05
Description
One reel-to-reel recording. Thelma Boltin serves as emcee. R. Williams (vocals, guitar) is accompanied by his wife L. Williams (vocals), and his daughter Wilson (vocals). They were from Jonesville, Fla. in Alachua County. R. Williams attempts to play "Polk County Blues," but his guitar doesn't stay in tune.
Collection
Richard Williams & Family performance at the 1977 Florida Folk Festival Main Stage

Richard Williams & Family performance at the 1977 Florida Folk Festival Main Stage
Washboard Bill Cooke interview for the Palm Beach County Folk Arts in Education Project

Washboard Bill Cooke interview for the Palm Beach County Folk Arts in Education Project
Date
1987-07-30
Description
One audio cassette. Recorded at his home. Born in Dupont, just south of St. Augustine, on 4 July. His mother ran a jook joint, where he was first exposed to music and dance. He hoboed, played street music, worked for railways, and played at nightclubs in South Florida. In the interviews, he discusses jook joints; writing songs; working in New York; playing the washboard and the ukulele; and plays various songs, some wellknown, others his own compositions. This interview was an exploratory interview for the Florida Folk Festival, and was expanded by Jan Rosenberg the following month. The tape speed is a little fast, noticeable in the higher pitch of their voices approximately half way through the tape. Side two is blank. In 1956, he made a recording with Pete Seeger and Sonny Terry called Washboard Country Band. In 1992, he won the Florida Folk Heritage Award. 
Collection
Washboard Bill Cooke interview for the Palm Beach County Folk Arts in Education Project

Washboard Bill Cooke interview for the Palm Beach County Folk Arts in Education Project
Williams Family performance for the Florida Record Project

Williams Family performance for the Florida Record Project
Date
1980-03-16
Description
Six reel-to-reel audio tapes. This recording documents fieldwork conducted by DeVane and B. McCallum in conjunction with the Florida Record Project. R. McCallum serves as recordist. R. Williams (guitar, vocals) informally performs folk blues and gospel songs with his daughter, Wilson (vocals) and his wife, L. Williams (vocals). Oftentimes, one song leads directly into another. Family members talk in the background during portions of the performance.
On T83-65, Williams discusses his guitar and where he got it before playing "Old Forty," a regional tune about Engine 40, a passenger train on the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad that ran through Polk and Alachua counties. He performs "Polk County Blues," a localized blues song. A fragment of "Old Forty" occurs again before the tape cuts off and restarts with "Glory, Glory," in which Wilson sings the lead vocals accompanied by L. Williams. They also perform the gospel songs "I'm Working on a Building," "You've Got to Stand Your Trial in Judgment," and "Until I Found the Lord."
On T83-66, the family continues with more gospel songs, including two versions of "I Know It Was the Blood," which had to be restarted. Williams plays a fragment of "Do Lord, Remember Me" before playing "What You Gonna Do When This World's on Fire?" with the rest of the family. Williams plays a regional variant of "Carless Love" called "Don't You Never Let One Woman Grieve Your Mind" unaccompanied, which segues directly into "Baby, Please Don't Go," with a fragment of "Trouble in Mind" tagged to the end. Wilson and L. Williams resume accompaniment on "You've Got to Move" and "We'll Understand It Better By and By." The family performs another version of "I Know It Was the Blood" before attempting "He's a Battle Axe," which results in an incomplete version.
On T83-67, the Williams family plays two more versions of "He's a Battle Axe," the second of which features L. Williams on piano. She plays an quiet version of "I'll Rise to Tell You What the Lord Done for Me" while the microphones are being readjusted. The family plays another version of "He's a Battle Axe" with piano after a couple of false starts in which the sound is being adjusted. The family performs a fragment of "I'll Rise to Tell You What the Lord Done for Me," "I'll Fly Away," and "Lord Remember Me" featuring L. Williams on the piano. R. Williams and Wilson perform "Travel the Whole World Around." Dennis, a cousin of Williams, tunes his guitar.
On T83-68, Dennis (guitar, vocals) performs four songs solo. Williams can be heard in the background. One of the fieldworkers plays a two guitar instrumentals. The tape cuts out and resumes with Johnson (guitar, vocals), Williams's step-son, playing "Come Back, Mama" with Williams singing backup vocals. Johnson performs "Working All the Summer" and "A Nickel's a Nickel," on which Wilson accompanies on vocals. One of the fieldworkers performs another instrumental. Johnson plays "Key to the Highway," before Williams and Wilson perform a version of "Tain't but the One Thing That Grieves My Mind," a localized version of the standard "Careless Love."
On T83-69, Dennis performs four more songs. DeVane interviews Dennis and asks Johnson a few questions. Johnson can be heard playing away from the microphone, performing fragments of "Key to the Highway" and other unidentified blues songs. He performs "I'm Leaving Here, Baby" and an unidentified blues while other members of the family get coffee in the other room. L. Williams plays "I'm Blessed and Brought Up by the Lord," "King Jesus Is Our Captain" and "Love Lifted Me" on piano, accompanied by Wilson on vocals.
On T81-19, Dennis plays guitar while Williams and Wilson sing "Polk County Blues." Williams then plays a version of the song with Wilson accompanying on vocals. They then play a version of "How Long, How Long Blues." Williams plays another version of "Polk County Blues" accompanied by Wilson, before performing a fragment of "Careless Love" and "Uncle Sam Is a Dangerous Man." The family performs two gospel songs before playing "Motherless Children" and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" He attempts the music to "Jacksonville Fire."
Tracks 13, 15, 20, 25, 26, 27, 38, 52 and 57 are featured on Drop on Down in Florida, a 1981 compilation of African American traditional music collected by the Florida Folklife Program.
Collection
Williams Family performance for the Florida Record Project

Williams Family performance for the Florida Record Project
Williams Family performance for the North Florida Folklife Project

Williams Family performance for the North Florida Folklife Project
Date
1978-05-27
Description
Two reel-to-reel audio tapes. See also a second interview and music performance by Williams and Ella Mae Wilson on reels T83-65 through T83-69, in S 1576, also recorded by Devane and Bulger. A third interview can be found on C77-33 and C77-34, in S 1576, box 1. This fieldwork was done in conjunction with the North Florida Folklife Project.
Collection
Williams Family performance for the North Florida Folklife Project

Williams Family performance for the North Florida Folklife Project
Williams Family performance for the Florida Record Project

Williams Family performance for the Florida Record Project
Date
1980-03-16
Description
One audio cassette. Side two is blank. The Florida Record Project resulted in the two-album recording, Drop On Down in Florida. This was an exploration of African American musical traditions in Florida.
Collection
Williams Family performance for the Florida Record Project

Williams Family performance for the Florida Record Project
Folklife People: Richard Williams

Folklife People: Richard Williams
Date
Description
Richard Williams was born in 1887 in Jonesville, Florida, about 12 miles west of Gainesville. By his early teens, Williams was playing dance music on the guitar for local parties held on neighboring farms in Alachua County and in area phosphate camps. It was in these camps that he learned songs from other parts of the state. His repertoire included localized folk blues, gospel songs and personalized versions of popular songs he picked up from work-camp jukeboxes.
Williams’s family members, including wife Lillie Bell and daughter Ella Mae Wilson, often accompanied him during informal musical gatherings at their house. Folklorists Peggy Bulger, Dwight DeVane and Brenda McCallum recorded a few of these gatherings between 1977 and 1980, yielding music that was eventually featured on a collection of traditional African-American music from around the state called Drop on Down in Florida. These field recordings capture Williams’ rural blues style, featuring finger-picking, alternating bass and free-floating semi-improvised song structures – all vestiges of Florida’s pre-blues folk forms.
Collection
Folklife People: Richard Williams

Folklife People: Richard Williams
Identifier Title Type Subject Thumbnail
a_s1576_03_c80-001Compilation of recordings from the North Florida Folklife ProjectSoundMusic -- Performance
Field recordings
African Americans
Blues (Music)
Rural blues
Diddley bows
Gospel music
Religious songs
Shape note singing
A capella singing
Sacred Harp, Cooper Revision		/fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg
a_s1576_03_c80-002Compilation of recordings from the North Florida Folklife ProjectSoundMusic -- Performance
Field recordings
African Americans
Blues (Music)
Diddley bows
Old-time music
Fiddle tunes
Gospel music
Religious songs
Rural blues
Banjo music
Folk music -- United States		/fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg
Richard Williams & Family performance at the 1977 Florida Folk Festival Main StageRichard Williams & Family performance at the 1977 Florida Folk Festival Main StagesoundAfrican Americans
Folk festivals
Florida Folk Festival
Music -- Performance
Gospel music
Blues (Music)
Rural blues		/fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg
a_s1685_05_tape27Washboard Bill Cooke interview for the Palm Beach County Folk Arts in Education ProjectSoundSinging
Storytelling
Field recordings
Interviews
African Americans
Oral narratives
Juke joints
Music industry
Music composition
Washboards (musical instruments)
Chordophones
Ukuleles
Rural blues
Blues (music)		/fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg
Williams Family performance for the Florida Record ProjectWilliams Family performance for the Florida Record ProjectsoundBlues (Music)
Music -- Performance
African Americans
Gospel music
Rural blues		/fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg
Williams Family performance for the North Florida Folklife ProjectWilliams Family performance for the North Florida Folklife ProjectsoundAfrican Americans
Blues (Music)
Music -- Performance
Gospel music
Rural blues		/fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg
a_s1576_03_c80-005Williams Family performance for the Florida Record ProjectSoundMusic -- Performance
African Americans
Blues (Music)
Gospel music
Rural blues
Musicians		/fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/catalog_audio.jpg
flp_williams_richardFolklife People: Richard Williamsinteractive resourceAfrican Americans
Blues (Music)
Gospel music
Music -- Performance
Rural blues		/fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/folklife_people.png