Songs of Rivers and Mountains: Joan Shelley and Jeff Little
This week we visit with two Southern crafters of music and song. Kentucky native and guitarist Joan Shelley takes her ethereal songwriting and voicing of life’s emotional flow from observations on the banks of the Ohio River near Louisville. Then, the virtuosic Blue Ridge pianist Jeff Little shares his stories of growing up playing alongside the legendary flat-pick guitarist Doc Watson at the family’s music store in Boone, North Carolina. It led to a singular career of playing high speed fiddle tunes on the piano. Also music of love, loss, and fast trains with Bill Frisell, Johnny Cash, James Brown, Tom Waits and Elizabeth Cotton.
HOUR ONE
Brighter Than the Blues Joan Shelley Over and Even, No Quarter
This Place Joni Mitchell Shine, Joni Mitchell
Lonesome Bill Frisell Harmony, Blue Note
Pretty Fair Miss in a Garden Doug and Jack Wallin Doug & Jack Wallin: Family Songs and Stories from the North Carolina Mountains, Smithsonian Folkways
Pretty Little Miss Joan Shelley and Doug Paisley Rivers and Vessels, No Quarter Records
Instrumental: Keep On the Sunnyside Bill Frisell Beautiful Dreamers, Savoy
Kentucky Everly Brothers Songs Our Daddy Taught Us, Barnaby Records
Blue Kentucky Girl Loretta Lynn Blue Kentucky Girl, MCA Nashville
Banks of the Ohio Johnny Cash Unearthed, American Recordings
SEGMENT: Joan Shelley
Instrumental: Timoney's Nathan Salsburg Third Nathan Salsburg , No Quarter
Beat the Retreat June Tabor Beat the Retreat: Songs of Richard Thompson, Capitol
Urge for Going Tom Rush The Circle Game, Elektra
End Bed: Dandelion River Run Richard and Mimi Fariña The Complete Vanguard Recordings , Vanguard
HOUR TWO
Open Bed: Billy in the Low Ground Jeff Little Just a Little Music, self-released
Freight Train Boogie Doc Watson The Elementary Doctor Watson!, Tomato
Casey Jones Grateful Dead Workingman's Dead, Warner
Night Train James Brown The 50th Anniversary Collection, UTV
2:19 Tom Waits Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards , -anti
Memphis Mail Scott Dunbar Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris, Dust to Digital
Instrumental: Big Sky Jeff Little Just a Little Music, self-released
SEGMENT: Jeff Little
Going Back to the Blue Ridge Mountains The Delmore Brothers The Delmore Brothers, Vol. 2, Classic
(Oh Susanna) Dust off that Old Pianna Fats Waller The Essential Fats Waller, Sony
Chicken Shack Boogie Amos Milburn Down the Road Apiece-The Best of Amos Milburn, Capitol
Instrumental: Tipitina and Me Allen Toussaint Our New Orleans, Nonesuch
Take Five Dave Brubeck Time Out, Columbia
Brighter than the Blues Joan Shelley Over and Even, No Quarter
I'm Going Away Elizabeth Cotton Shake Sugaree, Smithsonian Folkways
Careless Love Snooks Eaglin Classic African American Songsters , Smithsonian Folkways
Closing bed: Careless Love Etta Baker Railroad Bill, Cello