When we think of Wisconsin music, we think of the Violent Femmes, Citizen King or the Bodeans. Maybe we remember the glory days of Liberace or of the dairyland's prodigious polka scene, but we rarely think of the state as being a center of folk music. But that's the beauty of folk music, it's the songs that we all know, all of the music passed from mother to daughter, father to son.
Luckily, there have been people savvy enough to capture much of the music before it has disappeared. Thousands of examples of Wisconsin music have been collected by Steve Sundell and his colleagues and predecessors at the UW Mills Music Library and at the State Historical Society.
Some fine examples of Wisconsin folk music are also now available at your local record shop, thanks to Cambridge, Mass.-based Rounder Records, which recently issued "Folk Music from Wisconsin," as part of its "The Library of Congress Archive of Folk Culture" series.
The 41-minute disc collects 21 songs recorded across the state in 1940-'41 by Robert F. Draves and Helene Stratman-Thomas. There are songs of English, Scottish and Irish origin, there are ballads and jigs, children's singing games, lumberjack tunes, dance numbers and historical songs -- all sung not by professional musicians, but by ordinary Wisconsinites like you and me.
Here is a list of tracks:
- Pompey Is Dead and Laid in His Grave, Dora Richards
- How Happy is the Sportsman, J.L. Peters
- Lord Lovel, Winifred Bundy
- Awake, Arise, You Drowsy Sleeper, Lester A. Coffee
- I'll Sell My Hat, I'll Sell My Coat, Mrs. Pearl Jacobs Borusky
- Once I Courted a Charming Beauty Bright (Lover's Lament), Mrs. Pearl Jacobs Borusky
- Brennan on the Moor, William Jacob Morgan
- The Pinery Boy, Mrs. Otto Rindlisbacher
- The Swamper's Revenge on the Windfall, Mr. & Mrs. Otto Rindlisbacher
- The Couderay Jig, Mr. & Mrs. Otto Rindlisbacher
- Lumberjack Dance Tune, Otto Rindlisbacher
- Pig Schottishe, Otto Rindlisbacher
- Shantyman's Life, Emery DeNoyer
- The Bold McIntyres, Arthur Moseley
- The Little Brown Bulls, Charles Bowlen
- Young Johnny (Springfield Mountain), Winifred Bundy
- Billy Vanero, Luther Royce
- Cranberry Song, Mrs. Frances Perry
- On the Lakes of Ponchartrain, Mrs. Frances Perry
- The Milwaukee Fire, Robert Walker
- Reuben Wright and Phoebe Brown, Hamilton Lobdell
Of special interest to Milwaukeeans is the penultimate song, "The Milwaukee Fire," sung by Robert Walker at Crandon in 1941. The song tells the story of the tragic fire at the The Newhall House hotel on Broadway and Michigan in 1883, in which at least 71 lives were lost.
To hear the track, click here.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
