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Page 6 The Ked and Black. Wednesday. November 30. 1977
Olsen exhibit
Dr Joe Olson, associate professor at Georgia Southern College,
has a one-man show of prints and paintings on display now-
through Dec 9 at the Memorial Gallery. Olson, a native of
Pennsylvania, wants the viewer of his work to get involved with
his “definitely American" style Pictured above is an example of
FOLK MUSIC
Schwarz version authentic
By BOBBY BYRI)
When I found out that I was going to cover the Tracy
Schwarz concert, I really had no idea what to expect My
knowledge of Schwarz consisted of knowing that I was in for
an evening of “Old Time Music." primarily folk Great To
me. folk is Bob Dylan. “Old time" folk is Dylan before he
went electric in '65
I took my desk in the Main Library Auditorium, along with
60 or so other people, most of whom were members of the
sponsoring organization, the Friends of Folk Music They got
in free. Everybody else had to pay two bucks.
Tracy Schwarz turned out to be a friendly sort, a
Pennsylvania native who looked more like he should be
lecturing about folk music instead of performing. He plays
fiddle (please don’t call it a violin), banjo, guitar, and Cajur.
accordion
A longtime member of the New Lost City Ramblers (the
group that spawned Pete Seeger), Schwarz has just returned
from a tour of Finland
Opening with a fiddle instrumental called “East Tennessee
Blues," Schwarz proceeded through a set of, well old time
folk music, often bordering on country, blues and even
shouting fundamentalist gospel His voice, which can only be
described as a nasal whine, was suited to the material
The surprising thing to me about all this was that it was
good- and I’m not a real big booster of old Gordon Tanner
and the Skillet Lickers songs. The show was long (two
hours-21 songs), and at times the single voice single
instrument duo grew monotonous, but Schwarz’s affability
carried it off.
The music is rough, often with squeaks, scrapes, and other
"flaws" that are frowned upon in most musical circlet
Somehow, though, the roughness lends an air of authenticity
that makes up the meat of the sound.
Schwarz’s first set took a while to get going. The sixth
selection kicked off the guitar portion of the show with a nice.
lighthearted Dorsey Dixon tune of teen-age romance called
“She Tickles Me." or “They Can Lock Me In Jail For Loving
You But They Can’t Keep My Face From Breaking Out." I
strongly suspect that Tracy made up the subtitle
Also nice was a three-song Carter Family tribute (you
know-Johnny Cash’s in-laws). The small but enthusiastic
crowd sang along on “Joy Joy Joy," an old Carter spiritual.
The lady behind me was laying down an impeccable harmony
track. It was that kind of a crowd
Schwarz’s only original selection was "The Hills of Home."
a beautiful tune of homesickness. You can substitute your
home for “Pennsylvania " It works just fine
The second set led off with the Cajun accordion part of the
show. The Cajun accordion is a small squeeze box with four
stops— "You push these four buttons and the music stops."
The nice thing about the Cajun songs was that Schwarz sang
them in authentic Cajun
The nasty thing was that my extensive French training (all
the way through 103) didn’t help much. About the only lines
that I caught were "oh . la la" and "hey. hey hey."
Included was a Louisiana version of Merle Haggard's “Okie
From Muscogee" entitled “Cajun From Church Point." “On
va au village en samedi. and love is still the plus grande thrill
of all " Things had definitely begun to pick up.
The show ended with two humorous songs, one about a
rather redundant family (“His only sister was a girl, his
brother was a boy "), the other about an amazing pasture
machine known by its initials, a C O W.
Despite the lightheartedness, the performance was really
good. Tracy Schwarz plays his instruments well, and provides
a pleasant, authentic look at America's musical roots. The
fact that he has fun doing it makes the vision no less effective.
Monday night about 60 folks went on a musical journey
backwards through time. As the Carter Family once said.
“You may forget this singer, but don’t forget this song." With
the help of guys like Tracy Schwarz, there are some people
around who are trying real hard not to.
Photo by WINGATE DOWNS
Folk singer Tracy Schwarz
Olson's absorbing work
Fundraising
dinner slated
Atlanta sold
ATLANTA (UPI)-Atlanta
The Clarke County Cor
rectional Institution is sponsor
ing a barbeque dinner this
Saturday from noon until 6
pm
Dinners can be purchased
from Bishop Park or the
Clarke County Tag Office on
the Lexington Hwy., for $3.
All proceeds will go toward
the construction of an academ
ic-chapel complex for the
inmates at the institution.
Inmates and institution admin
istrators have been trying to
raise funds for about a year
now. since money cannot come
from the state or local govern
ments to build such a
structure
Presently, the cafeteria
serves as a classroom and
chapel for the institution. The
new complex will be two
stories tall, with separate
rooms for classes and prayer
meetings
The institution, located on
the Lexington Hwy., is classi
fied as a minimum security
prison, and usually holds
between 60 and 70 prisoners.
The average stay for prison
ers rangers from three to five
years, with most of the
inmates coming from Clarke
County and surrounding coun
ties within a 50 mile radius.
magazine, a slick publication
launched to promote the city 16
years ago. is being sold to a
New York firm which is
moving its headquarters to
Atlanta, it was announced
Tuesday
The Atlanta Chamber of
Commerce, which has put out
the magazine since its incep
tion, said directors had ap
proved the sale to Communica
tions Channels Inc. of New
York, a major publisher of
business magazines.
The agreement for an
estimated sales price of
$500,000 is expected to be
completed within 10 days.
A chamber spokesman said
that nine unsolicited offers had
been received for the magazine
in the past 10 months but
Communications Channels was
chosen because it is moving its
headquarters to Atlanta from
New York The company has
had a regional office in Atlanta
for six years.
Communications Channels
publishes 21 business and trade
magazines and directories.
Chairman Joseph Shore said
the firm’s primary job would
be to broaden the circulation
base of Atlanta magazine
which is now about 24,000
Shore said his company
hoped to more than double the
circulation.
Atlanta magazine was star
ted in 1961 as part of a
“Forward Atlanta" promotion
campaign and chamber offi
cials said that it had just about
broken even over the years.
The magazine won a number
of awards for layout and use c'
graphics and pictures.
1 luring the Christmas Season, if you buy one of our big beautiful
Roast Beef Sandwiches, we’ll give you one free. Slow cooked, sliced thin,
piled high and juicy, with your choice of three tangv sauces,
lake this coupon to any participating Hardees
and get two delicious Roast Beef Sandwiches. But only pay for one.
Its 1 lardee’s wav of saying Merry Christmas.
Good at all participating Hardee's.
One cou|*m per customer, please. Customer must pa\
am sales tax. Tins cou|xm> is not good in
* it otters.
combination with am other
tfcc
© « Karilws Food Systems me 197/
Vtacdeer
Coupon txptrn December 14. It77 O**
J.
115 Gaines School Road
496 North Avenue
360 Baxter Street
Atnens NaftJeer
Ramones have unconventionality
By KURT WOOD
You may be shocked to learn
that the Ramones third album.
Rocket to Russia, has now
been released. Plenty of people
found it hard to believe that
their first album was ever
issued
For those of you who find it
difficult to understand the point
of the Ramones or have never
heard of them, a few introduc
tory remarks are in order.
Anyone who can’t appreciate
the vitality and power that
artists like Little Richard.
Chuck Berry, the Beatles, the
Who. and the Kinks had at
their prime (which was usually
early in their careers) is
probably not going to like the
Ramones’ music very much
This is not to say that the
Ramones have yet produced
anything that stands up to the
energy levels of “Tyyi#t and
Shout" and 1 Can’t Explain; i
however, the Ramones draw*
from the same reservoir of
rock and roll vitality that the
aforementioned people did.
Rocket to Russia has some
similarities to the first two
albums There are 14 songs, all
of them clocking in between
1:38 and 2:49 minutes. Howev
er. this time out there are not
one but two covers: a great
version of “Do You Wanna
Dance.” and a very bonzoid
"Surfin’ Bird."
There’s also “Sheena is a
Punk Rocker," the Ramones’
single that miracuously made
it into the top 100 for 13 weeks.
“Cretin Hop," “Teenage
Lobotomy" and “I Wanna Be
Well" showcase the Ramones’
bizzare, ambiguous sense of
humor. Where else could you
hear lines like "Now I guess
I’ll have to tell them—That
I’ve got no cerebelum.”
Perhaps the best original
“Rockaway Beach," a surf
type song with rhythm and a
melody The other songs on the
LP are also quite good, though
basically typical Ramones
fare.
Overall, this is probably
their best album yet, even
surpassing their trendsetting
first one. On closer inspection,
from the range of styles
employed, it becomes obvious
that the Ramones are becom
ing better songwriters.
The Ramones are Joey.
Johnny. Dee Dee and Tommy
—singer, guitarist, bassist and
drummer, respectively-the
product of New York City.
However, they did not emerge
from the Bowery or 42nd Street
as one might expect, hut
rather from the exclusive
Forest Hills suburb of Queens.
Exactly how the group came
to be formed is unknown,
though Johnny gave this expla
nation for their name in a
recent interview: "Ya see.
everybody’s last name is
slightly different Like Ratnoli
and Ramon: and Ramone and
Raymone and we all met like
that We were all next to each
other in line at school when
they put us in alphabetical
order."
The Ramones went on to
become one of the favorite
bands at CBGB’s. NYC’s No. 1
spot for Punk Rock New Wave.
By early 1976, they had
secured a contract with Sire
Records, and their first album
was released in April of that
year
That first album's unprece
dented simplicity and power
house singlemindedness gave '
the Ramones quite a bit of free
publicity, as everyone tried to
find out who was behind this
undiluted attack on 70s con
formism The album sold well,
and they started touring exten
sively. (The typical Ramones
set consists of 16 songs in 35
minutes)
By the end of the year the
Ramones released their second
LP. Leave Home. Although it
lacked some of the intensity of
their first one, it did have a
few good songs
So far in 1977. the Ramones
have: (1) had a semi-hit single
(“Sheena"); (2) appeared on
Don Kirshner's KoeV Concert;
and (3) released another r
album.
As for what the future holds
for this already almost legen
dary group, only time will tell.
The fact that their music is .
extremely out of touch with
prevailing commercial modes
generally causes people who
hear them to form extreme '
opinions. Still, their freshness
and unconventionality may
overcome all those obstacles.