This is a nice overview of the Clancy Brothers in their different incarnations with Tommy Makem, Furey Brothers, Lou Killen, Robbie O'Connell.

I have been a fan of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem from the first time I heard them on the "Today" Show while I was still living in Miami Beach in the 1960's. When I moved to New York City to seek my fame and fortune, not only did I get to see a lot of their shows, but I became a drinking buddy of theirs, first at Himself, a pub owned by actor and author, Malachy McCourt and then at the Lion's Head, a pub on Christopher St. in the village (Greenwich, that is), where we would all sit around a big table in the back room and sing between rounds of pints of Guinness and shots of whisky.

It was also where I met the woman that would share my life for seven years, but that's a story for another time.

You could never tell who might show up for these sessions, it depended upon who was in town. Some of the regulars, besides the Clancys and Tommy Makem (who didn't drink by the way, he was a "Pioneer," a group of teetotalers, and he had taken "the pledge"), Dave von Ronk, Pat Sky,, Joe Heaney, were probably the best known, but there were a lot of unknown and talented people who would make music, tell stories and jokes. It wasn't all music, it was about tradition and sharing what we had whether you were a star or someone with a desire to share what we had.

I wasn't a very good singer in those days, in fact, I was terrible, however, ti didn't matter to the folks sitting around the table. I got the same enthusiastic appreciation as Joe Heaney singing the "Rocks of Bawn."

It was in the backroom of Himself that I heard stories of the Sidhe from Malachy's mother (Angela of "Angela's Ashes) and in the Lion's Head where Joe Heaney told me about Ossian (pronounced Ahhsheen), who got his name from being hidden in a tree as a baby and told to be quiet (Shhh) so he wouldn't give himself away.

Joe and Liam told about Finn MacCool, a hero that led the Fenian warriors in Ancient Ireland and Chuchulian and the Cattle Raid of Cooley.

It was a much different experience hearing the stories as opposed to reading them from a book, dramatic as it might be, the spoken word was even more powerful, since the storyteller could actually add dramatic and comedic interpretations to what he was relating. I believe that is why they were such great singers as well, they wren't just singing the song, they were making a story out of it.

In any case, over the years, we all went our own ways. Tommy Makem left Paddy, Tom and Liam Clancy to pursue a solo career. He was replaced by the Furey Brothers, Lou Killen, and Bobby Clancy.

After awhile, Liam left and teamed up with Tommy Makem to become Makem and Clancy.The group (Paddy, Tom, and Bobby) became The Clancy Brothers with Robbie O'Connell.

This is a clip from the time of Paddy, Tom, Bobby, and Robbie. It is a song called "The Green Fields of France" and is also known as "Willie McBride." The song was written by Eric Bogle, a Scottish folk singer who emigrated to Australia.

It is a powerful song about the cost of war, and along with Bogle's "No Man's Land" aka "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" are, in my opinion, 2 of the best anti-war songs ever written.

A lot of people have recorded both of them and here is one of the best versions of "Willie McBride" done by The Clancy Brothers with Robbie O'Connell. Tom Clancy is singing lead and taking the solos.

"The Ballad of Jack Benny" performed by Peter, Paul, and Mary on "The Jack Benny Show."

Here is a clip of Jack Benny putting on a Hillbilly show with some musicians from the TV show Band.

There are some very old, corny jokes (what ese would you expect in a Hillbilly Show?) that the group really pulls off.

I should point out that some of the jokes might not be politically correct today, but this was 50 years ago and sensibilities were different. The skit could also be taken as a satire of so-called Hillbilly bands. It was a time when really talented musicians, who played traditional roots music or country & Western music, were forced to don Hillbilly Garb and do Hillbilly jokes when they performed because it was expected of them and the only way they could get jobs-no matter, how talented they were.


The best part of this clip is the music and how well it was played, especially the flourishes and breaks. This really shows how well Jack Benny really played the violin.

Watch this clip of 2 Masters of Comedy at work.
The clip is a send up of Groucho's popular quiz show "You Bet Your Life."

Keep an eye out, and an ear for, the way Jack and Groucho use silence and "takes" to enhance the comedic tension and anticipation of the punchlines. Groucho's mugging (facial expressions) are not to be missed, neither is Jack's attempts to keep from breaking up during the skit..

Veda (my wife) and I had decided that our lovely Victorian Home was going to be too much to take care of with her teaching schedule and growing commissions for art and historical/theatrical costumes. The house is a bit much at this stage for me to handle with my physical limitations and if they got worse, it would make it really difficult for me, so we decided that it was time to move on to a smaller house (we don't use our third floor at all) that will be easier to take care of and designed to accommodate my handicaps which are difficulty walking any distance or up and down stairs too much and a bad back that prevents me from bending over or twisting.

In order to do that and move from town to nature, Veda and I have spent the last 2 1/2 years working on getting a co-housing village here in Rockingham. Unfortunately, our option on the land ran out as we weren't able to sign up enough members by the deadline, but we are still going ahead with our plans to find some property out in the woods where we can build a house that will be easier to maintain and more handicapped accessible for me.

While this has been happening, I have been researching energy efficient houses that are green built and seem to be easy to put up. We have decided to build our home using Structural Insulated Panels (SIPS). Their insulation capabilities are superb and the ease of construction means that the house shell could be completed in a few days. All openings for windows and doors are precut at the factory, which makes installation of the windows and doors themselves really easy and speedy. The electrical chases and outlets are also precut, so running the wires is easier. As the SIPs are structural, they do not require interior walls, giving you a lot of freedom to design the interior the way you want.

The company that we will be using is called Panelpros and they are our neighbors across the river in Keene NH. Their house shells also include the floor joists and decking.

Panelpros will supply the crew to put up the house.
Panelpros have been featured on "This Old House" and "Assembly Required" on the diynetwork. "Assembly Required" did 2 shows on SIPs and Panelpros were in both of them. It was interesting to see them actually put up one of their shells in a week.

Here is my impression of Panelpros:

I had a meeting with Zack LeRoy (Business Development) and Mike Jasmin (Sales Manager and Estimating) last Fri. to talk about their system and our co-housing project, as well as our personal house. I was very impressed, not only with their product, but with their knowledge and expertise in green building, energy efficiency, and the use of alternative/renewable energy. They not only talk the talk, but they walk the walk. Their building is a testament to recycled and renewable resources from energy saving fluorescent lights to bamboo floors and a nylon carpet made from recycled materials-that can also be recycled when it's usefulness ends.

I am of the opinion that SIPs are a better choice overall, especially if you need to have your houses built by others, like we do. Panelpros will put the shell up for you. It also means that the house will be finished a lot faster than building it ourselves. The panels will have the door and window openings cut and framed, as would the wiring chases and electrical cutouts.

Here is a link to the Panelpros website:

http://panelpros.com/services.html


Zack had invited John Nielson, a green builder/contractor from Eco-Logic Homes to the meeting. Besides being a green builder, John is also an expert and teacher about Renewable Energy and his partner, Ted, is a guru on energy efficient house design and the best way to use natural methods for heating, cooling, and keeping out the elements. We are using them for design help, site assessment, and the actual building. I will be sending you a link to his web page in another email.

Here is a link to Eco-Logic Homes.

http://www.ecologichomes.com/

John has worked with them on a number of projects and he is really knowledgeable about building green, integrating renewable energy systems into the house design, and alternative septic systems and leach fields. He can evaluate renewable energy systems and tell us what would be cost effective and what wouldn't be.

BTW, I had thought that a person needed a crane to install SIPs, but they can be put into place with a cherry picker or the panels could be cut so they could be handled manually. However, using the cherry picker will probably be cheaper in the long run over the labor cost to have it done by construction workers."

If you do contact them, please tell them "Stuart sent you." I don't make any money from this, but they might give me a better deal on the house!

I found this while looking for something else on Youtube. It is avery nice slideshow to a song by Jud Strunk called "A Daisy a Day." It was a hit in the 1970's, but don't hold that against it, it really harkens back to the ballad days of Pop music.

I liked the song back then, mostly because it featured banjo and I was attempting to play tenor banjo myself. Listening to it today, I have a lot more appreciation for the words and sentiments and this video by NedNickerson57 does it justice.

Watching it reminded me of how deep a relationship and love my parents had and how they passed that along to the family, which is a very rich legacy indeed.

My Mom passed away last May, but we all feel her presence to this day, especially my Father.

Daisies were my Mother's favorite flower and we are all still giving her a Daisy a Day.
Love always from your son.

I love early records of all types, though classical are my least favorites.
I always wanted to have a collection of cylinders and 78 RPM records and the players to listen to them.

I am really glad that the Internet has come along and made so many early records available for listening, downloading, and in a format that means that I can store and play them on my computer, an MP3 player, CD, or DVD.

Early records and cylinders take up a lot of space and storage has always been a problem. You need deep shelves that will hold the records, as well as sleeves or albums to keep them in. 78 records did come in thin paper sleeves and later on sets of records (Broadway Shows for instance)were packaged in albums with cardboard covers and heavier paper sleeves inside for the records. Similar styles of albums were sold for keeping your record collection together and protected.

Cylinders were almost always boxed.

A lot of 78's and cylinders that one could find (and still find) at flea markets, thrift stores, yard sales, etc. were almost always bare, the sleeves and after market albums were missing, though generally a commercial album set was complete. However, some of the records of the set would be missing or broken as they were very fragile- though it was possible to play the reords through the crack or gluing it together on the back side. If you did that, you generally lost the ability to play the song on that side of the record which was not a problem with really early records as they were one sided.

I am really grateful to all of those generous people that have made digital recordings of those old 78's and cylinders and have made them available on the web at places like the Internet Archive.

What about listening to all of those clicks, pops, etc. there is a debate as to whether or not the original records should be processed so that all of the sound should be removed and the original song should be left on it's own. I remember seeing a documentary on the efforts to archive the recordings at the Library of Congress (or perhaps it was The Smithsonian) by digitizing them. They had the same debate and their solution was to keep a copy with the imperfections intact and also have a clean copy with the extraneous noise removed.

I can see the reason for both, but I lean towards keeping the original as is, especially when it comes to hearing the original performances. Removing the sound is actually a subjective choice by the audio engineer and if you are taking away some noise, it almost certainly will affect something else within the recording. Besides, I think that hearing the hisses and pops add to the charm of the recording. That is one of the reasons that people like to listen on period machines and if they are present in the file, I don't need to buy one!

The records and cylinders are wonderful tools for hearing period performers and material, which I appreciate as a researcher, writer, and performer of Vaudeville and Music Hall and I am eternally grateful that the record companies and performers made them. Very often, they are the only way to get an idea of what it was like at the time. It is quite different to read an account of a performer and then actually hear it. It got even better when films came along and you could see what they were doing, and then when sound films arrived, it made the whole thing complete.

I digressed from my original idea which was to add the following record, "Country Bred and Chicken Fed" by Dale Wimbrow and his Rubeville Tuners that I found on the Internet Archive. This is the link to the Internet Archive audio section, which features early records, audio books, old time radio, and lots more as usual:
http://www.archive.org/details/audio

This is the description from the listing:

A hot jazzy fox trot tune with ukulele and a great cornet performance from 1926.
Released as Edison Blue Amberol #5276

This item is part of the collection: The Cylinder Archive [www.cylinder.de] - Collection Site: http://www.archive.org/details/cylindertransfer

I don't know what started me on liking British Music Hall, unless it was in my genes, but I really love it.

I got exposed to British Music Hall by listening to records of modern singers of the music hall songs. They included Derek Lamb ( "She Was Poor but She Was Honest: Nice, Naughty and Nourishing Songs of the London Music Hall and Pubs" Folkways Records - FW08707 1962 http://www.folkways.si.edu/search/AlbumDetails.aspx?ID=1469), Oscar Brand (also known for his Bawdy Folksongs (some of which I suspect were the original versions of Music Hall songs), Elsa Lanchester ( 2 albums of Cockney and Music Hall Songs) and John Roberts and Tony Barrand (who produced a Music Hall Show featuring themselves and Lou Killen). They recorded the show and I was unaware of the recitation tradition in the Music Hall until I heard Tony do "Albert and the Lion," on the music hall record.

I had started playing English Concertina and that also set me off to research the music halls, as did hearing George Formby records on the jukebox in "Himself," the pub that Malachy McCourt had in NYC.

I was a huge fan of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Tom Clancy used to sing a song from the music halls entitled "They're Moving Father's Grave to Build A Sewer." At the end of the song, they all chimed in to sing the chorus of this song with the last variation "You can't trust the specials like the old-time coppers
When you can't find your way home."

Much to my delight, while researching British Music Hall on Youtube, I found a video of the original song by a really wonderful Music Hall performer. Her name was Lilly Morris and I was able to find more videos of her, which you can find at the bottom of the post.


DON'T DILLY DALLY (MY OLD MAN SAID FOLLOW THE VAN)
(Charles Collins and Fred W. Leigh)

We had to move away, 'cos the rent we couldn't pay,
The moving van came round just after dark;
There was me and my old man, shoving things inside the van,
Which we'd often done before let me remark.
We packed all that could be packed in the van and that's a fact;
And we got inside all we could get inside,
Then we packed all we could pack on the tailboard at the back,
Till there wasn't any room for me to ride.

cho: My old man said, "Follow the van, don't dilly dally on the way!"
Off went the cart with the home packed in it,
I walked behind with me old cock linnet.
But I dillied and dallied, dallied and dillied,
Lost the van and don't know where to roam.
Variation: I stopped on the way to have the old half-quartern,
And I can't find my way home.

I gave a helping hand with the marble wash-handstand,
And straight, we wasn't getting on so bad;
All at once the carman bloke had an accident and broke,
Well, the nicest bit of china that we had.
You'll understand of course, I was cross about the loss,
Same as any other human woman would;
But I soon got over that, what with 'two-out' and a chat,
'Cos it's little things like that what does you good.

Chorus:
Variation: Now who's going to put up the old iron bedstead
If I can't find my way home?

Oh! I'm in such a mess - I don't know the new address -
Don't even know the blessed neighbourhood,
And I feel as if I might have to stay out all the night,
And that ain't going to do me any good.
I don't make no complaint, but I'm coming over faint,
What I want now is a good substantial feed,
And I sort o' kind o' feel, if I don't soon have a meal,
I shall have to rob the linnet of his seed.

Chorus:
Variation: You can't trust the specials like the old-time coppers
When you can't find your way home.

Lyrics found at The Mudcat Cafe, a great searchable site to find lyrics to thousands of songs: http://www.mudcat.org/

All of Lily's songs are humerous and singable, besides "My Old Man," I really love "Don't Have Any More, Mrs. Moore," and her signature piece "Why Am I Always The Bridesmaid?" "Mrs. Moore" could have been the inspiration for the population explosion segment in Monty Python's "Meaning of Life."

Watch and listen closely for all of the nuances and characterizations Lily puts into her songs. Some of them are so subtle, I had to watch and listen to them a number of times before I could get them all.

I have to say that even though the modern interpreters of the songs did fine jobs, hearing the original artists perform them add a certain authenticity and depth of characterization to the songs that most modern singers lack (John and Tony and Lou Killen are exceptions).

The Lily Morris website: http://www.lilymorris.co.uk/
Lots of pictures, playbills, information.

Lily Morris Biography at Wilipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Morris

Here is the entry for the song from Wikipedia: "The song My Old Man is an old music hall song written by Fred W. Leigh and Charles Collins, made popular by Marie Lloyd.

It is a humorous song, but it also reflects some of the hard aspects of working class life in Britain at the beginning of the twentieth century. The couple, in the song, are obliged to move house quickly in the middle of the night, because they can't pay the rent. They fill up the van with their possessions, but there is not room for the two of them also, so the husband instructs his wife to follow behind the van, which she does, carrying the pet bird.

The chorus of the song is well-known.

My old man said "Follow the van,
And don't dilly dally[1] on the way".
Off went the van wiv me 'ome packed in it,
I walked behind wiv me old cock linnet[2].
But I dillied and dallied, dallied and I dillied
Lost me way and don't know where to roam.
Well you can't trust a special like the old time coppers
When you can't find your way 'ome[3]

An alternative to the fourth line is: "I followed on wiv me old cock linnet"

An alternative to the last two lines is

I stopped on the way to have me old half quarten, now I can't find my way home

"Half quarten" was a slang expression for a measure of spirits (usually Gin) and was equal to 2½ Imperial ounces.

The chorus is the basis of a terrace chant popular among English football fans. The lyrics were originally changed to My old man said "Be a City fan", by Manchester United fans (about Manchester City) then copied by Aston Villa fans (about Birmingham City) among others.

The first verse and the chorus were featured in episode 211 of The Muppet Show, performed by Miss Piggy. In the Muppet fan community the song is better known as "Don't Dilly Dally On the Way".

The song also appeared in the Sega Master System version of Lemmings, making its first appearance in the 17th level rated "Fun".

In The Catherine Tate Show, during the Life at Ma's sketch (a spoof of Life on Mars), the last four lines are sung by Catherine Tate and a variety of other characters."

Here are the videos of Lily Morris, put your cursor over the bottom of the player and you will see the list of videos. Click on any of them to choose a video or just click on the arrow in the center of the player and they will automatically play one after another.

Here is another great singer, Rosemary Clooney. There is something magical about the talent these women singers had, most of the time standing alone on stage, they could hold an audience spellbound. Joined by dancers in the occasional production number in a movie or TV show, they really had no need for fireworks exploding, scores of dancers, and sexual dance moves to do their stuff.

The same things can be said for the male singers as well, but I was bringing up Rosemary Clooney, so, I related my feelings to the ladies.

Anyhow, here is Rosemary_Clooney on a 1950's Edsel Show singing "I guess I'll have to Change My Plans."

I have been downloading these movies and TV shows from the Internet Archive, Youtube, and other sites and then burning them to DVD (it is cheaper to store them on DVD than buying a hard drive). Most DVD player will play the MPEG movies without problems. I have used Nero and Roxio to burn the MPEG-2 files directly to DVD by dragging and dropping them or just adding them to the window.
Nero will also convert them into the formats necessary for DVD if you want to go the traditional route and make sure they can be seen on anything.

I have started using DIVX for my movies. It is a great way to compress files without losing the quality. DIVX files will also play directly in most modern DVD players.

I have discovered that there are already movies in the Archive that are in DIVX Format already. DIVX quality is good enough, even if it is encoded in 320 X 220 and played back on a TV or full screen on a monitor.

If the movie isn't in DIVX format, I download the best version I can find, generally the MPEG-2 and convert it to DIVX. For Video conversion, I use (from their web site) "Any DVD Converter/Any Video Converter, DVD Ripper, YouTube/Google Video, Video Downloader, Video Converter for iPod, Zune, PSP, iPhone, 3GP Phone, MP4 player!

There is open source software to perform almost every task for video conversion. But if you are one of these windows users who are looking for an All-in-One video converting tool with easy-to-use graphical interface, Any Video Converter provides just that, allowing you to effortlessly convert video files between every format, for FREE!"
http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

Use the "Customized AVI Movie" from the drop down menu in the upper right corner, in "Video Options" (lower right corner, under the player, choose "Video Codec XVID (same as DIVX)" and "Video Size Original" This will keep the resolution for the file you are converting the same, so if it is 740 X 480 the DIVX will stay that size.

The extension for the converted file will be "avi," which is supposed to play as DIVX without any problems. I am not sure about that, so I change the file extension from AVI to DIVX, using the free A.F.5 Rename your files. "Use various easy-to-use functions to rename hundreds of files in a few seconds." Web site http://www.fauland.com/af5.htm

I ahve also used Any Video Converter for converting MPG$ and FLV files into Divx. I don't believe that the quality is any better, but I know I can play them on a regular DVD player. I also leave the original resolution alone (especially by increasing it), the DVD player will enlarge it if necessary, but if I made it bigger while converting, it might make the video unwatchable. If you made it smaller, it should be fine.

For more information about DIVX: http://www.divx.com

I use Nero to burn the files to DVD and I am sure that most DVD burning software will do the same. It is important to remember that the DIVX files are actually data files, so make sure you are burning a Data DVD AND NOT a video DVD.

FYI, you can't make menus for the DIVX files, but you don't really need them as you can set them up with folders just like on your computer. The DVD Player will display the folders and files so you can choose what you want to watch by scrolling up and down with your remote and hitting enter when you reach what you want to see.

If it is just movies, I don't bother with the folders, I just add the files to be burned. On the other hand, if I am making a DIVX disk for serials, I will set up a folder for each serial and add the chapters underneath the folder.

I had a bit of a problem with Nero when I tried to add all of the files at one time. When I played them, the movie would sometimes end suddenly and jump to the next one. I solved the problem by adding the files individually and they play without problems.

As promised from my previous post, I have figured out how to embed the audio player so it will work from my LJ Post.

Here are the Guests in the order they appear on the show list:
Guest - Jack Benny
Guest - Ava Gardner
Guest - Eddie Cantor
Guest - Helen Hayes
Guest - Serge Koussevitsky (I still don't know who he is)
Guest - Ozzie & Harriet
Guest - Edward Arnold
Guest - Bob Hope
Guest - Herbert Marshall
Guest - Burns & Allen
Guest - Ronald Colman
Guest - Joan Fontaine

I watched a documentary on the humor of Jack Benny. A part of the show included an interview with Gisele MacKenzie. During her interview, she said that she had known Jack and he told her that "Your Hit Parade" was looking for a singer, so he booked her for his show so she could use her appearance as an audition for "Your Hit Parade."

Gisele said that Jack gave her a lot to do on the show which gave her the chance to show off her talent. She sang, did comedy, and played violin- both straight and comedic. The documentary featured clips from the show and it concluded with a superb violin duet with Jack and Gisele.

She got the "Your Hit Parade" job the next day. Needless to say, it also demonstrated the generosity of Jack Benny, miser persona or not.
At the end of the post. is the complete Jack Benny Show with Gisele. Enjoy watching 2 major talents at their best.

I found this clip and the previous clip of Gisele from "Your Hit Parade" at The Internet Archive, a wonderful repository of movies, audio, tv, old time radio, books, and other great stuff. Here is the URL: http://www.archive.org

If you would like to listen to the Gisele MacKenzie Radio Show, "Gisele of Canada," with famous guest stars: Jack Benny, Ava Gardner, Eddie Cantor, Helen Hayes, Serge Koussevitsky (I have no idea who he is either! I just found the files and haven't had a chance to listen to them yet ), Ozzie & Harriet, Edward Arnold, Bob Hope, Herbert Marshall, Burns & Allen, Ronald Colman, and Joan Fontaine, you can also download all of the episodes for playback on your MP3 player here:
http://www.archive.org/details/GiseleofCanada

Look on the left side and right click (save as) on "whole directory." You will need a program to unzip the folder. If I can figure out how to embed the audio player so it will work, I will add the audio files as well to my LJ.

Did I say that this is also from the Internet Archive?

Growing up in the 1950's, I loved TV and still do. We got our first TV Set, a Dumont with record palyer and multiband radio (I could hear airplanes and airport control towers), in 1947/1948. I will try to pinpoint the actual date as I delve deeper into early TV.

One of my favorite shows was "Your Hit Parade," and one of my favorite performers was Giselle MacKenzie.

Over the years, I have appreciated her even more as I realized how talented she really was as I watched more of her performances from an adult point of view.

One of the reasons that I liked "Your Hit Parade" was waiting to see the different and innovative ways that they came up with to perform the same song week after week as the song moved up the charts and sometimes stayed at the same spot (like #1) for what seemed like forever.

The other challenge facing the writers, director, performers, producer, and the music director, John Scott Trotter (and his Orchestra), was making different styles of songs fit within the parameters of the show. This got more difficult with the advent of Rock and Roll.

Here is a version of "Heartbreak Hotel" with Gisele MacKenzie spoofing another 1950's Genre. I won't give it away, just watch the video and enjoy.

This is not a question about myself existing, but my reasons for joining Live Journal.

I have a lot of interests and while researching them, I come across a lot of neat stuff that I would like to share and this gives me the opportunity to do just that.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone that lives in the U.S.A. and best wishes to everyone else.