Live from Ireland
Enrico Caruso (b. Italy 1873– d. Italy 1921) was one of the most famous tenors in the history of opera. Caruso was also the most popular singer, in any genre, in the first twenty years of the twentieth century and one of the pioneers of recorded music. His voice had a good range, power, and beauty.
Enrico Caruso - Over there (1918)
This week I have been mostly listening to Josef Lock - Hear My Song (1992).
Josef Locke was the stage name of Joseph McLaughlin (23 March 1917 - 15 October 1999), a tenor singer who was enormously popular in Ireland and the United Kingdom in the 1940s and 1950s.
Born in Derry, Northern Ireland, he started singing in local churches in the Bogside at the age of seven, and as a teenager added two years to his age in order to enlist in the Irish Guards, later serving abroad with the Palestine Police, before returning in the late 1930s to join the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
Known as The Singing Bobby, he became a local celebrity before starting to work the UK variety circuit, where he played 19 seasons in the then popular English seaside resort of Blackpool. The renowned Irish tenor John McCormack (1894-1948) advised him that his voice was better suited to a lighter repertoire than the operatic one he had in mind, and urged him to find an agent, which he found in the form of the noted impresario Jack Hylton (1892-1965). Hylton couldn’t fit his full full name on the bill, thus Joseph McLaughlin was shotened to Josef Locke.
He made his first radio broadcast in 1949, and subsequently appeared on TV programmes such as Rooftop Rendezvous, Top of the Town, All-star Bill and The Frankie Howerd Show. He was signed to the Columbia record label in 1947, and his first releases were the two Italian songs Santa Lucia and Come back to Sorrento.
In 1947, too, Locke released Hear my song, Violetta, which became forever associated with him. His other songs were mostly a mixture of Irish ballads such as I’ll take you home again Kathleen, Dear old Donegal and Galway Bay, excerpts from operettas including The Drinking song (From The Student Prince), My Heart and I, and Goodbye, along with familiar Italian favourites such as Come back to Sorrento and Cara Mia.
In 1958 after appearing in five Royal Variety Performances, and while still at the peak of his career, the British tax authorities began to make substantial demands that Locke declined to meet. Eventually he fled Britain for for Ireland, where he lay low for several years. When his tax affairs were settled Locke retired to Co Kildare, Ireland only emerging for the occasional charity concert and reappearing in Blackpool in 1968, making his last public appearance in the 1970s.
On 22 March 2005 a bronze memorial to Locke was unveiled outside Derry City Hall by Phil Coulter and John Hume. The memorial features Locke, Blackpool Tower, Carnegie Hall, and the musical notes of the opening lines of Hear my song.
This week I’ve been mostly listening to Hank Snow. I’ve never been a fan of so-called “country music” as the term calls forth Garth Brooks and tackly 1970s Clint Eastwood movie soundtracks, but it seems that prior to say 1960 such music was good.
Wikipedia says that Clarence Eugene Snow (May 9, 1914 – December 20, 1999), better known as Hank Snow, was a Hall of Fame country music singer and songwriter.
Snow was born in Brooklyn, Nova Scotia, Canada. In his teens he travelled to the nearest big city, Halifax, Nova Scotia where he sang in local clubs and bars. A successful appearance on a local radio station led to his being given a chance to audition for RCA Victor in Montreal, Quebec. In 1936, he signed with RCA Victor, staying with them for more than forty-five years.
A weekly Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBA) radio show brought him national recognition and he began touring Canada until the late 1940s when American country music stations began playing his records. He headed to the “Country Music Capital of the World”, Nashville, Tennessee in the neighbouring United States. Snow, the “Singing Ranger” (a nickname modified from the Yodelling Ranger when his high voice changed to the baritone that graced his hit records) would be invited to play at the Grand Ole Opry in 1950. That same year he released his mega-hit, “I’m Movin’ On”. The first of seven Number 1 hits on the country charts, “I’m Movin’ On” stayed at Number 1 for nearly half a year.
Along with this hit, his other ’signature song’ was “I’ve Been Everywhere”, in which he portrayed himself as a hitchhiker bragging about all the towns he’d been through. Rattling off a well-rhymed series of city names at an auctioneer’s pace, the song has long been a challenge for any country-music singer to attempt. Johnny Cash’s version of it was used in recent years as the soundtrack to an American motel chain’s television commercials.
“I’ve Been Everywhere” Lyrics
I was totin my pack along the long dusty Winnemucca road
When along came a semi with a high canvas covered load
If your goin’ to Winnemucca, Mack with me you can ride
And so I climbed into the cab and then I setteled down inside
He asked me if I’d seen a road with so much dust and sand
And I said, “Listen! I’ve traveled every road in this here land!”I’ve been everywhere, man
I’ve been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I’ve breatherd the mountain air, man
Of travel I’ve had my share, man
I’ve been everywhereI’ve been to:
Reno
Chicago
Fargo
Minnesota
Buffalo
Toronto
Winslow
Sarasota
Wichita
Tulsa
Ottawa
Oklahoma
Tampa
Panama
Mattawa
LaPaloma
Bangor
Baltimore
Salvador
Amarillo
Tocapillo
Barranquilla
And PadillaI’m a Killer
I’ve been everywhere, man
I’ve been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I’ve breatherd the mountain air, man
Of travel I’ve had my share, man
I’ve been everywhereI’ve been to:
Boston
Charleston
Dayton
Louisiana
Washington
Houston
Kingston
Texarkana
Monterey
Fairaday
Santa Fe
Tallapoosa
Glen Rock
Black Rock
Little Rock
Oskaloosa
Tennessee
Tennessee
Chicopee
Spirit Lake
Grand Lake
Devil’s Lake
Crater LakeFor Pete’s Sake
I’ve been everywhere, man
I’ve been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I’ve breatherd the mountain air, man
Of travel I’ve had my share, man
I’ve been everywhereI’ve been to:
Louisville
Nashville
Knoxville
Ombabika
Schefferville
Jacksonville
Waterville
Costa Rock
Pittsfield
Springfield
Bakersfield
Shreveport
Hackensack
Cadillac
Fond du Lac
Davenport
Idaho
Jellico
Argentina
Diamantina
Pasadena
CatalinaSee What I Mean
I’ve been everywhere, man
I’ve been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I’ve breatherd the mountain air, man
Of travel I’ve had my share, man
I’ve been everywhereI’ve been to:
Pittsburgh
Parkersburg
Gravelbourg
Colorado
Ellensburg
Rexburg
Vicksburg
Eldorado
Larimore
Adimore
Haverstraw
Chatanika
Shasta
Nebraska
Alaska
Opalacka
Baraboo
Waterloo
Kalamazoo
Kansas City
Sioux City
Cedar City
Dodge CityWhat A Pity
I’ve been everywhere, man
I’ve been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I’ve breathed the mountain air, man
Of travel I’ve had my share, man
I’ve been everywhere
A regular at the Grand Ole Opry, in 1954 Hank Snow persuaded the directors to allow a new singer by the name of Elvis Presley to appear on stage. He used Elvis as his opening act, before introducing him to Colonel Tom Parker. In August of 1955, Snow and Parker formed the management team, “Hank Snow Attractions”. This partnership signed a management contract with Presley but before long, Snow was out and Parker had full control over the rock singer’s career.
In 1958, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
Performing in lavish and colourful sequin-studded suits, his career covered six decades during which he sold more than 80 million albums. Although he became a proud American citizen, he still maintained his friendships in Canada and remembered his roots with the 1968 Album, “My Nova Scotia Home”.
In Robert Altman’s 1975 film Nashville, Henry Gibson played a self-obsessed country star loosely based on Hank Snow.
Despite his lack of schooling, he was a gifted songwriter and in 1978 was elected to Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. In Canada, ten times he was voted that country’s top country music performer. In 1979, Hank Snow was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Nova Scotia Music Hall of Fame.
In 1994 his autobiography, “The Hank Snow Story,” was published, and later The Hank Snow Country Music Centre in Liverpool, Nova Scotia would open.
Snow died in Madison, Tennessee in the United States and was interred in the Spring Hill Cemetery in Nashville.
Henry Burr (1882 - 1941) was the name of the day. A singer of popular songs from the early part of the early 20th century, and an early radio performer and producer. He was one of the first singers to make popular acoustic recordings and one of the most prolific recording artists of all time, with more than 12,000 recordings according to his own estimate. A tenor, he performed as a soloist and also in duets, trios and quartets. His most famous collaboration was the Peerless Quartet.
Like all singers of the age many of sings were sentimental songs to Ireland, and things Irish. Here are a couple, not actually from 1906, but close enough, listen for all the keywords in including the mandatory “Killarney” and its matching, but less popular, “Blarney” numerous times.
Comments