Who's an old, woodsy, folk singin', solo, front porch bassist I can idolize?

Sep 4, 2015
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As much as I admire Jaco, Victor, James, and Carol just like we all do, I can't really idolize them because I know I'm never going to play like them. Not just in skill level, but it's not the style of music I want to play. I was a bass singer long before I considered playing the bass guitar (I used to resent that all my 'bass' searches came back with results for electric basses) and much of my ambition now is to be able to sit on a porch swing, or a recliner in my basement, and just accompany myself or my family on old hymns and folk songs and such.

The closest I've found to somebody I can look up to and study in this regard is Burl Ives, the "Holly Jolly Christmas" guy, who lived a long time as a hobo, just wandering the country playing the old songs around a campfire with the bums, playin' and singin' and relaxin'. No band, nobody else, just the man and his guitar. Some of his recorded music is that simple, and that's about the feel I want.


Translating both the guitar and vocals down an octave is easy enough if I just ignore the chords, because that basically leaves the root/fifth clear through the songs. And the way I see it, there was never song too slow or too simple, so it works well enough. But I can't help thinking there must be some bassist who's done this before and developed the art a little. Somebody I can study to discover what works, why they do certain things, learn songs that fit the style well, and just get inspiration from.

Can you guy put me on the trail of any old-timey bassists doing simple, folksy stuff, just their voice and their bass?
 
In the pre-Beatles folk explosion era kicked off by the pop crossover hit of the Kingston Trio("Tom Dooley")most bass players(always upright)were relegated to background support roles; acoustic blues was often pitched as 'folk music', but jazz was a whole different universe. These guys were sometimes promoted to the folk crowd, but they were obviously R&B and jazz based...



Bassist as ensemble member...


Those guys, as talented as they were, were just another in a long line of countless cookie-cutter groups trying to jump on the crossover gravy train once the K3 hit it big, just as there were legions of look-alike and sound-alike outfits from the British Invasion to Grunge and beyond. Before the Kingstons, 'folk' music was an almost underground scene of lefties and socialists who had to keep a low profile due to the 'Red Scare', Joe McCarthy, and the blacklists. Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Cisco Houston help birth the scene in the economic desperation of the 30's and the fight against facism of the 40's; Seeger actually had a bit of early 50's pre-rock'n'roll pop success with the Weavers, but bass players were always relegated to the back, even if they were group members. The K3 presented a sanitized, safe for America's living rooms version of folk(much like Pat Boone did for Little Richard), that offered a college level alternative to the dumb rock'n'roll of the dumb teenagers. Jazz was for the hard-core(pseudo-)intellectual college crowd and beatniks of the times, but at least that's where bass players got some respect. There might have been occasional stand-out bassists in bluegrass and hillbilly music, but most of the time their moment in the spotlight was for comic relief or brief ensemble soloing. In the sideways related genre of the blues, there's always Willie Dixon, but he's not exactly solo...



What I would suggest is that you start your research here...
Search for "folk" | AllMusic
discover new worlds, but don't get your hopes up for any solo bass stars
 
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There were these guys, but they were as much, if not more, of a comedy/night-club show-biz act as they were a folk duo...

They would knuckle down to some serious songs in the middle of their sets, and they did have a very subversive variety show toward the end of the 60's that got them kicked off of the CBS TV network(one of the stunts they pulled was to give Pete Seeger his first national TV network appearance since he was blacklisted in the 50's). They also gave The Who a guest shot(the infamous exploding drums incident), and Steve Martin got his start with them as a writer. Bluegrass banjoist/songwriter John Hartford was also on the show.
 
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Thank you kindly, Michedelic, I'll get to listening through those!

discover new worlds, but don't get your hopes up for any solo bass stars
Yeah, I figured it was a bit of a stretch, and two days' silence from the forum members are making me doubt some more. On the chance it helps, we can remove the genre question and see if anybody knows any sort of solo bass player/singer. I could start that list off with Barry Carl. But maybe he's the first, and I'll just be the second.
 
In the pre-Beatles folk explosion era kicked off by the pop crossover hit of the Kingston Trio("Tom Dooley")most bass players(always upright)were relegated to background support roles; acoustic blues was often pitched as 'folk music', but jazz was a whole different universe. These guys were sometimes promoted to the folk crowd, but they were obviously R&B and jazz based...



Bassist as ensemble member...


Those guys, as talented as they were, were just another in a long line of countless cookie-cutter groups trying to jump on the crossover gravy train once the K3 hit it big, just as there were legions of look-alike and sound-alike outfits from the British Invasion to Grunge and beyond. Before the Kingstons, 'folk' music was an almost underground scene of lefties and socialists who had to keep a low profile due to the 'Red Scare', Joe McCarthy, and the blacklists. Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Cisco Houston help birth the scene in the economic desperation of the 30's and the fight against facism of the 40's; Seeger actually had a bit of early 50's pre-rock'n'roll pop success with the Weavers, but bass players were always relegated to the back, even if they were group members. The K3 presented a sanitized, safe for America's living rooms version of folk(much like Pat Boone did for Little Richard), that offered a college level alternative to the dumb rock'n'roll of the dumb teenagers. Jazz was for the hard-core(pseudo-)intellectual college crowd and beatniks of the times, but at least that's where bass players got some respect. There might have been occasional stand-out bassists in bluegrass and hillbilly music, but most of the time their moment in the spotlight was for comic relief or brief ensemble soloing. In the sideways related genre of the blues, there's always Willie Dixon, but he's not exactly solo...



What I would suggest is that you start your research here...
Search for "folk" | AllMusic
discover new worlds, but don't get your hopes up for any solo bass stars


Those Willie Dixon clips are awesome!
 
Boy, you're missing out if you haven't listened to Aaron Gibson. Solo bass and singing. Amazing music.

It's on iTunes and some of his stuff is on YouTube as well. Definitely give it a listen.
 
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Not a folk singer, but the Atlanta bass busking dude sort of fills those other skill sets, haha....