Lloyd Chandler

Last updated
Lloyd Chandler
Born1896
Died1978 (aged 8182)
Genres Appalachian music
Occupation(s)Musician
Free Will Baptist preacher

Lloyd Chandler (18961978) was an American Appalachian Folk musician and Free Will Baptist preacher from Madison County, North Carolina.

Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering on a combination of fiddle and plucked string instruments, as well as the mandolin.

Free Will Baptist

Free Will Baptist is a denomination and group of people that believe in free grace, free salvation and free will. The movement can be traced back to the 1600s with the development of General Baptism in England. Its formal establishment is widely linked to the English theologian, Thomas Helwys who led the Baptist movement to believe in general atonement. He was an advocate of religious liberty at a time when to hold to such views could be dangerous and punishable by death. He died in prison as a consequence of the religious persecution of Protestant dissenters under King James I.

Preacher person who delivers sermons or gives homilies

A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as a moral or social worldview or philosophy.

Research has asserted that Chandler is the writer of "O, Death", a song featured on the acclaimed O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack . [1] Ralph Stanley won a Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for his rendition of this song. [2]

"O Death", also known as "O, Death", "Oh Death" and "Conversations with Death", is a traditional American folk song. In 2004, the Journal of Folklore Research asserted that "O, Death" is Lloyd Chandler's song "A Conversation with Death", which Chandler performed in the 1920s while preaching in Appalachia.

Ralph Stanley American singer

Ralph Edmund Stanley, also known as Dr. Ralph Stanley, was an American bluegrass artist, known for his distinctive singing and banjo playing. Stanley began playing music in 1946, originally with his older brother Carter Stanley as part of The Stanley Brothers, and most often as the leader of his band, The Clinch Mountain Boys.

Grammy Award accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States

A Grammy Award, or Grammy, is an award presented by The Recording Academy to recognize achievements in the music industry. The annual presentation ceremony features performances by prominent artists, and the presentation of those awards that have a more popular interest. The Grammys are the second of the Big Three major music awards held annually.

Indiana University Press' The Journal of Folklore Research features articles in a 2004 issue asserting that "O, Death" is Chandler's song "A Conversation with Death", which he performed for several years while preaching in Appalachia. [1]

Appalachia Region

Appalachia is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in Alabama, the cultural region of Appalachia typically refers only to the central and southern portions of the range, from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, southwesterly to the Great Smoky Mountains. As of the 2010 United States Census, the region was home to approximately 25 million people.

One of the articles is from folklorist Carl Lindahl, who researched claims from Western North Carolina that O Brother's "O, Death" is Chandler's composition. [1] The article states that Chandler authored the song after a vision from God in 1916. Lindahl also chronicles his unsuccessful research in trying to find any trace of the song before Chandler's version, debunking previous claims that the song traces back to a 16th-century British composition. [3] The other article is from Chandler's daughter-in-law, Barbara, who asserts that "O, Death" was based on Chandler's composition. [4]

Western North Carolina

Western North Carolina is the region of North Carolina which includes the Appalachian Mountains, thus it is often known geographically as the state's Mountain Region. It contains the highest mountains in the Eastern United States. Western North Carolina is sometimes included with upstate South Carolina as the "Western Carolinas", which is also counted as a single media market. The region covers an area of about 11,000 square miles (28,000 km2), and is roughly the size of the state of Massachusetts. The population of the region, as measured by the 2010 U.S. Census, is 1,473,241, which is approximately 15% of North Carolina's total population.

"A Conversation with Death" appears on Rounder Records 1975 release High Atmosphere: Ballads and Banjo Tunes from Virginia and North Carolina , a collection of recordings made by John Cohen.

<i>High Atmosphere</i> 1975 compilation album

High Atmosphere: Ballads and Banjo Tunes from Virginia and North Carolina is a 1975 compilation album released by Rounder Records. The album is composed of Appalachian folk music recordings gathered by musicologist John Cohen in North Carolina and Virginia in 1965.

John Cohen is a founding member of the New Lost City Ramblers as well as a musicologist, photographer and filmmaker. Some of his best known images document the Abstract Expressionist scene centered on New York's Cedar Bar; gallery happenings by early performance artists; young Bob Dylan's arrival in New York; Beat Generation writers during the filming of Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie's film Pull My Daisy; and the "old time" musicians of Appalachia. He has been one of the most important "discoverers" of traditional musicians and singers, finding and recording Dillard Chandler, Roscoe Holcomb, and many banjo players, most notably on the album High Atmosphere.

Discography

Notes and references

  1. 1 2 3 Smith, Hazel (April 25, 2005). "HOT DISH: The Preacher and the Song". CMT.com. Country Music Television. Retrieved 2008-12-28.
  2. "Ralph Stanley brings his Grammy-winning bluegrass to the Jubilee stage". Kentucky Educational Television. KET.org. March 11, 2002. Archived from the original on November 7, 2009. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
  3. Lindahl, Carl (May–August 2004). "Thrills and Miracles: Legends of Lloyd Chandler". Journal of Folklore Research. Indiana University Press. 41 (2–3): 133–171. doi:10.2979/JFR.2004.41.2-3.133. ISSN   0737-7037. JSTOR   3814588.
  4. Chandler, Barbara (May–August 2004). "Why I Believe That Lloyd Chandler Wrote "Conversation with Death," also Known as "O Death"". Journal of Folklore Research. Indiana University Press. 41 (2): 127–132. doi:10.1353/jfr.2005.0001. ISSN   0737-7037 . Retrieved 2008-12-28.


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