Alan Lomax Archive | Blind Jim Howard: The Old Fish Song (1933) @AlanLomaxArchive | Uploaded August 2023 | Updated October 2024, 2 days ago.
Blind Jim Howard, voice and fiddle, performs “The Old Fish Song,” his comic-epic telling of the story of Jonah and the whale, recorded by John A. and Alan Lomax in Harlan, Kentucky, August 1, 1933.
James P. (“Blind Jim”) Howard, was born in Harlan County on June 22, 1888, in the settlement of Dressen. The fiddler and singer performed for school programs, dances, community gatherings and, in the early 1940s, over Harlan, Kentucky, radio station WHLN. In October 1928, he traveled with guitarist Charles Peak to Bristol, Virginia, to audition for Victor Records—billed as “The Blind Musicians,” the duo cut two sides for the label, which were issued in 1930. But his most lasting contribution is his “Old Fish Song.”
John Lomax remembered Howard as being “kindly, keenly intelligent, without formal education” and singing “blood-stirring ballads of love and life in the mountains.” Alan Lomax made additional recordings of his singing and playing in 1937, all of which are available via the Lomax Digital Archive.
Blind Jim Howard, voice and fiddle, performs “The Old Fish Song,” his comic-epic telling of the story of Jonah and the whale, recorded by John A. and Alan Lomax in Harlan, Kentucky, August 1, 1933.
James P. (“Blind Jim”) Howard, was born in Harlan County on June 22, 1888, in the settlement of Dressen. The fiddler and singer performed for school programs, dances, community gatherings and, in the early 1940s, over Harlan, Kentucky, radio station WHLN. In October 1928, he traveled with guitarist Charles Peak to Bristol, Virginia, to audition for Victor Records—billed as “The Blind Musicians,” the duo cut two sides for the label, which were issued in 1930. But his most lasting contribution is his “Old Fish Song.”
John Lomax remembered Howard as being “kindly, keenly intelligent, without formal education” and singing “blood-stirring ballads of love and life in the mountains.” Alan Lomax made additional recordings of his singing and playing in 1937, all of which are available via the Lomax Digital Archive.
