HOMESPUN
Getting Started in Blues, Country and Ragtime
Taught By Happy Traum.
Level 2
Six CDs plus 50-page book
These six CDs will teach you how to pick out syncopated melodies while maintaining a steady rhythmic bass pattern in the styles of Merle Travis, Elizabeth Cotten, John Hurt and others. Even students who have never done this kind of picking before will be improvising fingerpicking solos by the end of this series!
Songs: "John Henry," "Sugar Babe," "Spike Driver's Blues," "My Creole Belle," "Railroad Bill," "Fishing Blues," "Stackerlee," "I Am A Pilgrim," "Nine-Pound Hammer," "Candy Man," "Guabi Guabi," "Cocaine," "Wilson Rag," "Ragtime Improvisation."
Develop a strong fingerpicking repertoire and explore more complex chord positions, open tunings and counter-bass lines. You'll learn extra tricks, breaks, runs, endings and turnarounds as you master these songs: "Sitting On Top Of The World," "Deep River Blues," "Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out," "You're Gonna Quit Me Baby," "Mississippi Blues," "Saturday Night Shuffle," "Anji," "St. Louis Tickle," "Dallas Rag," "Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor."
Note: This CD course was originally issued on 12 cassettes and called "Fingerpicking
Styles for Guitar." It was based loosely around Happy's Oak Publications
book with the same title. Although edited slightly and audio-enhanced, all of
the original songs are taught in this version.
During the past forty years, Happy Traum's avid interest in traditional and contemporary
music has brought him recognition as a performer, writer, editor, folklorist,
teacher and recording artist. He has performed extensively throughout the U.S.,
Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan, and has appeared on recordings as a featured
artist, as a member of various ensembles, and as an accompanist. He has played
and recorded with Bob Dylan, Chris Smither, Maria Muldaur, Eric Andersen, Rory
Block, Jerry Jeff Walker, Allen Ginsberg, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel
and innumerable others. Happy is the author of more than a dozen best-selling guitar instruction books, has written numerous magazine columns and articles, and for three years was editor of Sing Out! The Folksong Magazine. He and his brother, Artie Traum, have been playing as a duo since 1968. Their first two Capitol albums, "Happy And Artie Traum" and "Double Back," are widely considered to be classics. Long-time residents of Woodstock, NY, Happy and Artie co-produced several important records for Rounder, featuring some of the area's finest folk and rock musicians. These included "Mud Acres, Music Among Friends" and "Woodstock Mountains." Happy and Artie's album "Hard Times In The Country" featured liner notes by Allen Ginsberg. In 1993, Happy and Artie released their latest duet album, "The Test Of Time," featuring traditional and contemporary songs backed up by some of Woodstock's finest musicians.
Happy's solo albums include "Relax Your Mind," "American Stranger," "Bright Morning Stars" and "Friends And Neighbors." A compilation CD, "Buckets Of Songs," has been released by Shanachie Records. In 2001, “Bright Morning Stars” was reissued in CD format in the U.S. (Lark’s Nest Music) and in Japan (Slice of Life Records).
Perhaps Happy Traum's most important and lasting musical contribution has been Homespun Tapes, which he and his wife Jane founded in 1967. This dynamic and growing mail order company has a catalog of approximately 400 different music instruction lessons on audio cassette, CD and video tape, taught by top professional performing musicians. Happy produces all of the lessons, and brings to Homespun his many years of experience as a popular and productive member of the music community.