Tom Kruskal and Jim Morrison, Part II: Cottey Light Orchestra, wild parties of youth, Pinewoods over the years

Description

Jim Morrison and Tom Kruskal enumerate stories from the Cottey House porch. Fiona Rogers learns a lot about the history of folk collecting and its effect on Pinewoods and the North American Dance community. They talk about being instrumental roles as progenitors of Morris Teams in North America, and their experiences being introduced to the greats of the folk music and dance world both at Pinewoods and in England.

Jim and Tom played music extensively on the Cottey House Porch, and went on to record their album Round Pond Relics under the name Cottey Light Orchestra in 1979-80 in a Charlottesville studio. Tony Barrand played on it on drum and bones, and Andy Morton (Tony's wife who started Marlboro Morris Women) also played. Jim and Tom busked together on Nantucket as the Cottey Light Orchestra, holding a little sign that read "Songs the Whalermen Might have Known and Would Have Loved," and tell of gigs early in their career to audiences of ducks. Their second recording "Over the Water" included John Dexter and, controversially, a jazz drummer. Tom describes it as highly influenced by Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention, in the vein of emerging English folkrock.

Fiona asks about the infamous Cottey House parties, and enjoys being regaled with tales. One Folk Music Week, Jeff Warner (then-President of CDSS) was called to quiet things down at a particularly raucous party. When he was unsuccessful, the police arrived. There were times when the long-suffering neighbors played loud rock music back at them across the pond in retaliation. Then there were the parties where the only guests were raccoons. In those days campers would have their own pubsings and other parties after the dance (the dance used to go until 11pm with no organized party following it-the vain hope being that campers would go to bed so they could get up for breakfast), and informal soirees eventually become the officially-programmed evening parties we have today. John Roberts and Tony Barrand were among the first people to introduce the music of The Watersons and The Copper Family at these sings.

One of the themes in this interview is how Folk Music and Folk Dance at that time were separate worlds. They didn't begin to blend until projects like Morris On: a folkrock LP including Martin Carthy, John Kirkpatrick, Richard Thompson, and Maddy Prior, released by Ashley Hutchings in 1972. This album took some of the best folk musicians and explored dance and morris music, bridging that gap between the two communities.

Tom looks back on his fateful trip to England in 1966 where he was sent to a folk shop in London with a paper letter of introduction. It was through this shop that he was introduced to many of the legends of the folk music world and went on to meet a man named Royston Wood from the Young Tradition. Wood invited Tom to parties where he met more people and saw them again at Sidmouth Folk Festival later that summer. People in the music world at that time had begun to notice how separate the folk music and folk dance scenes were, and wanted to find ways to integrate them.

Jim talks about how young musicians of his generation drifted away from rock and roll, looking for more. Tom went to the Theater of Chicago Folk Festival when he was 10 years old. They found eachother through folk festivals, listening to groups like The Limelighters and The Kingston Trio, Bob Dylan, and others who popularized folk music (and adjacent genres).

Jim Morrison invited Peter Brown (of Monkseaton Rapper, near Newcastle) and his wife Di Brown to teach Pinewoods in 1971 at an early Family Week. Di taught rants and garland dancing along with other traditional dances, and Peter taught rapper. Jim had met them in England previously, and brought them over for the express purpose of bringing rapper to America, an endeavour that was more prolific for the current state of rapper dancing in North America than anyone until Tom Kruskal began his myriad teams in Boston years later. Tom was teaching Hopbrook Morris, and when the kids graduated into high school and needed a new team, Tom suggested they try rapper, and Velocirapper was born. The early team members included Aaron Marcus and Peter Kruskal. Kristen Fleishman and Erika Roderick then began Great Meadows which included rapper.

Bob Parker and Ron Smedley had a huge influence on Morris in America. They came from London and taught new traditions of Morris. Ron was the Director of London Folk (the EFDSS performing troupe) and came to teach dance at Berea College in 1970 at the Christmas Country Dance School. Ron invited Jim and other dancers to come to England to share Appalachian flatfooting and other American traditions in London. He sent them to stay with Monkseaton Rapper, to see Headington and Bampton Morris at the Loughborough Folk Festival, to hear Steeleye Span, to Halsway Manor, and to Whitley Bay to visit Peter and Di Brown and see Peter perform champion clog dancing and win the coveted belt. Jim described being thrown into a traditional Monkseaton dance, including the flip (and danced at his technique).

Tom reflects on how important it is to make these transatlantic connections, bringing folk teachers back and forth to share our traditions and teach so that new folk groups and teams can spring up. Now there are several Appalachian Flatfooting teams in the UK, and a host of English folk dance teams in America. Tom and Jim have been instrumental and at the heart of much of this cross-pollination.

Participants

• Fiona Rogers
  
• Tom Kruskal
  
• Jim Morrison
  

Interview By

• Fiona Rogers