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Article: Folk hero; Jon Pankake has spent nearly 40 years studying the Anthology of American Folk Music. Its re-release in CD form invites other music fans to listen and learn.(VARIETY)
- Article from:
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
- Article date:
- December 2, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Star Tribune Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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No sparks fly in Mississippi John Hurt's graceful take on the legend of John Henry, the steel-driving man who died trying to outhammer a steam drill.
"It's not heroic," said Jon Pankake as he listened to Hurt's "Spike Driver Blues," from the recently reissued Anthology of American Folk Music. "It's defeatist: `John Henry left his hammer laying 'side the road.' "
To Pankake, a University of Minnesota student adviser who lives in Minneapolis, the 1928 recording still sounds as vibrant as it did when he first heard it nearly 40 years ago. Then, as today, the anthology was a mystery. He would spend a lifetime probing it.
"These lost, archaic, ...