Dr. Harry Oster (April 12, 1923 – January 19, 2001) was an American folklorist and musicologist.
Harry Oster was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of immigrant Russian Jews. He became interested in Yiddish folk song, but soon came to appreciate the whole patchwork of American vernacular music. While teaching at Louisiana State University, a well-received lecture on Old World traditional ballads prompted a colleague to suggest that he apply for a grant to collect local folklore.
"Before long," he recalled, "I found a profusion of unusual material - ancient French ballads, Cajun dance music, Afro-French spirituals... I got the idea that I should issue with my own funds a long-playing record to be called A Sampler of Louisiana Folk Songs." This and succeeding records such as Folk Songs of the Louisiana Acadians, the first LP of Cajun music, appeared under the auspices of the Louisiana Folklore Society, which Oster created with a couple of friends. Later recordings were on his own label, Folk-Lyric.
Oster's greatest discovery came on a trip to the state penitentiary at Angola. He was looking for African-American prison work songs, a genre documented earlier in recordings made for the Library of Congress, but now disappearing as prison farms became mechanised. The tradition in Angola was indeed moribund, but Oster found many impressive blues singers, among them Robert Pete Williams. The singer's intense improvised narratives about prison life and the events that had brought him there, were presented to the world on the 1959 album Angola Prisoner's Blues.
Oster also recorded the New Orleans singer and guitarist Snooks Eaglin, the fiddle-and-guitar duo Butch Cage and Willie Thomas, jazz musicians Billie and DeDe Pierce, old-timey banjoist Snuffy Jenkins and a street musician from Georgia, the Reverend Pearly Brown.
He left Louisiana in 1963 to teach at the University of Iowa, where he remained until his retirement in 1993, working on the American Dictionary of Folklore and pursuing his passion of making and disseminating records. His Folk-Lyric catalogue was acquired by Arhoolie Records and has largely been transferred to CD, and many of his field recordings were heard in 1995 in a BBC Radio 3 series devoted to his life and work.
b. 12 April 1923, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, d. 19 January 2001, USA. A deep and abiding interest in American folk music and early country blues led Oster into a 30-year-career teaching these and related subjects at the University of Iowa’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Additionally, he recorded many rarely heard artists in their homes, places of work, and in prison. These field recordings, on some of which he was aided by Richard Allen, were made in and around towns such as Baton Rouge, Eunice and Scotlandville, Louisiana.
Among many blues singers and instrumentalists Oster recorded, between the mid-50s and the early 60s, were Savy Augustine, Lucius Bridges, Robert ‘Smoky Babe’ Brown, Johnny Butler, James ‘Butch’ Cage, Roosevelt Charles, Bee Deshotels, Sally Dotson, William Dotson, Ben Douglas, Emanuel Dunn, Clarence Edwards, Cornelius Edwards, Isom J. Fontenot, Chuck Guillory, Herman E. Johnson, Murray Macon, Rodney Mason, Odea Mathews, Andy Mosley, Hogman Maxey, Wallace ‘Cheese’ Read, Willie Rufus, James Russell, Creola Scott, Rebecca Smith, Leon Strickland, Willie B. Thomas, Shelby Vidrine, Otis Webster, Guitar Welch and Robert Pete Williams. Owing to the efforts of Oster and Allen, Williams was released from his life sentence for murder (he claimed self defence) after serving only a few years. As can be seen, in numerous cases, these recordings by Oster are the only known examples of performances by these singers, thus making his efforts a significant contribution to blues archives.
Representative Oster recordings, mostly featuring various artists, are A Sampler Of Louisiana Folksongs, Angola Prisoners’ Blues, Angola Prison Worksongs, Angola State Penitentiary, Angola Prison Spirituals, Blues From New Orleans, Portraits In Blues, Country Negro Jam Session, Folksongs Of The Louisiana Acadians and New Orleans Washboard Blues. Other Oster recordings included Reverend Pearly Brown’s Georgia Street Singer, Snooks Eaglin’s New Orleans Street Singer (1958), and Jesse Fuller’s Greatest Of The Negro Minstrels (1963), the latter spinning off a minor hit with ‘San Francisco Bay Blues’. Several of these albums were first released by the Louisiana Folklore Society, others on Oster’s own Folk-Lyric label. Some of these albums were re-released as LPs and, in the 90s, CDs by Arhoolie Records and Storyville Records. Oster’s published work includes 1969’s Living Country Blues and 2000’s The Penguin Dictionary Of American Folklore. He also published in academic journals many learned articles and essays on arcane musical matters, all of which demonstrate his integrity of purpose and the quality of his research.
Label: Louisiana Folklore Society – LSF-1201
Format: Vinyl, LP, Mono, Translucent Red
Country: US
Released: 1957
Style: Cajun, Folk, Ballad
Tracks:
A1 Abe Davis – Take My Hand, Precious Lord 2:57
A2 Samanthia Holmes – To My Seat Set Down 2:20
A3 Robert Gilmore – Wasn't That A Awful Day In Natchez 1:06
A4 Godar Chalvin – Settin' 'Side Dat Road Wid A Ball An' Chain In My Leg 1:47
A5 Godar Chalvin – Anons Au Bal Colinda 1:50
A6 Wallace "Cheese" Reed And Cyprien Landrino And Alton Landrino And Mrs. Rodney Fruge – Allons Danser, Colinda 3:01
A7 Lafeyette Jarreau – Oh Cam, Anons Couper Eine 'Tite Polka 0:27
A8 Caesar Vincent – Mes Amis A La Table Ronde 1:32
A9 Caesar Vincent – Travailler C'est Trop Dur 1:06
A10 Caesar Vincent – Mon Aimable Catin 2:02
B1 Alma Bartholomew – Trois Jolis Dragons 3:31
B2 Alma Bartholomew – C'est La Sainte Marguerite 2:04
B3 Alma Bartholomew – La Chanson De Mariage 1:50
B4 Terry Clement And Laurent Clement And Grant Paul Clement – La Chanson Du Mardi Gras 3:12
B5 Josephine Gutekunst – Devinez Ce Qu’il A Dans Ces Beaux Bois 1:19
B6 John P. Brashears – There Was A Flower In A Garden 2:09
B7 David Lewis – Dandoo 0:49
B8 David Lewis – Didn't He Ramble? 1:51
B9 John P. Brashear – The House Carpenter 2:46
B10 Catherine Brookshire Blanchet – Weevily Wheat 0:36
B11 Catherine Brookshire Blanchet – Choose Your Love As We Go Around 2:07
Credits
Cover – Frank Stevens
Recorded By, Edited By – Dr. Harry Oster
Notes
Songs collected (1956-1957) by Dr. Harry Oster, Department of English, Louisiana State University.
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