Show #20 ROBERT DeCORMIER #1 of 2
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MEL BERNAM (ANNOUNCER): Here is Radio New York, Folk Music Worldwide, a program devoted to the best in folk music throughout the world, showcasing the top performers and authorities in the field. Now your host for Folk Music Worldwide, Alan Wasser.

ALAN WASSER (HOST): Hello again and welcome to Folk Music Worldwide. With us today is Robert DeCormier, leader of the fast-rising and well-known Robert DeCormier Singers.

For those of you who might perhaps have not heard their music, why don't we play a sample of it right off the bat before we start talking to Mr. DeCormier. Here's a selection that's now on their 45 record and the first song on their album, "Dance Boatman, Dance."

[Song Performance: "Dance Boatman, Dance", the Robert DeCormier Singers]:

Lyrics:

Hey ho, boatman row,
rolling down the river on the Ohio.
Hey ho, boatman row,
rolling down the river on the Ohio.

Boatman dance, boatman sing,
boatman do most any old thing.
Dance boatman, dance.
Dance Boatman, dance.
Dance all night 'till the broad daylight.
Come home with the girls in the morning.

Hey ho, boatman row,
rolling down the river on the Ohio.
Hey ho, boatman row,
rolling down the river on the Ohio.

When the boatman blows his horn,
the gals go mad,
your daughter is gone.
Dance boatman, dance.
Dance Boatman, dance.
Dance boatman, dance.
Dance all night 'till the broad daylight.
Come home with the girls in the morning.

Hey ho, boatman row,
rolling down the river on the Ohio.
Hey ho, boatman row,
rolling down the river on the Ohio.

All a sailor wants in this creation
is three months' work and the rest vacation.
So grab your gal and swing her around.
There’s time enough later to settle on down.

Hey ho, boatman row,
rolling down the river on the Ohio.
Hey ho, boatman row,
rolling down the river on the Ohio.

Mary's gonna kiss you on Saturday night.
Sue's gonna kiss you on Sunday.
Give any old gal a sailorman.
She'll be back on Monday.

Hey ho, boatman row,
rolling down the river on the Ohio.
Hey ho, boatman row,
rolling down the river on the Ohio.

Heal and a toe and a do-si-do,
grab your gal and away we go.

Hey ho, boatman row,
rolling down the river on the Ohio.
Hey ho, boatman row,
rolling down the river on the Ohio.

(end of music)

ALAN: "Dance Boatman, Dance" done by the Robert DeCormier Singers. Mr. DeCormier, can you tell us something about that group? First off, how many men are there in it?

ROBERT DeCORMIER (GUEST): Well, there are 25 in the group on the recording. When we tour, we have to use less than that even, about 15 people or 20 people, including instrumentalists.

ALAN: Well, this is an extraordinary large group for the folk music business. Don't you run into all sorts of problems with that many people?

ROBERT DeCORMIER: Well, only in relation to really keeping them together and providing work for them. It's not too much pay per individual. It becomes a pretty high budget to...

ALAN: Well, are these generally always the same men or do you...?

ROBERT DeCORMIER: No, because of the fact that it's hard to keep work or to have work constantly, the group varies. We'll get a group together, and rehearse and perform for a tour or for a concert tour or for some other engagements.

And when that's over, if there's no work, of course these singers go and find work elsewhere. And when you want to work again, you have to get a new group together.

ALAN: Well, now how long have you been leading groups of this size?

ROBERT DeCORMIER: Well, actually it started when I was working as a conductor and arranger for Harry Belafonte, and we had organized a group called The Belafonte Folk Singers with him and did two tours, and then he decided to drop the thing. And it was after that, I organized my own group, which was just about a year.

ALAN: I see. Now that song, "Dance Boatman, Dance," can you tell us something about where that came from?

ROBERT DeCORMIER: It's an American song. It was originally written by a man named Dan Emmett for the old-time minstrel shows, and then it was taken over by the folk and became a folk song. And this is a version which was actually put together by Leon Bibb and Lee Hays, two current folk singers.

ALAN: I see. Now where did the rest of your music come from? Is a lot of your music this kind or...?

ROBERT DeCORMIER: Well, it varies. It's all kinds. One song is actually written by a contemporary folk singer, Pete Seeger, who wrote "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" but it's a song which I feel certainly has all the best elements of folk music in it.

ALAN: Well, listeners to our show will be familiar with that song from, oh, Peter, Paul and Mary and several others who've done it. But let's hear how the Robert DeCormier singers do, "Where Have all the Flowers Gone?"

[Song Performance: "Where Have all the Flowers Gone?", the Robert DeCormier Singers]:

Lyrics:

Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them every one.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the young girls gone?
Gone to husbands every one.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the husbands gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the husbands gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the husbands gone?
Gone to soldier everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Gone to flowers every one.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them every one.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

(end of music)

ALAN: "Where Have all the Flowers Gone?" as done by the Robert DeCormier Singers. Mr. DeCormier I see here on your record...I see an Eastern European song, although these two songs have been Americans. Igra Kolo, where is that from?

ROBERT DeCORMIER: From Serbia, Croatia. It's a dance. Kolo is a Serbo-Croatian dance and so it's a dance song. We do some of the foreign songs too partly because there are so many wonderful choral songs in folk music of Eastern European countries.

ALAN: Well, why don't we play "Igra Kolo" as done by the Robert DeCormier Singers?

[Song Performance: "Igra Kolo", the Robert DeCormier Singers]:

Lyrics:

[Serbian chorus]

Dance a kolo. Dance a kolo. Dance a kolo, Mary.
It's a kolo. In a kolo, all our plans a-gladdy.

It's a kolo. Pretty Mary gaily sings and dances,
free from care and unaware of lover's longing glances.

[Serbian chorus]

Mary has a [inaudible 00:11:08].
I would rather have a kiss than all the emperor's money.

Mary [inaudible 00:11:15].
If she only glanced my way, how happy she would make me.

[Serbian chorus]

Mary is so young and pretty, she can choose a lover.
If she does not seem to care for you, she'll take another.

Waste no time on lovely Mary, for your black eyes haunt me.
Take no other one for you can have me if you want me.

[Serbian chorus]

(end of music)

ALAN: "Igra Kolo" as done by the Robert DeCormier Singers. We'll be talking to Robert DeCormier again in just a moment and hearing some more of their music, but first this message.

(pause for commercial)

All right, this is Alan Wasser again, back at Folk Music Worldwide with Robert DeCormier. As I usually do, let me take a moment out here to ask again those of you who are listening to the show, please send in letters.

Let us know you've heard it. You'll get a QSL card, of course. If you have any suggestions, requests, comments, we'd love to hear them.

Even if you don't, just let us know that you heard this show. If you have any tapes of folk music in your own area, single track tapes preferably, why don't you send them in?

We're going to put together a show of the music of our listeners' areas, music that we couldn't possibly get if we relied entirely on, oh, commercial LP albums in the New York area. So if we'll get those tapes in and even if you don't have tapes, just let us know you heard this show.

Well, back to Robert DeCormier. Mr. DeCormier, I hear from the record that these are not all men as I'd thought.

ROBERT DeCORMIER: No.

ALAN: How many women are there in the group?

ROBERT DeCORMIER: Well, as I said before, on the record, all together are 25. Let's see. We used 12 women and 13 men. On tour, we used...oh, goodness. I have to remember now - nine men and six women.

ALAN: Well, are these people generally just singers or are they folk singers basically?

ROBERT DeCORMIER: Some of them do folk singing, but they are also legitimate singers. They have to be able to read and they have to have legitimate voices in order to sing choral music.

ALAN: Well, speaking of the women in your group, it occurs to me that there's a very appropriate song on your album here, "Kissing's No Sin."

ROBERT DeCORMIER: A marvelous little Scottish song, which has a good philosophy to it.

ALAN: All right, let's hear "Kissing's No Sin" as done by the Robert DeCormier Singers.

[Song Performance: "Kissing’s No Sin", the Robert DeCormier Singers]:

Lyrics:

Some say that kissing's a sin,
but really it's made of gold.
For kissing has won in this world
since ever there was one.

If it was not lawful,
lawyers would not allow it.
If it was not holy,
ministers would not do it.

If it was not modest,
maidens would not take it.
If it was not plenty,
poor folks would not get it!

(end of music)

ALAN: "Kissing's No Sin." Robert DeCormier, we now heard a Scottish song, an Eastern European song, two reasonably modern type American songs. What other kinds of music does your group do?

ROBERT DeCORMIER: We do a good bit of American-Negro music. It's one of the kinds of American folk music, which is .. a lot of it at least, is very choral in nature, spirituals, work songs and that kind of thing.

ALAN: Which of these kinds do you find your audience likes best?

ROBERT DeCORMIER: Well, a song like "Amen," which is a sermon with a kind of repetitive chorus, and one which they can also join in on quite easily is always a kind of favorite.

ALAN: Where did you get this song?

ROBERT DeCORMIER: Actually it was taught to me by one of the members of the group, Joseph Crawford, who sings the lead in it. Joe is a Negro singer who's been around for quite some time and sung with Paul Johnson, and Bennett Dapur [sp?], and sung with me for many years in different things, and a person who knows a good deal about the old Negro music.

ALAN: I presume that as with most Negro spirituals the origins of Amen are lost in antiquity.

ROBERT DeCORMIER: Yes.

ALAN: Nobody has any idea where it came from?

ROBERT DeCORMIER: No, it's the kind of thing which they would sing in church. It's just a response to a sermon when a preacher would sort of sing a sermon.

ALAN: This has always struck me as such a shame that the authors of so much good music like this are completely lost and no one has any idea who--

ROBERT DeCORMIER: Well, I guess you have to credit the whole people.

ALAN: Well, all right. As a credit to the whole Negro people then, the Robert DeCormier Singers doing "Amen."

[Song Performance: "Amen", the Robert DeCormier Singers]:

Lyrics:

Singing Amen, Amen.
Singing Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Join me, sisters. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Sing it, brothers. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Everybody sing, Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
See the baby. Amen.

Lying in a manger. Amen.
On that great morning. Amen. Amen. Amen.
See Him in the temple. Amen.
Talking to the elders. Amen.
Who marvel at His wisdom. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Follow Him. Amen.
Down to the Jordan. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Where John was baptizing. Amen. Amen. Amen.
At the seaside. Amen.
Calling to the fishes. Amen.
And making them disciples.
Amen. Amen. Amen.
On the mountain. Amen.

Preaching to the people. Amen.
And saving all the sinners. Amen. Amen. Amen.
See Him healing. Amen.
The sick and the disabled. Amen.
Yes, He's my savior. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Marching through Jerusalem. Amen.

On the palm branches. Amen.
They come in splendor. Amen. Amen. Amen.
In the garden. Amen.
Praying to his father. Amen.
In deepest sorrow. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Led before Pilot.

Then they crucified Him. Amen.
But He rose on Easter. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Hallelujah. Amen.
He died to save us. Amen.
And He'll live forever. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

(end of music)

ALAN: Yeah!

Robert DeCormier, what's ahead for your group?

ROBERT DeCORMIER: Well, we are going on another tour across the United States starting in February. I think our first concert is February 21st and we end up May 17th going all the way out to California and up into Northwestern Canada and back across the country.

ALAN: This is your first LP record now?

ROBERT DeCORMIER: Yes, it is. I am very happy with it. I think Command Records, who recorded it, did a marvelous job with it.

ALAN: For any of our listeners who may want to pick it up, the title is...

ROBERT DeCORMIER: The Robert DeCormier Folk Singers.

ALAN: That's not too hard to remember. Well, we're out of time. Thank you very much for coming in, Robert DeCormier.

ROBERT DeCORMIER: Thank you, Alan.

MEL BERNAM (ANNOUNCER): This has been Folk Music Worldwide, devoted to the best in folk music throughout the world in spotlighting top performers and authorities in the field. If you have any suggestions, requests or comments, why not write in to Folk Music Worldwide Radio New York, WRUL, New York City, 19 USA. This has been a Music Worldwide presentation of Radio New York Worldwide.

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