Clarence Ashley
1928–1967
01
The House of the Rising Sun
Clarence Ashley & Gwen Foster (1933) → Joan Baez (1960)
An Appalachian song of regret was elevated by Joan Baez into a folk classic — the reference that Dylan and later The Animals would build from.
From brothel ballad to folk classicCanon for the 1960s folk revival
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02
The Coo Coo Bird
Clarence Ashley (1929) → Big Brother and the Holding Company (1966)
A solitary Appalachian folk ballad irreversibly decontextualized into late-1960s West Coast psychedelic rock.
Banjo drone → fuzz riffMountain orality → acid tripAnthology consummated
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