What is a harvest moon? Its the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox, which was Fri, 09/23/11. This year the harvest full moon fell on Sep 12. It usually occurs in September. In fact the latest it can occur is October 6th.

Why should I care? Well, I think these seasonal events should be noted and celebrated by listening or viewing performances of works that evoke the particular season or day. Of course we do that already for Christmas, obviously, and for Fourth-of-July. The local furniture retailer enjoys recalling an old fiddle tune from the Revolutionary period while some actor's dressed up as Washington & Lincoln try to find something funny to say about selling furniture on a national holiday. Not trying to assign blame. After all, failed irreverent humor is part of what freedom is all about.

Christmas, of course, is overdone by the merchandisers. All those lovely songs that might have served to entertain, at least a little bit, into old age, are played to death. Some one should conduct a survey to find out at what age young folk become tired hearing the stuff.

But other songs and verse can also be returned to on an annual basis and used to celebrate the day or season. And build a personal connection to the past, and its songs.

Perhaps build a canon, or a set of commonly shared aesthetic events; So that we can feel like "we're all on the same page" from time to time.

Leon Redbone's rendition of the classic Shine On Harvest Moon is something everyone should take the time to listen to each fall. How many a foamy head of beer / s'been pierced by the plop of-a salty tear / occasioned by this song?

Leon Redbone, Imagine Arts Festival, Ireland, 2008

Redbone's guitar playing contains a wealth of great ideas but they are accompanied by squeeks from the strings and an unsteady rhythm; but this sort of thing is commonly accepted in this style of flat-picking. Doc Watson is much cleaner, but doesn't have Leon's casual croon.

Note: The months in the chorus have been sung is several different orders. The Ada Jones and Billy Murray song linked on this article has: April, January, Ju-une or July [3] Leon Redbone's cover on his album Double Time had the lyric as: January, February, June or July.

     Am               E7               Am

The night was mighty dark so you could hardly see,



         C      Am       E7

And the moon refused to shine;



 Am             E7             Am               D   Am7     G7

Couple sittin' underneath the willow tree; for love   they pined.



     Dm7            G7               Dm7       G7

The little maid was kinda 'fraid of darkness,  so



     C    C/B              Am7  Am7/G

She said,    "I guess I'll go."



     D            Am7    D              Am7

The boy began to sigh, looked up in the sky,



     D                 Am7           G    G7

And told the moon his little tale of woe.





(Refrain:)



 Fdim  A7  Fdim      A7       D   Am7           D

"Shine on, shine on, harvest moon    up in the sky;



G Dm7    G     Dm7          C        F         C       G  C  C7

I ain't had no lovin' since January, February, June or Ju-ly.



Fdim  A7  Fdim      A7      D   Am7                D

Snow time ain't no time to stay      outdoors and spoon,



   G    Dm7   G        Dm7     C        F     Dm7  C

So shine on, shine on, harvest moon, for me and my gal."




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—Ada Jones & "Billy" Murray, 1909—

Uploaded by edmundusrex on Dec 30, 2009

Ada Jones (June 1,1873 - May 2,1922) was a popular singer who recorded from 1905 to the early 1920s. She was born in Lancashire, England but moved with her family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of six in 1879. She started performing on stage, including juvenile roles in the 1880s.

In 1893 or 1894, she recorded some musical performances for the North American Phonograph Co., but the demise of this company ended this recording career and it was not until 1905 that she returned to recording, after a few years doing performances at such locations as Huber's 14th Street Museum in New York City. She recorded several duets with Billy Murray and Len Spencer. She sang in a range of accents and dialects.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Jones ------------------------

William Thomas "Billy" Murray (May 25,1877 - Aug.17,1954) was one of the most popular singers in the United States in the early decades of the 20th century.

While he received star billings on Vaudeville, he was best known for his prolific work in the recording studio, making records for almost every record label of the era. He was probably the best selling recording artist of the first quarter of the 20th century.

He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of immigrants from Ireland. He became fascinated with the theater and joined a traveling vaudeville troupe in 1893. He also performed in minstrel shows early in his career. He made his first recordings for a local phonograph cylinder company in San Francisco, California in 1897.

He started recording regularly in the New York City and New Jersey area in 1903, when the nation's major record companies as well as the Tin Pan Alley music industry were concentrated there.

In 1906 he waxed the first of his popular duets with Ada Jones. He also performed with Aileen Stanley, the Haydn Quartet, and the American Quartet (also known as the Premier Quartet), in addition to his solo work.

He had a strong tenor voice with excellent enunciation and a more conversational delivery than common with bel canto singers of the era. On comic songs he often deliberately sang slightly flat, which he felt helped the comic effect.

While he often performed romantic numbers and ballads which sold well at the time, his comedy and novelty song recordings continue to be popular with later generations of record collectors.

Murray's popularity faded with changes in public taste and recording technology; the rise of the electric microphone in the mid 1920s coincided with the rise of the crooners. His "hammering" style, as he called it, essentially yelling the song into the recording horn, did not work in the electronic era, and it took him some time to learn how to soften his voice.

While his singing style was considered "dated" and was less in demand, he continued to find recording work. By the late 1920s and early 1930s, the music from his salad days was considered nostalgic (the modern term would be "oldies") and Murray was in demand again. He did voices for animated cartoons, especially the popular "follow the bouncing ball" sing-along cartoons. He also did radio work.

Murray made his last recordings in 1943 and retired to Freeport, Long Island, New York in 1944. He died in nearby Jones Beach.



Ada Jones, Billy Murray - Shine On Harvest Moon (1909)

January, February, June, and July

The Critical Election of 1860 By Prof. Joseph Holliday October 27, 1960

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