Cantemos a La Tarde, Volume IV, Mas Conciones , 2017, 2015-2017
File — Box: 1, CD: 18
Scope and Content
From the Collection:
Beginning in 2015, Frank McCulloch, Jr. began donating CDs with his recordings to the Center for Southwest Research, UNM Library. Included also is a copy of Frank’s personal notebook of over 200 songs and their lyrics collected from 1959-2015. These CDs have some of his favorites. He has added his own Bilingual lyrics to some of them. The CDs have songs recorded live in his studio, with Frank singing solo or Frank accompanied by his musical companions. Several are commercial albums put out by McCulloch and Sus Amigos, from Albuquerque. The amigos are McCulloch, on guitar, Luis Campos, on guitar, and Melody Mock, on violin. Jack Loeffler taped the trio in Frank’s art studio between 2006 and 2015. The trio performs annually at Nuestra Musica concerts at the Lensic Theatre in Santa Fe, Casa San Ysidro in Corrales, at numerous university and museum functions around New Mexico, and at local cafes.
The collection also contains articles about McCulloch’s teaching years, music events, landscape painting shows and his views and philosophy. Included also are examples of his contributions to other regional publications. It also has articles and a book that his father wrote, background on the family’s history, and photographs of his ancestors, Frank and his own family, and his musical associates.
McCulloch’s multicultural heritage - Hispanic, French, Irish - has influenced his choice of music. Like his paintings and poetry, many of his songs also reflect New Mexico’s history, culture and land. As a child he heard the Spanish folk music of New Mexico and Mexico. He also learned of Irish and American tunes through his father. He also studied and lived in Mexico. McCulloch wants to preserve and teach la musica de la gente, the music of the people, so it won’t be lost. Playing and singing since the 1950s, he prefers songs with emotion and meaning for the everyday man, be they about love, work or injustice. Some of the pieces in the collection date to sixteenth century Spain. He sings them like the old settlers of New Mexico would have done them.
The range of music that Frank and the group sing and play is varied. Among them are a New Mexico lullaby from Los Pastores; a tragic love song from Mexico; an Irish war protest tune; and stanzas about homeless bums and hobos suffering during the American Great Depression of the 1930s. The group also added some more contemporary renditions, such as Borderline, about Mexican immigration and Dance Me to the End of Love, in honor of Jewish musicians forced to play for their Nazi German persecutors during the Holocaust. There are also tunes about injustice and racism toward African Americans in the United States and Frank’s tribute to Martin Luther King. Another tract features Lola, composed by E. A. Tony Mares, with music by Cipriano Vigil. It was Mares' recollection of a madam from Old Town Albuquerque and her nostalgia for the community of the past. Frank also composed a corrido about an incident that happened in the history of his family and a memory song about a friend. He also wrote a song based on a poem by A.E. Housman.
It is interesting that McCulloch, Jr. also crossed paths with John Donald Robb. By the early 1960s McCulloch was playing with music groups in Albuquerque, as an early newspaper clipping in the collection attests. John Donald Robb, Dean of the College of Arts, UNM, was taping music across the state in those years. He met young McCulloch in Albuquerque and recorded about forty five of his folk songs in 1964-1965, which are in the Robb Collection at the CSWR. These can be heard on the New Mexico Digital Collection (econtent.unm.edu) under the CSWR section for John Donald Robb Field Recordings. Also included there are the melodies and the words to McCulloch’s songs, as transcribed by Robb and his students. These McCulloch songs recorded by Robb are mostly in Spanish but others are in English. Some of these same songs reappear in the CDs McCulloch gave the CSWR in 2015 and 2016. He is likely the only musician still living that Robb interviewed in his day. Today McCulloch works with the Robb Musical Trust on various projects to promote New Mexico music and the Robb archive.
The collection also contains various awards given to McCulloch for his outstanding art and music, posters for programs he starred in or participated in, and articles about him. For example, in 1981 he exhibited his paintings in the New Mexico Governor’s Gallery in the State capital. The show catalog is in the collection. He also exhibited there in 2001. That same year the Dartmouth Street Gallery, in Albuquerque, featured his work and that of twenty of his students. His life and career are portrayed well in a 2002 New Mexico Highlands University tribute to him as their distinguished alumnus. Adams State University, Alamosa, Colorado, awarded him the Premio Hilos Culturales during his folk song concert there in 2015. The award is in the collection. In addition, Frank donated a book with his thoughts and poetry assembled over the years. There is also a new edition of the book his father, Frank McCulloch, Sr., wrote on Governor Albino Perez and the 1837 Revolt in New Mexico, based on material from a descendant of Perez. This is truly an interesting and priceless collection and is but a small part of the wonderful life of this New Mexico Renaissance man.
Forms part of the John Donald Robb Archive of Southwestern Music.
The collection also contains articles about McCulloch’s teaching years, music events, landscape painting shows and his views and philosophy. Included also are examples of his contributions to other regional publications. It also has articles and a book that his father wrote, background on the family’s history, and photographs of his ancestors, Frank and his own family, and his musical associates.
McCulloch’s multicultural heritage - Hispanic, French, Irish - has influenced his choice of music. Like his paintings and poetry, many of his songs also reflect New Mexico’s history, culture and land. As a child he heard the Spanish folk music of New Mexico and Mexico. He also learned of Irish and American tunes through his father. He also studied and lived in Mexico. McCulloch wants to preserve and teach la musica de la gente, the music of the people, so it won’t be lost. Playing and singing since the 1950s, he prefers songs with emotion and meaning for the everyday man, be they about love, work or injustice. Some of the pieces in the collection date to sixteenth century Spain. He sings them like the old settlers of New Mexico would have done them.
The range of music that Frank and the group sing and play is varied. Among them are a New Mexico lullaby from Los Pastores; a tragic love song from Mexico; an Irish war protest tune; and stanzas about homeless bums and hobos suffering during the American Great Depression of the 1930s. The group also added some more contemporary renditions, such as Borderline, about Mexican immigration and Dance Me to the End of Love, in honor of Jewish musicians forced to play for their Nazi German persecutors during the Holocaust. There are also tunes about injustice and racism toward African Americans in the United States and Frank’s tribute to Martin Luther King. Another tract features Lola, composed by E. A. Tony Mares, with music by Cipriano Vigil. It was Mares' recollection of a madam from Old Town Albuquerque and her nostalgia for the community of the past. Frank also composed a corrido about an incident that happened in the history of his family and a memory song about a friend. He also wrote a song based on a poem by A.E. Housman.
It is interesting that McCulloch, Jr. also crossed paths with John Donald Robb. By the early 1960s McCulloch was playing with music groups in Albuquerque, as an early newspaper clipping in the collection attests. John Donald Robb, Dean of the College of Arts, UNM, was taping music across the state in those years. He met young McCulloch in Albuquerque and recorded about forty five of his folk songs in 1964-1965, which are in the Robb Collection at the CSWR. These can be heard on the New Mexico Digital Collection (econtent.unm.edu) under the CSWR section for John Donald Robb Field Recordings. Also included there are the melodies and the words to McCulloch’s songs, as transcribed by Robb and his students. These McCulloch songs recorded by Robb are mostly in Spanish but others are in English. Some of these same songs reappear in the CDs McCulloch gave the CSWR in 2015 and 2016. He is likely the only musician still living that Robb interviewed in his day. Today McCulloch works with the Robb Musical Trust on various projects to promote New Mexico music and the Robb archive.
The collection also contains various awards given to McCulloch for his outstanding art and music, posters for programs he starred in or participated in, and articles about him. For example, in 1981 he exhibited his paintings in the New Mexico Governor’s Gallery in the State capital. The show catalog is in the collection. He also exhibited there in 2001. That same year the Dartmouth Street Gallery, in Albuquerque, featured his work and that of twenty of his students. His life and career are portrayed well in a 2002 New Mexico Highlands University tribute to him as their distinguished alumnus. Adams State University, Alamosa, Colorado, awarded him the Premio Hilos Culturales during his folk song concert there in 2015. The award is in the collection. In addition, Frank donated a book with his thoughts and poetry assembled over the years. There is also a new edition of the book his father, Frank McCulloch, Sr., wrote on Governor Albino Perez and the 1837 Revolt in New Mexico, based on material from a descendant of Perez. This is truly an interesting and priceless collection and is but a small part of the wonderful life of this New Mexico Renaissance man.
Forms part of the John Donald Robb Archive of Southwestern Music.
Dates
- 2015-2017
Language of Materials
From the Collection:
English Spanish
Access Restrictions
The collection is open for research.
Extent
From the Collection: 1 box, 20 CDS
General
- 1. Puno de Tierra, Antonio Aguilar. The older I get, the more this song means to me. At the end, there's no more than a memory, just a fistful of dirt. Death, muerte.
- 2. Si no te vas, Cuco Sanchez, is a song of loss, possibly of a lover, mother or child. Women.
- 3. Mananitas de Jarana, Ramon Ortega, is a son jarocho, a song that comes from the region around Vera Cruz in eastern Mexico, and may be performed to accompany dancers.
- 4. El carbonero, traditional song thought to have originated in Argentina or Chile. Un carbonero refers to a man who hauls coal. Labor, work, mining.
- 5. Across the Borderline, Hiatt, Cooder, et al. This contemporary song addresses an old theme that is particularly relevant right now with regard to the international boundary between Mexico and the United States. Borderlands, immigrants, immigration, injustice.
- 6. Joe Hill, Alfred Hayes and Earl Robinson, recounts the story of the great labor leader who was accused of a trumped up charge of murder, and was then executed. Death, crime, injustice, Union organization.
- 7. Sisters of Mercy, Leonard Cohen, is a deep reflection on the nature of Woman, combining the erotic with the spiritual, and flirting with the great mystery of the feminine principle. Women.
- 8. Ballad of the Absent Mare, Leonard Cohen, with Spanish lyrics by Frank McCulloch. Here we have a Zen Buddhist, bilingual cowboy song! Western music.
- 9. Dog Canyon, Utah Phillips. The names of the people mentioned in this song belong to historic figures that were involved during the great cattleman's war in southwestern New Mexico during the 1890s when water rights were determined by who won gunfights. Range war, cowboys, crime, death.
- 10. La Cautiva Marcelina, traditional narrative ballad in indita form, tells of the kidnapping of a Hispanic woman from a New Mexico village by hostile Indians, Native Americans, and the tragic circumstances that occurred during their flight. Comanches, women, captive, muerte, death of her family, children.
- 11. La Puerta del Cielo, traditional folk song, WPA Collection, is a lullaby for children that is still sung in northern New Mexico, and can be traced back to northern Spain. Spanish song.
- 12. El Corrido de San Marcial, Reymundo Luna, is a well-remembered narrative ballad that tells of the great flood of 1929 that washed away the thriving town of San Marcial on the Rio Grande in central New Mexico just downstream from El Bosque del Apache, now a national wildlife refuge.
- 13. En tu Dia, traditional folk song, WPA collection. Singing songs on one's Saint's Day is an early practice that precedes the singing of birthday songs in traditional New Mexico music.
- 14. Say Hello to the Moon, Frank McCulloch. This musical elegy was composed for a deceased friend, and was inspired by poetic imagery.
- 15. When I Last Came to Ludlow Town, music by Frank McCulloch. This ballad is based on the poetry of E. A. Houseman. New Mexico
- 16. Road to Dunmore, Robbie O'Connell. This beautiful song about lost love reflects the poignancy often found in Irish ballads.
- 17. True Born Irishman, Charles J. Hickman, is yet another song from the Emerald Isle that is often sung in pubs, and rings with the rousing spirit to be found in Irishmen who boast of their heritage.
- 18. Eufemia, Ruben Fuentes and Ruben Mendez, is a humorous song, a Mexican relacion, that tells of a frustrated suitor whose lady love won't answer his heart-rending letters. Ay, que suerte! Mexico.
- 19. Viva la Vida, traditional music with added lyrics by Frank McCulloch, is a cancion that was made popular by Los Mimbrenos, and was feature in the film, Frida Kahlo. Mexico, death, revolution.
- 20. La Muerte de Emiliano Zapata, Armando Liszt. This great corrido, or narrative ballad, was written by a former Zapatista who fought along side the brilliant and dedicated revolucionario from Morelos. Zapata's treacherous assassination occurred in 1919, and is recounted in this ballad that appeared in the 1920s. Mexican Revolution, death, injustice.
Creator
- From the Collection: McCulloch, Frank E., 1930- (Person)
Repository Details
Part of the UNM Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections Repository
Contact:
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451