MN90: Moonshiner’s Dance

Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music was the acoustic bible of the 1960s folk revival. This vinyl whiz-bang offered a musical tour of the South, all except for one track. Britt Aamodt traces its origins to a small café bar on St. Paul’s University Avenue in the 1920s.

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Producer: Britt AamodtEditorial support: Emily KrumbergerMixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

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Transcript

MN90 Intro: Welcome to MN90: Minnesota History in 90 Seconds.

The Anthology of American Folk Music, released in 1952, was one of the most influential anthologies of the 20th century. Eighty-four country and blues tracks from the American South, well, except for one. That exception was Moonshiner’s Dance Part One from Saint Paul, Minnesota. In the 1920s, World War One vet Frank Cloutier was music director at Saint Paul's Victoria Theater. Cloutier and his house band provided the background music for this Prohibition-era hangout, and somehow they also recorded Moonshiner’s Dance Part One, a rollicking mishmash of old popular tunes with some counting hand claps and polka thrown in. It was released in 1927 and would have been lost to history but for the decision to immortalize it on the anthology of American folk music.
MN90 Outro: MN90 is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, made possible by funding from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Online at mn90.org.