always travels.  currently his trailer in lloyd tiger thompson's back yard, menlo park.  he and tiger met in a bar, 1925. been friends since.

born wash. d.c. and raised alongside of tracks. father was rr engineer.
"those wheels, the noise of them, it got me.  I always wanted to know where they were going."

he left home at 17 to find out, after reading dime novels for background.  was cowboy...sheepherder...lumberman...salmon fisherman...seaman.
heard their songs. mostly pornographic.  heard the sea chanties, the work songs, the american version of traditional ballads.

"picked them up because I liked to sing them."  but wasn't until about 15 years ago he became a professional, both in collecting and singing.
"a beautiful career. a live science, because the music is alive."

"where are the most fertile areas for american folk songs?"
the remote areas.  where people stayed remote for a long time.  the smokies. the ozarks. and the negro spirituals, of course, the negroes still are creating folk music, daily.

on the other hand the sea chanties. rarely hear them these days aboard ships.  songs about railroads still plentiful, but railroaders have never sung them. songs were originated by the people building the railroads.  same thing about cowboy music.  it's synthetic.  part of tin pan alley.  songs about cowboys, but real cowboys never sing the songs you hear.

nursery rhymes, though. they're real folk music.  mostly imported but some of the americanized versions qualify for my collection.

"how about modern folk music? is there any?  I mean, like bebop?"
it's folk music of a kind, I guess. but separate from real folk music -- the kind everybody responds to.  the kind everybody likes to sing -- just have a good memory and regurgitate them.

"how do you collect songs?"
record them.  carry recording equipment in trailer and guitar in car.  if hill people are reluctant I just start singing some songs I know.  soon they start singing and I start recording.

I must have collected hundreds and hundreds. got them stored all over the country.  some day when get time going to publish book.  not only tunes but where they came from and how got started.        take "barbara allen."

"a-l-l-e-n?"
yes, although you hear it also barbara ellen. it's about a guy who is dying for the love of barbara allen.  she comes along and you tell her, your dying for her love, but she spurns you.  so you die.  she goes off but gets a little remorseful.  plenty remorseful.  she dies.  they bury them together.  a wonderful song.

(he sang it. it sounded okay.  I meant to take down the lyrics but he sang too fast.)
"what are you doing here. going to collect some more?"
I always collect songs. would it be ethical to ask people to write me if they have any?  tiger's address is 2455 alpine road, menlo park.  can't promise to pay anything.  if I did you ought to see all the junk I would get.

also, I'm going to record commercially for a new company starting in berkeley.  can't mention its name because it isn't registered yet.  I lecture, too, at schools and clubs.  illustrated with my singing, too.

"how about other people in your business -- collectors, that is?"
the late cecil sharp, for one. he was a great influence in collecting.  up to this time the academics collected only the words and called it poetry.  lost much of the impact that way.
another was the late john a. lomax, a harvard man. he was the foremost collector.

"Until you came along?"  (eskin smiled owlishly through his heavy horn rims, smiled, laid down a heavy smoke screen from his briar, straightened the collar of his corduroy shirt, rolled his shoulders inside his corduroy coat and knocked ashes off his corduroy pants.)
"how about other singers?"
richard dyer-bennet, one -- he's conducting a school for minstrels now, at aspen, colorado, burl ives, of course, john j. niles of kentucky.

"any competition among you people?"
not among professionals but in all the mountain folk regions there are wonderful songfests.

"how about the pornographic stuff? can you salvage it?"
it's pretty hard to clean up stuff which is gusty ought to stay that way.  I sing gusty stuff just on special occasions.