October 1938. Musicians playing accordion and washboard in front of a store near New Iberia, Louisiana, the home of Tabasco pepper sauce. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration.

October 1935. Scanned from an uncaptioned 35mm nitrate negative of an unidentified musician and his friends, probably photographed by Ben Shahn in Scotts Run, West Virginia. Anyone recognize them? View full size.

February 1942 in Weslaco, Texas. "Boy musician" was the caption given by photographer Arthur Rothstein to this portrait of Weldon Drake, shown in yesterday's posts playing with his father and brother at a Farm Security Administration Saturday-night dance. View full size.

From February 1942, another of Arthur Rothstein's photos of the Drake family entertaining at a Saturday night dance for the Farm Security Administration's resettlement camp at Weslaco, Texas, home to many farm families displaced by the droughts and bankruptcies of the Dust Bowl years. The fiddle player is Nathan Drake; on banjo and guitar are his sons Jasper ("Sleepy") and Weldon. Thanks to Jasper's daughters Connie and Janette for providing the names. View full size. (I'm having a Shorpy family moment here, having heard from the photographer's daughter, Annie Rothstein-Segan, and now Jasper's daughters. Life is a circle.)

Weslaco, Texas. The "musical Drake family," performing at a barn dance in the Farm Security Administration's Mercer G. Evans camp, February 1942. Medium-format safety negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration. Update: The fiddler is Nathan Drake, the younger boy is Jasper "Sleepy" Drake, and behind him is brother Weldon Drake. View full size.

February 1942. Weslaco, Texas. Saturday night dance at the Farm Security Administration camp with music by the Drake family. View full size. Medium-format safety negative by Arthur Rothstein for the FSA.

February 1942. Weslaco, Texas. Younger members of the Drake family, including the young man shown playing at the barn dance elsewhere in today's posts, at the Farm Security Administration's Mercer Evans camp. Acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the FSA. View full size. Update: The banjo player is Jasper "Sleepy" Drake; his sister Monnie is the guitarist.

February 1939. Robstown, Texas. Mexican boy playing guitar in room of corral. View full size. Medium-format safety negative by Russell Lee for the FSA.

June 1939. Big Horn County, Montana. "Cowhands singing after day's work. Quarter Circle U Ranch roundup." Medium format acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

From circa 1922, the bandleader and Victor recording artist Joseph C. Smith. View full size. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection.

Arthur Fields, singer and composer ("Abba Dabba Honeymoon"), and family washing their Stutz in 1919. View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection.

The vaudevillian, singer and composer Arthur Fields (Abe Finkelstein) circa 1920. View full size. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection.

October 1940. Pie Town schoolchildren in a community musical program. 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Russell Lee. View full size. Another view is here.

June 1940. An all-day community sing in Pie Town, New Mexico. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration.

June 1940. Pie Town, New Mexico. Wife of a homesteader with her WPA (Work Projects Administration) music class. These children walk eight miles for their music lessons. View full size. Medium-format safety negative by Russell Lee.