A miscellany like Grandma’s attic in Taunton, MA or Mission Street's Thrift Town in San Francisco or a Council, ID yard sale in cloudy mid April or a celestial roadmap no one folded—you take your pick.
Happy Friday! I’m back with another shot at Homegrown Radio, & this week I’m featuring a song I’ve done since I began performing solo that is in a bit of a different blues style—it’s “Katie Mae” by the great Lightnin’ Hopkins.
I posted a video performance of this song what seems like ages ago. Generally speaking, I’m not all that satisfied with the performances in those videos, but the “Katie Mae” take wasn’t bad & still gets some hits on YouTube. However, I both play & sing better now than I did when I made those videos, so I’m happy to post the version of “Katie Mae” I put on my cd, RFD Blues.
In this version, I’m doing the song in the key of F—playing the chords in E in standard tuning with a capo on the first fret. “Katie Mae” is a straight ahead 12-bar blues tune with delightful lyrics, & I’ve always found it a joy to play. It also makes a good song to start a set because it moves along & is light-hearted. Tho I’d like to say I first heard one of Lightnin’ Hopkins’ versions of it, I must admit that my first exposure to the song came in my high school years when listening to the Grateful Dead’s Bear’s Choice album. It was sung by Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, who was a doggone good blues singer. But nobody can do it like Lightnin’!
Anyway, if you’ve been following along, you know the info on the music from the cd. I’m not selling the cds online, only at live performances. However, you can get the mp3s for all the songs for free as follows: Two ways to do it. If you’re only interested in downloading a handful of the songs, the easiest way to do this is to go to the DivShare page at this link. Once on that page, you’ll see an embedded mp3 player that should have “Preachin’ Blues,” the first song on the playlist queued up. Below that you’ll see a button that reads “DOWNLOAD,” & still further below that, three columns containing the songs. All of these should be highlighted except “Preachin Blues.” If you click on a song, it will then appear in the mp3 player. When you click on the DOWNLOAD button, you will download the song that’s currently in the player.
If you’d like the whole playlist, along with jpg images of the CDs front & inside covers, you can download that as a zip file right here. The zip file is 49 mb, which is about average for the typical music CD's worth of song.
Howdy, folks. I’m back for week two of my Homegrown Radio stint, & I have a tune for you I think you’ll enjoy. I also have news about downloading—for free!—the songs from the cd I’ll be selling at my performances this spring & summer.
Today’s song is a great Charlie Patton number called “Green River Blues.” If you don’t know about Patton, please check out the link to his Allmusic biography; without question, he’s one of the most important figures in the history of the blues in general & the Delta blues specifically. He recorded 54 sides between 1929 & 1934, & these include some Delta standards—in addition to “Green River Blues,” a short list would also include “High Water Everywhere,” “Stone Pony Blues” & “Moon Goin’ Down.” He’s a major figure in Robert Palmer’s seminal blues history, Deep Blues—a must read for blues fans even if Palmer’s romanticized view often clashes with a more strictly historical approach (for the latter, I highly recommend Elijah Wald’s Escaping the Delta).
I recorded this song using the Regal resonator in the key of E in standard tuning—pretty straight ahead—& relied on heavy string damping to create a solid rhythm. Patton’s rhythms were very complex, & while I’m not trying to imitate his specific rhythmic, I am trying to create a real drive on the guitar.
Now for the download news! Two ways to do it. If you’re only interested in downloading a handful of the songs, the easiest way to do this is to go to the DivShare page at this link. Once on that page, you’ll see an embedded mp3 player that should have “Preachin’ Blues,” the first song on the playlist queued up. Below that you’ll see a button that reads “DOWNLOAD,” & still further below that, three columns containing the songs. All of these should be highlighted except “Preachin Blues.” If you click on a song, it will then appear in the mp3 player. When you click on the DOWNLOAD button, you will download the song that’s currently in the player.
If you’d like the whole playlist, along with jpg images of the CDs front & inside covers, you can download that as a zip file right here. The zip file is 49 mb, which is about average for the typical music CD's worth of song.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask! In the meantime, please enjoy “Green River Blues.”
Yes, you read that right: I’ll be your Homegrown Radio entertainer this month. As I’ve mentioned a few times, I’m just wrapping up a 3-month recording project, so I’m taking the liberty of letting you know about this very homegrown recording operation each Friday in March on Homegrown Radio.
Now you may be glad to hear that a sales pitch is not in the offing. I’ll only be selling the actual cd (called simply & appropriately, I think, RFD Blues) at performances. However, by the month’s end—probably much sooner—I’ll be able to provide you with a link where you can download any or all of the songs for free in mp3 format. The album will contain 15 songs—just over 46 minutes of music.
I’d orginally envisioned the album (or albums—at one point I played with the idea of two cds) as being more diverse in content, but by in large the songs by “non trad blues” folks just didn’t quite make the grade. I’ll keep working on these songs & probably will perform them until I can get them to the proverbial “next level.” I also dropped several traditional blues cuts that weren’t quite up to level of the best tracks. This left me with following 15 cuts, which I feel completely comfortable about taking to the general public.
1. Preachin’ the Blues (House/R. Johnson)
2. Katie Mae (Hopkins)
3. Highway 61 Revisited (Dylan)
4. Green River Blues (Patton)
5. Poor Lazarus (trad.)
6. Banty Rooster Blues (Patton)
7. Black Snake Moan (Jefferson)
8. Rainy Day Blues (Hopkins)
9. Moon Goin’ Down (Patton)
10. Cool Drink of Water (T. Johnson)
11. Mama Tain‘t Long ‘Fore Day (McTell)
12. T.B. Blues (Rodgers)
13. From a Buick 6 (Dylan)
14. Weeping Willow Blues (Fuller)
15. Highway 61 (McDowell)
Seven of these songs have appeared previously on the Monday Morning Blues series, but the cd versions have gone thru the mastering process, so the sound should be noticeably better. Another song, “Cool Drink of Water,” is a different take than the one that appeared earlier, & in a different key.
Today’s song is, as you see, the lead off song to the collection, Son House’s boisterous “Preachin’ the Blues” (with a bit of lyrical interpolation from Robert Johnson’s thoroughly revised version of the song, which is also known as “Up Jumped the Devil.”) I’m playing the Gold Tone resonator guitar slide style & capoed on the second fret to put the song in the key of E.
Hope you enjoy the song, & stay tuned for more Homegrown Radio & download information!
