Sunday, September 27, 2009

Cocaine Blues


The post title doesn’t refer to any personal problems, thank goodness—my wildly unkempt appearance in the video below not- withstanding— but instead refers to an old blues song by the great Reverend Gary Davis—in case you’re curious, this bears no resemblence to the Johnny Cash song of the same name. It’s a song I’ve been drawn to for many years, ever since first hearing it (can't recall who the performer was) on University of Vermont radio when I was but a callow youth—probably in my very late teens. When I began playing the guitar it was certainly high on the list of songs I wanted to be able to play, & I have been messing around with it now for several years at least, finally settling on playing it in the key of D (in case you were curious!)

I believe this will be the last webcam post for a while—I have other ideas for Sunday come October. I’d also be interested in hearing from any blog readers who are so inclined about what they might like to see more of down the line. Robert Frost’s Banjo has been a work in process since the beginning & will continue to be, but I know some things get more “air time” & some less depending on the phase I happen to be in, so please let me know.

In the meantime, hope you enjoy the song & have a wonderful Sunday.

Picture of yours truly from the 09 Council Mountain Music Festival by Tim & Lori Hohs



7 comments:

  1. Now I've seen this performed by Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, and John Hayes!

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  2. In the best of all possible world - which Pangloss assures us we live in - we'd see a video of John Hayes performing a new poem of his own set to music. Failing which, we'd see a new poem. Not that I don't love listening to you play and talk about music.

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  3. Hi Mairi:

    Interesting you say that. It's kind of been my opinion that the blog has lost a bit of something since I stopped posting original poetry--old or new (of course, at this point there is no "new" new poetry, so it would be difficult to post it). I like writing about music & playing it (& am grateful people seem to like listening to it!) but don't want the blog to become one-dimensional. I really shall do some soul-searching about poetry & why I'm not writing it & what might change that.

    Thanks!

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  4. I made a serious effort to sit down and come up with a list of things I would like to see on what I always think as one of the very best blogs on the circuit. There was posts about music, the poetry translations, the old photographs .... but after a time I realised I was just listing all the things you have done. Keep them coming John and whatever else you want to throw in the mix will be all right by me.

    ... and your performance on cocaine blues was one to remember.

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  5. Hi Alan:

    & thanks for the vote of confidence! Duly noted.

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