Any Woman’s Blues #27 – Natalia Zukerman

It’s Monday, & the final day 2012. What better way to celebrate than with this month’s edition of Any Woman’s Blues?

The featured artist for December is Natalia Zukerman, an exciting up & coming performer who is comfortable in any number of genres, & blends them all in her strong songwriting. But blues—& slide guitar, which is always near to my heart—is a sound & form that underlies much of her work, as you will hear in evidence in the two video selections.

Natalia Zukerman comes from Manhattan, & she was raised in a musical family: both her parents are virtuoso performers (her father is violinist/conductor Pinchas Zukerman & her mother is flutist Eugenia Zukerman), while her sister Arianna is an opera singer.  Given her background, it’s not at all surprising that Zukerman draws from a number of genres & styles when she composes, utilizing not only blues, but also rock, bluegrass, jazz & classical.

She is a talented singer & songwriter, but make no mistake: her guitar chops are also impressive. The New Yorker proclaimed, “Natalia’s voice could send an orchid into bloom while her guitar playing can open a beer bottle with its teeth.” Her playing is indeed gritty when need be, but she is able to wield a full dynamic palette in her fingerstyle playing.

To date, Natalia Zukerman has released five cds, beginning with her 2001 debut, Mortal Child on Talisman. She followed that up in 2003 with On a Clear Day & Only One in 2006, both on Talisman, then moved to Weasel Records for her 2008 release, Brand New Frame (title track is the second video below) & the 2011 Gas Station Roses (first video is the title track.)

Natalia Zukerman also plays lap steel guitar & electric guitar as well as her acoustic Guild. She’s definitely a significant talent & someone to watch for—in fact, she’s starting to announce dates for her 2013 tour, so check her out if she passes through your town—I certainly will!

In the meantime, enjoy some great songwriting, singing, & guitar playing on these two videos.








Photo of Natalia Zukerman links to its source

The Texas Blues #7 – DeKalb Blues – Lead Belly

Monday is here, folks, & you know what that means (at least some of the time): The Monday Morning Blues here on Robert Frost’s Banjo!

We’re back to Texas this week for our continued series on blues artists who called that state home. & today’s featured artist is a true figure, not just in the blues, but in the general history of the folk revival from the 1930s through the 1950s, & indeed, in the larger history of mid century U.S. popular music. I’m talking about Lead Belly, Hudie Ledbetter. Although Lead Belly was born around Mooringsport, Louisiana in either 1888 or 1889, his family moved to Bowie County, Texas when he was five.

Lead Belly began performing while in his teens in the red light district of Shreveport, Louisiana. At first he accompanied himself with the accordion (& he did play the accordion on some of his later recordings), but he eventually moved on to his signature 12-string guitar, tuned down from standard tuning by a fourth (at least that’s the consensus on the tuning.)  He moved to Dallas, & performed with Blind Lemon Jefferson, especially on the streets in the Deep Ellum section of the city.

But, as the story goes, Lead Belly was in & out of jail, often stemming from fights caused or at least made worse by his notorious temper. In 1918 he was jailed for murder following one of these fights in the Sugar Land Penitentiary near Houston—but he was pardoned after a minimum seven-year sentence after appealing to Governor Pat Morris Neff in a song. Then in 1930, he was again in prison for murder following a knife fight, this time in Louisiana’s notorious Angola Prison Farm. This is where Alan & John Lomax first found him, recorded him, & eventually persuaded the governor to pardon him, again after Lead Belly had served the minimum sentence.

Lead Belly traveled with the Lomaxes & later became a celebrity in the New York folk scene. He performed with Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Brownie MacGhee & Sonny Terry, & he was championed by novelist Richard Wright. He recorded for RCA, the Smithsonian& Moe Asch of Folkways during a relatively short but successful career. He was diangosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, while on tour in France in 1949 & died later that year.

As this brief bio will tell you—if you didn’t know already—Lead Belly was larger than life in many respects, & while the blues underpins his music, he certainly moved beyond the blues into other folk genres—for instance, he was particularly fond of cowboy songs (as was Muddy Waters!) & had some hopes of becoming a singing cowboy in films. His sound is very distinctive—between his powerful tenor voice & the drive & growl of his Stella 12-string, you simply can’t mistake a Lead Belly song!

Here’s “DeKalb Blues,” one of his most straightforward blues numbers, from one of the Lomax recording sessions at Angola Prison Farm. A powerful piece of music—enjoy!




Image of Leadbelly links to its source on Wiki Commons. Wiki Commons states that this photo is in the public domain because it was created between 1923 & 1963 & the original copyright was not renewed.

Any Womans Blues #26 – Beverly “ Guitar” Watkins

A happy Monday, friends! We’re here with the Monday Morning Blues, Any Woman’s Blues edition, & we’ve got some smoking hot guitar playing.

Beverly Watkins has had a long career as a blues guitarist, but for much of life she’s plied her trade in obscurity. While still in high school, she began playing guitar with Piano Red & toured with his band the Meter-tones until the combo broke up in 1965 (the group was also known as Piano Red & The Interns, Dr. Feelgood & The Interns, & Dr. Feelgood); following this she performed with such groups as Eddie Tigner & the Ink Spots, Joseph Smith & the Fendales, & Leroy Redding & the Houserockers.

Watkins’ solo career didn’t really take off, however, until she became associated with the Music Maker Relief Foundation in the 1990s. This wonderful organization, which we learned about also in an earlier post on guitarist Precious Bryant, describes its mission as follows:

Music Maker Relief Foundation preserves and promotes the musical traditions of the American South. Since 1994 we have partnered with traditional artists over 55 years old who survive on a yearly income of less than $18,000, sustaining their day-to-day needs while building their careers. Through Music Maker, our rich heritage of folk music will not be lost with the passing of time.

Beverly Watkins is a truly remarkable musician. Still rocking hard in her 70s, she sings & plays guitar with great power, verve & energy. Watkins says of her music:

My style is real Lightnin’ Hopkins lowdown blues. I call it hard classic blues, stompin’ blues, railroad smokin’ blues.

Since joining Music Maker, Beverly Watkins has released three albums, & her 1999 debut Back in Business was nominated for the Blues Foundation’s W.C. Handy Award.  She has followed that up with The Feelings of Beverly "Guitar" Watkins & The Spiritual Expressions of Beverly “Guitar” Watkins. Watkins keeps up an active touring schedule.

Why is her middle name “Guitar”? Just watch these videos & you will find out! Enjoy!








Image links to its source at theuntitledmag.tumblr.com

The Texas Blues #6 – Lone Wolf Blues – Oscar “Buddy” Woods

A happy Monday from the rainy Pacific Northwest! The Monday Morning Blues will be transporting us to Texas today, at least for the three minutes & 14 seconds of our featured song.

It’s a commonplace, of course, that slide guitar is a staple of the blues sound; it’s also true that while several of the best known slide players lived in the Mississippi Delta area, slide blues styles were found throughout the south in the first half of the 20th century.  However, in most cases the guitarists played blues while holding the guitar “Spanish style”—in other words, in the conventional manner. But slide guitar is also played “lap style,” with the guitar across the player’s lap, but while this style was common in Hawaiian music & in early Country (where it eventually developed into the related playing of dobro on one hand & pedal steel on the other), it was rather uncommon for blues guitarists to play slide in this manner (though blues historian Steve Calt claims that lap style, using a knife as a “bar,” actually pre-dated “Spanish style” slide playing.) Certainly many of the common riffs & figures in slide blues require the use of fingers fretting strings, & this really isn’t possible in lap playing—all the noting & chording is done with the bar itself. Of course the slide itself for lap playing is also different—it’s not practical to use a bottleneck or a copper tube, so usually players opt for a solid piece of metal (I have seen a video of Booker White playing lap style with a railroad spike!) 

In any case, Oscar Woods is now thought of as one of the first players to popularize lap style playing in the blues. Although Woods hailed from  Natchitoches, Louiana, near Shreveport, he was part of the Dallas music scene in the 1930s, & even backed Jimmie Davis of “You Are My Sunshine” fame on several recordings between 1930 & 1932. He also recorded with such bands as the Shreveport Home Wreckers, Kitty Gray & her Wampus Cats—& had one recording session with Peetie Wheatstraw, the “Devil’s Son-in-Law” himself.  Wood also was a mentor of Buck Turner, AKA “the Black Ace,” who was another notable lap guitar Texas bluesman—& one who will soon appear in this series.  It's also clear that Robert Johnson was familiar with Woods' work, as one verse of his song "Love in Vain" was taken from the Shreveport Home Wreckers' "Flying Crow Blues."

But Woods also made a dozen records in which he performed either solo with just his voice & his slide guitar playing, or as the front man. Perhaps the best known of these is today’s selection, “Lone Wolf Blues,” which he recorded for Decca in New Orleans in 1936. “Lone Wolf Blues” was the A side, backed by “Don't Sell It - Don't Give It Away.”

“Lone Wolf” is played in open G, but not the common open G tuning that was used so much on the Delta (&, interestingly, in Hawaiian slack key playing, in which it’s called “Taro Patch”); here the guitar is tuned GBDGBD, which means that the low string is brough all the way up from an E to a G.  These days this tuning is usually only used on squareneck guitars, because of the stress put on the neck by this string (& to some extent by the low A string coming up to B.)

Enjoy!





 
Image links to its source on http://4.bp.blogspot.com. That isn’t a photo of Oscar Woods on the album cover—no photos of Woods are known to exist. I believe that’s the Black Ace.

“John the Revelator”

Well, it’s Monday, it’s music, & it didn’t take too long to return to the blues! Or at least to two men who are typically classified as blues artists, Blind Willie Johnson & Son House. In fact, “John the Revelator” is a gospel or spiritual from the African American tradition. Blind Willie Johnson was a street preacher as well as a street musician—a common combination in the early to mid 20th century (the Reverend Gary Davis is another well-known figure who combined the two roles), while Son House was himself a preacher before he succumbed to the power of the blues!

The two versions are quite different, musically & lyrically. Johnson is accompanying himself on guitar & has his wife, Willie B. Harris, as back-up singer. Son House on the other hand, always dispensed with his National guitar when he performed this song & sang it a cappella. Johnson’s version was recorded for Columbia in New Orleans on December 11, 1929 (the A side, backed by “You’re Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond”), & was also included as a selection on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. Son House’s version was recorded for The Legendary Son House: Father of Folk Blues (Columbia, 1965).  Another stirring version by House was released on Delta Blues & Spirituals (Capitol, 1995), & was recorded at a show at the 100 Club in London, England on July 14, 1970.

This post is dedicated to my dear friends Sheila & Mairi. Enjoy!





Lyrics

The lyrics below are Blind Willie Johnson's version of "John the Revelator" as found in the Anthology of American Folk Music. Subsequent versions feature a variety of substituted verses and different interpretations of Johnson's lyrics, all quoting passages from the Bible, in the tradition of African American spirituals.

    [call] Well who's that writin'? [response] John the Revelator
    Who's that writin'? John the Revelator
    Who's that writin'? John the Revelator
    A book of the seven seals

    [call] Tell me what's John writin'? [response] Ask the Revelator
    What's John writin'? Ask the Revelator
    What's John writin'? Ask the Revelator
    A book of the seven seals

    Well ooh ooh why me, thousands cried holy
    Bound for some, Son of our God
    Daughter of Zion, Judah the Lion
    He redeemeth, and bought us with his blood

    [Repeat verses 1 & 2]

    John the Revelator, great advocator
    Get's 'em on the battle of Zion
    Lord, tellin' the story, risin' in glory
    Cried, "Lord, don't you love some I"

    [Repeat verses 1 & 2]

    Well Moses to Moses, watchin' the flock
    Saw the bush where they had to stop
    God told Moses, "Pull off your shoes"
    Out of the flock, well you I choose

    [Repeat verses 1 & 2]

These are the lyrics for Son House's 1965 recording version, which explicitly reference three theologically important events: the Fall of Man, the Passion of Christ, and the Resurrection.

    [call] Who's that writin'? [response] John the Revelator
    Tell me who's that writin'? John the Revelator
    Tell me who's that writin'? John the Revelator
    Wrote the book of the seven seals

    [call] Who's that writin'? [response] John the Revelator
    Tell me who's that writin'? John the Revelator
    Well who's that writin'? John the Revelator
    Wrote the book of the seven seals

    You know God walked down in the cool of the day
    Called Adam by his name
    But he refused to answer
    Because he's naked and ashamed

    [Repeat verses 1 & 2]

    You know Christ had twelve apostles
    And three he led away
    He said, "Watch with me one hour,
    'till I go yonder and pray."

    [Repeat verses 1 & 2]

    Christ came on Easter morning
    Mary and Martha went down to see
    He said, "Go tell my disciples
    To meet me in Galilee."

    [Repeat verses 1 & 2]

Any Woman's Blues #24 – Danielia Cotton

Happy Monday, & welcome to a somewhat belated Monday Morning Blues—it is actually still morning here in Portland, at least as I begin typing this! It’s the final Monday of September (unbelievably enough), so it’s time for this month’s edition of Any Woman’s Blues.

Some may say that Danielia Cotton’s music belongs more in a discussion of soul, funk or rock than in a blues series—but the fact is, all of these genres spring from the blues an an ultimate source; & at various points in the past, no distinction was made between what we now call “soul” music & what we now think of as “blues”—the category “rhythm & blues” included Ray Charles & Ike & Tina Turner right alongside Howlin’ Wolf & John Lee Hooker.

& however one might quibble about genres in terms of Cotton’s music, there is one main point that can’t be disputed: this is powerful stuff indeed. Indeed, Cotton’s singing has been favorably compared with Tina Turner’s & Janis Joplin’s (two truly great artists who also formed a synthesis between blues, rock & “R&B.”) Cotton came from a musical family—her mother is jazz singer Wenonah Brooks, & jazz singers Jeannie Brooks & Carol Brooks-Meyners are her aunts. Danielia Cotton was given an acoustic guitar as a gift when she was 12 years old, & she took to the instrument quickly; she also began singing with her mother & aunts in a gospel group around this time. Her great vocal abilities won her a full scholarship to Bennington College, where she focused on theater, & she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London during her senior year.

Music became her career, however; Cotton released a self-titled EP in 2004 thru Hip Shake Music, & then she released her debut full-length album, Small White Town in 2005 on the Thirty Tigers label. This was followed this up with Rare Girl on Adrenaline in 2008 & the Live Child EP in 2009 on Cottonwood. A new album, The Gun in Your Hand, is scheduled for a release next month.

In the context of her own band, Cotton plays rhythm guitar, & switches between a Gibson jumbo (acoustic) & a Fender Telecaster Thinline (semi-hollow Tele!) depending on the overall sound she’s seeking. I do notice she's playing a Rickenbacker on the cover of Small White Town.

Hope you enjoy this powerful music!





Image links to its source

The Texas Blues #5 – So Lonesome – Ramblin’ Thomas

It’s Monday morning, so I expect some of you have the blues! & here’s some Monday Morning Blues on Robert Frost’s Banjo to help you sing them away.

Today’s post is a continuation of the rather ambling & meandering Texas Blues series—we’re still very much in the acoustic portion of the proceedings, & still very much in the 1920s. Today’s featured artist, Ramblin’ Thomas, in fact recorded one of my all time favorite blues: his version of “Poor Boy Blues,” which he waxed for Paramount in 1928.

But I’ve already written about his “Poor Boy Blues”—& other versions of that song (or concept) in the Poor Boy Blues series. Not wishing to re-invent the wheel, this is what I had to say about Thomas in my brief biography in that earlier post:

Ramblin’ Thomas was born Willard Thomas in Logansport, Louisiana in 1902.  Not a lot is known of his biography, tho the fact that his younger brother, Jesse “Babyface” Thomas was “re-discovered” in the 1970s (& lived until 1995) did fill in some gaps about his life.  We know that Ramblin’ Thomas moved to the Deep Ellum neighborhood of Dallas sometime in the late 1920s, & that his considerable travels also brought him to Chicago & other points in the midwest.  He recorded 16 of his existing 20 sides in Chicago in 1928 during two separate sessions for Paramount—the first was in February, the second in November.  The fact that Paramount brought him back for a second session suggests that they considered his material to be commercially viable.  He also recorded four songs for Victor in Dallas in 1932.

Since I’d already written about his recording of “Poor Boy Blues,” I decided I choose another song for this series, & I decided on “So Lonesome,” a song I’ve played around with myself. It’s a much more straightforward piece, as it follows more closely what we think of as the standard 12-bar blues structure.  Still, it displays the characteristic sparseness of Thomas’ playing—lots of single string notes, minimal chording, & virtually no accompaniment while he’s actually singing. It is, of course, a slide guitar piece played in the “Vestapol” tuning—typically either open D or open E—tho this recording is in the key of F, achieved presumably with a capo (tuning all the way up to F in “Vestapol” tuning would not only be hard on the strings but on the guitar neck itself.)  “So Lonesome” was recorded at the same February 1928 Paramount session as “Poor Boy Blues,” & was an “A side” backed with “Lock & Key Blues.”

Enjoy!

The Texas Blues #4 – Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground – Blind Willie Johnson

Happy Monday, friends. We’re here with a new edition of the Monday Morning Blues, & as we’ve been doing lately, we’re taking a trip to the Lone Star state for some Texas Blues.

 “The blues” covers such a diverse range of music; indeed, it’s used as a catch-all phrase for much of early 20th century African American music, ranging stylistically from the east coast ragtime-influenced stylings of Blind Blake to the deep south one-chord modal music of King Solomon Hill; from the banjo & jug driven sound of Cannon’s Jug Stompers to the heavy slide sound of Son House & others in the Mississippi Delta region. In addition, we tend to categorize African American sacred music from this time period in with the blues, so that for instance Reverend Gary Davis is found in the blues music racks, & Blind Willie McTell’s “I Got to Cross the River Jordan” is generally packaged right along side “Mama Tain’t Long fore Day” or “Brokedown Engine Blues.” Thus, one of the greatest of the early gospel singers & musicians, Blind Willie Johnson from either Brenham or Temple, Texas, is generally classified as a “blues” musician, tho his repertoire, at least based on the 30 sides he recorded between 1927 & circa 1930, consisted solely of spiritual or gospel songs.
 Johnson’s biography, insofar as it’s known to us, is a harsh tale of a hard life. Apparently blinded at age seven in an incident of appalling child abuse, he mostly made his way in the world as a street singer & preacher. He settled in Beaumont, Texas & sang & preached there (presumably there was no actual distinction between his singing & his preaching.) Johnson was married to Willie B. Harris, who sang on some of his records, & may later have been married to Angeline Johnson; but no marriage licenses have ever been discovered. Not too much should be made of this fact, since official record-keeping on the southern African-American population was not very painstaking in the first part of the 20th century.

Johnson’s home in Beaumont burned in 1945, & because he was a pauper, he continued to live in the burned-out house until he died from malarial fever later that year at age 48. Angeline Johnson tried to bring him to a hospital, but he was refused admission—reports vary as to whether this refusal was because he was black or because he was blind.“Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” is a song about the Crucifixion. Johnson hums & moans, while playing some of the most beautiful slide guitar you will ever hear. The song is played in open D, & it’s reported that Johnson used a knife as the slide—not an uncommon practice in those times. In 1977, Johnson’s 1927 Columbia recording of the song was chosen as one of 27 pieces of music (along with various natural sounds) to be placed on a recording on the Voyager Golden Record to be sent on the Voyager spacecrafts into deep space.  Carl Sagan, who was among those who chose the selections, said “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” was selected because "Johnson's song concerns a situation he faced many times: nightfall with no place to sleep. Since humans appeared on Earth, the shroud of night has yet to fall without touching a man or woman in the same plight."

The song also served as the basis for Ry Cooder’s soundtrack to Wim Wender’s film, Paris, Texas. Cooder has called this "the most soulful, transcendent piece in all American music."

A special piece of music & a transcendent performance indeed.


 


All images link to their source

Image of Blind Willie Johnson is from bluesnexus.com. According to Wikipedia, which uses a cropped version of this image, the photograph is in the public domain

Image of the 1927 Columbia "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" record is from Wikipedia. They claim fair use

Image of the Voyager Golden Record is from Wikipedia. This NASA image is in the public domain

Any Woman’s Blues #22 – Barbara Lynn

Welcome back to our first edition of Any Woman’s Blues in quite some time! It’s one of my own favorite series here, & I’m happy to begin posting it again. From now on, I’ll endeavor to get back to monthly installments of this.

This month’s featured artist is Barbara Lynn, a fantastic singer & guitarist whose career dates back to the early 1960s (as evidenced by the first video below.) Ms Lynn hails from Beaumont, Texas, & she really hit the scene in 1962 with the #1 Billboard R&B hit, “You’ll Lose a Good Thing” (later covered in a country version by Freddy Fender!) You can follow this link to hear Lynn play this tune—I opted against including here because I believe the two videos I chose showcase her guitar-playing more effectively.  In addition, her song "Oh Baby (We've Got A Good Thing Goin')" was covered by the Rolling Stones on their 1965 release The Rolling Stones Now! After recording on the Jamie & Tribe labels thru much of the 1960s, she was signed by Atlantic in 1967 & produced yet another hit, “"This Is the Thanks I Get."

Following her marriage (around 1970—can’t find the exact date), her career went mostly on hold as she devoted herself to family for most of the next two decades, with only occasional nightclub appearances. But towards the end of the 1980s, she returned to her musical career, signing with the Iciban label & releasing You Don’t Have to Go in 1988. Lynn also has inked recording deals with Antone’s & Dialtone, & now has 11 albums to her credit. She’s also touring, & as you can hear in the second video—her beautiful cover of “Misty Blue,” both her guitar & vocal chops are as impressive as ever.

Lynn’s guitar style mixes solid rhythm featuring lots of damped & accented upstrokes with very direct & compelling leads & fills. You’ll notice that she plays fingerstyle, using a thumbpick—unusual in general on electric guitar, tho it is used by some blues artists (for example, Lynn’s fellow Texan Lightnin’ Hopkins.) Early in her career her standby guitar was a Fender Esquire, but these days she seems to favor the Stratocaster.

Hope you enjoy the music by this truly wonderful artist!







Pic by Wiki use Masahiro Sumori. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. 

The Texas Blues #3 – Black Snake Moan – Blind Lemon Jefferson

Welcome back to the sporadic & spasmodic posting schedule of Robert Frost’s Banjo. Will wonders never cease: I actually have a Monday Morning Blues post for you folks!

If you remember back a ways, I’ve been slowly constructing a series of notable Texas Blues artists & songs. Since there’s been some lapse, I’ll refer you back to the first two installments on Henry Thomas & Texas Alexander.

Today’s featured artist is seminal, whether you’re talking about Texas blues, acoustic blues, or just the blues in general. Blind Lemon Jefferson was one of the biggest stars of his day, & was the first male blues singer who could compete with the so-called Blues Queens such as Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Ida Cox & others in terms of popularity. Although the white blues audience has since revised the history of the early blues such that it seems the lone guitarist-singers were the major figures, in fact this wasn’t true for audiences in their own time. Jefferson was an exception; there were a few others like Lonnie Johnson & Tampa Red, but the performers we know think of us most significant, like Charlie Patton, Blind Willie McTell & Robert Johnson, at best enjoyed a regional fame.

Lemon Jefferson was born in 1893 in Coutchman, Texas. Blind from birth, he began playing guitar in his early teens, & in addition to playing the picnic & party circuit, he also began a career as a street musician. Around 1910, he began traveling to Dallas, & particularly the Deep Ellum section that was the center of a growing blues scene. He moved to Deep Ellum in 1917, & it was at that time he got to know T-Bone Walker, who he taught blues guitar in exchange for Walker’s services as a guide. Leadbelly & Lightnin’ Hopkins also knew Jefferson during his time in Dallas.

Jefferson’s recording career—almost exclusively with Paramount—lasted only three years, from 1926-1929, but during that time he recorded a number of hits & also songs, like “Black Snake Moan” that have become classics, not only in his original recorded versions, but in many covers & imitations. Jefferson’s songs were typically bawdy & filled with double entendre; musically, his accompaniments are complex, featuring intricate single note runs interspersed with his chords. Once you become familiar with Blind Lemon Jefferson’s sound, his songs are among the most easy to identify, even during the instrumental passages.

Simply amazing music—& great fun too! Enjoy!





Image of Blind Lemon Jefferson links to its source at wikimedia.org

The Texas Blues #2 – “Levee Camp Moan” – Texas Alexander & Lonnie Johnson

Good morning! & yes, folks, it’s an actual edition of the Monday Morning Blues here on Robert Frost’s Banjo.

If your memory is good, you may recall that I’d just started a series on the Texas blues way back in early April. Then my season of blog malaise set in, & the series was put on the shelf. But it’s back. For the foreseeable future, I envision posting Monday Morning Blues & Banjo Friday in alternating weeks—I think that was the plan awhile ago, but this time I’m going to try to stick to it!

One of the most singular of the early blues musicians was a man named Alger “Texas” Alexander; in his recording career, he invariably went by “Texas Alexander.” Alexander was born in 1900 in Jewett, Texas, & came up as a street performer & a performer at parties. It’s said that he performed with Blind Lemon Jefferson, presumably during Jefferson’s time as a performer in Dallas.

Alexander was a singer, pure & simple—he didn’t play any instrument. As a singer, he was accompanied by some stellar instrumentalists, including guitar greats Eddie Lang,  Lonnie Johnson & “Little Hat” Jones, pianist Clarence Williams, & cornet player King Oliver. As I understand, he also used Lightnin’ Hopkins as an accompanist later in his life, & there is some speculation that the two were cousins.  Alexander also recorded with the immensely popular Mississippi Sheiks.

Texas Alexander was no smooth blues crooner, however. As you’ll hear in his great “Levee Camp Blues,” his style & delivery owed a lot more to field “hollers” & work chants than to melodious popular song. Given this fact, pairing him with great jazz players like Johnson, Land, & Oliver is itself singular—& indeed, most of his accompanist’s agreed that it was challenging to follow him, as he would often stretch the time, add beats, & even change keys while singing! Nonetheless, his duets with Lonnie Johnson are considered masterpieces of their kind, with Johnson—a guitarist who’s very underrated these days—was able to weave counterpoint accompaniments that meshed perfectly with the singing. An unlikely duo, certainly—but one that produced unique & memorable music.

This recording of “Levee Camp Moan” is from an August, 1927 session for Okeh, made in New York. Alexander made over 50 recordings for Okeh & Vocalion in the 1920s & 30s; but he was convicted of murder in 1939, & was in the Paris, Texas penitentiary thru 1945. He continued recording until 1950 with a group called Benton’s Busy Bees, & died of syphilis in 1954.

This is really quite amazing music—I know you’re going to enjoy it!


Pic of Texas Alexander links to its source

The Stratocaster: Fender, Fender, Fender!

Wangin' and a twangin, sounding so tough
Fender Stratocaster
And the kids in my corner, they can't get enough
Fender Fender Fender
Like the wind in your hair when the top is down
Like taillights headed for another town
Fender Stratocaster, well there's something about that sound.
Jonathan Richman

Welcome to the Monday Morning Blues—& as you probably have guessed, today’s post is a tribute to a great & iconic guitar, the Fender Stratocaster.

Of course, while I’m posting this in the series on great blues guitars, the fact is that the Stratocaster’s impact isn’t confined to any one genre—it’s also one of the classic rock guitars, & can be heard in practically all genres of popular music. Still, the list of blues & blues-oriented Stratocaster players is impressive: Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Rory Gallagher, Buddy Guy (see first video below), Jimi Hendrix (don’t discount Hendrix’ blues orientation!), Bonnie Raitt (see second video), Ike Turner (again, a player with deep blues roots), & Stevie Ray Vaughn, just to name some of the best known. It’s also worth mentioning that, although he’s not really thought of as a blues player, Ry Cooder’s use of the Strat for slide playing has helped popularize its use in this style.

Leo Fender—who you may recall from my post on the Fender Telecaster—George Fullerton & Freddie Tavares designed the Stratocaster in the early 1950s & began marketing the model in 1954. Interestingly, Fender himself believed the instrument to be ideal for country music—he designed the instrument with western swing guitarist Bill Carson in mind—the instrument quickly moved into the rockabilly scene, & from there into rock & roll “proper,” with its popularity being aided by Buddy Holly’s appearance on Ed Sullivan playing a Strat in 1957.

The Stratocaster was Fender’s third instrument (if you count the prototypical Broadcaster & the Telecaster as the same); the Precision Bass, another revolutionary instrument, also preceded the Strat. In comparison with the Telecaster, the Stratocaster was designed specifically with comfort in mind—it’s more contoured than the earlier model, which is no small thing as electric guitars can be a bit heavy; after all, the whole principle of how they sustain involves vibration thru a hardwood block that forms the guitar’s body.

But in addition, the Stratocaster also involved two major innovations: a third pick-up was added in the “middle” position to increase the instrument’s tonal range beyond that of the Telecaster (like the Telecaster, the Strat is equipped with single coil pick-ups, which account for its characteristic bright & biting sound.) The third innovation was the Stratocaster tremolo bridge—the “whammy bar”—which was originally intended to allow the player to imitate the sounds of a pedal steel guitar. Of course, as history has shown, the Stratocaster tremolo has been employed for an array of effects far beyond what Leo Fender & his collaborators could have envisioned!

The videos will demonstrate the Stratocaster’s blues power in the hand of master players. By the way, I picked the Raitt song specifically because she’s doing a Stevie Ray Vaughn song—my way of “covering” two fantastic Strat players in one video!






Photo of the Fender Stratocaster links to its source

The Texas Blues #1 – “Don’t Ease Me In” – Henry Thomas

Happy Monday, folks—we’re here to drive away your Monday Morning Blues—& also to start off a new series that’s going to be running for some time.

The music that we know as the blues sprang up in the southern U.S., tho no one knows exactly where or when. What we do know is that there were blues “centers”—places around which the music seemed to be particularly concentrated & which each had—to some extent at least—regional characteristics in terms of the particular blues “sound.” There was a sound associated with Atlanta & the east coast, & certainly a sound associated with Mississippi, as well as with Memphis & New Orleans, tho those cities also figured in other associated types of music as well—jazz, certainly, but also string band & jug band music. Later, blues became centered in Chicago as blacks migrated out of the south—in many ways, the Chicago blues sound post World War II was an extension of the Mississippi sound, thanks to the Illinois Central Railroad & such Mississippi stalwarts as Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson I, & Muddy Waters all moving there.

But there was another center as well, & one that has in its own right been as fundamental to the blues sound as even Mississippi—& that’s the Lone Star state, Texas. Now when you think of Texas, you may think of cowboys & 10-gallon hats, of Bob Wills & Jerry Jeff Walker. But the fact is that many of the greatest blues musicians also hailed from Texas; so many, in fact, that what was going to be a 10-part series has expanded far past that, & will move in rough chronological order from the oldest “blues” musician we have on record right thru to contemporary electric guitarists.

Henry Thomas—who often recorded under the name “Ragtime Texas” was born in 1874 in Big Sandy, Texas. Given Thomas’ age, we can be pretty sure that he was around to witness the development of the blues from whatever its ultimate sources were, & he is often referred to as a “songster,” meaning that he didn’t specialize in blues, but played in a number of genres. Of course, that’s deceptive, because there’s strong evidence that many early musicians who we think of as playing blues exclusively also played widely in other genres too, but when it came time to record, they were mostly encouraged to draw from their blues repertoire.

In any case, we’re lucky to have Thomas’ music on record, as he disappeared not long after his 1929 sessions, & is presumed to have died in the early 1930s. Between 1927 & 1929, however, he recorded 23 sides for Vocalion.

Probably Thomas’ best-known song is “Fishing Blues,” a double-entendre, slightly ragtime tune that was famously covered by both the Loving Spoonful & Taj Mahal. Thomas’ own version is the final cut on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music, & it includes one of Thomas trademarks—his solo on the quills, an African-American instrument that’s essentially a panpipe. A guitarist like Thomas could play the quills while he accompanied himself on guitar with the means of something like a harmonica rack. Although I didn't choose "Fishing Blues" for today's song, it worth a listen for sure. You can find it on YouTube  here.

Today’s song doesn’t have the quills, but it may be Thomas’ second best known tune, not so much because of his performance but because it was covered by the Grateful Dead  & was a concert staple.

It’s been conjectured that “Don’t Ease Me In” is a close relative to “Alabama Bound,” which was a hit for Papa Charlie Jackson in the mid 20s, & in different forms found its way into the repertoire of such diverse artists as Jelly Rolly Morton & Leadbelly. The Grateful Dead re-wrote some of the lyrics; in the original Thomas sings, “It’s all night long, Cunningham, don’t ease me in,” which is apparently a reference to the owner of a large sugar cane plantation in Sugar Land in Texas, who leased much of his labor from state prison farms.

This is great music! Hope you enjoy it. & stay tuned, because next month there will be a new installment in The Texas Blues.



Photo links to its source

Poor Boy Long Way from Home #12 – The Black Keys

Happy Monday to you all! I’m changing up the schedule a bit here on the Monday Morning Blues & using this post to bring the Poor Boy series to a close. Yes, this is the twelfth & final post in a series that has enabled us to see a blues song in various states of transformation from Bo Weavil Jackson’s 1926 recording to this almost contemporary version released in 2004 as “The Moan” on their EP of the same name by The Black Keys.

The Black Keys are a guitar & drum duo that hail from the U.S. Rust Belt—Akron, Ohio, in fact, & who bring a heavy duty, roots-based attack to a repertoire of mostly original material—but they do include interesting covers of diverse musicians, including Louisiana blueman Robert Pete Williams, the Stooges, the Sonics, & Mississippi Juke Joint bluesman Junior Kimbrough. Speaking of Mississippi Juke Joints, “The Moan” to my ear is heavily influenced by RL Burnside’s “Poor Boy Long Way From Home.”  The band members are Dan Auerbach on vocals & guitar & Patrick Carney on drums.

Recently, the Black Keys have won some relatively mainstream recognition, as their song “Tighten Up” won a Grammy for “Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal,” & was also nominated for “Best Rock Song.” In addition, Brothers, their 2010 Nonesuch release on which this song appears won both “Best Alternative Music Album” & “Best Recording Package”—the latter refers to an album’s artwork, not to the actual recorded performances.

Auerbach & Carney bring a lot of energy to their version of the song (they actually claim writing credits for “The Moan”—I’ll just let you draw your own conclusions on that), & their grunge/punk-inflected version of old blues is one of the more interesting from a white band since Captain Beefheart’s massive deconstruction/reconstruction of blues—both covered & original—during his heyday. 

Next month there will be some changes in the Monday Morning Blues line-up—two new features will debut, & in addition to the Poor Boy series ending, the Blue Notes blues/jazz series also is going to go away, tho to some extent it may be incorporated into one of the new features—stay tuned for details! Any Woman’s Blues will continue (at the rate of one post per month, I could keep this feature going a couple of years more at least!) & the Blues Guitar series will go at least one more month, tho I’m running a bit low on ideas of guitars that are very associated with blues performers.

In the meantime, enjoy The Black Keys & “The Moan”!

Miss Gibson's Jumbo Sound

“I woke up this morning with the Monday morning blues,” as Mississippi John Hurt sang, “I couldn't hardly find my Monday morning shoes.” Yes, another week is right on us, folks. But at least we have some fine music to help you thru.

It’s the time of the month when we consider one of the classic guitars that contributed to the great blues sound. Actually, today’s guitar is usually associated with county music, but it’s also been employed by some blues musicians, including one of the foremost blues & ragtime guitarists in the history of this music. The guitar is the Gibson J-200, & the guitarist to whom I refer is the great Reverend Gary Davis.

Gibson introduced the :Super Jumbo” in 1937 as a top-of-the-line guitar. The prototype was built to the specifications of the “Singing Cowboy” Ray Whitley, who wanted a guitar with a 17” lower bout (the bottom part of the guitar’s traditional “hourglass” shape); as such it was over an inch wider than a Martin Dreadnought (which measures 15-5/8”); in addition, the Super Jumbo had a flared upper bout, as opposed to the dreadnoughts “sloped shoulders”; the Martin is 11-1/2 inches across the upper bout, as opposed to the 12-1/4 inches for the Gibson; the body is also a full inch longer than the Martin. This essentially made a flat-top guitar that had the dimensions of the powerful Gibson archtop jazzboxes like the L-5.

 Other country stars soon were ordering similar guitars based on Whitleys—these included Gene Autrey, Tex Ritter, Roy Rogers & Ray “Crash” Corrigan. The Super Jumbo appeared in the Gibson catalog for sale to the public in 1938.

Besides the old singing cowboys already mentioned, other big stars of both country & rock have used the J-200; these include Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris & Pete Townsend. But we’re interested in its use as a blues intrument, & in addition to the very notable Reverend Davis, we find that “Hacksaw” Harney (second video below) used one pretty much exclusively, & that Mance Lipscombe, Brownie McGhee & the famed blues mandolin player Yank Rachell also made at least occasional use of this model.

A flat-top guitar with these dimensions is going to be a powerful instrument; it also will have both outstanding bass & treble response. As with the dreadnought size, which shares those general characteristics, this makes the J-200 very effective as a rhythm instrument in country music where the “boom chicka boom chicka” rhythm is really enhanced. But when we think of acoustic blues guitar, we think primarily of fingerstyle playing, & in general one thinks of smaller size guitars for that—something like the 00 or Classical size, which is between 2 & 3 inches smaller than the Jumbo in all dimensions. Still, in the hands of the Reverend Gary Davis, his “Miss Gibson” played some of the most intricate fingerstyle blues & ragtime you’ll ever hear. & as you hear in Harney’s “Down South Blues,” he also used the big guitar to great musical advantage.

Three videos this week, mainly because both of the Reverend Gary Davis ones are short. I thought it was important to find live videos of the Reverend playing, just to watch the ease with which he plays these intricate figures—not to mention the way he uses “Miss Gibson” as a drum during the final chorus of “If I Had My Way”—AKA “Samsion & Delilah.”) Great music in all three—enjoy!










Photo of Reverend Gary Davis & "Miss Gibson" links to its source

Poor Boy Long Way From Home #11 – RL Burnside

Hi friends! Time for another edition of the Monday Morning Blues, & today’s feature is our penultimate entry in the Poor Boy Blues series.

Today’s artist is RL Burnside, a favorite of mine, & his version of “Poor Boy Long Way From Home” is also one of my favorites. Burnside also introduces us to the song in an electric incarnation—tho he also recorded it acoustically, I’ve always thought Burnside was at his best with an electric guitar; I’ve read that he preferred to play electric & that his acoustic recordings were done mainly to please the “folk blues” purists.  

Burnside grew up & spent most of his life in the hill country east of the Mississippi Delta region, mainly around Holly Springs, Mississippi.  His music always had a raw edge, often featuring open tunings & slide & frequently not moving from the root chord. Reportedly Burnside began playing guitar in his early 20s after hearing John Lee Hooker’s hit "Boogie Chillen,” & his music has some similarities with Hooker’s, as it also does with Mississippi Fred McDowell’s playing—in fact, McDowell was something of a mentor to Burnside. Burnside was also related to Muddy Waters by marriage, & he claimed Waters as an influence as well.

Although he was recorded in the 1960s by George Mitchell (these recordings were released on Arhoolie), he spent much of his life as a sharecropper, commercial fisherman, & tractor driver, playing local juke joints as a sideline. Burnside did make some additional recordings in the 1980s on the Swingmaster label, & he was featured in the 1990 film Deep Blues; following this he signed with Fat Possum Records, a Mississippi label with the particular mission of recording older blues players. He also recorded with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion during the 1990s.

This version of “Poor Boy Long Way from Home” is straight-ahead & driving like most of Burnside’s music. Its great strength is its simplicity, but this is simplicity of finely honed & definite gestures—a lot of folks can spend a whole lifetime playing music & not figure out how to get so “simple.” Burnside is accompanied by his grandson Cedric Burnside on drums & by slide guitarist Kenny Brown, with whom he played from the 1970s onward; he called Brown his “adopted son.”

This is the real deal, folks—enjoy!

Photo of RL Burnside (in 1984) is by Wiki Commons user Bubba73 (Jud McCranie) &  is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. The picture links to its source.

Any Womans Blues #19 – Ellen McIlwaine

Happy Monday! February is drawing to a close, so it’s time for another edition of Any Woman’s Blues, & as usual, we’ve got a great guitarist to discuss & listen to.

That guitarist is Ellen McIlwaine, a veteran professional whose playing, singing & songwriting deserve much more recognition than has come her way in a career spanning four decades & change. Ellen McIlwaine was an opening act for the likes of Jimi Hendrix, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf & other greats; her first professional recording dates to 1969, with the group Fear Itself, & she began issuing solo records with the 1972 Honky Tonk Angel on Polydor. McIlwaine has changed labels often, as she’s also put out labels on United Artists, Blind Pig, Stoney Plain, Tradition und Moderne & others.  Her most recent release, the 2007 Mystic Bridge on her own Ellen McIlwaine Music label, is a true adventure, as she teams with tabla player Cassius Khan, soprano saxaphonist Linsey Wellman & harmonium player Amika Kushwaha (the latter only on the last track, which features spoken word over music); otherwise, the album features four McIlwaine originals as well as covers of Al Green’s “Take Me to the River," John Lee Hooker’s “Crawling Kingsnake” & Hendrix’ “May This Be Love.” Quite a set!

Ellen McIlwaine is particularly known as a slide player, & her technique & musicality with the slide are impeccable; her playing style is fiery but melodic, as the best slide work invariably is.  In addition—as suggested by the song line-up on Mystic Bridge—McIlwaine doesn’t simply use the slide to reproduce gutbucket blues. Her slide work is extremely versatile, ranging from a cover of Hendrix’ “Waterfall” to Middle Eastern music—as found in the second video below—& more. 

McIlwaine is a cosmopolitan person, which may in part explain her wide-ranging music tastes & interests. Although she was born in Nashville, Tennessee, she was raised in Japan, where her adoptive parents served as missionaries.  She has recorded for the German Tradition Und Moderne label, including the 2002 Spontaneous Combustion, which not only features more of her take on Middle Eastern sounds, but also includes a couple of duets with Taj Mahal; & she moved to Canada in the late 1980s, living first in Toronto & now in Alberta province.

As far as guitars go, McIlwaine favors Guilds both for acoustic & electric playing. I should also mention that her cds are all available on her website here. Remember: buying direct from the artist whenever possible is always best!

It was a bit of a challenge to find videos for this post. I like to stick with live video as much as possible because it’s ideal to be able to hear the performer without the mediation that can happen in a studio, & it’s also ideal to see she what she’s doing. Having said that, it seems that a high percentage of the live videos of McIlwaine don’t feature full performances. But I do think that these two videos, despite being cut off at the end, showcase her playing well.
Ellen McIlwaine is absolutely the real deal—enjoy!

“Straight, No Chaser”

Happy Monday, friends. Today’s edition of the Monday Morning Blues is going to be looking at a great & justifiably renowned jazz standard that just happens also to be a 12-bar blues.

When I was a boy, I was fascinated by the classification of instruments into their various groups: wind, string & percussion. But what fascinated me most was the fact that the instrument I myself played, the piano, was sometimes classified as a stringed instrument (or chordophone) & sometimes as a percussion instrument (or idiophone.) Of course, the sound on a piano is ultimately produced by the strings, but in order to produce that sound there’s a lot of “striking” going on, both by the fingers on the keys & the hammers on the strings themselves. & anyone who has listened to the great Thelonious Monk know very well how much the piano can be percussive.

I love Monk’s music—it’s a rich & deep & playful & lyrical—& I love his playing.  Not all have shared this opinion; poet Phillip Larkin described Monk as “the elephant on the keyboard,” & as Monk was in the forefront of Bebop, he most certainly had his detractors among the Trad Jazz & moldy fig crowd. But by & large, history has borne out his significance; Monk’s compositions are the second most recorded songs in the jazz world, following only the compositions of the great Duke Ellington (who wrote considerably more), & some of them are among the best known jazz standards: today’s song, “Straight, No Chaser,” would certainly fit in that category, as would “Round Midnight,” “Well, You Needn’t,” “Epistrophy” & “Ruby, My Dear,” just to name a handful.

“Straight, No Chaser” is harmonically a straightforward 12-bar blues in the key of Eb that follows the “quick change” pattern—in other words, the IV chord appears in the second measure rather than waiting until the fifth measure.  In addition, there are chord substitutions in the eighth & ninth measures. In a completely straight 12-bar blues, the eighth measure would contain the I or tonic chord, while the ninth measure would contain the V or dominant chord; here, however, Monk substitutes the iiim7 & the VI7 in the eighth measure, & the iim7 in the ninth—these are all fairly standard jazz chord substitutions, & those of you who are up on your music theory will see that the progression there is moving along the Circle of Fifths. One characteristic of the song—& indeed, a characteristic found in other Monk melodies—is that the melody shifts in terms of how the notes fall in relation to the beat, which takes a relatively simple melodic idea & adds great complexity. Mary Lou Williams—who was a mentor to Monk & to the Bebop crowd in general—also did that with many of her melodies.

The original recording (which is the version in this video) was recorded for Blue Note in 1951. The session included Monk on piano, Art Blakey on drums, Al McKibbon on bass, Milt Jackson on vibes & Sahib Shihab on alto sax. Miles Davis recorded a famous cover of “Straight, No Chaser” (in the key of F) on his Milestones album, & Carmen McRae covered the tune as a vocal titled “Get It Straight.”

Great composition—enjoy!

Electric Spanish!

 

 Happy Monday, friends—time for some Monday Morning Blues. Once each month we’ve been turning our attention to one of the guitar that have contributed significantly to the great blues sound—& today’s instruments are truly exciting.

If you’re a fan of Gibson guitars or just an all-around guitar aficionado, you may well know that “Electric Spanish” is the full term behind the abbreviation Gibson’s renowned ES line.  A venerable line, at that, especially when you’re talking about guitars fitted with a magnetic pick-up—yes, in many ways the ES line, among its many contributions in terms of music & design both, essentially is the granddaddy of the electric guitar.  While the 1936 Gibson ES-150 wasn’t actually the first electric guitar, it was the first one to be a true commercial success.  In addition, the first noteworthy electric guitarist played an ES-150, that being the great jazzman Charlie Christian—in fact, the single coil pick-up used in this guitar is still known as the "Charlie Christian pick-up."

So make no mistake: the Gibson ES line has had an impact far beyond the field of blues. From major jazz guitarists like Barney Kessel, Joe Pass & Grant Green to early rockers like Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison & Scotty Moore & on to such “guitar heroes” as Clapton, Larry Carlton & Alvin Lee, the ES line has been heard loud & clear in many genres of popular music.

From the ES-150 on, this line of guitars has been revolutionary in design. The ES-150, for instance, departed from the typical practice of making an archtop guitar in that the guitar’s interior isn’t carved to match the exterior curve. This was an attempt to cut down on one of the problems with amplifying a guitar with a hollow soundbox: feedback. I played a hollowbody archtop electric as my main guitar for some time, & I can attest to this fact!

Later models in the ES line attacked this problem even more ingeniously. The Gibson ES-335, introduced in 1958, was the first “thinline” archtop electric. Here the “wings” of the guitar’s body are still hollow, but a solid maple block runs up the center of the soundbox, so in essence, the design combines aspects of the hollow body & the solid body—& indeed, the ES-335 & its latter offshoots are known both for their singing tone & for their fierce & powerful sustain. I get excited just writing about them!

In terms of the blues, some of the very biggest names have used Gibson ES guitars; BB King, for instance has used both the ES-335 & the ES-355, which is the famed “Lucille.” Freddie King, of “Hideaway” fame sometimes used an ES-335. Little Milton, “Gatemouth” Brown, & John Lee Hooker both played Gibson ES guitars, tho Hooker finally favored the Epiphone Sheraton, which he characterized as an “out-did 335”—still, by the time Hooker was playing a Sheraton, Epiphone had been purchased by Gibson.  

But I didn’t choose any of those players to feature in the videos, as worthy as they all are. Instead, I decided to feature one of the most influential electric guitar players ever—who has influenced guitarists from BB King to Jimi Hendrix & from Eric Clapton to Stevie Ray Vaughn.  That is the great T-Bone Walker, a man whose work is not as well known to the general listening public as it should be.  Walker mostly played the Gibson ES-175 during his career, tho early on he played an ES-150 & he switched to an ES-335 as his playing career wound down.  He’s playing an ES-175 in this video.

I also chose the standpoint Chicago blues player Otis Rush, who is featured in the second video.  You’ll notice that—like Elizabeth Cotten, who was featured last week in the Any Woman’s Blues series, Rush also is left-handed & plays the guitar “upside-down & backwards.” Rush is playing an ES-335, his standby guitar.

Enjoy that great Gibson sound in the hands of two formidable blues musicians!





 
Pic of BB King with “Lucille” is by Wiki Common user Roland Godefroy, & is available under the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. Image links to its source.

Poor Boy Long Way From Home #10 – Mississippi John Hurt

A happy Monday to you—still morning out here on the Left Coast, so here comes another edition of the Monday Morning Blues.

Today we have our monthly installment in the ongoing Poor Boy Blues series—a post that almost didn’t happen, because the video I initially intended to post was taken down by YouTube due to copyright infringement claims. Someone recently re-posted a version of Mississippi John Hurt’s version of “Poor Boy Long Ways From Home” however, so—at least for the time being—it’s looking like the complete set of 12 I’d planned on posting may remain intact.

Mississippi John Hurt has long been a favorite of mine.  His precise, melodic & almost delicate style of playing is beautiful & distinctive, as is his rich, if subdued, voice, which can express tenderness & a sort of gentle humor in a way that few blues players can.  Hurt’s playing style is akin to the “Piedmont” style of fingerpicking usually associated with guitarists who lived along the U.S. southeastern seaboard in the Carolinas or Virginia. But Hurt lived in Avalon, Mississippi, which he famously sung about in “Avalon Blues”—thus, spent most of his life in the Mississippi Delta area, which is generally associated with a much “heavier” blues sound—one dripping with bottleneck slide, & made dark by lots of flatted thirds, fifths & sevenths in both the melodies & the accompaniment—even more so by the fact that a fair amount of the singing & slide playing involves microtones—notes slightly flat or sharp of a recognized tone. Hurt on the other hand, was never afraid of pure major triads & a light, melodic sound.

I’ve written elsewhere about Hurt’s “discovery” by musicologist Tom Hoskins, who was intrigued by Hurt’s songs on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music (“Frankie” & “Spike Driver Blues”), as well as by other songs he’d recorded in the 20s that were still available to collectors on 78s.  As a result, Hurt had a short but successful second career as a full-time professional musician during the folk revival until his death in 1966. Although he’d made 13 sides for Okeh back in the 1920s, he’d spent most of his life as a sharecropper who made music in his community for dances & parties. 

Hurt’s version of “Poor Boy Long Ways From Home” is very typical of his style—there’s not the raw existential angst of Ramblin’ Thomas or Booker White; all in all, it bears a closer relationship to the Brownie McGhee version we heard last month, tho Hurt’s lyrics are different, & his playing & singing are—as always!—entirely his own & immediately recognizable. Today's recording is from his album Last Recordings, made during the 1960s & issued posthumously in 1972.

Hope you enjoy this wonderful piece of music.