Dig My Grave With the Ace of Spades: The Blues Thread

[greghead]

This is the place to discuss our love for blues as well as some its children (gospel, soul/r&b, jazz, funk, rock, etc) that occupy some of the same stylistic real estate, but the focus is on blues. This is the place for those who know the score and want to discover more; post videos, links, photos, album & concert reviews, and upcoming shows. Have questions? Ask. Suggestions? Give.

Don't be shy, to be human is to have the blues every so often. We're all in the shit together, let's celebrate our misery.


To start us off, here's Big Mama Thornton with the Muddy Waters Blues Band. Peep Otis Spann on the keys. I'm pretty certain this is the song god puts on when he's feeling down.
iFVx5m_p-8A



EDIT: I'm a bit of a purist and have no interest in hearing Jimmy Page or Clapton rip wailing, overwrought solos or Jack White doing soulless covers of Son House songs. However, blues is blues, so we'll allow it. Just remember, this is a blues thread, not just a blues guitar thread. Keep your guitar god videos to a minimum, please.

[greghead]

Dd-o_kLONVI

[greghead]

Guitar gods, 1920s-style. (Gribbz, you were asking about Piedmont . . . )

KFHI4K-JlKc

[fatbastard]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V8h2uq5wFQ

[greghead]

Yes, LOVE Little Milton.

[greghead]

Residents of the Bay Area should tune in Friday nights to 'Crazy 'Bout the Blues' on KCSM 91.1. Nine to midnight. Best nights are when they devote an hour to educational segments outlining the history, evolution, and significance of various blues genres. Zydeco and Blind Gospel are my two favorites thus far. They stream the show at their website. You can catch the last 30 mins if you go right now.

[greghead]

really good piano jam killing right now.

[fiyahhh!]

My personal favorite:

http://www.propermusic.com/cache/images/b/4/1/b4112fa1251bd03ed6faeccb29645eb8.jpg

If you're looking for acoustic "country" blues, look no further.

[Mr. Fuzz]

fuck you!

http://youtu.be/iPyUXb2QwDM

[Mr. Fuzz]

http://youtu.be/UKEgFqag_iU

[fiyahhh!]

For a raucous good time, there's always "Mr. Wizard" by R.L. Burnside.

5168

[Mr. Fuzz]

Here's a soulless cover for you...

http://youtu.be/FV6hqtD4rwc

[greghead]

That's actually quite soulful. The "soulless" comment was a jab at White's various takes on House's "John the Revelator." All the distortion and drums in the world can never overcome the raw power of that old man clapping along to his own singing. Whatever, I hear a lot of people discoverd Son House through their cover, so I can't knock it too much.

[greghead]

I'm just glad people are participating. The blues are such a beautiful, uplifting thing.

[JustSteve]

my sisters boyfriend is a huge fan of the blues, does a show at kuci on sunday nights from 6-8pm. check it out if y'all want, streams live here: http://www.kuci.org/schedule.shtml

[greghead]

ooooh, thanks Steve. I will definitely check that out tomorrow night.

[greghead]

My personal favorite:

http://www.propermusic.com/cache/images/b/4/1/b4112fa1251bd03ed6faeccb29645eb8.jpg

If you're looking for acoustic "country" blues, look no further.

YES. Dude was something else. You should check out his electric albums from the 50s. Lightnin' & the Blues is a masterpiece. Imagine all that raw, visceral country picking and phrasing funneled through rickety amps and a beat-up Gibson. Hotfire.

EDIT: Sometimes better than the idea of a thing is the thing itself.

FlzWZe9bzLw

[Sleepingrock]

I would like to bring a post made by Greghead in the Primer thread about Chicago blues, if anyone is interested. I trust it is still valid. I am not sure if you had another list in there, but this one is great for sure. I go to a small little Blues (and other genre) festival every year, but I sadly don't spend much time at the blues stage even though I sure do love it, such soul.

Chicago - http://www.coachella.com/forum/showthread.php?42478-Primer-10-Essential-Albums&p=1915618&viewfull=1#post1915618

Delta - http://www.coachella.com/forum/showthread.php?42478-Primer-10-Essential-Albums&p=1856943&viewfull=1#post1856943

[unit300021]

http://youtu.be/mjfhsLuOEWI

I like hot tuna in general but their version of this song is probably my favorite one. Fun fact, when my dad was a kid the guy who he took guitar lessons was the guy that taught Jorma to play the guitar.

[greghead]

I would like to bring a post made by Greghead in the Primer thread about Chicago blues, if anyone is interested. I trust it is still valid. I am not sure if you had another list in there, but this one is great for sure. I go to a small little Blues (and other genre) festival every year, but I sadly don't spend much time at the blues stage even though I sure do love it, such soul.

http://www.coachella.com/forum/showthread.php?42478-Primer-10-Essential-Albums&p=1915618&viewfull=1#post1915618

Aw thanks. I also did a Delta blues list earlier in that thread. Nothing definitive or anything, just the stuff I think is important for any blues fan.

[TomAz]

jcsK36zVfE8

[Sleepingrock]

Aw thanks. I also did a Delta blues list earlier in that thread. Nothing definitive or anything, just the stuff I think is important for any blues fan.

I added it! Great posts, I love that thread.

[greghead]

jcsK36zVfE8

Fucking Tom, I was just coming in here to post some Clifton. Nice work.


EDIT: Nevermind, the track I want to post isn't on youtube.

[fatbastard]

Currently in the middle of Keith Richard's autobiography, which has been mentioning all of his blues heros.

It's had me pondering on a couple of things. Muddy Waters was a big influence to him and his sound. He talks about first meeting him at Chess records and then becoming close friends with him and staying at his house weeks at a time with him and Muddy's family.

It doesn't matter the music type you enjoy, but think about who your music heros are or have been, how would you feel meeting them? What would you say? Can you imagine sitting down with them, having a beer and smoke, and kicking it at their house?

His detailed descriptions of what he has learned and how he landed up meeting all of these guys has me at the edge of my seat.

[TomAz]

Fucking Tom, I was just coming in here to post some Clifton. Nice work.



Back in the early 80s I saw a Clifton Chenier/John Lee Hooker double bill at a free concert in a park in Houston. Man that was fun.

[TomAz]

moWhvXMuYCc

[JustSteve]

Currently in the middle of Keith Richard's autobiography, which has been mentioning all of his blues heros.

It's had me pondering on a couple of things. Muddy Waters was a big influence to him and his sound. He talks about first meeting him at Chess records and then becoming close friends with him and staying at his house weeks at a time with him and Muddy's family.

It doesn't matter the music type you enjoy, but think about who your music heros are or have been, how would you feel meeting them? What would you say? Can you imagine sitting down with them, having a beer and smoke, and kicking it at their house?

His detailed descriptions of what he has learned and how he landed up meeting all of these guys has me at the edge of my seat.

that book is an amazing read, really does seem to be a movie script at times with all the shenanigans. he has lived quite the life.

i have actually gotten to spend some time with my musical idols, although it was more in terms of minutes as opposed to days or weeks. not one of them has let me down one bit, fortunately. it is always nerve wracking waiting for that moment when they aren't who you thought they'd be and all your dreams are tainted forever.

[JustSteve]

my sisters boyfriend is a huge fan of the blues, does a show at kuci on sunday nights from 6-8pm. check it out if y'all want, streams live here: http://www.kuci.org/schedule.shtml

streaming now, click "listen now" on the top right corner!

edit: that's not anthony dj'ing this week, though, hmm.

[greghead]

If this song doesn't give you goosebumps at least once, you're either autistic or a sociopath. If I'm not mistaken, this is one of 27 songs sent up with Voyager representing the human experience. Dig it.

BNj2BXW852g

[guedita]

Greg let me borrow his The Paul Butterfield Blues East-West album, to which I've been practicing my dart throwing.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO2JAA47Mgk

[greghead]

No, not borrow, I gave it to you. That's my spare copy. The harmonica playing on "Work Song" is some of my favorite ever. That riff is just so fucking groovy.

[greghead]

Bay Area folk should tune into Crazy Bout the Blues on 91.1 kcsm. The rest of you can listen online at kcsm.org. Support independent radio.

[greghead]

w_-3lmxHE04


Oh, what? You want to watch Black Ace play the track in his living room? Well, why didn't you just say so?

YW7zxl3sdJc

[TomAz]

I love the sound of a resonator guitar in the morning.

[bmack86]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIsbDzMRTf0

[greghead]

Man, that's a beautiful track. I'm curious where you first heard it.

[bmack86]

I was reading a book called Pulphead, which is a series of essays by John Jeremiah Sullivan. One of them concerns his attempts to discover the lyrics to that song to help Griel Marcus with an article. He calls up John Fahey and then goes down the rabbit hole of blues collectors. Really great read, and the description of that track is great.

It's also on a release from Fahey's last record label called American Primitive 2: Pre War Revenants. I listened to the whole thing yesterday and it's incredible. The deal was they would only use songs by artists who recorded sparsely and had no biographical information floating around, so that the songs could just speak for themselves.

[TomAz]

You have to wonder what happened to someone like that. That song sounds really great; why did she just record a few songs and disappear?

Also, 5 minutes on wikipedia has me tying that song Kevin-Bacon-degrees-of-separation style to "How to Disappear Completely".

[bmack86]

That one is two women playing. It looks like, together, they recorded six tracks of music, and they're all on Pre-War Revenants.

With lots of them, what likely happened in one way or another was the Great Depression and WWII. Between those two events, the race record market dried up completely and the materials used to press records were diverted to the war effort. They probably either resumed performing in juke joints and bars or went back to working whatever jobs they had. In most cases, probably both.

Which doesn't really account for the people who were recording earlier and simply disappeared. It's fun to wonder what happened to them...

[greghead]

With lots of them, what likely happened in one way or another was the Great Depression and WWII. Between those two events, the race record market dried up completely and the materials used to press records were diverted to the war effort. They probably either resumed performing in juke joints and bars or went back to working whatever jobs they had. In most cases, probably both.

Exactly. The Great Migrations during the interwar and post-war years also played a huge role. No time to play music when you're working 12 hour shifts. Further, for a lot of people music was a means to an end and not the end itself. No need to record or play dangerous juke joints if you're making ok money on the killing floor and got a family at home. And the phonograph market actually boomed during the Depression due to people wishing to tune out how fucking awful their lives were. Back then, though, the real money for black artists was playing live, so it's not surprising that many never found the opportunity or weren't convinced to record songs they weren't going to get songwriting credit for.

We have to assume that some of these folks kept recording but under different names and for different labels. Case in point: I'm fairly certain Muddy Waters' first recordings for Alan Lomax were under McKinley Morganfield. He did not become Muddy Waters until moving north. Think of all the myriad indie bands that put out a single EP and disappeared, existing now only on decaying acetate in Jared's cassette collection. How many of them never recorded again, or simply joined other musical projects? Similar situation here, they just didn't have the internet to maintain an artist's provenance.

I'm going to track down that comp, thanks for the tip.


Oh, and if you think of it, I suggest you check out The Country Blues by Samuel Charters. Charters was a British ethno-musicologist who did a deep survey of blues artists in the early 50s. Really, really fascinating book. I scored a copy in Dublin several years back and refer to it quite often. Naturally, it's a product of its time and place, but the amount of info contained in incredible.

[greghead]

Did anyone pick up any the Vanguard blues reissues yesterday for Record Store Day? I picked up Skip James' Devil Got My Woman, and am likely going to head back to Amoeba today to check if they still have any copies of the John Hurt LP still in stock. Doubtful, but worth a look; been loving the Vanguard reissues over the last few RSDs.

[greghead]

I called into KCSM last week and won two tickets to see Bob Margolin at Yoshi's Sunday night. Anyone in the Bay Area interested in seeing Steady Rollin' with me? Dude can play.

[thelastgreatman]

No Taj Mahal or Ry Cooder? Fuck this thread.

[greghead]

Post some videos, dick. That's what this thread is about.

[thelastgreatman]

It feels like it would be out of place since it wasn't recorded in the fucking Dust Bowl.

[greghead]

Here you go. 10 points if you can tell me what "the Katy" is.

rvfWdsFQysA

[greghead]

This thread is for all blues, Randy, post some shit. Dusty acoustic blues get boring as fuck, I agree.

[thelastgreatman]

For the quiet times, glass of whisky in hand, rocking chair preferable:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoIKiw2PV7Q


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpVcJK3rtq0

[thelastgreatman]

The best version of Leaving Trunk ever:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gBqwWOWKLE


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ4N25sNNS8

[greghead]

The best version of Leaving Trunk ever

Agreed.

[greghead]

Again, is anyone in SF interested in seeing a show at Yoshi's tonight? It's free. Come drink sake with me.

[bmack86]

This might have my favorite blues lyric of all time:

Gonna buy me a graveyard of my own/gonna kill anyone who ever did me wrong.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyX-KwwOAuo

[santasutt]

In the late 80's-early 90's, one of my Jersey friends used to tape for me The Hound radio show from WFMU (as much as would fit on a Maxell XL90 tape) and I would play the shit out them in my Mazda 323. Plenty of Blues, Hillbilly Blues, early Rhythm and Blues, early blues-rock, etc. all on original 45 or 78 rpm vinyl. Much of it hard to find stuff, stuff you will not hear anywhere else. The Hound and his buddies/co-hosts would read "knuckleheads in the news" stories off the AP wire and interview musicians and artists between sets .

I was delighted to discover that many of these shows have been archived on http://thehound.net

Warning: If you listen to these shows/this music in public places or home around the family, you will get strange looks initially and then, when it becomes a habit, your people may start to hate you.




Excerpted from "The Radio Hound Reveals the Ins and Outs of Dirty Records" by James 'The Hound" Marshall

Planting the Seed: Dirty Blues, the early years.

Blues in general is a lyrically limited form-- broads, booze and sex have a virtual stranglehold on the primitive blues singers' mind, give or take a cameo appearance by the devil himself, (i.e.-- the works of Robert Johnson or Peetie Wheatstraw) and filthy blues records make up a large portion of the recorded body of work. Since that immortal day when Blind Lemon Jefferson beheld his pecker and decided it had the same leathery quality as a black snake, getting the biggest hit record of his career out of it-- "Black Snake Moan" (which he recorded several times), sex on blues discs sold. The biggest blues hit of the late 20's was a rockin double entendre entitled "It's Tight Like That," written by Tampa Red and Georgia Tom (a.k.a. Thomas A. Dorsey who a few years later would zip up his pants for God and invent modern gospel music). The great Bo Carter for one, a former member of the Mississippi Sheiks made an entire career out of single entendre numbers like "Banana in Your Fruitbasket," "Mashin That Thing," "Pussycat Blues," etc. Even the old tortured soul Robert Johnson could take the time out from playing hide'n'seek with Satan to invite his honey to "squeeze my lemon baby-- 'til the juice runs down my leg" in "Traveling Riverside Blues." The only time censorship was employed was usually on the label of the record, for example, on the old standard "Dirty Mother Fucker," recorded by Roosevelt Sykes, Red Nelson and many others, the label would read "Dirty Mother Fucha" or "Dirty Mother For You," etc. Yes, the country blues was a ripe field for a man with an erection.
Women, especially the "classic" blues singers of the '20's and '30's were not immune to such crudities. In one of her more memorable performances, the great Bessie Smith moans the lack of "sugar for my bowl," inviting local men folk to indulge in the same said bowl of jelly. Little Laura Dukes recorded "Jelly Sellin' Woman," but for my money, the pinnacle of the classic blues as a form would have to be an unreleased (until the mid '70's) version of "Shave 'Em Dry" by Bessie Jackson (a.k.a. Lucille Bogan) whick included the inspired couplet:
"I got nipples on my titties as big as your thumb
I got something between my legs make a dead man come."

You can even hear the piano player goosing her.

[greghead]

Brilliant! Thank you for the link.

[greghead]

8bTF0QRZqOg