Comments on: Sunday Blues Verificationism

By: Mark van Roojen

Mark van Roojen — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 04:01:14 +0000

I second nonfamous Henry’s Blind Willie Johnson recommendation. Ry Cooder got most of the Paris Texas soundtrack from his “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground.”

Also related to Henry’s main point but off to the side of it, you can hear with Robert Johnson and some of the others (Son House, for sure) how the record format changed the music. Many early blues records have little thematic unity, which figures since live blues was often performed for long stretches as dance music. They thus often consisted of sets of standard verses thrown together in no particular order. Many early records just collected verses thrown together in this way, though shorter than the typical number would be at a live date due to the format. Records put a relatively short limit on how long a song could be – around 3 minutes. From the internal evidence of the records themselves, it is reasonable to think that some of the more savvy musicians (of whom Johnson was one) responded by constructing roughly 3 minute songs that were more unified in the themes of their lyrics.

By: John Holbo

John Holbo — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:05:32 +0000

Aquariumdrinker, that doesn’t sound so good. Possibly just a misdeployed fram HTML tag triggering something on that page? I dunno. Sorry if I sent people somewhere toxic. Anyone else have an opinion about that?

By: Aquariumdrinker

Aquariumdrinker — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 05:54:24 +0000

FYI, my anti-virus software stepped in and terminated the connection when I surfed up to the parent page (www.negroartist.com), saying that my browser was trying to download a “Virus/Worm” going by the name of “HTML:Iframe-gen”.

By: Henry (not the famous one)

Henry (not the famous one) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 04:45:07 +0000

Elijah Wald’s book on Robert Johnson, “Escaping the Delta,” also makes the case against the Johnson as primitive genius myth (and all the hokier versions, including the Ralph Macchio movie) by describing a music scene in which radio and records brought all sorts of influences and styles to the Delta. Wald isn’t trying to dethrone Johnson, but to give us an appreciation of a much more sophisticated culture than the myth permits as well as of The Mississippi Sheiks, Kokomo Arnold and lots of other artists out there in plain sight.

And since I have the floor: leaving the Delta to head west, don’t forget Blind Willie Johnson. Which might lead you to Arizona Dranes, Thomas A. Dorsey, R. H. Harris and beyond. There’s no end to the riches out there.

By: Luther Blissett

Luther Blissett — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:21:23 +0000

John, thanks for the links. I have hours of grading to finish tomorrow, so now it’ll have a soundtrack.

Skip James’s vocal performances are my favorites of the rural blues tradition: haunting, bone-chilling stuff. (I wonder if John Jacob Niles ever heard James and Johnson, or if that high, train-whistle moan has some other, common artistic source in the South and the mountains?)

Do check out Marybeth Hamilton’s In Search of the Blues for a thought-provoking questioning of the existence of a “Delta Blues” tradition.

By: Delicious Pundit

Delicious Pundit — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:51:16 +0000

“Very nice”?! (I just learned that “?!” is called an “interrobang.”) There’s one hundred Fats Waller mp3s! Plus Albert Ammons! And 100 mp3’s from Murray Kempton’s favorite artist, Bessie Smith!

Plus Angela Davis. And Louis Armstrong in 1929. Nobody work for a month, there’s gold to explore.

By: salientdowns

salientdowns — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:50:56 +0000

I don’t quite understand “It had never occurred to me that Bob Dylan’s claim that ‘no one can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell’ was a proposition subject to empirical confirmation.” Maybe I’m thinking too hard about it.

Compare two statements:

#1 Nobody makes as delicious a pumpkin pie as my grandmother.
vs.

#2 Nobody plays the cello as eloquently as Yo-Yo Ma.

The second statement could be reasonably discussed, disputed, reinforced with evidence, etc. On the other hand, it would seem silly and irrational to try to engage statement #1 that way, because it’s so clearly an expression of personal preference.

By: Josh in Philly

Josh in Philly — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:43:35 +0000

John, you should head over to pseudopodium, where Ray did a series of posts about Willie McTell a few years back. As with Carr, there’s a good collection on the Indigo label (that Ray doesn’t mention).

By: Jeff Rubard

Jeff Rubard — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:24:35 +0000

This is well and good, John, but I will point out to those welcoming our new Highway 61 overlords that one Obama-Biden ad entitled “Can’t Explain”: sounds like a dogwhistle to me.

By: roy belmont

roy belmont — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:35:17 +0000

Bukka White > Panama Limited

Sleepy John Estes > Floating Bridge

By: jbd

jbd — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:44:18 +0000

It’s a sign of the times, and not a particularly positive one, that both times you posted “Leroy Carr” and my mind went directly to Leeroy Jenkins.

(Count me in as preferring Robert Johnson, though. It’s just one of those things.)

By: ben wolfson

ben wolfson — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:11:22 +0000

Ogged was already wise to McTell, md.

By: md 20/400

md 20/400 — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 17:55:26 +0000

You are Ogged and I claim my 5 pounds.

By: 4degreesnorth

4degreesnorth — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:35:19 +0000

I purchased a CD of Blind Willie Mctell over ten years ago in London. It sems that, following Bob Dylan’s song, his few recordings still in existence have been remasterised.

By: tristero

tristero — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:06:55 +0000

Yes, especially the older material. Sonhouse is one of the connections to the earliest blues. He may have predated Charley Patton, who is considered by many the founder of the Delta Blues. I think the more you explore this repertory the more you will find incredibly great music.

Be sure to check out Skip James. Brilliant stuff.