9 posts tagged “blues”
I found three more songs in my library that fit the gamblers theme:
Top Artists for the week ending Sunday 23 November 2008
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At numbers 1 and 3 this week: Blind Gary Davis, a.k.a. Reverend Gary Davis.
It had to suck to be a poor, partially-blind, black kid in Laurens, South Carolina in 1886. But that's how Blind Gary Davis came into the world. When he first heard a guitar he said it sounded like a "brass band" to his ears. He started playing at six. It sounds like he was always in the Baptist church somewhere. In 1940 Davis and his second wife moved to Harlem to a house where they stayed for the next 18 years. Davis became a minister of Missionary Baptist Connection Church, where he also taught guitar. I can't say exactly when he went from being known as "Blind Gary Davis" to "Reverend Gary Davis." If anybody knows, maybe you can help me out.
Besides being a blues and spiritual singer, Davis is know for finger-picking on his big-ass six-string Gibson. I lack the verbal facility to explain what's going on technically with the guitar, but the effect is that he's playing the melody AND the accompaniment. With the
folk-revival of the 60s Davis came to the attention to a whole new
generation of white folks and he enjoyed accolades until his death in
1972. His style has been an influence of a raft of blues guitarists: Jerrry Garcia, Bob Weir,
Ry Cooder, Dave Van Ronk, Bob Dylan, David Bromberg, Taj Mahal, etc.
"Your forefinger and your thumb -- that's the striking hand, and your left hand is your leading hand. Your left hand tells your right hand what strings to touch, what changes to make. That's the greatest help! You see, one hand can't do without the other."
Enjoy a great example of Davis' style in the instrumental "Buck Dance' below.
Thanks to Raleigh for bringing Reverend Gary Davis to my attention and The Irate Pirate at Wrath of the Grapevine for fleshing out my Rev. Gary collection.
Top Artists for the week ending Sunday 16 November 2008
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We only get six this week. Otherwise we'd have to list the 99 other bands tied for 7th.
Please note that Big Joe Williams is neither Joe Williams nor Big Joe Turner. He is, in fact, a distinctly different cat: he is 100% Delta Blues, born and died in Mississippi.
"Big Joe Williams (October 16, 1903 - December 17, 1982) was an American blues musician and songwriter, known for his characteristic style of guitar-playing, his nine-string guitar, and his bizarre, cantankerous personality. He performed frequently, wandering across the United States and playing stores, bars, alleys and work camps, as well as recording for Okeh, Bluebird Records, Delmark Records, Prestige Records and Vocalion." (Hey, a dead guy's MySpace page would never lie.)
"He also recorded with other blues singers, including John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson, Robert Nighthawk and Peetie Wheatstraw." (Because Wikipedia would never lead you astray either.)
This busking bluesman was known for banging and thumping on his guitar and generally going out of his way to create a singularly percussive effect. In one particularly passionate short piece I found on the Interwebs, one writer remembers:
"...Williams was playing an electric nine-string guitar through a small ramshackle amp with a pie plate nailed to it and a beer can dangling against that. When he played, everything rattled but Big Joe himself."
I'd have paid good money to see a show like that.
I found a few choice nuggets at YouTube. For example here is a mature Big Joe performing live the song Highway 49 from above.
Also, courtesy also of YouTube here is Big Joe performing "Baby, Please Don't Go" from 1963, AND Bob Dylan's cover of it from way back in the day.
What are your plans for the three day weekend?
It's been a while since I devoted a Saturday post to sex and the blues,
but since you ASKED...
Check out Barbara Carr. She's the Koko Taylor of the 90s.
Top Artists for the week ending Sunday 17 August 2008
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David "Junior" Kimbrough was born in 1930 in the North Mississippi Hill Country. The Hill Country was a geographically distinct area of Mississippi that was generally overlooked as ethnomusicologists scoured the nearby Delta for blues musicians.
David would get out his father's and brother's hidden guitars while they were working on the farm. Then he taught himself to play be ear. He would also drink their whiskey. (So, I ask you, what was he gonna do but be a bluesman?) He learned from "Mississippi" Fred McDowell and was an inspiration to his rockabilly friend Charlie Feathers. Junior worked in a John Deere dealership in Holly Springs, MS until 1954, when he (and every other aspiring blues musician) headed to Chicago. Later he returned to Memphis performing and recording as "Junior" Kimbrough.
Junior got through life as a bluesman and a jack-of-all-trades. He was a mechanic, a sharecropper, and a moonshiner. He also was known for turning his home into a jumpin' juke joint on the weekends. Playing in juke joints was his bread and butter. He eventually bought his own, "Junior's Place" in Chulahomah, which stood until destroyed by an arson's fire in 2000.
All Night Long was produced by Robert Palmer (author of Deep Blues ) and was released in
1992. It was the premiere recording on the new Matthew Johnson's Fat Possum Records.
Junior only recorded two more albums: Sad Days, Lonely Nights (1994) and Most Things Haven't Worked Out (1997) both on Fat Possum. "Lonesome Road" is from the latter.
"Done Got Old" was recorded in 1988 with Junior's band in sessions that were released in 1997 as Do The Rump.
'Tomorrow Night' was recorded in the early eighties but didn't get
released until 1999 on a compilation, Deep South Blues.
Hard living and drinking took a toll on Junior's health and he died of
a heart attack in Holly Springs in 1997 at the age of 67. He had 36
children. I'm thinking that took a toll on him, as well.
Koko Taylor was born as Cora Watson in 1928 Memphis, TN. She left for Chicago in '53 with Robert "Pops" Taylor. There she worked as a house cleaner in the day and sang in the blues clubs at night. After Willie Dixon discovered her in '62 and helped to promote her career and resulted in a contract with Chess Records in 1965. On Chess, her first hit was Dixon-penned "Wang-Dang-Doodle" in '66. (Yes, Howlin' Wolf recorded it first.). Koko has recorded several versions of W-D-D over the years but-- just to get you warmed up-- here she is kickin' it with Little Walter and Hound Dog Taylor.
Watch out for the snuff juice! Watch your wang!
How many songs have employed food metaphors? The answer is approximately three trillion, seven hundred fifty-three. But this particular one makes me particularly happy. Koko's 'BOUT TO SPLODE! And please tell me, is this the best first line to a blues song ever?
Moon Martin's "Bad Case of Loving You" is a song well-known to anybody who had a television in the 1980s. IMHO, Koko could wipe the floor with Robert Palmer. (Which is NOT to say that I didn't wear Sneaking Sally Through The Alley OUT.) But Koko makes it sound so.... dirty!
Koko tried her hand at a running a blues club in Chicago. Allegedly, she appears in Blues Brothers 2000 (which is the only reason I *MIGHT* even consider seeing it). Ms. Taylor OWNS the female categories of the Handy Awards. You can read a great article and interview with Koko at the Blues Pages. She resides in Chicago, and if you play your cards right you can still see her perform.
As Pants Party pointed out recently seniors still get it on. Koko Taylor should be the spokes-model for senior sex.
She's your "63 Year Old Mama, baby!"
Every time I shimmy a young skinny woman lost her home!
Some pretty mama better come and get this black snake soon...
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