Ten thousand river commissions, with the mines of the world at their back, cannot tame that lawless stream, cannot curb it or define it, cannot say to it 'Go here,' or Go there, and make it obey; cannot save a shore which it has sentenced; cannot bar its path with an obstruction which it will not tear down, dance over, and laugh at - Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi
Her YouTube videos on her own channel caught the attention of a record producer. She explains this in the interview. I already saw it about two weeks ago. She really has a beautiful voice and that perfect tension between the fingers and guitar strings.
This is a young Irish blues guitarist/singer bringing a whole new audience to acoustic blues since her appearance on the Jools Holland Hogmanay show. View her here:
Just found this one of Robert Pete Williams. Some teasing glimpses of his hands to get an idea of his loose approach to playing:
According to what he says in the vid, he created this song on the spot in response to someone (the camera operator? field producer?) asking if he knew a blues about scrap iron. He also tells the story of how he ended up in prison for shooting somebody in a bar.
(I have a memory of at least one other RPW clip showing him doing farm work and driving his truck near his home, so I did a search to see if this particular vid has already appeared in this or some other thread. Didn't find it, let me know if it's a repeat.)
Lindy
« Last Edit: January 15, 2024, 12:24:19 PM by lindy »
Hi John- I hadn't heard that in a while. What a voice and what seriously strong playing! I had to listen multiple times. I find it funny that this "modern" recording is 60 years old. I've taken some guff from friends when I've used the same term. Cheers
Hi Forgetful Jones, You make a good point about that "modern" recording being 60 years old. I think that from a musical perspective, speaking of pre-1960 and post-1960 blues recordings is a more useful dividing line for the music than pre-War and post-War is. Post-1960 there was a resurgence of interest in acoustic blues, largely because of the recordings made of "re-discovered" blues musicians, as well as musicians who played acoustically who were being recorded for the first time, like Mance Lipscomb, Shirley Griffith, John Jackson and Frank Hovington, as well as a host of others. Acoustic blues was pretty moribund, commercially speaking, in the 1950s--the original record-buying audience for it had moved on to electric blues, R & B, Do-wop, and other styles.
It's one of those "frame of reference" things. I agree with John, although I'd probably say something like, "recorded in 'the modern era'" and if there were any questions, explain the reasoning for the choice of wording, like John has done. There can be a lot of hair splitting and nit-picking with this kind of thing, but I prefer to keep it simple.
edited to add: As an aside, remember when a "Golden Oldie" was a hit on AM radio from only a few years ago? Where do the days go?
Shirley Griffith is a musician I need to explore. His name gets brought up here quite a bit, but I've haven't listened to many of his recordings. Mance is one of my favorites. I've wondered what he would have sounded like had he recorded earlier.
Guys like Frank Stokes & Tommy Johnson (and I'm sure many others) were just a handful of years away from making it to the modern recording era of 1960. Cheers!