Topic: Looking for Music

[NotRevGDavis]

Homework for my blues guitar lessons is to listen to as much Country Blues as possible and many different types to recognize different styles of playing.
There aren't many people here that listen to CB to get direction from (although people that happen to hear the music I listen to, stop and ask what or who I am listening to).

Here are just a few of the many questions I have.

I've been looking for an all acoustic Mississippi Fred McDowell recording does one exist?
Does "Cat-Iron" record under a different name and are there recordings available from this artist?
Is the JSP Charley Patton a good recording or is there something better I should purchase?
And finally would you consider Roscoe Holcomb Country Blues or Bluegrass? I'm just curious what others opinion is of his style is.

Thanks for your help,
Gary

[Johnm]

Hi Gary,
I can't answer all of your questions, but I can answer a couple, I think.  There is a Fred McDowell CD on Fat Possum on which he is joined by the harmonica player Johnny Woods that is all acoustic, I think, and that is really good.  Cat Iron did one album in the late '50s for Folkways Records.  It is not currently available, but the Folkways catalog now belongs to Smithsonian Folkways Records, and my understanding is that they will burn discs for you (for a fee) of items in the Folkways catalog which are not currently available.  I would consider Roscoe Holcomb an Old-Time musician, with a very strong element of Country Blues in his music.  He was an amazing singer and player.
All best,
Johnm

[frankie]

to listen to as much Country Blues as possible

Excellent advice!

Does "Cat-Iron" record under a different name and are there recordings available from this artist?

Can't help with this one - something in my memory says that this guys' real name was recently figured out by somebody on the prewarblues list... ?unless I'm getting that mixed up with someone else. ?If I am remembering that right, Cat-Iron turned out to be a garbling of his name as he stated it...

Is the JSP Charley Patton a good recording or is there something better I should purchase?

It's essentially a bootleg of the Revenant set (minus the interview disc), which is undoubtedly the best. ?Expensive, though.

And finally would you consider Roscoe Holcomb Country Blues or Bluegrass? I'm just curious what others opinion is of his style is.

Old-time!

[uncle bud]

NotRGD:

For Fred McDowell, the releases on Arhoolie, Testament and Rounder are acoustic. Watch out for live albums on odd labels (they're often electric). The self-titled Rounder disc is great as are the Testament CDs IMO. I notice Arhoolie has a Best of disc you may want to consider. It looks excellent. The First Recordings disc is important as well for Fred-heads.

Cat-Iron - I will bow to John Miller on this one...

Charley Patton - Unless you want to splurge for the Revenant set, JSP will be good. I believe they just copied the Revenant, no?

Roscoe Holcomb is Appalachian/old-time, I think.

This reminds me - we should revive our recommended recordings list.

Edited to add: quick replies, fellas. BTW, Gary, you are doomed. Save money, listen to the Juke.   Also, adding that I'm not 100% certain about all the Arhoolie material being acoustic. The stuff I have is.

[waxwing]

JohnM, I thought you told us what Cat Iron's real name was in your class at PT in '03, no? I could check my MD. I think I remember you saying that Cat Iron was a mishearing by the recording engineer.
All for now.
John C.

[Johnm]

Hi John C.,
You're right, Cat Iron's surname evidently was Carradine.  He was recorded by foklorist/music researcher Frederick Ramsey, Jr. in Natchez, Mississippi, and died within months of being recorded. The one album's-worth of material that was recorded is great and splits about evenly between religious material and really tough Blues.  I have the album.  I'll see if i can get it on the Juke.  One of the best tunes on it, "Jimmy Bell" was included on the fairly recently released anthology "Classic Blues On Folkways" put out by Smithsonian Folkways (not vol. 2 in that series).
All best,
Johnm

[frankie]

I must have been thinking of this post from you on the old weenie list.? pwb, weenie...? it's all a big blur from 1927...

From:? John Miller
Date:? Wed Apr 9, 2003? 12:54 am
Subject:? Cat Iron

   
Hi all,
Thanks for posting the info on Cat Iron, Andrew. As you and John D.
observed we did his "Tell Me, You Didn't Mean Me No Good" in class last
summer at Port Townsend. Another one of his songs from this Folkways album,
"Jimmy Bell", a great spooky one-chord number in the mold of Robert Wilkins'
"Rolling Stone", is featured on the new Smithsonian/Folkways compilation,
(same place I got the Roosevelt Sykes quote of two days ago). Some more
information on Cat Iron is supplied there as well. Evidently his name was
William Carradine, and folklorist Frederick Ramsey misunderstood his
pronunciation of the name, and heard him as saying "Cat Iron" when asked
what his name was. Carradine was from Natchez, south of Vicksburg, on the
river, an area curiously unmined for Blues players down through the years.
One side of his Folkways album is hymns and spirituals and the other side is
Blues, and particularly low-down ones, at that. "Jimmy Bell" verges on
blasphemy, something not often encountered in the music. Cat Iron was a
great singer and a very expressive rough guitarist. I sure would like to
see that documentary. Judging from his photos, he was a big
impressive-looking guy who looked to have some Choctaw in him like many of
his neighbors. According to the new information in the Smithsonian/Folkways
compilation, he died in 1958, the same year Ramsey recorded him, so he might
just as easily have gone unrecorded. Sometimes the windows into musicians'
lives are so narrow they are barely an opening.
All Best,
John

[Rivers]

Re. acoustic Fred McD, you really must get the first recordings CD (Rounder), recorded by Lomax at Fred's house. It's a classic in all respects.

[NotRevGDavis]

OK so I'm partially through my list; I ordered acoustic Fred McDowell from Rounder (2 CD's), decided I really wanted "Lawdy Lawdy Worried Blues" from Teddy Darby at which point it took about 30 minutes to track down an available copy of the Document collection (thanks again to John Miller for doing this tune at PT) and added Memphis Minnie to my need to own list. Now here's the challenge, I really like Teddy Williams' "Catfish Blues" (on a local college radio station late one night during some strange blues show I heard a recording of the song by Jimmie Hendrix that really caught my attention so now I check out every version) I can't find anything that contains this specific song except for the WC Juke. In the meantime I was referred to a David Merrick musical "The Happy Time" starring Robert Goulet in which Teddy Williams is listed as part of the choir, I'm curious is this the same Teddy Williams?

Someone suggested I listen to the Juke to save money, I can't get it in my truck!

[Johnm]

Hi Gary,
My favorite version of "Catfish Blues" was done by Robert Petway, though there were very good ones done by Skip James, Tommy McClennan, Pink Anderson and others, I'm sure.  The Petway version is included on a new JSP set of Mississippi Blues which includes all of Big Joe Williams early recordings along with all of Robert Petway's, Tommy McClennan's, Willie Lofton's, and possibly Arthur Pettis's, too.  It's quite a haul and the price is quite reasonable, around $26.00.  I'm glad you have been enjoying "Lawdy Lawdy Worried Blues" and were able to track it down.
All best,
Johnm 

[uncle bud]

Teddy Williams' Catfish Blues is on Mississippi Delta Blues - Blow My Blues Away Vol 1 from Arhoolie, which is out of print but apparently still available through the Arhoolie website here, until they run out of copies. So contact them quick.

[NotRevGDavis]

Thanks John "Catfish Blues" is a great tune I'm going to have to learn to play it.
Bud thanks for clearing up my confusion "Catfish Blues" isn't listed on "Blow My Blues Away" at Amazon but it is at Arhoolie.

[Slack]

Someone suggested I listen to the Juke to save money, I can't get it in my truck!

Hey Gary, that someone, who shall remain unnamed  was pulling your leg.  Listening to the juke will only make you  want to you buy more CDs!

And who says you cannot get the Juke in your truck?

http://weblog.garyturner.net/archives/001411.html

('course it may be more expensive than buying CDs )

Cheers,
slack