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Country Blues => Weenie Campbell Main Forum => SOTM - Song Of The Month => Topic started by: joe paul on May 08, 2019, 04:08:28 AM
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Leroy Carr sang this first, with Scrapper Blackwell playing guitar behind his piano, recorded in 1935. As ever, people took notice and it was a big success.
https://youtu.be/fKfYg4w0PnM
I first heard it sung by Big Bill Broonzy - or at least first consciously listened and paid attention. As another moderately successful singer put it, this was one of those moments when I realised there was something happening here, and I didn't know what it was... but I wanted to find out. It's on the Folkways collection, "Trouble In Mind", a recording from 1956.
https://youtu.be/Y8W7lh7j3XA
Another big moment was hearing Buddy Moss play it in his later recordings, for George Mitchell in 1963. It's a record I keep coming back to.
https://youtu.be/gianYbZhkGA
Pink Anderson recorded it in 1961 with Samuel Charters, the last song on the third of his records for Prestige/Bluesville. Can't beat Blue Note record sleeve designs, but that series was pretty sharp too.
https://youtu.be/aAzGrfSEyEw
Same year, Arthur Rosenbaum recorded J.T. Adams and Shirley Griffith, with Shirley doing some moves that remind me of Scrapper Blackwell on guitar and singing the heck out of the song.
https://youtu.be/3cuVr7SIqXQ
More musicians on board for this version from Memphis Minnie in 1935, accompanied by Casey Bill Weldon playing lap-style slide and Black Bob on piano, taking it uptown again.
https://youtu.be/CB7F26W4t-A
Elijah Wald has a great project on his website that he calls his "Songobiography", all about songs he's played over the years. His enthusiasm for music and the people behind the songs makes it a real pleasure. Here's his take on 'In The Evening'.
https://youtu.be/tSIz0Msd0m0
Here's one more, Josh White recording as Pinewood Tom, giving it his inimitable swing in 1935 with some of those knockout 'hoo-whee' in his vocals. Nice.
https://youtu.be/mOKmfNC9fBE
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Thanks very much, joe paul, for your Song of the Month choice and the versions of "In the Evening When the Sun Goes Down" that you chose to post. The song definitely became a blues Standard pretty quickly. One justifiably famous re-write of it, utilizing the very same phrasing and melody, but with different lyrics, is Robert Johnson's "Love In Vain".
All best,
Johnm
P.S. Boy, that Buddy Moss version is wonderful!
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Great choice of SOTM and so many good versions.
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Lke joe paul, I was bowled over at a young age by a Big Bill version of the song. But I was already attracted to the idiom by the British skiffle craze. Here's the King of Skiffle Lonnie Donegan. Really effective singing, I'd say, if the instrumentation leaves something to be desired.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMOHRGWx1Eo
Bumble Bee Slim was always quick to cover a blues hit. This cover wan't his best, ? probably trying too hard to be like Leroy Carr's. Still, I think it's well worth a listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MYYF_YbGTY
PS. Elijah Wald is only partly right. I'll post later.
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Here's Pete Seeger contradicting Elijah Wald's assumption that he learned the song from Big Bill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcxUMDPHeDQ
Not that Pete tries to copy Leadbelly closely
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quwqReNs-Qw
My guess is that Pete learned the words and tune from Leadbelly and listened to how all his friends played blues guitar ? then tried to get the same effect on his banjo. And the second verse sounds suspiciously like his own composition.
I like it, though.