Topic: Tunes You're Listening To

[Great Bear]

Old Original Kokomo Blues - Kokomo Arnold

[CF]

I've been listening to Tampa Red too . . . same Cd C Slim mentioned & I'm loving 'Turpentine blues' & 'Western Bound Blues' . . . altho Tampa isn't usually regarded as a 'deep' musician I find his singing & playing & lyrics on these particularly stirring . . . even when he threatens to beat his woman with a brick-bat 

[mississippijohnhurt1928]

Pardon my one non-country blues post here but I've been listening to a A LOT of:

Miles Davis
"Bird"
John Coltrane
Dizzy Gillespie
Charles Mingus
Chick Webb
So Many Others...





Oh yeah and Son House's Complete 1965 Sessions.

[blueshome]

On JMM's recommendation, Boll Weavil Jackson. Ouch!
It seems that there is much work to be done getting any of this stuffdown.

[Great Bear]

Black Girl - Josh White


This can also be heard on the Jasmine 2CD set "From New York to London".

[Great Bear]

Bottle It Up And Go - Tommy McClennan

[dj]

"Poor Coal Loader" by Springback James got quite a few replays in the CD player today.  Recorded in Chicago on July 15, 1935 with Springback James on piano and vocals and Willie Bee James on guitar, it's a chorus blues played at a fast medium tempo with a nice semi-boogie bass line.  Willie Bee James plays one chord repeatedly over the verse, then switches to more typical blues figures for the chorus.  I don't have time now to figure out what exactly Willie Bee is playing over the verse, but it's the kind of chord that, in conjunction with Springback's piano part, makes you sit up and say "Hey, that's really nice!"  The song ends with a few spoken lines where the verse would be and an instrumental chorus.  It all adds up to a really outstanding piece of music.

     

[mississippijohnhurt1928]

"I'm Gonna Keep My Hair Parted"- Washboard Sam 

I borrowed the Document set "Rude Dudes" from a local library and I've listened to this song about 15 times in 2 days, I love everything about it, especially Black Bob's piano and Sam's vocals.

[btasoundsradio]

I just found 3 obscure prewar gospel 78's for 2 dollars each at a record shop in Baltimore. The Biddleville Quintette on Paramount from 1926 doing "Fight On Your Time Ain't Long" and the another one that I can't remember the name. Rev. SJ Worrell AKA "STeamboat Bill" w/ congregation, "Christ Healing the Blind" and "Noah Building The Ark" on Vocalion 1920's, and Ethel and Odette (?) on Columbia "Before This Time Another Year" and "When The Train Comes Along".

My friend bounght a mid 50's Folkways LP that has Mississppi String Band, and some raggedy Scott Dunbar stuff with his family chiming in, it's awesome.

I also just bought some mint out of print Yazoo LP's which include, Bo Carter "Twist IT Babe", "Banana In Your Fruit Basket", Blind Lemon "Best Of", Charlie Patton 2 LP with book, Blind Boy Fuller "Truckin My Blues Away"

[dj]

"I'se Gonna Break 'Em Down" (should be "We's Gonna Break 'Em Down") by Bumble Bee Slim, on Document CD 5267, "Bumble Bee Slim, Volume 7".  Recorded August 21, 1937, with Honey Hill on piano, Bill Gaither on guitar, an unknown washboard player, and probably Slim himself on kazoo.

This is an uptempo pop song, with a long instrumental intro.  Slim sings well, despite some problems with his intonation in the first verse.  Honey Hill plays a fine piano, as usual.  What made me sit up and take notice is Bill Gaither's guitar playing.  He plays swing chords through the verses, then an instrumental tag at the end of each verse, and takes a solo before the last verse.  If you, like me, think that Gaither is sadly underrated as a vocalist, this track alone will be enough to convince you that he's even more underrated as a guitarist.  While he doesn't play anything finger-twistingly hard, his sense of timing and phrasing is spot-on perfect.  I'll give it one of my highest praises and say it's "musical", and I wish I could be that musical some day.  Gaither plays guitar on a further 11 tracks on the CD, and after that Big Bill Broonzy plays guitar on 4 tracks, and Gaither's playing to my ears is every bit as good as Broonzy's.  But his playing on this track is so good that I wonder if in his non-recording life Gaither did more pop tunes than blues.

And speaking of underrated vocalists, if there's any prewar vocalist who's more underrated than Bill Gaither, it's probably Bumble Bee Slim.  Actually, I'd put him just a notch below Gaither, but the fact that he rarely played an instrument has, I think, worked against his reputation.  For some reason, singers who played guitar or harmonica almost always rate today above singers who played piano,  and the bottom rung of reputation is reserved for singers who didn't play anything.  Oops, I'm on a soapbox.     At any rate, Bumble Bee Slim is well worth a serious listen.           

[uncle bud]

"Nobody Knows (What the Good Deacon Does)" by Hambone Willie Newbern can be found on the Never Let the Same Bee Sting You Twice 3-CD set from Document -- a very worthwhile purchase, essential, in fact, if you don't already have the material by Luke Jordan, Papa Harvey Hull and Long Cleve Reed, and others.

Hambone Willie Newbern is of course best known for Roll and Tumble Blues, which has turned into a Delta warhorse, but the bulk of his material is very songster-y, hence his inclusion on this compilation. I actually prefer his songster material, maybe because it is so much less familiar.

Nobody Knows (What the Good Deacon Does) is played out of C position by my ear (no guitar handy at present), with nifty riffs and is a really great tune. Newbern is another overlooked player, IMO, particularly for those interested in more songster material.

BTW, thanks so much, Great Bear, for posting the scans of those 78s with your tunes. I always love seeing the old labels, not having any 78s in my collection (a slippery slope, I'm sure).

[dave stott]

the lines from a movie keep ringing in my ears as I read the list of tunes people are listening to..

"I see dead people".... only in the case of weenie's it should be:

"I listen to dead people sing"

LOL

Dave

[Great Bear]

BTW, thanks so much, Great Bear, for posting the scans of those 78s with your tunes. I always love seeing the old labels, not having any 78s in my collection (a slippery slope, I'm sure).

Several months ago I had started the task of converting my 78's & LP's to digital format, and had transferred about twenty 78's and a handful of Yazoo LP's, along with label scans, when my computer was struck by the dreaded blue screen of death. I lost everything I hadn't put on CD, including my note accurate Robert Johnson transcriptions, of which I had only printed a handful of songs . Only Roosevelt Sykes' Yazoo LP and Brother Bones' version of Sweet Georgia Brown survived. Being completely deflated I lost the will to pick up the project again. A great shame.

[Richard]

Great Bear, I do understand as I have lost stuff myself and also appreciate the fun (at first) of transferring 78s to digital. I have what seems like a few million jazz ones to do yet, but I have learnt to do a CD's worth at time lest the whole lot go down again and that way it also feels like progress 

[Rivers]

The fact that hard drives are a lot more reliable than they used to be is of course a positive thing but in fact it's got a very insidious downside. Backups tend to be less frequent and the amount of data you need to backup is increasing exponentially.

It's the main reason I'll always buy CDs and will not get into 'download everything' mode. Plus the price and quality of second-hand CDs is improving out of sight as people unload their collections after ripping them. I'm picking up Documents and Yazoos right now in the 2nd hand bins. Sweet! I think people are crazy to flick these things but maybe the $$ help their decision process. If you go that route better have a good backup regime or you could wind up with nothing.