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Take it slow and easy if you want to get along with me - Jesse Fuller, Slow and Easy Blues

Author Topic: Joe Callicott & Furry Lewis  (Read 6240 times)

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Offline uncle bud

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Re: Joe Callicott & Furry Lewis
« Reply #15 on: March 18, 2007, 07:37:39 PM »
Thanks for that, BH. I hope you mentioned the kudos as well.  ;D  Actually, it's interesting to hear, since as I've been listening more and thinking about it, I was intending to post a follow-up. Given the intense recording schedule, with Furry, Booker and Joe all playing one after the other, it's not too surprising that Callicott sounds a bit shaky at times. From Mike Vernon's liner notes, it sounds like it was a crazy day (one I'd love to have been at!). I don't know how much time George Mitchell had to prepare him for recording, but Joe certainly does sound more relaxed and at home.

Offline Bunker Hill

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Re: Joe Callicott & Furry Lewis
« Reply #16 on: March 19, 2007, 04:18:04 AM »
I don't know how much time George Mitchell had to prepare him for recording, but Joe certainly does sound more relaxed and at home.
What follows are the opening paragraphs of Mitchell's preface to his book Blow My Blues Away (Louisiana State UP, 1971):

"My wife and I took our first trip to Mississippi during the summer of 1967 to record, interview, and photograph those black musicians of the Delta area, whose special mode of expression ? country blues ? is fast disappearing.

In regard to method and format, the reason for the musical setting of the book ? other than the preservation of an intriguing form of music ? is a practical one. My interest in their music opened doors to homes whose residents otherwise might have been suspicious and helped break down at least some of the barriers of communication which usually exist between black man and white man. (Nevertheless, it must constantly be kept in mind that the comments of the people speaking on these pages were made in response to a middle-class white's questions.)

Each person was interviewed after he or she had sung and played for some time into my microphone."

Interestingly, Callicott doesn't get a chapter as does, say, Jessie Mae Brooks (later Hemphill), only a photo and a lyric transcription.

In the notes to the Arhoolie LP Mitchell describes how he located Joe but I guess this is restated in the notes to the Arhoolie CD. Keith Tillman in his liner notes to the Revival album paraphrases Mitchell's tale.

Offline Johnm

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Re: Joe Callicott & Furry Lewis
« Reply #17 on: March 19, 2007, 12:08:54 PM »
Hi all,
Thanks to all who have enriched this thread with additional information, the review from Uncle Bud, info on the recording session from Bunker Hill and Stefan's sorting out of the George Mitchell-recorded Joe Callicott sides, which is hugely helpful. 
Stefan, if you ever run out of things to do (most unlikely), similarly sorting out of John Hurt's post-rediscovery recorded works and Robert Pete Williams's recordings would be an enormous boon for fans of their music.  The recordings that were done of them have been so promiscuously re-licensed, bootlegged, etc. that it is next to impossible to figure out how many unduplicated cuts by these artists are out there, and the most efficient way to pick it all up, if possible.
All best,
Johnm

Offline Bunker Hill

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Re: Joe Callicott & Furry Lewis
« Reply #18 on: March 19, 2007, 12:58:44 PM »
Stefan, if you ever run out of things to do (most unlikely), similarly sorting out of John Hurt's post-rediscovery recorded works and Robert Pete Williams's recordings would be an enormous boon for fans of their music.  The recordings that were done of them have been so promiscuously re-licensed, bootlegged, etc. that it is next to impossible to figure out how many unduplicated cuts by these artists are out there, and the most efficient way to pick it all up, if possible.
He tackled both artists a couple of years back. :)

http://www.wirz.de/music/wil_rfrm.htm 
http://www.wirz.de/music/hurtfrm.htm

The mad fool....

Offline Johnm

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Re: Joe Callicott & Furry Lewis
« Reply #19 on: March 19, 2007, 05:20:27 PM »
Hi Bunker Hill,
I know Stefan's John Hurt and Robert Pete discographies, but it's not always possible to tell with some of the releases if the titles on them came from  previously recorded material or if they contain new performances recorded expressly for the CD shown.  What Stefan did on this thread is tremendous because you can see the beginning and the end of the George Mitchell recordings of Joe Callicott and where the various releases are duplicative, something that is not always clear just from looking at the titles on a CD--have they been released before, or are they new performances?
All best,
Johnm

 


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