PROGRAM: CD-A: My Mind Wandering Around; Cane Cut Man; My Daddy Was a Hoodoo Man; No More Sweet Potatoes; Poor Bob's Blues; Cows Love Music; Can't Yo-Yo No More; Shake, Shake Baby; Lord, I Done You Wrong; Been Mistreated So Long;
CD-B: Things All Wrong With Me; Matchbox Blues; Sad News From Korea; What A Shape I'm In; Poor Boy, Long Way From Home; Out All Night Long; Crying Won't Make Me Stay; All Out And Down; Tom And Old Master?
I bought this 2 CD set three days ago, I think, and have already listened to it from beginning to end 7 times. It is really amazingly good. For those of you unfamiliar with Robert Pete Williams, he was discovered by the folklorist Dr. Harry Oster at the Angola Penitentiary in Louisiana in the late 1950s. Oster recorded him there, doing solo numbers and also accompanying fellow inmates, and soon began to lobby the governor of Louisiana for Williams' release, a la Leadbelly. Williams was released around 1960-1961 into a supervised farm labor situation, which he contended was slavery. Around 1965, he was finally paroled, and for the remainder of his life (he died in 1980) performed occasionally at festivals and recorded.
His music is difficult to describe. He is simultaneously the most country, in the sense of sounding unschooled, and wildest sounding country blues player I think I have heard. A very high percentage of his recordings (especially his earlier ones) do not really sound like anyone else who ever recorded in this genre.
Although recording dates are not provided for the music on this 2 CD set, my sense is that the music on it was recorded later than the stuff from Robert Pete's time in Angola, or the album "Free Again" (available on Original Jazz Classics) which was recorded soon after his initial release from Angola. The program starts with an unaccompanied vocal number, "My Mind Wandering Around", which is one of the most beautiful pieces of this type I have ever heard. It then passes into "Cane Cut Man", with Robert Pete working out of a low-tuned G tuning, DGDGBE, to play in D. He had an eerie, very distinctive sound in this tuning. "My Daddy Was A Hoodoo Man", in E standard follows, and right at the beginning of it Robert Pete hits a bend I have never heard anyone play in a Blues before. He's a good guy to listen to if you feel like you are getting a bit jaded with the music, because I guarantee you will hear a lot of things you've never heard before. "No More Sweet Potatoes" is a slide tune in Spanish. "Poor Bob's Blues" is an incredibly funky number in A standard, tremendous trance music, and very infectious. Chris Strachwitz likes to include spoken numbers on his CDs and one follows, "Cows Love Music". The first CD rounds out with "Can't Yo-Yo No More" and "Shake, Shake Mama" in E standard, a very different sounding piece in Spanish capoed high, "Lord, I Done You Wrong", and "Been Mistreated So Long", in which Robert Pete observes, "I've been mistreated so long, I don't know how to act sometimes."
Disc B opens with "Things All Wrong With Me", a slide piece in Spanish. He follows that up with "Matchbox Blues", in D standard tuning. Robert Pete's music normally had so little chordal content that it is a little disorienting to hear him play something as relatively regular-sounding as his version of "Matchbox". "Sad News From Korea" shows a John Lee Hooker influence alluded to in the CD's notes by Elijah Wald. The powerfully driving "What a Shape I'm In" in E standard follows, then "Poor Boy Long Way From Home", in Open G. "Out All Night Long" is a particularly funky number about tieing one on. A very strong "Crying Won't Make Me Stay" in D standard follows, with "All Out And Down" in Spanish, concluding the songs on the program. The CD winds up with an enigmatic folk tale, "Tom and Old Master".
Throughout the two CDs, the degree to which Robert Pete is fully engaged in his music-making at every instant of musical time is awe-inspiring. His singing and playing both hearken back to African musical sounds in a more direct way than do most Country Blues music. If you have never heard his music before, I would say this set is a great introduction to him. It strikes me as being a bit closer to the mainstream of Country Blues from his part of the world than his earlier recordings, and so in that sense, may be more accessible. His music could never be considered "nifty" or flashy, but if you want to hear someone that hears and expresses musical sound in a completely distinctive way for the blues, Robert Pete Williams is your man.
All best,
Johnm
CD-B: Things All Wrong With Me; Matchbox Blues; Sad News From Korea; What A Shape I'm In; Poor Boy, Long Way From Home; Out All Night Long; Crying Won't Make Me Stay; All Out And Down; Tom And Old Master?
I bought this 2 CD set three days ago, I think, and have already listened to it from beginning to end 7 times. It is really amazingly good. For those of you unfamiliar with Robert Pete Williams, he was discovered by the folklorist Dr. Harry Oster at the Angola Penitentiary in Louisiana in the late 1950s. Oster recorded him there, doing solo numbers and also accompanying fellow inmates, and soon began to lobby the governor of Louisiana for Williams' release, a la Leadbelly. Williams was released around 1960-1961 into a supervised farm labor situation, which he contended was slavery. Around 1965, he was finally paroled, and for the remainder of his life (he died in 1980) performed occasionally at festivals and recorded.
His music is difficult to describe. He is simultaneously the most country, in the sense of sounding unschooled, and wildest sounding country blues player I think I have heard. A very high percentage of his recordings (especially his earlier ones) do not really sound like anyone else who ever recorded in this genre.
Although recording dates are not provided for the music on this 2 CD set, my sense is that the music on it was recorded later than the stuff from Robert Pete's time in Angola, or the album "Free Again" (available on Original Jazz Classics) which was recorded soon after his initial release from Angola. The program starts with an unaccompanied vocal number, "My Mind Wandering Around", which is one of the most beautiful pieces of this type I have ever heard. It then passes into "Cane Cut Man", with Robert Pete working out of a low-tuned G tuning, DGDGBE, to play in D. He had an eerie, very distinctive sound in this tuning. "My Daddy Was A Hoodoo Man", in E standard follows, and right at the beginning of it Robert Pete hits a bend I have never heard anyone play in a Blues before. He's a good guy to listen to if you feel like you are getting a bit jaded with the music, because I guarantee you will hear a lot of things you've never heard before. "No More Sweet Potatoes" is a slide tune in Spanish. "Poor Bob's Blues" is an incredibly funky number in A standard, tremendous trance music, and very infectious. Chris Strachwitz likes to include spoken numbers on his CDs and one follows, "Cows Love Music". The first CD rounds out with "Can't Yo-Yo No More" and "Shake, Shake Mama" in E standard, a very different sounding piece in Spanish capoed high, "Lord, I Done You Wrong", and "Been Mistreated So Long", in which Robert Pete observes, "I've been mistreated so long, I don't know how to act sometimes."
Disc B opens with "Things All Wrong With Me", a slide piece in Spanish. He follows that up with "Matchbox Blues", in D standard tuning. Robert Pete's music normally had so little chordal content that it is a little disorienting to hear him play something as relatively regular-sounding as his version of "Matchbox". "Sad News From Korea" shows a John Lee Hooker influence alluded to in the CD's notes by Elijah Wald. The powerfully driving "What a Shape I'm In" in E standard follows, then "Poor Boy Long Way From Home", in Open G. "Out All Night Long" is a particularly funky number about tieing one on. A very strong "Crying Won't Make Me Stay" in D standard follows, with "All Out And Down" in Spanish, concluding the songs on the program. The CD winds up with an enigmatic folk tale, "Tom and Old Master".
Throughout the two CDs, the degree to which Robert Pete is fully engaged in his music-making at every instant of musical time is awe-inspiring. His singing and playing both hearken back to African musical sounds in a more direct way than do most Country Blues music. If you have never heard his music before, I would say this set is a great introduction to him. It strikes me as being a bit closer to the mainstream of Country Blues from his part of the world than his earlier recordings, and so in that sense, may be more accessible. His music could never be considered "nifty" or flashy, but if you want to hear someone that hears and expresses musical sound in a completely distinctive way for the blues, Robert Pete Williams is your man.
All best,
Johnm