PROGRAM:? When A Man Takes The Blues; I Had Trouble; All Night Long; Dyin' Soul; I Got The Blues So Bad; Sinner Don't You Know; Hot Springs Blues; This Train Is Heaven Bound; Santa Fe Blues; Blue In Me; Death Come Creepin' In Your Room; Wife And Farm Blues; I Want To Die Easy; Robert Pete Williams Monologue
"The blueses follows me.? I hears the echo in the atmosphere, kind of moaning or humming, like.? Well, uh, I can come back and take my guitar and I can put them blues together and pick 'em."?
So begins a monologue by Robert Pete Williams on this CD.? As an explanation of the source of inspiration for his music, it gives an idea of at what remove his music lies from the blues as they are normally heard, played, and understood.? This CD, the second in Arhoolie's catalog devoted exclusively to Robert Pete, is a powerful document of his life in music.? Of the 14 tracks on the CD, a full ten were previously unreleased, and it makes you wonder how much unreleased Robert Pete music is sitting out there.? The music on this CD is simultaneously very much of a piece with that available on other releases of Robert Pete . . . and different, because Robert Pete was always different, even from himself.
The program opens with "When A Man Takes The Blues", in A minor standard tuning, in which Robert Pete gets off some nifty turns of phrase--"I'm a traveling man, I ain't got no certain place to go.".? "I Had Trouble", in E standard, is a particularly scary song, in which Robert Pete recounts an instance in which he followed a woman home, feeling the whole thing was not right.? The combination of the words, the way they are sung and the accompaniment make this one of the spookiest blues I've ever heard.? "All Night Long", also in E standard, starts with an oddly disjointed rhythmic figure and eventually works its way up into an intense groove.? "Dyin' Soul" is a beautiful religious number played in Open G, with slides reminiscent to those that Furry Lewis used in "I Will Turn Your Money Green".? Robert Pete uses Open G more on this program than on other CDs of him that I have heard.? He also uses it for "I Got The Blues So Bad" (tuned very low), "Sinner, Don't You Know", and "I Want To Die Easy", on which he is joined by an unnamed washboard player.? On "Hot Springs Blues", subtitled "Peetie Wheatstraw Blues", Robert Pete, playing in dropped D, is joined by an unnamed second guitarist (Alan Wilson? Henry Kaiser?).? "This Train Is Heaven Bound" and "Death Come Creepin' In Your Room" are both played in E standard, and "Death" has some of the feel that Robert Pete speaks of in the opening of his monologue, for you can hear birds and insects singing and the wind soughing in the trees as he sings it.? "Santa Fe Blues", in D standard, has a more chordal sound than I'm accustomed to hearing from him.? "Blue In Me" is funky, funky, funky, in A standard.? On "Wife and Farm Blues", Robert Pete is joined by the merciless spoken asides of Sallie Dotsin(?), who keeps a running commentary with a lot of mirthless humor going while Robert Pete sings the song, basically giving him a raft of shit, which he pretty much takes in stride.?
The monologue that concludes the CD's program is tremendous, and covers a hell of a lot of ground.? In it, Robert Pete talks about how he first came to play guitar, how he played at country suppers, how jealousy caused his wife to burn his guitar, and how he ended up in the situation that resulted in him killing a man.? Thanks to Chris Strachwitz for always putting spoken tracks of the bluesmen he recorded on their CDs.? Hearing people speak and the turns of phrase that they use make possible a feeling of connection with who they were that music alone could not supply.
Throughout the program, Robert Pete's vocals have the kind of chanting, incantatory sound I have come to associate with his sound.? His guitar-work, as usual, is perfectly amazing.? His capacity for going for things in the moment that he has obviously never played before should stand as an inspiration to us all.? His willingness and desire to vary his phrasing as he goes is very exciting, too, for it has the effect of constantly making his music feel like it is in the present, happening this very instant.? This is music for the ages--come to it now or when you're ready for it, but it is a Big Statement that is out there, waiting for you.
All best,
Johnm?
"The blueses follows me.? I hears the echo in the atmosphere, kind of moaning or humming, like.? Well, uh, I can come back and take my guitar and I can put them blues together and pick 'em."?
So begins a monologue by Robert Pete Williams on this CD.? As an explanation of the source of inspiration for his music, it gives an idea of at what remove his music lies from the blues as they are normally heard, played, and understood.? This CD, the second in Arhoolie's catalog devoted exclusively to Robert Pete, is a powerful document of his life in music.? Of the 14 tracks on the CD, a full ten were previously unreleased, and it makes you wonder how much unreleased Robert Pete music is sitting out there.? The music on this CD is simultaneously very much of a piece with that available on other releases of Robert Pete . . . and different, because Robert Pete was always different, even from himself.
The program opens with "When A Man Takes The Blues", in A minor standard tuning, in which Robert Pete gets off some nifty turns of phrase--"I'm a traveling man, I ain't got no certain place to go.".? "I Had Trouble", in E standard, is a particularly scary song, in which Robert Pete recounts an instance in which he followed a woman home, feeling the whole thing was not right.? The combination of the words, the way they are sung and the accompaniment make this one of the spookiest blues I've ever heard.? "All Night Long", also in E standard, starts with an oddly disjointed rhythmic figure and eventually works its way up into an intense groove.? "Dyin' Soul" is a beautiful religious number played in Open G, with slides reminiscent to those that Furry Lewis used in "I Will Turn Your Money Green".? Robert Pete uses Open G more on this program than on other CDs of him that I have heard.? He also uses it for "I Got The Blues So Bad" (tuned very low), "Sinner, Don't You Know", and "I Want To Die Easy", on which he is joined by an unnamed washboard player.? On "Hot Springs Blues", subtitled "Peetie Wheatstraw Blues", Robert Pete, playing in dropped D, is joined by an unnamed second guitarist (Alan Wilson? Henry Kaiser?).? "This Train Is Heaven Bound" and "Death Come Creepin' In Your Room" are both played in E standard, and "Death" has some of the feel that Robert Pete speaks of in the opening of his monologue, for you can hear birds and insects singing and the wind soughing in the trees as he sings it.? "Santa Fe Blues", in D standard, has a more chordal sound than I'm accustomed to hearing from him.? "Blue In Me" is funky, funky, funky, in A standard.? On "Wife and Farm Blues", Robert Pete is joined by the merciless spoken asides of Sallie Dotsin(?), who keeps a running commentary with a lot of mirthless humor going while Robert Pete sings the song, basically giving him a raft of shit, which he pretty much takes in stride.?
The monologue that concludes the CD's program is tremendous, and covers a hell of a lot of ground.? In it, Robert Pete talks about how he first came to play guitar, how he played at country suppers, how jealousy caused his wife to burn his guitar, and how he ended up in the situation that resulted in him killing a man.? Thanks to Chris Strachwitz for always putting spoken tracks of the bluesmen he recorded on their CDs.? Hearing people speak and the turns of phrase that they use make possible a feeling of connection with who they were that music alone could not supply.
Throughout the program, Robert Pete's vocals have the kind of chanting, incantatory sound I have come to associate with his sound.? His guitar-work, as usual, is perfectly amazing.? His capacity for going for things in the moment that he has obviously never played before should stand as an inspiration to us all.? His willingness and desire to vary his phrasing as he goes is very exciting, too, for it has the effect of constantly making his music feel like it is in the present, happening this very instant.? This is music for the ages--come to it now or when you're ready for it, but it is a Big Statement that is out there, waiting for you.
All best,
Johnm?