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Country Blues => Weenie Campbell Main Forum => Topic started by: Johnm on July 05, 2021, 04:13:06 PM
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Hi all,
I thought it might be fun for folks to list Country Blues performances in which the treatment of musical time brings them particular joy. I suspect that the way we respond to different grooves is a personal thing, and not some kind of area of universal agreement, which makes it all the more interesting. Anyhow, to get the ball rolling, I'll post a couple of my own favorites. Just to make tunes available to the greatest number of folks, let's limit ourselves to two tunes per post. Here goes:
https://youtu.be/WR5mSEjqIIg
That is Skoodle Dum Doo and Sheffield's "Tampa Blues", which for me is the swingingest East Coast blues ever. Boy, would I have loved to be at the session when those guys laid this tune down!
https://youtu.be/jsZu1QDD7Ck
Frankie Lee Sims' "Lucy Mae Blues". No need to say anything more--whew!
Any other favorites out there?
All best,
Johnm
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So many wonderful examples to choose from! I'll go with Blind Boy Fuller's version of Shake It Baby.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP95pQIIQ1I (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP95pQIIQ1I)
Fuller could drive a deep rhythm all by himself, but he often had help from one of the great washboard players: George Washington (aka Bull City Red, aka Oh Red). Here the two of them get together to, as George Clinton would put it 45 years later, "Tear the roof off the sucker". The washboard and guitar just fit together so sympathetically here, sort of pushing each other on.
Full disclosure: This was the first song on Side 1 of the Blues Classics LP of Blind Boy Fuller. When I was 15 (54 years ago!), I dropped the needle on this song and it changed my life. So I might be just a little prejudiced. ;D
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Here are two favorites at this particular moment in time because I listened to them earlier today. Ask me again tomorrow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GmTWi5Tvjk&list=PLK9-M6RSIBBMTKJTOzr1nzuC2gsEKIuxC&index=10
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_DOnKJ232M
unplugged version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cyMLTWWVNo
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I'll just put up this one. I love how Bogus Ben Covington keeps the rhythm roiling under on the banjolin, coming and going like an AM radio. Then, always comes out of the narrative with "Hot Dog" perfectly understated but on time.
Wax
https://youtu.be/NSQUbGDSZFw
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Great idea John!
This has a rather relentless stomp to it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QZ8stgFaFQ
Charley Jordan always had very heavy time, particularly when playing with Peetie Wheatstraw
https://youtu.be/NaQPTZIwPyQ
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Hi Thomas,
Thanks for posting. The Charley Jordan/Peetie Wheatstraw video you posted doesn't work in the U. S. If you tell what song it was, I may be able to find a version that will work.
All best,
Johnm
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It’s Greyhound Blues, John.
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Leroy Carr, Scrapper Blackwell and Josh White – It's Too Short
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP6tRGiX1ho&t=64s
Big Maceo And Tampa Red - Kid Man Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAo-SBduMkU
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Thanks for supplying the title of the Jordan/Wheatstraw tune, Prof! The version I posted is good for the U.S.--can you watch it in Scotland, too?
All best,
Johnm
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Did you replace Thomas’s link, John? It works fine here.
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Thanks John, works fine here too.
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Loved this since I first heard it 1963. Joe really hits it with Ransome Knowling on bass.
https://youtu.be/AYgG9XTBD80
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This one from Snooks Eaglin brings me particular joy
https://youtu.be/aUsfRZS3QqM
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Dr. Ross - Cat Squirrel:
https://youtu.be/QX5GYmGhnRk
Muddy and Little Walter - Evans Shuffle:
https://youtu.be/joUnuNfOktg
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Hi all,
I thought I'd come back for some more. Here's Robert Pete Williams with "Poor Bob's Blues":
https://youtu.be/16Fgg3epgko
and Garfield Akers with Joe Callicott seconding him on "Cottonfield Blues, Part 2". Oh my goodness!
https://youtu.be/NpTMGa7KkQQ
All best,
Johnm
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Morris Pejoe - a thomas8 favour8….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5ANnkByQrc
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I could have picked a number of Bo carter songs particularly his intro's and breaks. However one that I learned from John I think is clever .....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiPPTxbjcUA
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Here's a North Hill selection:
https://youtu.be/tGbESzWz75U
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Hi Prof,
What is the title on the Morris Pejoe cut? It won't play in the U.S., and if I know the title I can look for a video that will play here? Thanks!
All best,
Johnm
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Is this the one?
Morris Pejoe and His Band - Tired of Crying Over You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5ANnkByQrc
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Yes, that’s the one, Stuart!
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A workaround I use is to get the URL from the blocked YT video on WC, go to one of the proxy sites for watching blocked YT videos and plugging in the URL. That should yield enough info to find the YT video in your region if it's available. It worked for this one.
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What a Tune!
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One of my favorite treatments of musical time is Floyd Jones's Chess version of Dark Road. Jones had recorded a version of the song in March of 1951 for J.O.B., but Sunnyland Slim's ornate piano fills tended to obscure the rhythm. On the Chess version, recorded in December of the same year, Slim is replaced by Little Walter, whose harmonica follows the main contour of Jones's guitar, and they end up doing a hypnotic imitation of the sound of a slow steam engined train. And I love the way they switch to a sort of walk rhythm when Jones sings "I started walking" in the last verse: the accent goes from beats 2 and 4 to every beat, with a little pickup note before each beat giving the whole thing a hopping feel, like Jones's feet hurt from walking. And over it all is Jone's melismatic vocal, sounding almost like a field holler contrasting with the chugging rhythm. I find the whole performance irresistible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKL5Wk-BLAo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKL5Wk-BLAo)
And then there's Beans Hambone. Who needs any other instrument when you can swing with just a cigar box guitar? Once Beans gets to the "Beans, beans, beans" section a minute into the song, I can never keep my head from nodding and my foot from tapping.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzGpRQpsnv0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzGpRQpsnv0)
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Hi all,
I just keep thinking of performances that knock me out in this category. From Dennis McMillon, "Woke Up One Morning". I don't think I can think of a tune in Vestapol that I would take over this one. Beautiful heavy time and a really deep backbeat--nothing skimmy about Dennis McMillon!
https://youtu.be/KeSLIBpNrWc
Form Cat Iron, "Jimmy Bell". I love the way this keeps turning over on itself. I realized recently that Tony Joe White sort of re-purposed this groove for "Polk Salad Annie".
https://youtu.be/52Bke4LfNyQ
All best,
Johnm
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This is pretty cool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG5eo0FTZUI
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They're all winners. You can't play it if you don't feel it.
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J.B. Hutto - That’s the Truth:
https://youtu.be/IK_GHSAY42Y
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Believe me, I'm not *only* listening to R.L. Burnside these days, but this song entered my mind as a great example of unusual timing: 8 beats beneath the singing, 7 in the main lick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcx1lr9YXJA
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So much great stuff here, that I have never heard of. I don't have any particular tunes to offer on the subject - Snooks came to mind, also Blind Boy Fuller with Bull City Red is a favorite.
Oh, I thought of one - Ticket Agent by Curly Weaver.
https://youtu.be/ce7VT50pkfs
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"Get Away Blues" by Robert Wilkins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNQtFa7Twnk
And the very loose "Rising River Blues" by George Carter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cETnBzooxrg
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Hi all,
Here's a favorite treatment of musical time by Snooks Eaglin--"Looking for A Woman":
https://youtu.be/eSPHHbsYLvg
All best,
Johnm