He's had a lot of trouble at home and he's decided to hit the dirty, dusty road for parts unknown. He wants to forget everything and to go somewhere else, so he sings this novel blues as his lazy mule joggles him along the old dirt road - Charlie Patton, 1929 newspaper ad for Down The Dirt Road Blues
I was lucky enough to have Andy live in my town many years ago, when I was first bitten by the country blues bug. This was before dvd's, etc, when the only way to learn this stuff was from a person or lp's. Andy was always kind and helped me a lot. There is a lot of him in my playing, and I'm grateful to have him as a friend. This was recorded Friday 9/10/10 in Montpelier, vermont. I'll post more stuff from the show soon.
The guitar is indeed a mahogany-topped bannerhead Gibson J-45. The banner reads "Only A Gibson Is Good Enough," and these guitars were only made during the years of World War II. As spruce got scarce later in the war, Gibson began to use mahogany backs for tops, which makes Andy's guitar somewhere in the 1943-45 vintage. If I remember the story he told me, he said that he was playing a festival in Ohio and saw the top of the neck and peghead from the stage, propped up at a vendor's booth on the perimeter of the festival area. He ran over after his set and bought it. It needed lots of work, I believe. I have done some work on this guitar myself - repaired a loose brace last year or the year before. We in Memphis are indeed lucky to have Andy make his home here - he got me started down this path, and if it were not for Andy I would not be playing the country blues today.