Elizabeth Cotton
Etta Baker
CD REVIEWS
Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes, Elizabeth Cotton, Smithsonian-Folkways, 1989
There is something about these North Carolina style guitar pickers that is very appealing. And here I am thinking not only of the artist under review, the legendary Elizabeth Cotton, but also another female picker extraordinaire Etta Baker, as well. It is different from the Delta pick, for sure. They pick cleanly, simply but with verve. Ms. Cotton shows her stuff here on her first album from Folkways. Here we have the folk classic, no super-classic, Freight Train that was a rite of passage for every one from Peter, Paul and Mary to Dave Van Ronk to Tom Rush to record in the early 1960’s. Along with that tune we have some nice renditions of I Don’t Love Nobody and a few medleys like Sweet Bye and Bye combined with What A Friend You Have in Jesus (that I believe Blind Willie Johnson first recorded, or variation of it at least). Listen away but also save your money up to get the album with Shake Sugaree (get the one with her granddaughter singing along)on it. That’s the ticket.
One-Dime Blues, Etta Baker, Rounder Records, 1991
Recently I mentioned in reviewing Elizabeth Cotton’s Freight Train album from Folkways that there was something appealing about these North Carolina style guitar pickers. It is different from the Delta pick, for sure. They pick cleanly, simply but with verve. The Delta is a little more heavy-handed reflecting, I think, the woes of picking that cotton all week. Damn, I would be guitar picking like Keith Richards under those conditions. Ms. Baker shows her stuff here on this almost exclusively instrumental album from Rounder Records. The one vocal that she does do here –Broken-Hearted Blues- makes me wish that she had done more vocals but the guitar can carry her through on this album- no problem. Highlights here include some old country blues classics-John Henry, Crow Jane, Railroad Bill, Spanish Fandango and so on. Nice, nice touch. Nice, nice music.
Here are the lyrics to "Freight Train" for those not familiar with the song.
ReplyDeleteFREIGHT TRAIN
(c) 1957 by Elizabeth Cotten. Sanga Music
Chorus:
Freight train, Freight train, run so fast
(rep.)
Please don't tell what train I'm on
They won't know what route I've gone
When I am dead and in my grave
No more good times here I crave
Place the stones at my head and feet
Tell them all that I've gone to sleep.
When I die, Lorde, bury me deep
Way down on old Chestnut street
Then I can hear old Number 9
As she comes rolling by.
(The belows are from Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes linernotes by Mike Seeger)
When Eliazbeth Cotten and her brothers were playing music together each would have songs that they called they own, and this was one of that she made up and sung as hers, It was one of the few she ever composed herself and was lergely inspired by the train running near her home. She sung the song in washington and it was subsequently popularized by Peggy Seeger, Nancy Whiskey and Rusty Draper.
"We used to watch the freight train. We knew the fireman and the breakman...and the conductor, my mother used to launder for him. They'd let us ride in the engine...put us in one of the coaches while they were backing up and changing...that was how I got my first train ride."
"We used to walk the trestle and put our ear to the track and listen for the train to come. My brother, he'd wait for the train to get real close and then he'd hang down from one of the ties and swing back up after the train had passed over him."