Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Reverend Gary Davis performing "Children of Zion" on Pete Seeger's 1960s television show "Rainbow Quest"
DVD Review
Masters of the Country Blues: Reverend Gary Davis & Sonny Terry, Reverend Gary Davis, Sonny Terry, Yazoo/Shanachie Productions, 2001
The names Reverend Gary Davis and Sonny Terry are no strangers in this space. Anytime one wants to speak “country blues” those names along with those of Son House, Bukka White and Sonny’s long time, if estranged, playing partner come easily to mind. I first heard the Reverend Gary Davis at one of the early Newport Folk Festivals. Now listen up. I didn’t like him that much them. Of course in those days it was Son House, Mississippi John Hurt and Skip James that got my attention. But Reverend Gary Davis grows on you, especially when he gets a righteous song to tear into for about ten minutes like “Twelve Gates Of The City” (actually performed by Sonny here in his segment). Here “If I Had My Way” (aka "Samson and Delilah"), although not that long fills the bill. As for Sonny, needless to say when he is hot on his harmonica, as he is here on “Hootin’ The Blues”- watch out. Hey, the producers who went back to the 1960s vaults in putting together this DVD knew these guys were the masters, Taj Mahal, a great bluesman in his own right, who introduces the segments, knew they were masters, I know they are the masters and now you will too? Enough said.
Reverend Gary Davis lyrics
Death Don't Have No Mercy
Death don't have no mercy in this land
Death don't have no mercy in this land
He'll come to your house and he won't stay long
You'll look in the bed and somebody will be gone
Death don't have no mercy in this land
Well Death will go in any family in this land
Well Death will go in every family in this land
Well he'll come to your house and he won't stay long
Well you'll look in the bed and one of your family will be gone
Death will go in any family in this land
Well he never takes a vacation in this land
Well old Death never takes a vacation in this land
Well he'll come to your house and he won't stay long
Well you'll look in the bed and your mother will be gone
Death never takes a vacation in this land
Talk
Great God
Yeah
Well he'll leave you standin' and cryin' in this land
Well Death will leave you standin' and cryin' in this land
Well he'll come to your house and he won't stay long
You'll look in the bed and somebody will be gone
Death will leave you standin' and cryin' in this land
Old Death always in a hurry in this land
Old Death always in a hurry in this land
Well he'll come to your house and he won't stay long
You'll look in the bed and your mother will be gone
Death always in a hurry in this land
Well he won't give you time to get ready in this land
Well he won't give you time to get ready in this land
Well he'll come to your house and he won't stay long
Well you'll look in the bed and somebody will be gone
Death won't give you time to get ready in this land
Make your last talk
Talk to me Death
Talk to me
transcribed by Cheryl Rhodes, who wrote, "from Blind Gary Davis/Harlem Street Songs recorded in Englewood Cliffs, NJ August 24, 1960 (according to the liner notes) and released on CD under the Prestige/Bluesville Records (Fantasy) label
Samson and Delilah
by Reverend Gary Davis
©Chandos Music
(From the album - Gospel, Blues and Street Songs)
If I had my way
If I had my way
If I had my way
I would tear this old building down
Well Delilah, she was a woman fine and fair
She had good looks, God knows and coal black hair
Delilah, she came to Samson's mind
The first he saw this woman that looked so fine
Delilah, she set down on Samson's knee
Said tell me where your strength lies if you please
She spoke so kind, God knows, she talked so fair
'til Samson said 'Delilah, you can cut off my hair
You can shave my head, clean as my hand
And my strength 'come as natural as any a man'
If I had my way
If I had my way
In this wicked world
If I had my way
I would tear this old building down
Talk, Yeah
Yeah, Talk to me
Yeah, Yeah, talk to me
Yeah, what happened then?
If I had my way
If I had my way
If I had my way
I would tear this old building down
Yeah you read about old Samson, told from his birth
He was the strongest man that ever had lived on Earth
So one day while Samson was-a-walkin' along
He looked on the ground and saw an old jawbone
He stretched out his arm, God knows, it broke like flint
When he got to movin' ten-thousand was dead, Mmm
If I had my way
If I had my way in this wicked world
If I had my way
I would tear this old building down
Well old Samson and the lion got attacked
Samson he jumped up on the lion's back
So you read about this lion had killed a man with his paws
But Samson got his hand in the lion's jaws
He rid that beast until he killed him dead
And the bees made honey in the lion's head
Good God!
If I had my way
If I had my way
If I had my way
I would tear this old building down
If I had my way
If I had my way in this wicked world
If I had my way
I would tear this old building down
Good God
Let Us Get Together
by Reverend Gary Davis
©Chandos Music
Let us get together
Right down here 4x
Let us walk together
Right down here 4x
Let us do our living
Right down here 4x
Let us have our heaven
Right down here 4x
break
Let us walk together
Right down here 4x
Let us do our rejoicing
Right down here 4x
Showing posts with label Son House. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Son House. Show all posts
Monday, June 08, 2009
Sunday, February 08, 2009
The Fire Next Time- Keb' Mo'
CD REVIEW
February Is Black History Month
Keb’ Mo’, Keb’ Mo’, Okeh Records, 1994
This reviewer has spent much ink in this space over the past year or so touting various old time country blues singers like Bukka White, Skip James and, of course, Son House. I have noted that their music reflected the rural southern, mainly Mississippi Delta. plantation life of hard toil (picking that damn cotton), hard living and hard loving from an earlier part of the last century. That age effectively ended on an economic level with the vast increases in the mechanization of agriculture and the migration of blacks north (mainly to Chicago and other Midwest industrial stops) in the period leading up to World War II. Musically it ended with the electrification of the blues guitar as the music headed north. That, however, begs an important question. Who would, if anyone, continue that old blues tradition?
Well we know part of the answer. The various white (mainly) urban folk revivalists of the 1960’s, including the likes of Dave Van Ronk and Eric Von Schmidt and British rock aficionados like Eric Clapton of that same period held the tradition together by physically “discovering” the remnants of the old time singers like the above-mentioned artists. And by creating their own blues tradition. But what of now. That is where the artist under review, Keb’ Mo’, comes into the picture. He has gone back to the roots with some sassy, saucy, sexy songs (mainly of his own creation) that would do his predecessors proud. In the age of the ‘hip-hop nation’ the sheer number of those who are committed to the maintenance of this music is surely much too small but the quality, as represented by Keb’, makes up the difference.
So what is good here? “Anybody Seen My Girl” deserves a listen as does “Dirty Low Down and Bad” but if you have only time to listen to one give a listen to the old Robert Johnson tune “ Kindhearted Woman” then you will know why the old blues tradition is still in capable hands. Kudos Keb’.
Note: I first heard of Keb’ through part one of Martin Scorsese’s six part 2003 PBS series on the history of the blues. I recommend that series for those who want a primer on the history of this music-then push on from there.
February Is Black History Month
Keb’ Mo’, Keb’ Mo’, Okeh Records, 1994
This reviewer has spent much ink in this space over the past year or so touting various old time country blues singers like Bukka White, Skip James and, of course, Son House. I have noted that their music reflected the rural southern, mainly Mississippi Delta. plantation life of hard toil (picking that damn cotton), hard living and hard loving from an earlier part of the last century. That age effectively ended on an economic level with the vast increases in the mechanization of agriculture and the migration of blacks north (mainly to Chicago and other Midwest industrial stops) in the period leading up to World War II. Musically it ended with the electrification of the blues guitar as the music headed north. That, however, begs an important question. Who would, if anyone, continue that old blues tradition?
Well we know part of the answer. The various white (mainly) urban folk revivalists of the 1960’s, including the likes of Dave Van Ronk and Eric Von Schmidt and British rock aficionados like Eric Clapton of that same period held the tradition together by physically “discovering” the remnants of the old time singers like the above-mentioned artists. And by creating their own blues tradition. But what of now. That is where the artist under review, Keb’ Mo’, comes into the picture. He has gone back to the roots with some sassy, saucy, sexy songs (mainly of his own creation) that would do his predecessors proud. In the age of the ‘hip-hop nation’ the sheer number of those who are committed to the maintenance of this music is surely much too small but the quality, as represented by Keb’, makes up the difference.
So what is good here? “Anybody Seen My Girl” deserves a listen as does “Dirty Low Down and Bad” but if you have only time to listen to one give a listen to the old Robert Johnson tune “ Kindhearted Woman” then you will know why the old blues tradition is still in capable hands. Kudos Keb’.
Note: I first heard of Keb’ through part one of Martin Scorsese’s six part 2003 PBS series on the history of the blues. I recommend that series for those who want a primer on the history of this music-then push on from there.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
*”Bluesland” -A Look At The Evolution Of The Blues- In One Place At One Time
Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Muddy Waters performing "Hoochie Coochie Man" at the New Port Jazz Festival in 1960. Wow!
DVD Review
Bluesland: Masters Of American Music Series, various artists, BMG, 1991
Okay, apparently I will review any item that comes my way that has even the remotest connection with the blues, the history of the blues, or the individual performances of blues artists, great and small. I confess to being an aficionado and have been since my jaded youth. However, I know damn well that not everyone either shares that addiction or has heard enough to make a judgment. Thus, while I now tend to shy away from anthologies and general histories on this subject and have been honing in on individual genres and styles within the broad terms of what the blues are, when one of those crosses my desk that seems reasonably well-done and gives good sense of where the blues came from and….where it is going I will take the time to write a few word about it, especially as here there when there is a great deal of rare film footage involved in the production.
“Bluesland” easily fits those criteria just mentioned, and if there is just a little too much push of the blues as a central American gene in relationship to other musical forms by the presenter and “talking heads” that always feature in such documentaries, it hits all the known high spots of the blues experience and has some very, very good documentary footage accompanying the presentation. Like? Well, like old Son House flailing away on that National guitar of his. Or Muddy Waters tearing the place up in 1960 at the staid old Newport Jazz Festival with his “Hoochie Goochie Man” that had them dancing in the aisles. Or Duke Ellington leading the band in different variations of his classic “Ko-Ko” (including clips shot at the famed Harlem Cotton Club.). Yes, now you get the idea. Some of this footage is incredible.
But enough of the homage to the film footage. The central theme is the evolution of the genre from back in post-Civil War plantation days through Jim Crow sharecropping days that formed the music. Then it moves to the cities in the early part of the 20th century, in the South at first, then upriver to places like Memphis, Chicago and Kansas City. With the urbanization came the key changeover to electric sound in the post World War II period. The story from there is one of a mix and match and partial ellipse with the rise of rock and rock and then back up front again when some British kids, who had been spoon-fed in the late 1950s on it while we were listening to Bobby Vee or whoever, starting linking up wit the likes of Muddy Waters. And then…well we will wait and see. But, if you have any interest at all in the blues or our common musical heritage here in America then you shouldn’t wait.
"Charley Patton High Water Everywhere (part 1) lyrics"
Well, backwater done rose all around Sumner now,
drove me down the line
Backwater done rose at Sumner,
drove poor Charley down the line
Lord, I'll tell the world the water,
done crept through this town
Lord, the whole round country,
Lord, river has overflowed
Lord, the whole round country,
man, is overflowed
You know I can't stay here,
I'll go where it's high, boy
I would goto the hilly country,
but, they got me barred
Now, look-a here now at Leland
river was risin' high
Look-a here boys around Leland tell me,
river was raisin' high
Boy, it's risin' over there, yeah
I'm gonna move to Greenville
fore I leave, goodbye
Look-a here the water now, Lordy,
Levee broke, rose most everywhere
The water at Greenville and Leland,
Lord, it done rose everywhere
Boy, you can't never stay here
I would go down to Rosedale
but, they tell me there's water there
Now, the water now, mama,
done took Charley's town
Well, they tell me the water,
done took Charley's town
Boy, I'm goin' to Vicksburg
Well, I'm goin' to Vicksburg,
for that high of mine
I am goin' up that water,
where lands don't never flow
Well, I'm goin' over the hill where,
water, oh don't ever flow
Boy, hit Sharkey County and everything was down in Stovall
But, that whole county was leavin',
over that Tallahatchie shore Boy,
went to Tallahatchie and got it over there
Lord, the water done rushed all over,
down old Jackson road
Lord, the water done raised,
over the Jackson road
Boy, it starched my clothes
I'm goin' back to the hilly country,
won't be worried no more
"High Water Everywhere (part 2)"
Backwater at Blytheville, backed up all around
Backwater at Blytheville, done took Joiner town
It was fifty families and children come to sink and drown
The water was risin' up at my friend's door
The water was risin' up at my friend's door
The man said to his women folk, "Lord, we'd better go"
The water was risin', got up in my bed
Lord, the water was rollin', got up to my bed
I thought I would take a trip, Lord,
out on the big ice sled
Oh, I can hear, Lord, Lord, water upon my door,
you know what I mean, look-a here
I hear the ice, Lord, Lord, was sinkin' down,
I couldn't get no boats there, Marion City gone down
So high the water was risin' our men sinkin' down
Man, the water was risin' at places all around,
boy, they's all around
It was fifty men and children come to sink and drown
Oh, Lordy, women and grown men drown
Oh, women and children sinkin' down Lord, have mercy
I couldn't see nobody's home and wasn't no one to be found
DVD Review
Bluesland: Masters Of American Music Series, various artists, BMG, 1991
Okay, apparently I will review any item that comes my way that has even the remotest connection with the blues, the history of the blues, or the individual performances of blues artists, great and small. I confess to being an aficionado and have been since my jaded youth. However, I know damn well that not everyone either shares that addiction or has heard enough to make a judgment. Thus, while I now tend to shy away from anthologies and general histories on this subject and have been honing in on individual genres and styles within the broad terms of what the blues are, when one of those crosses my desk that seems reasonably well-done and gives good sense of where the blues came from and….where it is going I will take the time to write a few word about it, especially as here there when there is a great deal of rare film footage involved in the production.
“Bluesland” easily fits those criteria just mentioned, and if there is just a little too much push of the blues as a central American gene in relationship to other musical forms by the presenter and “talking heads” that always feature in such documentaries, it hits all the known high spots of the blues experience and has some very, very good documentary footage accompanying the presentation. Like? Well, like old Son House flailing away on that National guitar of his. Or Muddy Waters tearing the place up in 1960 at the staid old Newport Jazz Festival with his “Hoochie Goochie Man” that had them dancing in the aisles. Or Duke Ellington leading the band in different variations of his classic “Ko-Ko” (including clips shot at the famed Harlem Cotton Club.). Yes, now you get the idea. Some of this footage is incredible.
But enough of the homage to the film footage. The central theme is the evolution of the genre from back in post-Civil War plantation days through Jim Crow sharecropping days that formed the music. Then it moves to the cities in the early part of the 20th century, in the South at first, then upriver to places like Memphis, Chicago and Kansas City. With the urbanization came the key changeover to electric sound in the post World War II period. The story from there is one of a mix and match and partial ellipse with the rise of rock and rock and then back up front again when some British kids, who had been spoon-fed in the late 1950s on it while we were listening to Bobby Vee or whoever, starting linking up wit the likes of Muddy Waters. And then…well we will wait and see. But, if you have any interest at all in the blues or our common musical heritage here in America then you shouldn’t wait.
"Charley Patton High Water Everywhere (part 1) lyrics"
Well, backwater done rose all around Sumner now,
drove me down the line
Backwater done rose at Sumner,
drove poor Charley down the line
Lord, I'll tell the world the water,
done crept through this town
Lord, the whole round country,
Lord, river has overflowed
Lord, the whole round country,
man, is overflowed
You know I can't stay here,
I'll go where it's high, boy
I would goto the hilly country,
but, they got me barred
Now, look-a here now at Leland
river was risin' high
Look-a here boys around Leland tell me,
river was raisin' high
Boy, it's risin' over there, yeah
I'm gonna move to Greenville
fore I leave, goodbye
Look-a here the water now, Lordy,
Levee broke, rose most everywhere
The water at Greenville and Leland,
Lord, it done rose everywhere
Boy, you can't never stay here
I would go down to Rosedale
but, they tell me there's water there
Now, the water now, mama,
done took Charley's town
Well, they tell me the water,
done took Charley's town
Boy, I'm goin' to Vicksburg
Well, I'm goin' to Vicksburg,
for that high of mine
I am goin' up that water,
where lands don't never flow
Well, I'm goin' over the hill where,
water, oh don't ever flow
Boy, hit Sharkey County and everything was down in Stovall
But, that whole county was leavin',
over that Tallahatchie shore Boy,
went to Tallahatchie and got it over there
Lord, the water done rushed all over,
down old Jackson road
Lord, the water done raised,
over the Jackson road
Boy, it starched my clothes
I'm goin' back to the hilly country,
won't be worried no more
"High Water Everywhere (part 2)"
Backwater at Blytheville, backed up all around
Backwater at Blytheville, done took Joiner town
It was fifty families and children come to sink and drown
The water was risin' up at my friend's door
The water was risin' up at my friend's door
The man said to his women folk, "Lord, we'd better go"
The water was risin', got up in my bed
Lord, the water was rollin', got up to my bed
I thought I would take a trip, Lord,
out on the big ice sled
Oh, I can hear, Lord, Lord, water upon my door,
you know what I mean, look-a here
I hear the ice, Lord, Lord, was sinkin' down,
I couldn't get no boats there, Marion City gone down
So high the water was risin' our men sinkin' down
Man, the water was risin' at places all around,
boy, they's all around
It was fifty men and children come to sink and drown
Oh, Lordy, women and grown men drown
Oh, women and children sinkin' down Lord, have mercy
I couldn't see nobody's home and wasn't no one to be found
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
The Preacher Man- Son House
CD REVIEW
Son House Revisited, Son House, 2-disc set, Fuel Records, 2002
This review was used for a previous review of Son House's work. This compilation is very similar although there are more preacher type blues in this set.
I recently reviewed Mississippi John Hurt’s The Last Sessions in this space. Hurt was ‘discovered’ in the early 1960’s by young, mainly white, folk singers looking to find the roots of American music. Well, Hurt was not the only old black country blues player ‘discovered’ during that period. There is a now famous still picture (as well as well as video performance clip. I wonder if it is on YouTube?) of Hurt along with the legendary Skip James and the musician under review Son House jamming at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963. That was a historic (and probably one of the last possible) moments to hear these legends of country blues in one spot together.
And why was House on that stage with Hurt and James? Well, the short answer is that old flailing National steel guitar of his. However, the real answer is that like Hurt he represented a piece of American music that was fast fading away, at least in its original form –the country blues. Can anyone beat the poignancy of Death Letter Blues or bitterness of Levee Moan? Or when House gets preachy on John the Revelator and other old time religious songs of shout and response. The tension between being a preacher man and doing the ‘devil’s work (playing the blues) is more clearly felt in House’s work than in Hurt’s.
House’s repertoire is not as extensive as Hurt’s and there is a little sameness of some of the lyrics here but when he is hot watch out. There is another famous film clip of him sitting in a chair on stage alone under the hot lights flailing away at the guitar almost trance-like, sweating buckets doing Death Letter Blues. That is the scene you want to evoke when you listen to this selection. And do listen.
Son House Revisited, Son House, 2-disc set, Fuel Records, 2002
This review was used for a previous review of Son House's work. This compilation is very similar although there are more preacher type blues in this set.
I recently reviewed Mississippi John Hurt’s The Last Sessions in this space. Hurt was ‘discovered’ in the early 1960’s by young, mainly white, folk singers looking to find the roots of American music. Well, Hurt was not the only old black country blues player ‘discovered’ during that period. There is a now famous still picture (as well as well as video performance clip. I wonder if it is on YouTube?) of Hurt along with the legendary Skip James and the musician under review Son House jamming at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963. That was a historic (and probably one of the last possible) moments to hear these legends of country blues in one spot together.
And why was House on that stage with Hurt and James? Well, the short answer is that old flailing National steel guitar of his. However, the real answer is that like Hurt he represented a piece of American music that was fast fading away, at least in its original form –the country blues. Can anyone beat the poignancy of Death Letter Blues or bitterness of Levee Moan? Or when House gets preachy on John the Revelator and other old time religious songs of shout and response. The tension between being a preacher man and doing the ‘devil’s work (playing the blues) is more clearly felt in House’s work than in Hurt’s.
House’s repertoire is not as extensive as Hurt’s and there is a little sameness of some of the lyrics here but when he is hot watch out. There is another famous film clip of him sitting in a chair on stage alone under the hot lights flailing away at the guitar almost trance-like, sweating buckets doing Death Letter Blues. That is the scene you want to evoke when you listen to this selection. And do listen.
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