June 2009

  • Abner Jay Gets Down By Himself

    By cobwebsandstrange on 6/30/09 2:48pm
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    There aren’t really that many horribly famous one man band(s). The approach, while still trucked in by the lo-fi, independent set (Ty Segall), never moved past the novelty stage of its popularity during the ‘50s. It could be thought that the approach to music died in that era. Mostly this set up – any variation of simple percussion being held down by a foot or two, while the upper half of the performer is given over to guitar or banjo and eventually the harmonica – seemed to be plied by black folks subsequent to the original blues explosion in the ‘30s. Of course, prior to this time, minstrel shows certainly counted performers of this type in their ranks.

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  • The Mississippi Sheiks and the World at Large

    By cobwebsandstrange on 6/24/09 12:20pm
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    The Sheiks' figuring a classic...

  • Mississippi Sheiks: Rural Abandon

    By cobwebsandstrange on 6/19/09 6:31pm
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    SheikSheikJust recording 70 sides over a career won’t necessarily guarantee a performer the ability to be recalled a few decades on. If one of those tracks, though, is “Sittin’ on Top of the World,” you’d get your deference. The Mississippi Sheiks, who penned and recorded that track in the ‘30s, were one of the early familial dynasties in recorded music. Using the moniker Carter, but actually being named Chatmon, the family’s figurehead, Ezell, was the uncle of Charlie Patton and was a popular performer during the waning days of slavery. His sons, any combination of Lonnie, Bo and Sam along with Walter Vinson, comprised the shifting line up of the Mississippi Sheiks.

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  • Lonnie Johnson: Outta NOLA

    By cobwebsandstrange on 6/19/09 11:17am
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    There are innumerable expectations that come with being a musician hailing from New Orleans. Of course, folks expect you to not only possess a skill superior to other players, but include a vast array of musics. And while performers function at  different levels of inclusion, working with folk, blues, country, jazz, calypso, zydeco and whatever else is floating around down there, none have so unwittingly influenced the American a landscape of music in the same fashion that Lonnie Johnson did. No, you might not be overly familiar with that gentleman’s name, but if you’re not, he probably influenced at least a few folks you do know about.

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  • Johnny Shines x Robert Lockwood, Jr.

    By cobwebsandstrange on 6/18/09 1:20pm
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    An Unknown BluesAn Unknown BluesThe last few years of his life Robert Lockwood, Jr. spent in Cleveland, Oh working a weekly gig at an over priced restaurant down the way from where I lived. For whatever reason, I continuously put off going to see him play. And eventually, the opportunity was gone. He passed away in 2006 leaving a legacy behind him that encompassed being a student of Robert Johnson, being the co-host of King Biscuit Flower Hour and migrating to Chicago to become one of the main components of the electric style that emerged from that city while playing in the band of Little Walter and cutting some of the most entertaining music to come out of that scene.

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  • Lightnin' Hopkins: The Country Meets the City

    By cobwebsandstrange on 6/15/09 10:12am
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    Hop on HopkinsHop on HopkinsBeing counted as one of Bob Dylan's favorite blues players, Lightnin' Hopkins devoted a life time of playing to his off kilter, singular way of perusing blues music. Meeting and leading Blind 'Lemon' Jefferson around Hopkins had an early exposure to the medium. And the fact that his uncle was a player as well served to ground him further in the genre. During the '20s while learning and trailing some guitarists around, Hopkins eventually wound up in jail. But after his stint there, he returned to the music and began making a name for himself - although not really through recordings.

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  • Crying: Sam Collins

    By cobwebsandstrange on 6/12/09 4:06pm
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    CryingCryingWithout Perfect Sound Forever, I really don't know what would be worth reading on the internets. As it is, a good deal of my day is consumed and than regurgitated through tiny fiber optics and cables running the length of the globe, but through reading a piece by W.C. Bamberger at PSF from earlier this year, the preceding decades ended up sounding better than ever to me. Now, that's not to figure I'll soon build a time machine or discontinue 'sampling' music online, but Bamberger's writing on Crying Sam Collins is a shining beacon amongst the dregs of three line summaries that constitutes the world. wide. web.

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  • Moanin' in the Moonlight: Howlin' Wolf

    By cobwebsandstrange on 6/11/09 11:59am
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    Chester Burnett - apparently named after Chester A. Arthur of all people - was born in a place and time that allowed for his meeting Charley Patton. And although the two don't have anything that could pass for a similar guitar style, the elder performer imbued in Burnett the idea of entertainment as a raucous endeavor and one that could or perhaps should frighten and dismay some on lookers. Burnett, who took the name Howlin' Wolf after hearing stories from his grandfather warning him of the animals, snapped up a spot on a local radio station in Mississippi after returning from Seattle and a stint in the military during World War II.

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  • Scrapper Blackwell: A Virtuoso Guitar

    By cobwebsandstrange on 6/9/09 5:48pm
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    Mr. ScrapperMr. ScrapperFor being a rather unknown blues player, Scrapper Blackwell recorded a ridiculous amount of music. More often than not, he was supporting the under appreciated LeRoy Carr, but apart from the hundred sides that the two worked out together, Blackwell himself, who recorded mostly during the late '20s and early '30s, can lay claim to at least another thirty to forty sides during his hey day. That most fertile period, though, came to an end when Carr passed away from some combination of drinking and kidney problems. It would be at least twenty years after this occurrence that Blackwell would again record.

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  • Snooks Eaglin x St. James Infirmary

    By cobwebsandstrange on 6/6/09 12:50pm
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    A traditional lament from Snooks'. Enough said.

  • Dan Pickett: "Driving That Thing"

    By cobwebsandstrange on 6/6/09 12:47pm
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    Here's a track off that previously revied Dan Pickett disc. It's pretty much all this good too...

  • Dan Pickett: 1949

    By cobwebsandstrange on 6/4/09 9:33pm
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    Dan or CharlieDan or CharlieAfter Wrath of the Grapevine, On Muddy Sava River Bank is probably the most in depth Americana based blog I've run across. You know those Document albums that come in four parts and cover the entirety of a player's career, MSRB has 'em all. Seriously. And what's more, they post 'em consecutively, so that it's relatively easy to find the volume that you're looking for.

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  • The Blues Astronauts: A Lost Blues

    By cobwebsandstrange on 6/2/09 2:59pm
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    No BluesNo BluesThe coolest thing about randomly searching the dregs of the interwebs is encountering something that you have no connection to, no relationship to in anyway and just sampling it. More often than not, whatever disc that ends up being, it stinks. On occasion, it's an entertaining listen and pretty rarely is it going to change ones perception of music. The Blues Astronauts are in the middle somewhere.

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  • Son House: At Home, but Not Alone

    By cobwebsandstrange on 6/1/09 4:06pm
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    At HomeAt HomeMirroring many of the other blues players rediscovered during the '60s, Son House had basically retired from music by the time that he was found in New York State during the middle of the decade. He worked for a rail road company. And for whatever reason, the guitarist and blues screamer was completely unaware of his musics resurgence.

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