August 2009

  • Victoria Spivey: A Big Blues

    By cobwebsandstrange on 8/29/09 10:57am
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    Folks that performed during the initial period of blues, back in the teens and twenties, most frequently left music during the depression as a result of the industry being brought to its knees after a basic lack in materials being available and carrying hefty prices. And while Victoria Spivey began performing during the late teens, she didn’t stop performing – and only for a short time – until the fifties. She’s not generally thought of in the same context as Bessie Smith or others that could have performed at Carnegie Hall if not for the color or their skin, but the plain, well conceived deliveries that Spivey’s catalog is made up of clearly sets it along side some of those greats.

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  • Washington Phillips: Jesus Was His Friend

    By cobwebsandstrange on 8/18/09 3:37pm
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    Thanks to Mississippi Records, there’s been a renewed interest in George Washington Phillips. And while that imprint’s retrospective on the singer is surely depleted to the point where Ebay might be the only place to cop What Are They Doing in Heaven Today?, a few other collections exist in greater numbers. None carry such a cover as the Mississippi disc, but Yazoo released Key to the Kingdom isn’t too shabby. The one oddity – apart from Phillips himself – is the fact that tacked on to the end of this performer’s sixteen tracks are four stray shots of blues from Mamie and A.C. Forehand.

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  • Bishop Perry Tillis: Blues, Up Above My Head

    By cobwebsandstrange on 8/12/09 3:24pm
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    The infighting that goes on between two sides of the same person can create a tremendous strain. A rationalization of one’s occupation to the beliefs that an individual possesses doesn’t always turn out right. It’s an endless back and forth. And only occasionally is the outcome realized in any sort of responsible time frame. Bishop Perry Tillis had a bought with all of this – I guess he won. Kinda. But as blues players made their way to all points north, a great many of ‘em called Chicago home. So did Tillis, for a time. That internal dialogue, though, eventually persuaded the guitarist and singer to make his way back to Alabama.

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  • Barbecue Bob: Chocolate to the Bone

    By cobwebsandstrange on 8/11/09 2:01pm
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    Growing up with his brother, Barbecue Bob (bka Robert Hicks) got into music to pas the time, but eventually ran into Savannah "Dip" Weaver and her son from whom they learned guitar. It’s not an inauspicious beginning, but it’s also not too dissimilar from a vast many other stories floating around about blues players. After obtaining a decent songbook from playing around other folks, Barbecue Bob eventually pursued work in an Atlanta suburb where he was a chef – you guessed it – at a BBQ joint. It wasn’t the beginning or the end of Bob’s day jobs, but it would eventually serve as a good way by which to market the performer.

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  • Blind Willie Johnson Can't Keep From Crying...Sometimes

    By cobwebsandstrange on 8/6/09 1:05pm
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    The number of blind blues players can pretty easily be figured for a few reasons. Black folks at or around the turn of the century had little choice in vocation. But even those few slim positions were cut down when one also had the additional burden of blindness, thus making music a good way to turn a dollar. But beyond that, songs, traditional or otherwise, were able to carry a message. And considering the strong bond in black communities between the church and its people, singing songs of praise became a respectable way by which to earn a living. Although most street preachers struggled with the dichotomy of religiosity and daily life, this inner tumult didn’t really slow anyone down.

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  • Tommy Johnson: I Asked for Water

    By cobwebsandstrange on 8/5/09 9:37pm
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    Performers are necessitated to find a shtick that separates them from the field. Some choose to adapt some public persona that, while detached from reality, eventually becomes reality in more than just a few ways. Early on in the development of the blues, performers were given over to concocting stories as to how they attained a musical acumen unmatched by others. Most frequently, it seems to have come as a result of making a deal with the devil. Peetie Wheatstraw is generally considered one of the first bluesmen to make use of the tale, but if he wasn’t, Tommy Johnson might be a good candidate for that tag.

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  • Jack Rose: Live in Berlin, 01.21.07

    By cobwebsandstrange on 8/4/09 5:11pm
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    Jack Rose and a live rendition of "Kensington Blues." I dunno how it seems effortless, but it kinda does.

  • Jack Rose in Deep Concentration

    By cobwebsandstrange on 8/4/09 5:09pm
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    If you’re a musician and you learn a song, making it your own over time, the work eventually becomes something wholly different than what it began as. I won’t pretend to be any where near the (whatever) league that Jack Rose is in, but the guitarist has been known to rework a single melody countless times, live and on record. Considering his solo work is all instrumental, it’d probably be kinda difficult to notice. But regardless of that, there’s no fault in working in that mode – after all how many old tyme blues players re-recorded their entire catalogs after being re-discovered during the ‘60s?

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