Entertaining article on The Delta Blues site about How Blind was Blind Lemon Jefferson? Turns out he might not have been totally blind. I mean why would a blind man wear spectacles?
If Valerie June had been a roots artist in America 80 years ago, and she often sings as if she was, she might have been a principle influence on today’s myriad retro troubadours, hers a stunningly emotive amalgamation of blues, folk, gospel, soul, Appalachian and bluegrass (including irresistible banjo). She exists, however, today, an artist as modern as an iPod Shuffle, a musician for the generation which carries the entire history of recorded music so casually inside its phone. Like a potent distillation bubbling on a Prohibition-era porch, Valerie June makes self-styled “organic moonshine roots music”, music for [...]
from the harry smith project Filed under: music stuff , video Tagged: blind lemon jefferson , blues , harry smith , lou reed , see that my grave is kept clean
Trailing back to a previous List 'Em article regarding cover songs, everything from tributary motives to bowdlerization to pure subconscious innocence preserves a folksy tradition of recreating earlier work, thereby making it one's own. The cycle of covering older songs, for whatever the reason, has continued for decades. Most commonly seen in a nostalgic light, encompassing everything from pre-Billboard 45s and porch-played blues to '80s pop, a reboot or a re-imagining can be stripped of pretense to selfish cores, or even hailed as a classic so much that the original creator sees fit to redo his own take [...]
The Narcoleptic Bluesman At the early age of six, John Adams Estes was blinded in one eye during an unfortunate sandlot baseball incident. He later lost vision in the other eye, allowing him to join the ranks of iconic blind bluesmen such as; Blind Lemon Jefferson , Blind Willie McTell , Blind Willie Johnson , Sonny Terry , and Blind Boy Fuller . Obviously, Being Blind wasn't the only Obstacle Sleepy John had to endure. His nickname spurs from his tendency to fall asleep while sitting [...]
Good times last night at the Whitehorse. Mark's birthday party. I didn't get nearly as intoxicated as Friday night, but I still managed to have a good time. It just goes to show, kids: you don't need an excessive amount of alcohol to have a good time. Sure, it helps - and boy does it ever help - but you can't always rely on it. You're only supposed to rely on it when it's really imperative that you do so. You know, like a crutch. A social crutch. You wouldn't want to walk around in public [...]
First off, Album of the Week #25 issssssss (drum roll PLEASE) ... Vincent Gallo's "Honey Bunny" 7-inch on Warp Records! And that's not all ... I also have, wrapped up especially for Yu, my new Top-10 list, straight from the office in Snowville, Utah (yes, Dead Raven Choir was a predictable pick, but I'm obsessed [...]
Blind Lemon Jefferson : Matchbox Blues [ purchase ] Robert Johnson : Stop Breaking Down Blues [ purchase ] Henry Thomas : Bull Doze Blues [ purchase ] Tom Clarence Ashley & Gwen Foster : Rising Sun Blues [ purchase ] Robert Johnson : Crossroads Blues [...]
I've been struggling as to where to go with The Gumshoe Grove. More coverage of current bands? More trips down Nostalgia Lane? More ... girls in bikinis toting machine guns? To tone down the pressure I'm going to bring to your attention a 2CD Americana compilation I purchased years ago, The Stuff That Dreams [...]
Ce billet est la première partie d'une sorte de rétrospective du blues au travers de ses principaux protagonistes. J'étais partie pour ne faire qu'une playlist de 21 "indispensables", mais finalement j'ai décidé de prendre mon temps. Deux ou trois autres billets suivront celui-ci et j'espère ainsi vous montrer à quel point cette musique est passionnante. Je ne vais pas vous raconter toute l'histoire, sachez seulement que la musique blues est née à la fin du 19ème siècle dans le sud des Etats-Unis par la population afro-américaine. Les fameux "spirituals", les chants africains, les chants de travail sont les [...]
Blind Lemon Jefferson preforming "Christmas Eve Blues". Blind Lemon Jefferson @Amazon.com
i went home last night, fell down on my bed, i got to dreaming so, i was talking all out of my head… robedoor have only gone and bloody done it. fully embracing the lysergic blues hinted at on the transitionary exorcism blues joint. not that they’re playing some twelve-bar boogie, more an annexing of the existential howl and the eerie wail of blind lemon, that hissing otherworldliness of pre-war ghost recordings re-recaptured by alan lomax. when you’ve made as definitive a statement as rancor keeper, the only aesthetic option is to keep moving, keep changing. [...]
i went home last night, fell down on my bed, i got to dreaming so, i was talking all out of my head… robedoor have only gone and bloody done it. fully embracing the lysergic blues hinted at on the transitionary exorcism blues joint. not that they’re playing some twelve-bar boogie, more an annexing of the existential howl and the eerie wail of blind lemon, that hissing otherworldliness of pre-war ghost recordings re-recaptured by alan lomax. when you’ve made as definitive a statement as rancor keeper, the only aesthetic option is to keep moving, keep changing. [...]
It's the birthday of "Blind" Lemon Jefferson (October 26, 1894 – 12 December? 1929) Black Snake Moan - Blind Lemon Jefferson Blind Lemon Jefferson mp3s @Amazon.com Blind Lemon Jefferson @Hype Machine Blind Lemon Jefferson mp3s @Elbos Music Aggregrator Blind Lemon Jefferson @Amazon.com
Ain Genre: Indie / Blues / Folk From: London /Ireland Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took [...]
In case you haven't yet read, my first blog non-Swan Fungus blog post ever was published yesterday on WFMU's Beware Of The Blog. If you want to jump directly to my post, you can click through this link: "How To Overcome Discouragement" . I look forward to writing new and silly entries for WFMU every other Thursday. They won't all be music-related, either, so you should bookmark their blog and keep an eye out for my retarded antics. Or if you're feeling lazy you can just wait around here, because I'm sure I'll always link to my posts as [...]
Does a body good. Welcome to the third and final installment of our humble series on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music . For those of you who've missed the previous installments, please scroll down to our two previous posts. Volume 3 of the Anthology , Songs, features blues and non-narrative songs, many mysterious in origin. The strangest and most otherworldly tunes are found on the Songs discs. More importantly, Songs is where Harry Smith's skill as an editor and compiler is to be admired. Essentially, Smith was putting together a [...]
Image by Craig Hansen Mixtape compiled by Oliver Primus We haven't done a mini-mix for a while but I thought it would be cool to start it back up! You can either download the entire package (below) or an individual song by right clicking on the track you want and saving the link. Let us know what you think of the choices! 1. The Fault Is Not Mine by O! The Joy 2. Everyone Is Guilty by Akron/Family (Click here for our review) [...]
Have you noticed your blog posts vanishing without any prior warning? Have you wondered about the dubious legality of the MP3's you dole out for free on your blog? Have eggs been frying on your kitchen counter whilst strange voices roared "Zuul" from the refrigerator? If so, you might want to peruse my piece in LA Weekly. It involves a little investigatory journalism, interviews from Google execs, the RIAA, the Web Sheriff, half the blogosphere, and bad MGMT and Metallica jokes galore. If you're still looking for worthy reasons to incinerate time this Friday, might I also recommend [...]
I've been on a bit of a Carl Perkins kick the last few months. I mention this now because 'tis the season on music blogs across the interwebs to write one (or both) of the two classic end-of-year posts: the "year in review" best albums/single post, and the Chrismas post. We'll be doing a Christmas post or two, but I'm not prepared to sum up the year in music. There are several reasons for this. First, I was overseas until the middle of July, which provides me with a pretty ironclad alibi for having missed [...]
Casa de Country Mike
LOFT965
cowsarejustfood
Consequence Of Sound
Dirty Bourbon River Show
Swan Fungus
The Gumshoe Grove
Star Maker Machine
Le Choix de Mlle Eddie
SqueezeMyLemon
The Devil Has The Best Tuna
So Well Remembered
The 405
The Passion of the Weiss
She's Making Whoopee in Hell Tonight...
Boards of Canada - Reach for the Dead (from Tomorrow's Harvest)
Julia Holter - World (Official Video)
Washed Out - Paracosm (Official Album Trailer)
She & Him- I Could've Been Your Girl
Action Bronson - "Strictly 4 My Jeeps" (Official Video)
Boards of Canada – Reach For The Dead
Black Hippy - U.O.E.N.O.
HAERTS: “All The Days”
DANCE BITCH DANCE: disclosure - when a fire starts to burn
