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Post by Alan on Apr 23, 2007 0:25:48 GMT
Has anyone heard anything from We'll Never Turn Back, by Mavis Staples www.mavisstaples.com/. Really good if you like the Cooder sound. Has anyone else come across anything worth a listen?
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Post by faceless on Apr 23, 2007 11:42:36 GMT
Thanks for the link the only place I could find to listen to sound samples was iTunes. Once I heard it I remembered that Paul Jones played 'down is mississippi'. The tracks are very atmospheric. I have recently had the pleasure of discovering 'Peg Leg Sam'. This guy has a great voice and there is a great video off him here: www.folkstreams.net/film,1
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Post by Michael Messer on Apr 23, 2007 13:09:51 GMT
Hi Alan & Faceless, Those are both great links. Thanks for posting them. Faceless - welcome to our freindly & informative forum. I am listening to a few different things at present - In the pre-war slide guitar blues world I am currently studying & enjoying Sylvester Weaver and Rambling Thomas. Both were extraordinary musicians and come highly recommended. Weaver's repetoire covers a lot of ground, but his classic pieces, of which there are just a handful, are well worth having. Rambling Thomas was a wondeful musician and his unique approach to timing makes his music fun to learn. In the contemporay blues world I have been enjoying the music of Richard Johnston from Mississippi. His album 'Foot Hill Stomp' is great. Richard is a one-man-band performer with a difference. He's a cool slide player too. We met in Switzerland last summer and did a live radio session together. Check him out. Not blues ..... I have been totally captivated by Santo & Johnny. I have always been aware of their hit record 'Sleepwalk' in the late fifties, but I was too young and kind of missed them. BJ Cole recently lent me their first album, just called 'Santo & Johnny' ....it is absolutely fantastic. Pure 50s New York Doo-wop but led by Santo on electric steel guitar. Here's a link to a film of Santo & Johnny... Shine On, Michael.
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Post by faceless on Apr 23, 2007 13:31:46 GMT
Thanks for the warm welcome Michael. I love Rambilin Thomas he plays his guitar like he's playing a harmonica. He stops play when he sing and resumes playing when he's not singing, just like a harp player. Either that or he sees performing with a guitar more as a duet rather than an accompaniment (A little more romantic way of listening to it).
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Post by Michael Messer on Apr 23, 2007 14:28:30 GMT
Hi Faceless,
Rambling Thomas plays slide guitar just like a harmonica player, you are absolutely right. But interestingly his playing in regular tuning is totally different. As a blues musician, I think he had it all. I have enjoyed his music for many years, but until recently I have never attempted to play in his style. I still haven't quite worked out whether he is playing slide in regular guitar position, or Hawaiian style on his lap. Generally his touch and tone point to him playing lap-style, but he never goes beyond the 12th fret, which makes me think he could be playing in regular guitar position. His solos are unique and the way he slides around on the D string, especially his turn-arounds, make me think he is playing Hawaiian style on his lap. He was around Oscar Woods, who definitely played Hawaiian lap-style, so there's another pointer. Who influenced who is hard to pinpoint, but there are many similarities. Black Ace also plays in a similar style and hung out with Oscar Woods.
Shine On, Michael.
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Post by Michael Messer on Apr 23, 2007 15:47:40 GMT
I have also been listening to Mose Allison, Jim & Bob, Little Feat, and anything that comes on the radio. Sometimes I enjoy hearing whatever a particular radio station throws at me. It opens me up to stuff I might not be aware of. I also have two teenage daughters and have a headful of albums by current faves... Hard-Fi, Razorlight, Kaiser Cheifs, Moulin Rouge, Subways, Orson, Toto, Nirvana, Kooks.....and so on.
Shine On, Michael
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Post by Bill Stig on Apr 23, 2007 16:20:40 GMT
If your looking for more contemporary music check out the Canadian band Arcade Fire. Go to www.bbc.co.uk/cultureshow/and click on th 2 Arcade Fire video links to see them playing an acoustic session. Is that a Regal tricone and a National mandolin they're playing? Bill
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Post by rickS on Apr 23, 2007 16:48:47 GMT
Ditto the endorsements for Ramblin' Thomas - I too have been coming back to his stuff increasingly in recent times, after having more-or-less overlooked him for the previous 4 decades! (One of the first prewar records I ever bought was an EP of 1 side Blind Blake & the other of RT, & Blake's 'flash' eclipsed Thomas' more sedate style) - it also helps that current reissues have such excellent sound quality, so that the more 'nuanced' players can get a fairer hearing; a propos of which, the recent JSP set 'When the Levee Breaks' (prewar Mississippi stuff) has hardly been out of the player for weeks now - as one who grew up on old OJL (Origin Jazz Library) & Roots LPs, it's a revelation to hear the likes of Jelly Jaw Short & Isaiah Nettles clearly at last, plus there's the bonus of the 2 long-lost Son House Paramounts (Mississippi County Farm Blues alone justifies the price of the boxset); not to be missed!
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Post by Michael Messer on Apr 23, 2007 17:12:35 GMT
On the subject of Sylvester Weaver - at his first recording session in 1923 (New York), he cut 'Guitar Rag' and 'Guitar Blues'. This is an interesting one, because in my book that makes him pretty much the first 'country blues' recording artist, but also the first blues slide guitarist to record. Weaver was from Kentucky & recorded in New York. His playing was wonderful and his two recordings of 'Guitar Rag' 1923 and 1927 are superb. So are his duets with guitarist Walter Beasley and his duets with various female blues singers of the day. A decade or so later, Leon McAulliffe recorded 'Steel Guitar Rag' which is identical to Weaver's original, and claimed the publishing as the composer of the piece. 'Steel Guitar Rag' is a 'standard' in the country music pedal steel world, yet very few of the players are aware of its origins. Earl Hooker did a wonderful version of 'Steel Guitar Rag' in the 60s.
RickS - good to hear from you. Those Son House recordings are excellent. I very rarely buy pre-war blues compilations these days - having been with Catfish Records for 3 years and raided their stockroom on every visit to their office, I have enough pre-war blues records to see me out!!!! (Ahhhh.....that's why they went out of business :-) )
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Post by Bill Stig on Apr 23, 2007 17:39:56 GMT
Someone once told me that the tune "Guitar Rag" was older than than the Sylvester Weaver version, does anyone know if there's any truth in this?
Bill
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Post by Michael Messer on Apr 23, 2007 18:36:14 GMT
Hi Bill, I have no knowledge of the tune before 1923 when Weaver recorded it. I had known the 1927 recording of the piece for many years, but was amazed to find out that he first recorded it in 1923. Sylvester Weaver was an African American from Kentucky who recorded the first guitar country blues and slide guitar pieces in New York in 1923. That throws a bit of a spanner into many peoples' romantic view of the history of American music. I have had a conversation with Paul Oliver about this subject; Sylvester Weaver, the origins of slide guitar, the first country blues recordings taking place in New York....etc. We plan to meet and thrash out the whole thing in the not too distant future. I'll ask Paul about 'Guitar Rag' and whether he has any knowledge of the song going back further than 1923. I wouldn't be surprized to find that it does. I am intruiged by Sylvester Weaver - by 1923 he was a bit of a devil on the slide guitar, which means that he had already been playing for a good few years in that style (in Kentucky) when he cut that record. Weaver was also, as far as I can tell, the first person to use the word 'bottleneck' in print. Weaver & Beasley recorded 'Bottleneck Blues' in 1927. I don't necasserily think that he invented the word, but I do think he was the first to use it in print and therefore starting the term....'bottleneck'. I think that Sylvester Weaver has a lot to answer for! Sylvester Weaver Shine On, Michael. PS > I was just waiting for a thread to hijack with Sylvester Weaver!
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Post by Bill Stig on Apr 23, 2007 20:06:11 GMT
Thanks Michael It would be interesting to know a bit more about him. I only know of the track from the "Bottles, knives and Steel" compilation which, last time I looked, was still available. I'm assuming that this is the later 1927 recording, but the liner notes give no information. Is the earlier recording available? I did assume that he was playing it lap style as it's easier to get a clean hammer on on the 2nd string with the steel - not impossible with a slide though. I transcribed the tune for my students in D for slide guitar and have arranged it for steel guitar in G as a cross between Weaver's version and Leon Mcaullife's. I also have an awful version of Roy Smeck playing the tune.
Bill
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Post by mirrormist on Apr 23, 2007 21:29:00 GMT
I am a big fan of sylvester weaver too...took me a while to get my copies of CRW...I first heard him on Bottles knives & steel also...my favourite being St louis blues...not sure if these cleaned up tracks are the ones on v1 & v2 but it would be super if the rest of his stuff was decrackled. I was interested to learn that one of the tracks on v1 was actually recorded in St Louis...I wonder if there is more from 1925. Pretty much all tracks are touching 3 minutes...i am supposing that was pretty much the extent of recording a record though i don't know...I do wonder how long the songs would have gone on for when sung live... a friend sent me my copies some time ago from St Louis as i had difficulty finding anything at all by Mr Weaver...to say i was delighted would understate my joy regards
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Post by Michael Messer on Apr 23, 2007 23:22:37 GMT
The version of Guitar Rag on 'Bottles, Knives & Steel' is the 1927 recording. The only release I know of with the 1923 version is the Document CD. DOCD-5112 and DOCD-5113 pretty well covers Sylvester Weaver's recorded works. It is a mixed bag and I have ended up making my own CD compilation of his work, but if you like his playing and you need to hear everything.... they are well worth owning. Apart from his wonderful guitar playing, Weaver also had a smooth and good sounding voice. His banjo playing (on a six string guitar-banjo) is typical of the period. Sarah Martin & Sylvester Weaver 'Steel String Blues' was recorded in St Louis in April 1925. From what I can tell, Weaver recorded everything in New York in sessions that took place in 1923/24 and 27. So it appears that he was not in NYC in 1925, well not in April anyway! Shine On, Michael
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Post by blueshome on Apr 24, 2007 7:31:38 GMT
If you go over to weeniecampbell there is quite a lot of analysis of the playing of Weaver and Beasley by John Miller. Just go to search.
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