Joyeux Noël

Leadbelly - On A Christmas Day (buy) (1944)


Georges Brassens - Le Père Noël et la petite fille (buy) (1960)

Have a nice Xmas dear readers !!

You'll find more great christmas music and pics at the Big rock candy mountain

Black ballads (5) : Crimes of passion

Mississippi John Hurt - Frankie (buy) (1928)


Leadbelly -Ella Speed (buy) (1944)

Man-to-woman murder, or the opposite, is very common in the blues, and it was the subject of ballads too : the two above, but also "Delia", sung by Willie McTell and brilliantly covered by Johnny Cash in 1994. What is more appealing and thrilling than passion and murder, treason and love gone mad ?

Of course the most famous of all is "Frankie and Albert", "Frankie and Johnny" or just "Frankie" in the Mississippi John Hurt version. You will find anything you need to know about it here in this Wikipedia article, and once again, at the Old Weird America, where you can download dozens of different versions of the song by blues, hillbilly, jazz and pop artists.

"Ella Speed" is based on the story of a New Orleans mulatto prostitute (an "octoroon") who was shot by Louis "Bull" Martin, a white man of Italian origin who was in love with her. She was married and had turned him down.

In Leadbelly's rendition, Bull Martin becomes Bill Martin. You can read more about the song story here in a post about the Mance Lipscomb version recorded by Chris Strachwitz in 1960. A good transition to my next post, as you will see in a few days.

Black ballads (4) : Bad Men, from Stack'O Lee to John Hardy

Champion Jack Dupree - Stack O'Lee (buy) (1958)


The bad man is another recurrent hero of black ballads, and an object of fascination and fear (see the Railroad Bill discussion) . The bad man survived the blues era and can be found in rap and of course, reggae. Last week I saw "The Harder They Come" (with the famous and excellent soundtrack), a great "bad man" story.

The archetypal bad man is, of course, Stagger Lee (or Stack'O Lee), a St Louis (or, some say Memphis) pimp who shot Billy Lyons for a Stetson hat. A lot has been said and written about him, including a famous essay by Greil Marcus who linked him to Sly Stone.
Most scholars see a shooting in Saint Louis as the original murder that gave birth to the Stagger Lee legend.

Please check out this great post about Stack'O Lee at Gadaya's Old Weird America with the original story, many useful links and 40 versions by musicians of various genres and times.

In short, like Gadaya says, Stack is the dark side of John Henry, and his song, like the one about the steel diver, was recorded by hundreds of artists (400 according to the Staggerlee.com site). I love the Mississippi John Hurt rendition, one of the very first, but as we've already heard his John Henry, I'm posting the Champion Jack Dupree cover, one of a long line of New Orleans Stagger Lees (by Archibald, Lloyd Price, Fess Longhair, etc..).

Leadbelly - Duncan and Brady (buy) (1947)

Other bad men and murderers include Duncan, who shot sheriff Bill Brady in a barroom or a grocery store (some grocery stores sold whiskey and even other things). This song is very similar to Stagger Lee and seems to originate from St Louis too, as well as "Ella Speed" or "Frankie" of which we will talk later.
It was first recorded by hillbilly singer Wilmer Watts but the most famous version is by Leadbelly. Check out this discussion at Mudcat Cafe's forum and you'll learn a lot about the song's origins.
Let's not forget that Leadbelly himself carried the image of the bad man, sentenced 3 times for murder and assault.

Willie Walker - Dupree Blues (buy) (1930)

Frank Dupree grew up in Abbeville, South Carolina. He came on the scene in December 1921 in Atlanta, Georgia, where he had a gal Betty. In trying to appropriate a diamond for her in a jewelry store he shot a policeman down. Fleeing to Memphis and later to Chicago, where he was cornered, he killed a policeman and wounded several more. He was caught while getting his mail and sent to Atlanta for trial. He was executed for murder on September 1, 1922." (Roberts, Leonard Ward. In the Pine: Selected Kentucky Folksongs. Pikeville College Press, 1978.)

Another bad man story, where the hero kills for love (or, should we say, where the hero kills to satisfy his woman's greed) and the occasion to post a song by the great Willie Walker, a blind and forgotten musician from South Carolina (just like Dupree)who recorded 4 fantastic Piedmont blues in 1930 for Columbia with Sam Brooks, his regular accompanist.

Last but not least, John Hardy. In my earlier John Henry post, Lynchie from Aberdeen stressed the strong link between these two Johns. This is something I had never thought of, but this page confirms that for some people, J. Hardy and John Henry were one and the same. Both stories come from West Virginia.
Don't forget to check out the John Hardy post at Old Weird America, replete with information and recordings.
The historical John Hardy was probably a black coal miner who killed another worker over a crap game in West Viriginia. Before being hanged, he wrote a repentance song, which is believed to be the origin of the folk piece. Although John Hardy was black, the majority of singers who recorded the song were white, with the notable exception of Leadbelly (and more recently, Alvin Youngblood Hart). But the rendition which in my opinion towers over all the others, is by the Carter Family, with the great guitar work of Maybelle and Sara's voice.

The Carter Family - John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man (buy) (1928)

Black balllads (2) : Jack Johnson and the Titanic : when the blues brought the news

Leadbelly - the Titanic (buy) (1948)


First I'd like to wish all my American readers a happy 4th of July. Please check out Darius'blog, Oliver di Place, for great Independance Day posts here.

Let's go on with our exploration of Afro American balladry. Yesterday I found this great Leadbelly song in a French compilation called Black Heroes : From Stagger Lee to Joe louis.
Another subject of ballads was the news, the real events (and not only legends). The sinking of the Titanic gave birth to hundreds of songs. As always, Gadaya made a great job of compiling the best Titanic songs in his blog.

When that great ship went down : the Titanic variations at Old Weird America

But what's also interesting in Leadbelly's song is the mention of Jack Johnson, not the singer, but the boxer, a true Afro American hero. He became heavyweight world champion in 1908 after defeating Canadian Tommy Burns who until then had refused to fight a black man. The legend has it that he wanted to board the Titanic but was turned back because, as Lead sings, the captain "didn't haul no coal".
Apart from that song, Jack Johnson is absent from folk songs, but Miles Davis dedicated an album to him in 1970.

Musically, the Leadbelly song is very close to this one by Johnnie Head, who only recorded 2 sides in 1928. With his kazoo and tenor voice, he must have come from a vaudeville/medicine show or even jazz background.

Johnnie Head - Fare thee Well (buy) (1928)

Other athletes (like boxer Joe Louis or baseball players Jackie Robinson or Larry Doby) were the heroes of folk songs, but there's a song I really like, that I also discovered in the Black Heroes compilation. I guess it's the perfect post for a 4th of July. It tells the story of how a poor Mississippi farmer called the White House in 1934 to save his mortgaged farm. Pdt Roosevelt himself picked up the phone and helped him.
The news went nation-wide and Memphis Minnie made a song out of it the following year.
Find more here about the story.

Memphis Minnie - Sylvester and his Mule Blues (buy) (1935)

A week of folk songs (5) : In The Pines / Black Girl

Hi,

I first planned to post about "Frankie and Johnny", but Glenn at the musical blog So Well Remembered made an excellent post about the Harry Smith anthology including a review of Mississippi John Hurt's "Frankie". You have to check it out !

According to a good Wikipedia article, "In The Pines" dates back from at least the 1870s and may be of Southern Appalachian origin.

It was first published by Cecil Sharp, founding father of the folklore revival in England. His story is very interesting and this man had a crucial role, even though it is an indirect one, in the emergence of country music. I will come back to his story in a future post.
Sharp collected the following lines :

Black girl, black girl, don't lie to meWhere did you stay last night?
I stayed in the pines where the sun never shines
And shivered when the cold wind blows

The wikipedia article gives a big list of people who performed that song, including the Monroe Brothers, great Georgia bluesman Peg Leg Howell, and Louisiana Cajun accordion player Nathan Abshire who recorded a French version (I really should hear that one).

But the version I want to play you is not part of the list. It's by Darby and Tarlton and it's from 1927, so it's probably one of the earliest versions of the song. Darby and Tarlton, a hillbilly duo featuring Hawaiian-style guitar, played in such a bluesy manner that people often mistook them for Afro-American performers.

Darby & Tarlton – Lonesome In The Pines (buy) (apr. 1927)

And then, of course, the Leadbelly version, "Black Girl", made famous by Nirvana's cover. Leadbelly was from West Louisiana / East Texas, home of the piney woods, and I've always found his version menacing and mysterious. But I'm a Leadbelly fanatic…
It seems that Leadbelly took from Darby & Tarlton, because he also recorded a song called "On A Monday", that may originate from D & T's biggest hit, the great "Birmingham Jail".

Leadbelly – Black Gal (Where Did You Stay Last Night ?) (1944) (buy) (NYC, feb.1944)


Links and sources :

Wikipedia article about "In The Pines"

On Darby & Tarlton, see this intersting post on American String Conspiracy

On Leadbelly, see AMG bio

On Harry Smith's anthology, see this great blog dedicated to the Anthology

And Glenn's posts on So Well Remebered

album of the week : Leadbelly : Huddie Ledbetter's Best

A very important album indeed.

Definitely one of the best for me. Not a compilation, rather a session recorded in Hollywood in 1944 by a fame-hungry Leadbelly who was very far away from home. Home was New York City, where he had settled down in the thirties, after his first recordings.

Huddie Ledebetter was from east Louisiana, in the Caddo Parrish. He first recorded when he was well in his forties. The man is famous for his legendary story (I wish I could write a novel about him). He was discovered while doing time in Angola prison farm in 1933 by ethnomusicologist John Lomax and his son Alan. It wasn't his first prison setence, but at least his third one (including one for murder in Texas). The legend has it that he sang his way out of prison. When the Lomaxes first met him at Angola, they recorded him singing a song asking Governor Pat Neff his grace. One year later he was freed, but Louisiana authorities always denied it was connected to the songs the Lomaxes had brought to the governor's office.

Check out his bio on AMG.

Anyway, Leadbelly is an amazing man, sort of human jukebox from the pre-history of music, who knew thousands of songs, some of them going back to the 19th century, novelty songs ("Irene"), working songs ("Take This Hammer"), blues ("Grasshoppers in my pillow"), prison songs ("The Midnight Special"), even children songs ("It's Christmas Day"). They're all delivered in a passionate way, with this powerful voice and 12-guitar strumming.

I really love this guy : on tape, when he speaks, he sounds gentle, caring. He loved to play for children and was a great entertainer. But he was also an ex-convict who had killed at least one man and badly injured another.

Leadbelly - Ella Speed(buy)

My favorite song is "Irene", and I can't resist posting my own version of it, well, our version that I recorded with my friend Adam in 2004. I beg your indulgence, it is just an amateurish demo we did for fun. I sing lead and play the acoustic guitar (Adma's Martin D-28), he plays the mandolin.

Nicolas & Adam - Irene

Another cover : Alvin Youngblood Hart - When I Was A Cowboy (buy)

And last but not least, let me wish you a merry Christmas with Lead :

Leadbelly - On A Christmas Day (buy)