I need your help

You must have realized that this blog has gone 100 % "roots" music now. If you look at older posts there used to be some rock here, even new stuff, but I realized that a lot of people were coming (and staying) when I posted about older styles like blues, country, folk or roots reggae or rhythm & blues.

Well I'm still a big rock fan (at the moment, I'm listening to David Bowie) but I LOVE old time country and blues. There are hundreds of blogs about "modern" genres, and I guess my knowledge of traditional music would be more useful for the music blog community.

So I'm building a sort of discography for this site, a list of important and favorite "roots" records, albums or compilations, from 1920 to 2009. Check it out by clicking on the link above.

My Favorite roots records

The list is in progress, so there are omissions. But YOU can help.
Tell me what are your favorite roots albums, e.g. anything blues, gospel, folk, country, old r&b, old reggae, even world music. Tell me what records you would include in that list, let us build it together.

I'll listen to them if I can (and if I don't already know them) and (probably) include them in the list and make posts, etc...

I'm waiting for your comments. Before going back to historical posts, let's hear something (relatively) recent : the great come-back album of Chicago guitar player Jody Williams.

Jody Williams - She Found a Fool and Bumped his Head (buy) (2002)

Mardi gras Indians

During the past weeks it was carnival time everywhere in the world, and even here in France where we have great "carnavals", especially in the north (with giants).

So, with a little delay, my last ( I promise) post about bluesy Indians will be for Mardi gras Indians. They've always been a object of fascination for me, and even more so now that I've read about their history here or here.

The Wild Tchoupitoulas - Hey Hey (Indians Coming) (buy) (1976)


Laissez les bons temps rouler !!

When Indians play the blues

Pura Fé (photo), a great singer, songwriter and guitar player, is a descendant of Tuscarora nation by her mother. I discovered her music through Music Maker Relief Foundation's first compilation, The Last and Lost Blues Survivors (which seems to be available in France but not in the US now). Her albums are worth checking out, she looks like a nice woman (and I've got the same guitar as her ).

Pura Fé - Rise Up Tuscarora Nation (buy) (2004)


Coincidentally, French label Dixiefrog just issued a 3 CD compilation called Indian Rezervation : Blues and more. This box set, assembled by ... Pura Fé, features contemporary Indian musicians.

Ricky Gonzales, French blogger and radio DJ podcasted 2 of his shows about Indians and the blues (coincidence !!)on his blog Surfinbird, featuring songs from the box set and by other famous Native American songwriters. Comments and announcements are in French but the music is awesome ! You HAVE to check them out :

Surfinbird # 88 : Indian Rezervation Blues & More

Surfinbird # 92 : Indian Rezervation Blues & More 2

Indians in the blues

There are few blues songs that refer to Native Americans. I found some on the Saga Jazz compilation Cherokee Boogie : Indians and the Blues. Check out the title track by sax player and band leader Bullmoose Jackson :

Bullmoose Jackson - Cherokee Boogie (buy) (1951)

In prewar blues, Indians are often referred in verses about "Going To The Nation" and marrying an Indian squaw. "The Nation" or "the territo's" are Oklahoma, a state where the five "civilized tribes" (Cherokee, Cree, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Seminole) were deported in the 19th century. I found an interesting article by Chris Smith in the Cambridge Journals on the subject. The Indian nations are seen as a refuge from hard life and segregation.
Take this Bo Carter song from 1931

Bo Carter - So Long, Baby, So Long (buy) (1931)

But the irony of it all was that this optimistic dream was a mirage : Oklahoma, once a place where former slaves gained civil and property rights, had passed Jim Crow laws since 1903. Jesse James, in " Lonesome Day Blues", has realized that the Nation "is no heaven on earth" :

Jesse James - Lonesome Day blues (buy) (1936)

The Blues has Indian blood

When asked about the origins of the blues, everybody says "Africa" and maybe "Europe", but what about the first settlers on the American continent, the Amerindians ?

I really think they had their part. In the South, there has always been ties between Indians and Afro-Americans. Check out this wikipedia article on Black Indians for more info. And Indian music, especially from the Southeastern tribes, bears resemblance to the blues in its hypnotic rhythm and pentatonic scales.

A good example can be found in the Hemphill family in North Misssissippi. Sid Hemphill, a multi-instrumentalist musician who was discovered by Alan Lomax in 1942, was the son of a Choctaw Indian. When he played the quill, the heritage was more than apparent.

Sid Hemphill - The Devil's Dream (buy) (1942)


His granddaughter Jessie Mae, who passed away in 1993, recorded a few albums in the '80s. She played her own hypnotic brand of blues, typical of the hills country, on the electric guitar, with a tambourine attached to her foot, or leg bells, in the Choctaw manner.

Jessie Mae Hemphill - My Daddy's Blues (buy) (1987)

First time I heard about a possible Indian influence on the blues was from French blues and country scholar Gerard Herzhaft, in his book Americana : Histoire des musiques de l'Amérique du Nord (I guess you don't need a translation), and then at a conference about the blues he gave once. For him, Indian influence shouldn't be underrated for two reasons :

- The ties between Amerindians and Afro-Americans, especially in the Mississippi valley. In some places Indians and Africans were enslaved together, in other places Indian tribes absorbed fugitive slaves (or enslaved them, but with much better life conditions). That led to cultural exchanges and intermarriage. Again, check out this wikipedia article on Black Indians for more info.

- Musical styles from Southeastern tribes, like the Cherokee, have common traits with the blues : pentatonic scale, call and response structure, hypnotic beats, and the use of "floating verses".

I find this idea kinda appealing, but I have difficulties to go further and find more "scientific " documentation about it. I don't know American Indian music very well, and all I found was numerous recordings from Southwestern Indians (Navajo, Hopi, Apache) or Great Plains tribes. No Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw traditional music. A lot of New Age stuff with synthetisers. But I did find something extremely exciting that I saved for a further post...

The Hemphill Family

I was looking for songs that reflected Indian music influence on the blues, and I thought of the Hill country style of North Mississippi. Maybe fife and drum ? And then yesterday, in my shower (that's where most of my ideas come to me, contrary to my President who gets his ideas while shaving... Sometimes I wish he could grow a beard) I thought about the Hemphill family as described in the Alan Lomax book Land Where the Blues Began. I went to my record collection and that was a hit.

Every folk and blues lover should read that Lomax book, and especially the chapter when Lomax meets Sid Hemphill in 1942. Hemphill was born in 1876, which makes him one of the oldest blues musicians ever recorded. His father was a Choctaw Indian. On one of the field recordings Lomax made with Hemphill, there is one instrumental played on a ten-note quill that is really fascinating.

Everyone (including Lomax and Scorsese in his documentary) was very quick to point out African influences when hearing fife and drum music, but the hypnotic beat and the muffled shouts sound very Indian to my hears.

In this part of Mississippi music is a family affair. There is this moment in the Lomax book when, during the second meeting between Alan and a very old Hemphill in 1959, a young girl steps out of the house playing a big drum. She's Jessie Mae, Sid's granddaughter and she recorded in the '80s a few singles and a couple of albums.

Jessie Mae plays electric guitar, bass and snare drums, and on several songs a tambourine attached to her foot, or leg bells obtained from Choctaw Indians to emphasize this part of her heritage. She electrified her ancestors' music but still plays these hypnotic beats that characterize the regional style of the Hill country (Tate and Panola counties).

Now what do you think of this ? Are there links between Indian music and the blues (or any form of popular music ) in your opinion ?

A Drinking Song

Paul at Setting The Woods On Fire is posting a great series about drinking songs, and the guys at the great collective blog Star Maker Machine have followed.

So today I'll add my modest contribution to this great project by posting a song about alcohol that moves me. It's by New Orleans piano player Little Brother Montgomery and was recorded in 1966 in... East Berlin during the American Folk Blues Festival. I love this song and its old-fashioned vocal style and piano playing.

Little Brother Montgomery - I Keep On Drinking (buy) (1966)

Among other booze songs that I enjoy, I have to mention "Gambling Barroom Blues" by Jimmie Rodgers, that I posted last week. Check it out here.

And last but not least "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" that you can hear here.

Feel free to tell me (or Paul on his site) about your favorite drinking songs.

A week of folksongs (6) : I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground

What a strange and beautiful song ! Recorded by Bascom Lamar Lunsford, who was himself a folklorist and minstrel (and a lawyer by trade) from North Carolina. According to Harry Smith, Lunsford wrote that this song is "typical of the Pigeon River Valley".

The following is a quote from a short Wikipedia article about the song :

As stated in his own words within his recordings, Mr. Lunsford considered
himself an archivist and never took credit for this song or any songs he
recorded. He traveled the western mountains of North Carolina and learned this
song from the "locals" as it was his goal and passion to archive songs that he
heard growing up for historical reference.

Novelist and critic Robert Cantwell says: "Listen to 'I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground' again and again, learn to play the banjo and sing it yourself over and over, study every printed version, squander your time in the bargain, and you still won't fathom it." He's right.
(Retrieved from the folktunes site)

Bascom Lamar Lunsford - I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground (buy) (1928)

Swedish folksinger Kristian Matsson aka The Tallest Man On Earth, mentions Lunsford as one of his main influences. In his song "I Won't Be Found", the opener of his great self titled debut album that came out last year, he even quotes Lunsford's verses about the mole in the ground and the lizard in the spring.
Check this song on his myspace page .

So that was the last post for this week of folk songs. I'm taking the kids to the country this week end and I'll be back next week.
See you !