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Why aint they no blues thread?

Son House, he ROCKS, eh, Boonie!? He's one who knowwed Robert Johnson before he went down to them crossroads, ya know?

"And such a racket you never heard! It'd make the people mad, you know. They'd come out and say, 'Why don't y'all go in and get that guitar away from that boy! He's running people crazy with it!' I'd come back in, and I'd scold him about it, ' Don't do that Robert. You drive the people nuts. You can't play nothing. Why don't you play that harmonica for'em.' But he didn't want to blow that. Still, he didn't care how I'd get after him about it. He'd do it anyway." (Son House)
 
If anybuddy aint knowwin:

"If you want to learn how to make songs yourself, you take your guitar and your go to where the road crosses that way, where a crossroads is. Get there be sure to get there just a little ' fore 12 that night so you know you'll be there. You have your guitar and be playing a piece there by yourself…A big black man will walk up there and take your guitar and he'll tune it. And then he'll play a piece and hand it back to you. That's the way I learned to play anything I want." (Tommy Johnson, excellent bluesman from the '30's)

Course Tommy, he didn't mentions what he had to give in return, but....
 
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Years back, there wuz a train that ran past Sugarland Prison, down in Texas, long bout midnite. Them prisoners called it the "Midnight Special." The tracks was a couple miles off, so mainly they just heard the whistle and the rumblin of the train as it rolled on through--they never really seen it.

Then, one night, on accounta some fog, and stuff, the light from the train got deflected toward Sugarland. It landed directly on an inmate who was standin at his window, lookin out. The very next day, that guy got pardoned. Since that day, alla cons pray for the Midnight Special to "shine a light on me."

Huddie Ledbetter, a Louisiana boy better knowwed as "Leadbelly" because a knife in the gut couldn't stop him from comin at ya, didn't need no light. He was in Sugarland for murder, but got set free by the Governor after only 7 years after writing a song for him. That same governor had ran for office on a pledge not to issue no pardons, so, it was a purty good tune, see?

Later, he was back in prison after knifin some guy, and while he was in, he had to knife yet another guy, a prisoner, who attacked him. But, once again he was set free after only 4 years after Alan Lomax took one of his Leadbelly records to the Governor, along with a petition for pardon.

Anyways, here a tune Leadbelly done long-*** time back about the whole deal. It ROCKS!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXhBVjoPvh0
 
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Next up on this here juke box I'm buildin for myself is a classic tune, writ and recorded by Robert Johnson in the mid-30's, called "Dust My Broom." 15 years later, it was covered by Elmore James, except with ampped up guitars, piano, drums, and stuff, Chicago style, by Elmore, which is this one. Different peoples have different ideas about what it means to "dust my broom." It's all purty obvious, really. When you dust your broom, which is the thang ya go around dustin with, it means you're making a clean, brand new start.

Elmore was a Mississippi boy, growin up near Canton. In the 30's he hung with Robert Johnson some, down in Mississippi, and was all over the south with the great Sonny Boy Williamson in the 40's. By 1952 he had made his way up to Chicago, where his cousin, Homesick James (a great bluesman in his own right, and who plays with him on this cover) lived. He died in 1963, on Homesick's couch, of a heart attack As we all know, Elmore, he ROCKS, eh!?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8GwPuKL0e0&feature=related
 
This here next toon, first done in 1949, has been called the first "rock and roll" song to sell 1 million copies. But like Fats done said, long-*** time back--if that's what yawl call "rock and roll," well, then, sheeit, we been doin that in Nawlins for years. It really aint nuthin butta jump blues tune, I figure. Ya knows Fats done sold his self some tunes, over the years--just look at alla that bling bling, eh? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICq9lEqj4cI



Oh, yeah, almost forgot: Fats, he ROCKS, eh!?
 
As good ole Leadbelly done said:

Well, now looky here, peoples....
Yawl lissin to me....
Dont never trys to buy no home....
In no Washington, D.C...
Cause it's a boozwa town.....

I spect Obama done found that out by now, eh?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf6aHlN3wKI
 
it's almost time for the 30th Annual American Music Festival at Fitzgerald's - in honor of that occasion, a couple of my favorites from past shows:

Clifton Chenier
(his son, CJ Chenier, will be there July 1)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j52eDEQztx8

Marcia Ball (she'll be there July 2)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb-l0QKfuEA&feature=related

ya ever seen either of these folks aint? well, clifton, he's been dead for a few years now but his son tours the country quite a bit, and Marcia Ball, she gets around too. well worth seeing if ya have the chance.
 
Naw, I aint never seen neither of them, eh, Mo? Aint really even heard dem on records, er nuthin--well, Marcia Ball, a little bit, I spoze.

Anyways, thanks fo da tip. Dem both great tunes, and I listened ta some other Chenier stuff at youtube--he's purty good. I specially likes dat boogie woogie piano on da Ball vid. Ya likes dat Zydeco, doncha!? Btw, is dat you wit da cowboy hat, dancin yo *** off? Yo daughter, mebbe?
 
It all pends on who's doin it, I spoze, but I kinda likes da ole-timey stuff. Johnny Shines, who usta runs with Robert Johnson, and probably comes the closet to duplicatin Robert's style, sings and plays guitar on this next tune, with the great Chicago harp player, Snooky Pryor playin long. Trouble in mind--it just don't git no mo betta, I figure. The second tune is Lonnie Johnson, another Mississippi delta great--it's just a simple instrumental, and doesn't really show his style, but it's on this same vid, if ya wanna listens to it.

After dat, the great Mississippi Fred McDowell, playin "Ya Gotta Move," a classic that the Stones covered, very faithfully. It ROCKS!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQDAFpZ1L_Y
 
Da Snooks, wit some white boys on stage. Why ya wanna do me like that? It ROCKS!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ptXz5O60Kg&feature=related
 
What this here thread needs, long bout now, I figure, is a tune done by a HOT BABE, eh!? Caint go wrong with no Lavern Baker, I spect.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML8IH7F8P-k
 
Just listens to this here tune, and you'll hafta agree: They just don't make many fine-*** BABES like Bessie Smith no more, eh? Aint dat a shame?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cngx_KKiWE&feature=related
 
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