Anyone hear like blues?

Dr. Ross, the one-man band, playin guitar (left handed), cymbals (with one foot), drums (with the other foot), harp (on a rack), and singing.

Another tune from the Doc from 1958 with Doc blowin some mean-ass harp. He recorded for the legendary Sun Records in Memphis in the early '50's.

This tune was written and recorded by Sugar Boy Crawford, a Nawlins, boy, way back in 1953. 12 years later the Dixie Cups ripped it off, word for word, and had a big hit with it. They earned tons of royalties, and did everything they could to stiff Sugar Boy, the skanks.

After a long court battle, Sugar Boy was forced to settle the suit for a mere pittance due to his financial circumstances.

For those who don't know, the song is about a routine rumble, which was common, between competing "Indian Tribes" (blacks) at the Mardi Gras parade. The words are part of one of their belligerant chants, derived from African roots, used when they'd encounter another tribe.

Three of my favorites from Taj Mahal.

Yeah! Those are all great tunes, sho nuff!

Statesboro was recorded in the 20's by Blind Willie McTell and Corrina around the same time by the legendary Mississippi Sheiks.

Anyone notice that the riff he plays between (some) verses is the melody line from Robert Johnson's "Dust My Broom?" Elmore James did that a lot too (along with a great number of other bluesman). It's a classic riff.

Well, this version of Corina aint the Sheiks' after all, I see when listening. Corrina has been covered a gazillion times by others, so I just figured it was the same one. Big Joe Turner had a big hit when he covered it in the '50's.

Speakin a Big Joe, "rock and roll" kinda officially started when the white boy, Bill Haley, covered this tune of his around 1954. His version got extensive airplay, unlike poor Joe's, which was much better.

A nice tune by Taj. It's too bad he didn't have time to include a couple of the best stanzas from Willie's version. "Sister, tell your brother..., etc." So, here's Willie his own damn self doin em.

For some damn reason, God only knows what, but some damn reason, this old Buddy Holly tune from 1957 suddenly kinda comes to mind:

Now that I'm kinda on the topic of rockabillys, howse bout a couple tunes from the best of em, like Eddie Cochran and Carl Perkins, eh? Hmmm....so many great ones to choose from..... If I recall rightly, I think the Beatles covered both of these:





Paul McCartney even claimed that "if there were no Carl Perkins, there would be no Beatles." One of Elvis Presley's first big hits was one he stole from Carl, "Blue Suede Shoes."

Corrina, Corrina played here, by Sam Chatmon, son of a slave, and the last surviving of the brothers who composed the Mississippi Sheiks, as an older man.



Same tune, with some nice blues fiddle and full accompaniment done back in the '20's by the sheiks, featuring his brother Amenter Chatmon (stage name Bo Carter).

Here's another tune by Sam, with some nice pickin on it. A very old one called "Make me down a pallet." The guy interviewing him is Alan Lomax, a Columbia professor who, with his father , John Lomax, had toured the south collecting folk songs for the Library of Congress back in the 30's and 40's. They are credited with "discovering" such then-local artists as Leadbelly, Robert Johnson, and Woody Guthrie. Sam was born in 1897, so when he's talking about when he was 4 years old, he means around 1901.



In 1928 Mississippi John Hurt used the same melody on this tune, called "Aint no tellin:"

A little blues tune from 1959, done by Tommy Tucker in a style reminiscent of the great Jimmy Reed.

Speakin of good ole Jimmy....

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If you're lookin for a country version of the tune, here's Doc Watson. But he makes it clear that he is just doing John Hurt's version (posted above). He says Mississippi John is his favorite predecessor.

My idiot browser is Bing and I can't get it to give me the URL directly so I can post a video and IU'm too lazy to change it, but I first hears
Make Me a Pallet" as a bluegrass tune, one of those songs, and there were many, that existed on both sides of the segregated South's color barrier.

and on the subject of the Gents, it's definitely not blues, but if you like ghost songs, there is a video of them on youtube doing one of the all-time great ghost songs, "Bringing Mary Home", one of my favorites.

Okaay, my first post in this miniseries got truncated and didn't even get the bluegrass group I was talking about in both songs. It was the COUNTRY GENTLEMEN.

aH HA, I THINK MAYBE I've FIGURED OUT A bING WORK=AROUND TO GET A url. wE'LL SEE IF IT WORKS. bOB Dylan DID A VERSION OF cORRINA" YEARS AGO, ACTUALLY FOR Dylan KINDA BLUESY, WTH SOME OF HIS OWN LYRIC TOO. hE HAD A _zgIOD WHEN HE TOOK OLD FOLK TUNES AND REWORKED THEM.

It's interesting to see all the indirect references to Robert Johnson in Dylan's version of this tune. For example:


I have a bird to whistle
and I have a bird to sing
I have a woman that I’m lovin
boy, but she don’t mean a thing

Those lyrics came directly from Johnson's "Stones in my Passway."

The devil and black cat verse in Dylans lyrics seem to be a clear reference to, or derivation from, "Hellhound on my Trail," and "Me and the Devil," by Johnson. In one of his early album covers Dylan had, among other things, a copy of a Robert Johnson album on the couch next to him.