Anyone hear like blues?

"St. James Infirmary" is thought to be based on an English song of the 18th century called "The Unfortunate Rake." Louis Armstrong made it famous in his 1928 recording.

How about a little tune from Nawlins circa 1949, eh?

I was standin...
I was standin on the corner....
Of Rampart and Canal...
I was watchin...watchin...
Watchin those pretty little girls.

The great Fats Domino, live on this one:

Heh, vonny, I gotta give ya credit with coming up with some obscure stuff I aint never heard before. Had no idea (still don't, really) who Monroe Moe Jackson was.

Not many people know who he was. He only made one record in 1949, and nobody knows where it was made! Quite the mystery man.

Here's another fairly obscure artist - Julius King. There is a CD called Rural Blues, Vol. 1 - both artists are featured on it.

OK!

I moved from Jimmy Reed's to Etta's version, like that too. Jimmy first.
Reminds me, I did a watercolor of her once (riff on some photo), nothing special, just to me.

Have you gotten to Doc Watson yet? (I haven't caught all the videos, thread whizzing by fast).

I saw him/heard him/them once, right about the time of this video's performance (I think), in Hollywood or West Hollywood, I forget the venue. In the comments, which are interesting, they mention the Mississippi Sheiks -

Doc is an excellent musician, Osso. Good pick. As you probably noticed (but may not have) the tune he's doing here is a cover of the Mississippi Sheiks tune from the '20's which I posted on page 5:

http://able2know.org/topic/269506-5#post-5906830

Many others, from Howlin Wolf to Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and Eric Clapton have also covered this great tune.

In the stills shown there you might recognize good ole Mississippi John Hurt, who I also posted a tune from (Aint No Tellin) a while back.

Here: http://able2know.org/topic/269506-4#post-5905070

Yes, I did notice . His video came up after some of my meandering after hearing your link.. his was a few vids down from the Etta James..

Cream's cover of this terrific tune on Fresh Cream turned me on to Dr Ross the Harmonica Boss

On Mississippi John Hurt, I had passed that to catch up (bad, I want to listen to everything) so thanks for the nudge.

This is all starting to come together. When I posted the John Hurt tune, I said it took it's melody from an older tune: "Make me down a pallet on your floor.

When I posted the Sheiks tune, I said I would say more later about the Sheiks (the Chatmon Family). Alan Lomax, Jr. taped an extended video of Sam Chatmon back in the 70's or 80's when Sam was probably 80 years old, still playin the blues everyday. He talked a lot about the old times, going back to slavery days (his father was a slave) and sang quite a few tunes in that video. One of those tune was "Make Me Down a Pallet on Your Floor. Here it is:



I would highly recommend listening to the entire interview. It used to be on youtube, start to finish, but I'm not sure if it still is. It's still available in chopped up pieces, one tune at a time. If you're interested, you could start on this page https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sam+chatmon+alan+lomax

One thing leads to another, eh? We start with Doc Watson doin a Mississippi Sheiks song with an accompanying picture of Doc and Mississippi John Hurt together, which leads to the pallet melody discussion, which leads back to Sam Chatmon (a prominent member of the Sheiks) doing the pallet tune itself. Happens all the time with the blues. All these guys and tunes are highly inter-connected.

Metaphoric!

I'll tell a story re Janis, true or maybe untrue, if there is ever a lull in this thread. That may take a while.

Ooooh!
Love it.

Also like a commenter's point - "I saw Dr. Ross in the basement of the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor in early 1979. I can reference the time because before one of his songs he said "Nelson Rockefeller died last week. It just goes to show you can't take it with you." Then he eased into some lively blues number."

Doctor Ross, the "one-man-band" from Detroit (well, originally the Mississippi Delta, naturally) is great, Panz! Would play harp, guitar, drums with a foot pedal and high hat all at once.

So good that this and other interviews have been recorded.
Strong man.

I remember the name Alan Lomax, and maybe hearing him on the radio somehow, but he was the father.
I'm hard of hearing now, so a long interview I don't quite get lets me out. In so many cases then, I hope people make transcripts, since this is a problem for lots of folks, maybe into the millions.

Right, Osso, this is Alan's son, a professor at Columbia, who followed in his father's footsteps. Alan, Sr. was all over the delta, and the whole south, collecting "folk music" for the library of congress back in the 1930's.. Many of these blues artists would never have been heard of without him.

Some straight-ahead blues from Lazy Lester with Lightnin Slim on guitar. Lester was a Louisiana boy who used to play "swamp harp" with Slim Harpo. For years he lived with Slim Harpo's sister in Michigan. Recently inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. Probably best known for his tune "Sugar-Coated Love," recorded in 1958 also included here.

Looky here, Mary Lee...
Don't you know my name?
You used to love me so hard, Girl....
It was a cryin shame



Ya wanna know what sugar-coated love is?
It's the best kinda love they got....
It the kinda love that makes the old feel young..
and it makes the north pole hot!