Hey man, whatcha’ listening to?

Nowadays I find it hard to listen to music like when I was younger. I used to always be on the lookout for new music. I had friends who were also into music, and we’d always be talking about new bands.  This was back before the internet, and you had to go out of your way to find new stuff. You’d read all of the mainstream music magazines, read the ‘zines for the underground bands, listen to college radio to be exposed to unknown bands, or trade mix tapes with your friends. I’d listen to music all of the time but now I don’t have time to do all of that. If I listen to music now, it’s usually in the car, so here’s what I currently have in my car,

Ry Cooder – Boomers Story

Ry’s done a lot of good stuff. This was the first album of his that I bought, and it’s still my favorite. I prefer Ry's earlier albums, up to about the album Borderline. To me that is what Ry was all about, playing and exploring traditional music. Some of his mid period albums are okay, but I hear that his most recent couple of albums are really good. I haven't bought any of them yet, so I can't say.

Charlie Patton – Founder of the Delta Blues

It’s hard to pick a favorite blues singer, but Charlie is definitely up there. His playing is still causing people to say " How is he doing that?" Not to mention his vocals. There's a great quote from Son House, when asked in the 1960s to decipher what Charlie was singing on an old record, Son says that he couldn't understand what he was saying when he was sitting next to him in the 1930s. (When I find the actual quote, I'll post about it.)

Uncle Tupelo – Anodyne

The last album by Uncle Tupelo before they split up to form Wilco and Son Volt. When I first heard this, It didn't really do anything for me, so I put it on the shelf. A couple of months later, I gave it another try and I couldn't understand why I didn't like it the first time. It became one of my favorite albums of the mid 1990s.

Leoncavallo – Pagliacci (with Placido Domingo)

When I played in the Munier Mandolin Orchestra, I always enjoyed playing Vesti La Giubba, especially when we had a singer. To me opera has what I like in music. It tells a story, and touches on basic human emotions.

Grateful Dead –  Ladies and Gentlemen… The Grateful Dead- Filmore East April 1971

This is my favorite time period of the Grateful Dead, They still had the energy from the early days, and hadn’t yet become too spacey. Also Pigpen was still in top form with his raps. On this album, you can still hear them trying to find their way from the psychedelic music of the 1960s to the more folksy American Beauty/Workingman's Dead period.  On this, they cover songs as far apart as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles "I second that emotion", to Merle Haggard's "Sing me back home."

Henry Thomas

In my post about Steve Goodman, I also mentioned that Henry Thomas was one of the musicians that put me in a good mood.

I don’t know where I first heard Henry Thomas, but three possibilities are Canned Heat’s song “Going up the Country” which uses Thomas’ “Bull Doze Blues” as its blueprint, Taj Mahal’s “Fishing Blues,” which is a reworking of Thomas’ song of the same name, or maybe it was the Grateful Dead’s version of “Don’t Ease Me In”. Hearing those songs got me interested, but hearing the originals is what got me hooked.

Canned Heat - Going up the Country



Henry Thomas - Bull Doze Blues



Taj Mahal - Fishin Blues



Henry Thomas - Fishing Blues



Grateful Dead - Don't Ease Me In



Henry Thomas - Don't Ease Me In

Henry Thomas was an early blues musician. Actually that’s not entirely true. He was a “pre-blues” musician, what is often called a “songster.” A songster was a person who played a variety of genres of music, ranging from ballads, dance tunes, pop songs, ragtime and blues.  You can see this in the nickname Henry Thomas is sometimes called, “Ragtime Texas.” Not much is known about Henry Thomas; he was born around 1874, but it is not known when he died. There are stories that he was seen performing on street corners into the 1950’s.

What we do know for a fact is that between 1924 and 1927, he recorded 23 songs that laid a cornerstone for future musicians, while at the same time showing how the form known as “the blues” came to be.

What is it about those 23 songs that put me in a good mood? Is it the incessant train-like rhythm, the sound of the quills, the way the lyrics from one song show up in another, the vocals? All I know is that when all of those ingredients are combined, it can’t help but put a smile on my face.

For some more information on Henry Thomas check these out

Bio

http://www.cascadeblues.org/History/HenryThomas.htmd

Quills

http://www.sohl.com/Quills/Quills.htm

Guitar and Quill Technique

http://weeniecampbell.com/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43&Itemid=42

(Weenie Campbell has a lot of great information on country blues. I’ve been a long time lurker on that forum)