I'll keep this brief: last night just before I went upstairs I decided to play one more Lp. It was around 1 am. There was this Lp beside me on the couch resplendent in lurid red with these dead eyes staring at me. I picked it up. Then I remembered. I hadn't played it since it happened. A postman friend of mine delivered it to my house early that morning. It was the month of May 2009. Later on the same morning my wife came home in a heightened state of anxiety. She was in an awful state. When she eventually calmed down she proceeded to tell me the story of her morning where she found the postman lying motionless on the footpath with people and ambulance crew doing their best to revive him. They lost. A massive coronary ended his life. He was only fifty. To this day I haven't played the Lp.
Look at the title. Weird. I carefully took the record out of its sleeve and placed it reverently on the turntable platter. I turned off the lights. For the next forty minutes I sat transfixed listening to this early proponent of the Delta Blues. I became an instant convert. I need more of his records as this is the only one I have. Recorded in one day 14th June 1929. I got up and put everything to bed safe in the knowledge that I'll never hear music like this again. Never be moved like this again. Then I remembered my friend Liam who I had only known about a year. Gone with the wind. Never to be seen again. Prayer of Death indeed.....
Thus is a vinyl box set I'm particularly proud to own and is an obvious follow up to the Patton Lp I was listening to last night. A massive Patton disciple himself who made acoustic blues guitar instrumental Lps back in the day when it wasn't cool to do so. As recommended as they come to those without prejudice......
From Wire magazine : Bill Mayer
'It's hard to overstate the audacity and unlikeliness of Fahey's feat. In the days of the search engine, it's difficult to comprehend just how hard it was for an American Suburbanite to learn about his own cultural heritage, let alone anyone else's, during the Eisenhower era. But when he was still a teen, Fahey not only came to grips with the hidden legacy of Blues preserved on 78 rpm records, but hatched an idea to wed syncopation learned from African-American folk forms to Bartok's dissonance; by the time he was in his mid-twenties, he had added production twists lifted from psychedelic rock and musique concrète. Fahey had synthesised a new art form, set up his own Takoma label to disseminate it, and cultivated an audience for it from scratch. This is as American as it gets simultaneously as impish as the Marx Brothers and as spooked and wide open as a prairie fertilised by the blood of slaughtered bison and cruelly exploited Chinese railroad workers. 21st century American Primitive guitar has yielded its share of masterpieces but nothing this wild and strange.'
Last edited by cybot on Wed May 31, 2017 6:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
There was a nice bit on Arena:American Epic Pt 2 over the weekend (BBC4)featuring Charlie Patton, Dermot. Massive influence on a lot of players including Howlin' Wolf. Included interviews with David Honeyboy Edwards who I did see live about 25 years ago, only appreciated his place in blues history many years later unfortunately.
tweber wrote: ↑Thu Jun 01, 2017 7:49 pm
There was a nice bit on Arena:American Epic Pt 2 over the weekend (BBC4)featuring Charlie Patton, Dermot. Massive influence on a lot of players including Howlin' Wolf. Included interviews with David Honeyboy Edwards who I did see live about 25 years ago, only appreciated his place in blues history many years later unfortunately.
Ah I forgot about that! Will keep an eye out for repeats, says he who never, ever checks the programmes :) Anyway thanks for the heads up Shane.
Is Honeyboy on the Mac's Blues Jam at Chess album?
Now I'm going to head to the outskirts of town in search of the turtle's navel ;)
Seriously it's about time I checked out my Albert King studio collection as I only ever play the live ones.
Last edited by cybot on Thu Jun 01, 2017 9:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The first one on Tomato Records and the second on Fantasy. Looking at the titles on the second one I cannot believe it contains a song I alluded to in my last post. I honestly had no idea!
tweber wrote: ↑Thu Jun 01, 2017 7:49 pm
There was a nice bit on Arena:American Epic Pt 2 over the weekend (BBC4)featuring Charlie Patton, Dermot. Massive influence on a lot of players including Howlin' Wolf. Included interviews with David Honeyboy Edwards who I did see live about 25 years ago, only appreciated his place in blues history many years later unfortunately.
Ah I forgot about that! Will keep an eye out for repeats, says he who never, ever checks the programmes :) Anyway thanks for the heads up Shane.
Is Honeyboy on the Mac's Blues Jam at Chess album?
Now I'm going to head to the outskirts of town in search of the turtle's navel ;)
Seriously it's about time I checked out my Albert King studio collection as I only ever play the live ones.
He's on the Blues Jam Lp alright. Played with Patton and Robert Johnson back in the '30s
This is the only Albert King lp I have (SRV one on cd only and one or two compilations on cd also):
tweber wrote: ↑Thu Jun 01, 2017 7:49 pm
There was a nice bit on Arena:American Epic Pt 2 over the weekend (BBC4)featuring Charlie Patton, Dermot. Massive influence on a lot of players including Howlin' Wolf. Included interviews with David Honeyboy Edwards who I did see live about 25 years ago, only appreciated his place in blues history many years later unfortunately.
Ah I forgot about that! Will keep an eye out for repeats, says he who never, ever checks the programmes :) Anyway thanks for the heads up Shane.
Is Honeyboy on the Mac's Blues Jam at Chess album?
Now I'm going to head to the outskirts of town in search of the turtle's navel ;)
Seriously it's about time I checked out my Albert King studio collection as I only ever play the live ones.
He's on the Blues Jam Lp alright. Played with Patton and Robert Johnson back in the '30s
This is the only Albert King lp I have (SRV one on cd only and one or two compilations on cd also):
Right! That's a good King Lp too. Actually I found it hard to listen to the studio Lps I posted last night. Changed over to one of the live ones and I was happier.
To tell the truth after hearing Patton I find myself only wanting to hear more of this 'real' Blues. Listening to a Robert Johnson box set at the moment and it's just what I need!
