top ten albums - no. 4

Dear Sheddists,

I've always loved the blues, ever since my music teacher at school played an old 78rpm record which crackled and fizzed all the way down the years from the 1920s.

The song was "That Crawling Baby Blues' and the artist, Blind Lemon Jefferson, one of the founders of Texas blues who died prematurely in his 30's during a bitter Chicago snowstorm. The guitar riff had a baffling time signature augmented by a repetitive thumbed bass pattern over which an eerie vocal floated.  

It stuck in my mind, but it was another twenty years before I really started to explore the world of country blues. Once I got going I just kept digging and digging.  American labels were the best. Arhoolie, Yazoo and Rounder each brought a different take to this haunting and deeply personal music.  From the gentle Piedmont Blues of Mississippi John Hurt to the blistering, feral roar of Howling Wolf the music spoke of universal themes that remain true to this day - love, sex, death, hunger, longing, joy and misery.

The blues have a habit of getting right under the skin.  Just listen to this clip of the legendary Skip James playing Hard Times Killing Floor Blues to hear what I mean.

Many of the original country blues players were recorded during the 1920's for labels specialising in what was then called 'race music', only to disappear for decades in the aftermath of the Great Depression.  It took a new generation of musicologists to rediscover them in the 1960's by turning detective. 

Alan Lomax was the first to track down and record Mississipi Fred McDowell, a diminutive farmer and part-time blues musician who specialised in playing hypnotic, droning single-chord vamps. The record I've chosen for my top ten sees him paired with an old-time friend, Johnny Woods, a colourful harmonica-player who allegedly had to be dragged in for this live recording following a night of corn-whisky.  

Here they are playing 'Red Cross Store'

I defy you to keep your feet still as you listen!