Fans of Lucinda Williams may recognise the title 'Down the Big Road Blues' which featured as a bonus track on the Deluxe Edition of her breakthrough Grammy Award winning album 'Car Wheels on a Gravel Road'. The song is rightly credited to Mattie Delaney who unfortunately only had two known recordings released under her name. One was the aforementioned 'Down the Big Road Blues' while on the other side of the disc was 'Tallahatchie River Blues' a song about the flood of the river that occurred on 23 January 1930.
Both tracks were recorded in Memphis on 21 February 1930 and were released on the Vocalion record label. On both cuts Delaney sang and accompanied herself on guitar. Beyond the fact that she was still alive in 1930, nothing else is known about Delaney. She simply disappeared from public view..
Although she wrote 'Down the Big Road Blues' the song was a variation on 'Big Road Blues' which had been written by Tommy Johnson and was recorded by him also in Memphis on 3 February 1928. It was released on Victor Records coupled with 'Cool Drink of Water Blues' on a 10" 78 RPM record bearing the Victor label. On both tracks, Johnson sang and played guitar accompanied by second guitarist, Charlie McCoy.
Canned Heat who were to take their name from another Tommy Johnson song, 'Canned Heat Blues' included Johnson's 'Big Road Blues' on their self titled 1967 debut album. The following year they released the track 'On The Road Again' which paid homage to a 1953 song of the same name by Floyd Jones who had simply reworked his own haunting 1952 recording 'Dark Road Blues'. Listening to the latter, it should be obvious to anyone that it is very heavily influenced by Johnson's 'Big Road Blues'.
Then in 2003, Corey Harris who was not born until two years after Canned Heat's debut, released the album 'Mississippi to Mali' on which he fused his own blues with the music of Ali Farka Toure. One of the tracks included on the album was none other than Tommy Johnson's 'Big Road Blues' (though it was credited on the album as 'traditional').
Thus the thread that connects these diverse performances can clearly be seen stretching from Tommy Johnson in 1928 through Mattie Delaney (1930), Floyd Jones (1952), Canned Heat (1967), Lucinda Williams (1998) and eventually to Corey Harris in 2003. A total of 75 years.
I hope that these examples provide one small glimpse into how the works of blues artists from the early part of the 20th century continue to influence contemporary artists today. It makes me wonder however, whether those contemporary acts will exert the same influence in another 75 years. One thing is for sure; I won't be here to find out.
Click the links below to listen to each of these fine tracks. I hope you enjoy them.
Tommy Johnson - Big Road Blues (1928)
Mattie Delaney - Down the Big Road Blues (1930)
Floyd Jones - Dark Road Blues (1952)
Canned Heat - Big Road Blues (1967)
Lucinda Williams - Down the Big Road Blues (1998) [live version]
Corey Harris - Big Road Blues (2003)
Well I hope all of you had a very merry Christmas. I'm just catching my breath after all of the festivities and while everyone else seems to be at the sales, I at last have time to sit and ponder on the best new album releases of 2014.
I have to say, for my money it hasn't been a year of outstanding album releases. For a start there were a few disappointments which included a lacklustre album from Bruce Springsteen with the ironic title 'High Hopes'. Neil Young released not one but two albums but neither quite hit the heights of his best work. 'A Letter Home' featured some fine cover versions but was recorded in such a lo-fi way as to drastically reduce any enjoyment one might have had of listening to it. The other, 'Storytone' did feature Young's original material but sadly fell well short of what we have come to expect from him. The fact that we were presented with two versions of each song, one performed solo and the other performed in front of an orchestra or band, did little to alleviate the disappointment with the material.
Goat were a band I had high hopes for after their 2012 debut 'World Music'. Despite plaudits from a number of critics, I found the follow-up, 'Communion' to be just more of the same. I was also disappointed with '... And Star Power' from Foxygen who had impressed me greatly with last year's 'We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic'. Shame, but that gets the disappointments out of the way so we can move onto the good stuff.
The early part of the year saw the release of 'English Oceans' by the Drive-By Truckers. As I asked at the time, have they ever released a duff record? OK this may not be quite up there with their finest work but it is good to see Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley equally sharing the songwriting credits again. For some time it looked as though it might make it into my top slot.
The album 'Benji' by Mark Kozelek who operates under the moniker Sun Kil Moon was another early contender. Pitchfork were even daring enough to declare it one of the best albums of the decade so far. Heavy praise indeed! The subject matter of the album tends to be mortality so there are a few deaths to deal with but there is humour in there also. All in all it is a very fine album though fans of Sun Kil Moon don't need me to tell them that.
I was impressed with the return to form of Jack Bruce with his album 'Silver Rails' on which he was supported by several family members and friends. It was almost as if Jack was saying his goodbye and although he sounded strong on the album itself I
watched a documentary about the making of the album and I thought he looked vary frail. Of course as we now know, he did not have long left with us which makes this album all the more poignant.
Another elder statesman, Leonard Cohen also returned with another fine album 'Popular Problems'. Full of bluesy themes and witty lyrics, the album carries on from where 'Old Ideas' left off which isn't a bad thing.
Two British bands that are forging quite a reputation in the melodic jazz style are the Neil Cowley Trio and Gogo Penguin, Their respective 2014 albums, 'Touch & Flee' and 'V2.0' were very much on my playlist in a year when I have been absorbing myself in an awful lot of jazz music both old and new. Of course Ginger Baker also produced a very jazz influenced album this year with 'Why'.
I have already commented on the releases from Lucinda Williams, Jack White, Jolie Holland, Royal Blood, Robert Plant, Pere Ubu, Opeth, Ryan Adams and Anais Mitchell. Clicking any of these links will take you to my original thoughts.
They are all very enjoyable albums but you may be surprised to hear that none have made it into my own personal top 3 this year.
To find out what has, I suggest you check back here in the next few days.
It would appear that Lucinda Williams is being becoming more prolific as a writer as she ages. Hence at the age of 61 she has delivered for her 11th studio album, a double CD containing no fewer than 20 tracks. And most of them are self-composed.
Now I must confess that I generally have a bit of an issue with double albums and it is not a positive thing. Perhaps this should be a subject for a future post on this blog.
Having got that out of the way, I feel that Ms Williams deserves a great deal of credit that this album pretty much sustains my interest throughout. And that has to be down to the quality and variety of the songs as much as the performances. Besides the usual dosage of country rock, we also get plenty of blues and soul. The opening track 'Compassion' is a reworking of a poem written by her father Miller Williams. Featuring just Lucinda on acoustic guitar, it is very different musically to anything else on these two discs. Lyrically however it sets the tone for the rest of the album , which is I feel as lyrically strong (if not more so) than anything she has ever done. Take for example, 'Foolishness' in which she warns all who would seek to intrude into her private domain, "What I do in my own time is none of your business and all of mine". Knowing the heartbreak and stormy relationships she has had in the past, can she possibly have sung anything that has come more from the heart?
The album is stacked with great songs, though in a collection of 20, we are bound to come across some that do not quite hit the heights of others. For me, 'West Memphis' and 'Wrong Number' fall into that category but overall this is a hell of a good album and if her prolific songwriting continues, I am sure that we have more great albums to look forward to.
Both tracks were recorded in Memphis on 21 February 1930 and were released on the Vocalion record label. On both cuts Delaney sang and accompanied herself on guitar. Beyond the fact that she was still alive in 1930, nothing else is known about Delaney. She simply disappeared from public view..
