A Big Thanks For The Links

In an attempt to say thanks, I'd like to link back to all the sites that I could find that link to SqueezeMyLemon. I think of this as a service to my various readers. If you have not checked out the sites below, please do. All of them are high quality blogs or music sites and I feel comfortable recommending that you check them out.

Audio Torium

Indieblogheaven

Big Rock Candy Mountain

mister anchovy

Cynical-C Blog

TUNING

Enchilada's Blog

Metatron's Link Dump

The South Side Blues / R&B Links

Appunti con sottofondo blues

Stoplight Sleep

Jimmy Joker's Circus

Ormondroyd's Encyclopedia Esoterica

1.000.000 Blogs

file under;
music, links, mp3, blues

Stones In My Pathway

In today's post I want to present a multimedia web site called Stones In My Pathway. It was created by Bill Steber.

As is explained on the site;

In 1997, Steber was awarded an Alicia Patterson Foundation grant to continue a project documenting Blues Culture in Mississippi that he started in 1993.

The project combines portraits of blues musicians playing at home and in clubs with images that describe what remains of the rural African-American culture that gave rise to the blues. Examples include, juke joints, cotton farming, sacred music, rural church services, river baptisms, folk religion and superstition, life on Parchman penitentiary, hill country African fife and drum music, and diverse regional blues styles. In addition, Steber is combining these images with field interviews that put the photographs in an historical perspective.

file under;
music, blues, culture, African American, photography, sound files

mp3s by Leadbelly

Leadbelly has always been one of my favorite blues men. My affection for him stems from the fact that he played and sang his music in my home town of Shreveport, Louisiana, down on Fannin Street back in the twenties and thirties. I was so excited to learn that he probably lived and walked around in the Ledbetter Heights section of Shreveport.

As you have probably noticed if you frequent this blog or if you look around a bit I am attracted to the prewar blues men. Later I may focus more on the post war and modern blues musician, but right now I am happy to find and do research on the pre war musicians.

The details of Leadbelly's life can be found here in an article from Answers.com. Also of note is the very interesting entry from the Handbook of Texas Online "Ledbetter, Huddie (Leadbelly)". And finally an article that has some great links for those who are interested in Leadbelly's life.

"Midnight Special" (3:11, 541 kB) - 124-A-1, Louisiana State Penitentiary, 1 July 1934

"Packin' Trunk" (2:56, 508 kB) - 16685-1, New York City, 23 January 1935

"Death Letter Blues, Part 1" (3:18, 553 kB) - 16695-2, New York City, 24 January 1935

"The Gallis Pole" (3:01, 519 kB) - GM-509-A, New York City, 1 April 1939

"Good Morning Blues" (2:53, 498 kB) - 051501-1, New York City, 15 June 1940



file under;
music, blues, mp3, Leadbelly

Skip James sings "Crow Jane" Video

Mr. James was one of the the earliest and more influential Delta bluesmen to make records. Skip James was the best known proponent of the so-called Bentonia school of blues players. You can read his full bio here; Skip James @ Answer.com

Blues legend Skip James sings "Crow Jane." From 1967.

file under;
music, blues, video, Skip James

John Lee Hooker - Hobo Blues Video

After I joined the Navy (my Hoboing days) I came back on leave and played this song for my mother, she laughed as we pondered the day that I left to ride those submarines (kind of like a freight train, only different) and she has been a fan of John Lee Hooker every since.

One of the highest moments of my life as a blues fan was to see him play live.

Please see a post that I wrote about Mr. Hooker in another one of my blogs, Bluesman in the spotlight: John Lee Hooker. There are a lot of informative links in this post.

Also check out my John Lee Hooker Birthday post in SqueezeMyLemon.

file under;
blues, music, video, John Lee Hooker

mp3s by Robert Johnson

Robert Johnson was a very influential Mississippi blues singer and songwriter who according to legend sold his soul to Satan. The legend goes that Mr. Johnson exchanged his soul "at the crossroads" in exchange for his great talent on the guitar. He was born and raised in Mississippi, he played blues guitar in the late 1920s. His wife and child died during childbirth around 1930 and he is said to have devoted himself to the guitar.

The "crossroads story" comes from reports that he dropped out of sight for a while in the early 1930s and returned with a new found ability to play the guitar like never before. In 1936 are so he recorded songs in San Antonio and Dallas, Texas. He then returned to Mississippi to play and sing in the Juke Joints.

His death which adds to his legend is still a mystery. He was a young man of 27 when he passed over to the other side. The legend goes on further to say that on the night of 13 August 1938 something occurred to Johnson in a bar in Greenwood Mississippi. Some report that he was stabbed, others say he was poisoned by the Juke Joint's owner because he was jealous because Johnson was spending time with his wife.

There are also those who say that the devil collected on his debt, nobody really knows. But the legend lives on.

In 1986 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence, and his songs have been covered by rock, country, and even some Jazz musicians, including Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones.

In 1994 the U.S. Post Office issued a stamp in his honor... The story of his career was fictionalized in the 1986 film Crossroads.

"Love In Vain"

"Phonograph Blues"

"Kind Hearted WomanBlues"
(2:49, 492kB) - Vocalion 03416, San Antonio TX, 23 November, 1936

"Cross Roads Blues"
(2:39, 458kB) - Vocalion 03519, San Antonio TX, 27 November, 1936

"Hell Hound on MyTrail"
(2:35, 448kB) - Vocalion 06323, Dallas TX, 20 June, 1937

"TravelingRiverside Blues"
(2:47, 474kB) - Dallas TX, 20 June, 1937

"Milkcow's CalfBlues"
(2:20, 403kB) - Vocalion 03665, Dallas TX, 20 June, 1937

Robert Johnson - King of The Delta Blues

Buy posters at AllPosters.com



file under:
music, blues, guitar, mp3, poster, Robert Johnson

Son House - Death Letter Blues Video

According to some Son House taught Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters the slide blues. One of my favorite stories about Son House is about when he started performing at Blues festivals again in the mid 1960s. It is said that Muddy Waters would tell all his band members to be quiet and pay attention when Son House was playing because even the Late Great Muddy Waters respected Son House as the real deal.

If you want to play the blues you have to live the blues. Son House was a man who was the embodiment of the Blues.

This video shows Son House's easy guitar work and any fan of steel guitars has got to love Son's guitar. I love the sad haunting quality of this song. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

You can read about Son House@Wikipedia.

Son House Death Letter @ YouTube.com

Son House @ Amazon.com


Son House @ iTunes.

file under;
blues, video, music

Robert Johnson's From Four Till Late Video

This is a clip that seems to be the ending credits for a movie where the Robert Johnson song From Four Till Late is used. There are some images of Johnson and remarks by Eric Clapton and Keith Richards.

Full lyrics to the song From Four Till Late

From four until late I was wringin' my hands and cryin'
From four until late I was wringin' my hands and cryin'

I believe to my soul that your daddy's Gulfport bound

From Memphis to Norfolk is a thirtysix hours' ride
From Memphis to Norfolk is a thirtysix hours' ride

A man is like a prisoner and he's never satisfied

A woman is like a dresser some man always ramblin' th'ough its drawers
A woman is like a dresser some man always ramblin' th'ough its drawers

It cause so many men wear an apron overhall

From four until late she get with a no-good bunch and clown
From four until late she get with a no-good bunch and clown

Now, she won't do nothin' but tear a good man' reputation down

When I leave this town I'm gon' bid you fare....farewell
When I leave this town I'm gon' bid you fare....farewell

And when I return again you'll have a great long story to tell

* Note: It is approximately 800 miles between Memphis and Norfolk.

file under;
Robert Johnson, video, blues, music

Howlin Wolf - I´ll be back someday Video

Hubert Sumlin - lead guitar, Willie Dixon - bass, Sunnyland Slim - piano. Don't know who the drummer is. I would guess this is from the early 1960s, Europe, possibly one of the American Folk Blues Festival tours.

file under;
music, blues, Howlin Wolf, Video

Koko Taylor Still Has Got What It Takes

Koko Taylor headlines the first night of the sixth annual Edmonton's Labatt Blues Festival, at the Heritage Amphitheatre.

The blues diva who turns 70 next month has had some health problems but she is doing well enough to head line this fetival.

You can read about it here, in an article from the EdmontonSun.com Hot Koko and the Blues by Jermey Loome.

Check out Koko's web site ->> Koko Taylor.com where you will find among other things some sound clips.

I'm A Woman

Voodoo Woman

Stop Watching Your Enemies


And here is an mp3 from Download.com.

Don't Let Me Catch You with Your Drawers Down.Mp3

file under;
Koko Taylor, music, blues, mp3s

Muddy Waters & Johnny Winter - Walking Through The Park

mp3s by Carl Martin

Carl puts me in the mind of Brownie McGee.

Farewell to You Baby

Joe Lewis Blues