My collection of blues record now number close to two thousand, not entirely modest, I am aware, but not complete in any sense of the word either.
Still, I am regularly surprised at how often I am "wowed" by a particular song or artist, either blues or folk. So when I was reading Alan Lomax's 'Land Where The Blues Began,' I was curious to listen to a blues record that Lomax claims to be his best experience with the blues. Lomax's passion for the blues often leaves him prone to hyperbole. Nonetheless, he was a man, that recorded and spent an intimate amount of time with Leadbelly, Sonny Terry, Fred McDowell, Muddy Waters and the rest of them. So when he picks out his recordings with the legendary Son House and friends as the best of the lot, then there must be some element of truth in them, in the very least warranting an audio investigation.
But first, a little more on Son House. Born near Clarksdale, Mississippi, in 1902(disputed), the young Son House was drawn to the Baptist Church and began to give sermons at around the age of fifteen. Perhaps, Son House had some religious calling in him, or perhaps, he admired the relatively 'easy' and 'respectable' life that black preachers were accorded in the Segregated South in the first half of the 1920s.
"I am gonna get me a religion, gonna join the Baptist Church,
You know I wanna be a Baptist preacher, so I won't have to work"
Nonetheless, Son House could not resist the temptations in him, and soon he began to follow in the 'devil's music': the blues and all that it entailed, womanizing, alcohol, violence etc. So in 1928, Son House, during a fight, killed a man, allegedly in self-defence and was sentenced to a 15 year term in the Mississippi State Penitentiary, more popularly known to the largely black inmates there as Parchman's Farm. He was released from there however, in 1930 and it was sometime here that he linked up with another delta great, Charley Patton and also recorded his first songs for Paramount records. A decade later, Alan Lomax, working for the Library of Congress recorded Son House amongst which was that session he labeled 'as my best experience of the blues.'
In 1964, House was 'discovered' in Rochester, New York when the blues-folk revival was in full swing in America. Here he played to awestruck young and predominately white audiences and of course, British counterparts from across the Atlantic, amongst whom were the Rolling Stones. He played as much as his health allowed him during his later years, till some years before his passing in October of 1988.
But, what draws people to Son House (or scares them away) is the vigor and passion through which he sends his message across. The guitar would bang out the repetitive rhythm over which his powerful voice would say what it wanted. Make no mistake, he was not just an ordinary tractor driver. He was also one of the finest blues performers, having honed his skill with Charlie Patton and Wille Brown on the streets to the harsh critics of the Mississippi Delta. He knew what it took to keep the audience raptured in his hand. The dichotomy between Son House: the preacher and Son House: the bluesman, crying out to be resolved in every verse, as the tendons of his face and neck stretched and flexed, and as the veins in his face throbbed with the energy of his emotion, either love, anger, hate or laughter. It was, in our modern world, a different music from a different place. But what was it about the recording that Alan Lomax talked about that was so special. That even with Son House's standards, was special.
Alan Lomax, describes it better than me. As he sat, with his acetate recording machine, "in an aging country store...with Son House and his buddies stripped to the waist," in the sweltering and hot Mississippi day. He was there with Willie Brown (guitar), some say it was the same Willie Brown who is mentioned in Robert Johnson's 'Crossroads Blues,'
"You can run, you can run, tell my friend boy Willie Brown,
I am going to the crossroads, believe I am sinking down." - Crossroad Blues, Robert Johnson
Also there was LeRoy Williams (harmonica) and Fiddlin' Joe Martin (Mandolin). As Lomax writes, "..after the bottle had gone round the band, Son House said "Let me sing you about the old-time walking blues.." He began to sing (as the) harmonica puffed like a wild and sorrowful wind, and the guitar beating out a heart stopping rythmn, like trees being torn by their roots....the second guitar picked out the bass-string obbligato to the big country feet that whomped out the rythmn and turned the whole frame building into a huge African drum..the mandolin player..trailed cascades of blue-silver chords that lit up the harmonica's chase...at the center of all this was Son House, a man transformed, no longer the quiet, affable person I had met, but possessed by the song, as Gypsies in Spain are possessed, gone blind by the music and poetry."
And just as the Mississippi River meanders along the delta, so too does the rendition of 'Walking Blues' that Lomax recorded. The verses, flowing for as long as Son House wanted it too. So for nearly 7 minutes, he sings. Unrestrained by Jim Crow and the hard labour, he sings. Slightly influenced by the clear country moonshine, that had gone around, he sings. And with freedom denied them by the Roosevelt Administration, he sings.
Walking Blues ("thats when you bound to leave somebody, you don't want to, but you gonna go ahead on anyhow"- Son House)
Got up this morning, feeling around for my shoes
No doubt that I go the walking blues
I said I got up this morning, I was feeling round for my shoes
I said I know about that now honey, I got them walking blues
Oh the blues ain't nothing but a low-down shaking chill
If you ain't had 'em, I hope you never will
Lord the blues, is a low-down shaking chill
If ain't had that feeling, boy, Lord I hope you never will
When you get worried, drop me a line
If I don't go crazy, honey, I'm going to lose my mind
When you get worried, I said sit down and drop me a line
If I don't go crazy honey, I'm going to lose my mind
Yeah hair ain't curly, your doggone eyes ain't blue
If you don't want me, what in the world I want with you
Your hair ain't curly, and your doggone eyes ain't blue
I said if you don't want me, babe, what in the world I want with you
Don't a man feel bad, good Lord, when the sun go down
If he don't have nobody to throw his arms around
Yeah a man feel bad, I said, when the, good Lord, sun go down
I said he don't have a soul, not to throw his arms around
Look here baby, what you want me to do
I've done all I could, just to get along with you
Look here honey, what do you want me to do
I say I've done all I could honey, just to get along you
You know I love my baby like a cow love to chew a cud
I'm laying round here, though, I ain't doing no good
I love you honey, like a cow love to chew a cud
I'm laying round here baby, but I sure ain't doing no good
When you're lonely, the minutes seems like hours, hours seem like days
Seem like my baby won't stop her low-down ways
The minutes seem like hours, hours seem like days
It seem like my baby won't stop her low-down ways
I'm going to the gypsy now, and have my fortune told
I believe somebody is stealing my jelly-roll
I'm going to the gypsy, I believe I have my fortune told
'Cause I believe somebody is trying to steal my jelly-roll
I got up this morning, feeling sick and bad
Thinking about the good times that I once had had
I said soon this morning, I was feeling so sick and bad
You know I was thinking about the good times that I once had had
Sun is going down behind that old western hill
Yeah, yeah, Lord, behind that old western hill
Now I wouldn't do nothing boys, not against my woman's will
You know I'm going away, going to stay a long time
I ain't coming back here till you change your mind
I'm going away, I believe I'll stay a long time
I said I ain't coming back, honey, until you change your mind
Enough of me talking. You hear it for yourself. Thats the blues!. One day, I hope I can witness a performance like that too. Meanwhile, Lomax recounts that at least one more song was recorded that summer afternoon, 'Death Letter Blues.' Time to get my hands on that.
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