Berks Blues Fest Blog

Honeyboy Edwards Two Trains Running

The Muddy Waters version was originally recorded in 1951 under the title "Still A Fool". Thans to Anita Cantor for alerting me to this, and pointing me to a Rob Quinn transcription of the lyrics. According to Anita, Muddy Waters also recorded it with different lyrics under the title "She's All Right"

The Muddy Waters lyrics are:

Well now there's two
There's two trains runnin'
Well ain't not one, (ho!) goin' my way
Well now one run at midnight
And the other one runnin' just 'fore day
A runnin' just 'fore day
It's runnin' just 'fore day
Oh Lord
Sure 'nough then
Oh well

Hmm, (ho) (ho)
Somebody help me (ho) with these blues
Well now, she's the one I'm lovin'
She the one I do hate to lose
I do hate to lose
I do hate to lose
Oh Lord
Sure enough I do
Oh well

I been crazy
Yes I been a fool
I been crazy, oh all my life
Well I done fell in love with her
With another man's wife
With another man's wife
With another man's wife
Oh Lord
Sure 'nough I done
Oh well

Long, she's long and tall
'Til she weeps like a willow tree
Well now, then say she's no good
But she's all right
She's all right with me
She's all right
She's all right
She's all right
She's all right

John Henry - Fiddlin' Arthur Smith

John Henry
retold by
S. E. Schlosser

Now John Henry was a mighty man, yes sir. He was born a slave in the 1840's but was freed after the war. He went to work as a steel-driver for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, don't ya know. And John Henry was the strongest, the most powerful man working the rails.

John Henry, he would spend his day's drilling holes by hitting thick steel spikes into rocks with his faithful shaker crouching close to the hole, turning the drill after each mighty blow. There was no one who could match him, though many tried.

Well, the new railroad was moving along right quick, thanks in no little part to the mighty John Henry. But looming right smack in its path was a mighty enemy - the Big Bend Mountain. Now the big bosses at the C&O Railroad decided that they couldn't go around the mile and a quarter thick mountain. No sir, the men of the C&O were going to go through it - drilling right into the heart of the mountain.

A thousand men would lose their lives before the great enemy was conquered. It took three long years, and before it was done the ground outside the mountain was filled with makeshift, sandy graves. The new tunnels were filled with smoke and dust. Ya couldn't see no-how and could hardly breathe. But John Henry, he worked tirelessly, drilling with a 14-pound hammer, and going 10 to 12 feet in one workday. No one else could match him.

Then one day a salesman came along to the camp. He had a steam-powered drill and claimed it could out-drill any man. Well, they set up a contest then and there between John Henry and that there drill. The foreman ran that newfangled steam-drill. John Henry, he just pulled out two 20-pound hammers, one in each hand. They drilled and drilled, dust rising everywhere. The men were howling and cheering. At the end of 35 minutes, John Henry had drilled two seven foot holes - a total of fourteen feet, while the steam drill had only drilled one nine-foot hole.

John Henry held up his hammers in triumph! The men shouted and cheered. The noise was so loud, it took a moment for the men to realize that John Henry was tottering. Exhausted, the mighty man crashed to the ground, the hammer's rolling from his grasp. The crowd went silent as the foreman rushed to his side. But it was too late. A blood vessel had burst in his brain. The greatest driller in the C&O Railroad was dead.

Some folks say that John Henry's likeness is carved right into the rock inside the Big Bend Tunnel. And if you walk to the edge of the blackness of the tunnel, sometimes you can hear the sound of two 20-pound hammers drilling their way to victory over the machine.

Orange Blossom Special by Fiddlin' Arthur Smith

Smith was born and raised on a farm near Bold Springs, Tennessee. He learned to play the fiddle at an early age, his first influence being the fiddlers Grady Stringer and Walter Warden. He married in 1914 at the age of sixteen. Initially he began performing at local dances and fiddlers' conventions. He teamed up with his wife Nettie, his cousin Homer Smith and fiddler Floyd Ethredge. In 1921, Smith began working as a logger and a linesman for a railroad company in Dickson, Tennessee. In his work he had to make extensive travels and that enabled him to meet other musicians along the way. He attended several fiddle contests across Tennessee winning the bulk of them.

Smith made his solo debut as a fiddler on the Grand Ole Opry on December 23, 1927. Within weeks he was accompanied by his cousin Homer Smith. In the meantime, Fiddlin' Arthur Smith continued to work on the railroad. In the 1930s, Smith formed "The Dixieliners" together with the McGee Brothers and his daughter Lavonne who played the piano. They became a regular act on the Opry in May 1932 performing popular songs such as Walking In My Sleep, Pig In the Pen and Blackberry Blossom. The Dixieliners toured the countryside featuring Uncle Dave Macon and the Delmore Brothers on some of these tours. In January 1935, Smith made his first recordings with the Delmore Brothers on the Bluebird label.[1] In 1936, Smith began to sing on his recordings on songs such as, Chittlin' Cookin' Time in Cheatham County, There's More Pretty Girls Than One and his signature song Beautiful Brown Eyes. That particular song, recorded in August 1937, led Smith to take action in court against some cover artists who had recorded the song as if it was in the public domain. He ended up winning the suit.

Because of the hard work it took to maintain two full time jobs, on the railroad and as a professional musician, Smith fell into hard drinking. In February 1938, it led to a temporary three-month suspension from the Opry. With assistance from Roy Acuff, Smith returned to the music circuit.

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Wabash Cannonball Roy Acuff

The Wabash Cannonball" is an American folk song about a fictional train, thought to have originated sometime in the late nineteenth century. Its first documented appearance was on sheet music published in 1882, titled "The Great Rock Island Route" and credited to J. A. Roff. All subsequent versions contain a variation of the chorus:

Now listen to the jingle, and the rumble, and the roar,
As she dashes thro' the woodland, and speeds along the shore,
See the mighty rushing engine, hear her merry bell ring out,
As they speed along in safety, on the "Great Rock-Island Route."

A rewritten version by William Kindt appeared in 1904 under the title "Wabash Cannon Ball".[1]

The Carter Family made one of the first recordings of the song in 1929, though it was not released until 1932. Another popular version was recorded by Roy Acuff in 1936.[1]

It is a signature song of the Kansas State University Marching Band, the University of Texas Longhorn Band, and of the Indiana State University Marching Sycamores, as ISU is close to the Wabash River. It was also used as the theme song by the USS Wabash (AOR5).

City of New Orleans - Johnny Cash

City of New Orleans is a folk song written by Steve Goodman, describing a train ride from Chicago to New Orleans in bittersweet and nostalgic terms. Goodman got the idea while traveling on the train of that name for a visit to his wife's family. He performed the song for Arlo Guthrie in the Quiet Knight, a bar in Chicago, and Guthrie agreed to add it to his repertoire. The song proved a hit for Guthrie in 1972 on his album Hobo's Lullaby, and is now more closely associated with him, although Goodman continued to perform it until his death in 1984. The song has also been covered by Willie Nelson, John Denver, Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Jerry Reed, and others.

Murder in the Red Barn - Tom Waits

The trees are bending over The cows are lying down The atumn's taking over You can hear the buckshot hounds The watchman said to Reba the loon Was it pale at Manzanita Or Blind Bob the raccoon? Pin it on a drifter They sleep beneath the bridge One plays the violin And sleeps inside a fridge There was a murder in the red barn A murder in the red barn Someone's crying in the woods Someone's burying all his clothes Now Slam the Crank from Wheezer Slept outside last night and froze Road kill has its seasons Just like anything It's possums in the autumn And it's farm cats in the spring There was a murder in the red barn A murder in the red barn Now thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house Or covet thy neighbor's wife But for some Murder is the only door through which they enter life Now they surrounded the house They smoke him out They took him off in chains The sky turned black and bruised And we had months of heavy rains Now the raven's nest in the rotted roof Of Chenoweth's old place And no one's asking Cal About that scar upon his face 'Cause there's nothin' strange About an axe with bloodstains in the barn There's always some killin' You got to do around the farm A murder in the red barn Murder in the red barn Now the woods will never tell What sleeps beneath the trees Or what's buried 'neath a rock Or hiding in the leaves 'Cause road kill has it's seasons Just like anything It's possums in the atumn And it's farm cats in the spring A murder in the red barn A murder in the red barn Now a lady can't do ntohin' Without folks' tongues waggin' Is this blood on the tree Or is it autumn's red blaze When the ground's soft for diggin' ANd the rain will bring all this gloom There's nothing wrong with a lady Drinking alone in her room But there was a murder in the red barn A murder in the red barn

Gillian Welch with John Paul Jones at Bonnaroo 2007

Welch was born in Manhattan and was adopted when she was three days old. She moved to Los Angeles at the age of four. On her eighth birthday she wished for and got a guitar and lessons, and learned soon to play the guitar. Studying at the University of California, Santa Cruz,[3] Welch discovered bluegrass music through the "mountain soul" stylings of The Stanley Brothers.[4] After a short stint playing bass in a local camp band called S�fa, Welch moved to Boston and studied at the Berklee College of Music.

In Boston, Welch met and began dating David Rawlings, who would become her long-time musical partner. In 1992, they moved to Nashville and began building a career. In Nashville, she met T-Bone Burnett,[5] producer to such artists as Los Lobos, Sam Phillips, Bodeans, Counting Crows, and Elvis Costello. In 1996, Welch released her first album, Revival, which was nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1997.[2] Since then, she has recorded other albums and collaborated on the songs "Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby" and "I'll Fly Away" on the Grammy-winning soundtrack of the Coen Brothers hit film O Brother, Where Art Thou?.[6] Welch also had a cameo in the film, as a woman in a record store trying to obtain a copy of the Soggy Bottom Boys' recording of "Man of Constant Sorrow".

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David "Honeyboy" Edwards - Gamblin' Man

Beginning with a stirring African folk song (Z�li� performed by Ang�lique Kidjo) the roots are established and rapidly swell into a trunk thickened by the hardships of the Great Depression (Gamblin' Man performed by David 'Honeyboy' Edwards) and the oppression of segregation (Jim Crow Blues performed by Odetta). Finally, this Blues family tree shows off vibrant new growth as it reveals the Blues' influence on our modern wealth of talented musicians (Midnight Special performed by John Fogerty and Hound Dog done by Macy Gray). Ruth Brown gives Blll Cosby a full-throttle serenade (and a playful smoldering gaze), along with Mavis Staples and Natalie Cole. Ang�lique Kidjo persuades Buddy Guy to an unforgettable rendition of 'Voodoo Child,' shortly before Bonnie Raitt and Robert Cray accompany B.B. King and Lucille for the final number, 'Paying the Cost to be the Boss.' This documentary presents to the audience, with authority and candor, an authentic history of this musical form. The highly esteemed elders of this musical family are exemplary in their humbleness toward one another, rich with decades of shared memories; and their performances are of a quality rarely seen in modern times. These men and women are true artisans, yet they continue to generously pass their legacy down to select members of each musical generation. Those who grew up on this music find themselves performing on the stage with the very heroes who served as their earliest inspiration. Legends, such as Ruth Brown, Honeyboy Edwards, Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown, B.B. King, Howling Wolf, and Buddy Guy, gave the world a double helping of their genius-first with song and secondly as the spirit which supplies the continuation of their art: in such artists as Natalie Cole, Jimmie Vaughan, John Fogerty, Macy Gray, Alison Krause, and Bonnie Raitt. Written by Annie Campos

crossroads homesick james

Homesick James (30 April 1910[1] - 13 December 2006) was a black American blues musician. He is believed to have been born John William Henderson, but later used the name James A. Williamson and was sometimes referred to as Homesick James Williamson.
Contents

* 1 Life
* 2 References
* 3 See also
o 3.1 External links

[edit] Life

He was born in Somerville, Tennessee, the son of Cordellia Henderson and Plez Williamson Rivers, who were both musicians[2]. He developed a self-taught style of slide guitar through playing at local dances in his teens. His early life is uncertain. He claimed to have played with Yank Rachell, Sleepy John Estes, Blind Boy Fuller and Big Joe Williams, among others, and to have been acquainted with Robert Johnson. He also claimed to be the older cousin of Elmore James, to have bought Elmore his first guitar, and to have taught him how to play slide. However, some of these claims are unconfirmed.

By the early 1930s he was based in Chicago, and formed a band called the Dusters that included Snooky Pryor and "Babyface" Leroy Foster[3]. He may have first recorded for RCA Victor in 1937, but this is also unconfirmed, and by 1938 may have begun playing electric guitar. His first known recordings were in 1952 for Chance Records, recording the tracks "Lonesome Ole Train" and "Homesick" which gave him his stage name. During the late 1940s and 1950s he worked with both Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller), and with Elmore James. He was a longtime member of Elmore's band from 1955 to 1963, contributing to such classics as "Dust My Broom," "The Sky is Crying," and "Roll and Tumble." Elmore is said to have died on Homesick's couch while the latter frantically searched for the former's heart pills[4].

As a solo performer, he recorded for the Colt and USA labels in 1962, including a version of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads". Homesick James's slide guitar style, not as refined as Elmore James's, traces back to Johnson's. He also recorded a 1964 album for Prestige Records, Blues On the South Side (Prestige OBCCD 529-2), including another of his best-known covers, "Stones In My Passway", and some tracks for Vanguard that are available on the compilation Chicago: The Blues Today.[5]. One of his own songs, "Gotta Move" (also on Blues On the South Side) was covered (as "Got To Move") both by Elmore James and by Fleetwood Mac.

In the 1970s he began playing at blues festivals, including some in Europe, often with Snooky Pryor. He continued to record for labels including Delmark, Prestige, Big Bear, Appaloosa and Icehouse Records. Homesick married Rosa Mangiullo, an Italian immigrant, who with her son Tony owns and operates premier blues club Rosa's Lounge on the west side of Chicago in the 1980s - they would remain married until his death although they did not live together other than for a brief period after the wedding. Her son Tony is a well-known blues drummer in Chicago and Europe. Homesick was referred to by name in the Deacon Blue song "Fergus Sings the Blues", in the lyric "Homesick James, my biggest influence". Homesick toured the country with Big Walter Horton and appeared on National Public Radio broadcasts live from college campuses in the late 1970s, backed by Rich Molina, Bradley P. Smith, Eddie Taylor, Guido Sinclair and Paul Nebenzahl.

He remained an active performer into his 90s, performing both locally and at international festivals, but stopped recording in 2004. He moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he was cared for during the last years of his life by blues musician and protege John Long, and died there on December 13, 2006. He is buried in Covington, Tennessee.

hound dog taylor, little water- hideaway blues

BIOGRAPHY:
When Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor sat down on his battered folding chair, slipped his steel slide onto his six-fingered left hand and tore into one of his foot-stomping shuffles, supercharged boogies or a searing slow blues, he had one thing in mind--making people forget their troubles, either by dancing or by immersing themselves in the deepest of bottleneck blues. And whether he was playing for old friends at one of Chicago's inner-city bars or for thousands of college kids and hippies at clubs and campuses around the country, Taylor's music never changed. With just two guitars and a drum set, Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers created a rocked-out, hypnotic, ultra-danceable sound that is as emotionally powerful and wildly energizing today as it was the day they produced it.

Until he recorded his (and Alligator Records') first album, HOUND DOG TAYLOR AND THE HOUSEROCKERS in 1971, Taylor was largely unknown outside of Chicago. He played blues guitar for 35 years before reaching a wider audience and gaining the status of a beloved blues icon. From the mid-1950's until 1975, Taylor and his band--second guitarist Brewer Phillips and drummer Ted Harvey--kicked out the blues jams all over the South and West sides, including a regular Sunday afternoon gig at Florence's Lounge. It was at one of these performances in 1970 where a young blues fan named Bruce Iglauer decided to start a blues record label for the sole purpose of recording Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers.

Without a drop of slickness, Taylor's electrified blues was feral, rocking and raw. Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau referred to the band as "the Ramones of the blues," and it's easy to understand why. Taylor played fast, loud and sloppy, and would sometimes hit bad notes or get out of tune. But he always made primeval, soul-satisfying music. Nobody could match him when it came to emotional fervor and the pure joy of making music. Songs like Give Me Back My Wig, She's Gone, and Walking The Ceiling are now considered blues classics. "Live wire exuberance and hard-as-nails force," said Rolling Stone, "natural for partying, drinking and talking loud."

Now, for the first time in 22 years, there's finally more Hound Dog Taylor music to be heard. RELEASE THE HOUND is a sizzling collection of some of the best previously unreleased Hound Dog Taylor material in existence. Featuring over 68 minutes of music, RELEASE THE HOUND boasts 14 live and studio performances, including stunning versions of Wild About You, Baby, What'd I Say?, She's Gone, Sen-Sa-Shun and Gonna Send You Back To Georgia. Taylor's wild guitar exuberance and joyous, soulful abandon fuel each and every song. Three instrumentals on the CD showcase Brewer Phillips' crazed lead guitar playing. From the audience reactions on the live cuts to the untamed blues energy of the studio tracks, RELEASE THE HOUND will delight old fans and introduce new ones to Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers' one-of-a-kind blues experience.

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