Lucinda Williams Covers

I just came from the Lucinda Williams concert. She is celebrating 30 years since she released her first album on Folkways. So in the concert she started with her first album and did about two songs from each succeeding album, ending up with Honey Bee. This provided a lot of variety, since the first two album were blues and country and then she progressed on to more Rock & Roll

I had decided to post these videos before I went to the concert, but she mentioned at the concert that there are only three people in Nashville who would touch her songs. So here they are.

Patty Loveless performing "The Nights Too Long".



Mary Chapin Carpenter performing "Passionate Kisses".



Emmylou Haris doing "Crescent City".




Finally, Emmylou Harris & Buddy Miller performing "Sweet Old World". This is a more recent video than the previous three.

Lucinda Williams Gets Married

Lucinda Williams got married on September 18 during one of her concerts in Minneapolis. She credited Hank Williams as her inspiration to do this. It is coincidental that my posts last week were about Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Sister Rosetta staged here third marriage during a large concert at Griffith Stadium in Washington D.C. I think that was sometime during the 50's. As far as I know there is no film of Sister Rosetta's wedding, but this being the 21st century Lucinda's is on YouTube.




I am going to see Lucinda on Tuesday night when she comes to Baltimore. The last time I saw her she gave a four hour performance. I am not expecting that to happen again, but I am hoping that she does her song "Side of the Road", which she did not do when I saw her before.


The first line is missing from this clip. It is "You wait in the car by the side of the road">





She has so many good songs that it is hard to have a favorite. But here is another good one, "Bus to Baton Rouge".




And to include something from her latest album, here is "What It".

Rock & Roll

Since we started the week of with the beginning of Rock & Roll, I have decided to post a couple songs about Rock & Roll to end the week.

First, Tina Turner & Mick Jagger singing "It's Only Rock & Roll (But I Like It)"



Another great duet, Etta James & Chuck Berry performing "Rock & Roll Music".



I wanted to include a video of Bob Seger doing "Give Me That Old Time Rock & Roll". The only video of that I can find with decent audio, includes Tom Cruise in his underwear, so I have decided to skip that. Instead here is the audio of Jerry Lee Lewis & Jimmy Page doing the Led Zepplin song "Rock & Roll". This is from an album of duets that Jerry Lee Lewis recorded a couple years ago.

Up Above My Head/Sister Rosetta Pt. 2

Sister Rosetta Tharpe deserves more than one post, so here are a couple videos by other performers that relate to her.

First here is Ruthie Foster's cover of "Up Above My Head".



Here are two women who can go toe to toe with Sister Rosetta when it comes to Flamboyance. Dolly Parton and Patti Labelle's version of "Up Above My Head".



Alison Krauss and Robert Plant recorded the song "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us" on their recent album Raising Sand. Here is a video of them performing the song.

Rock & Roll Turns 65/Sister Rosetta Tharpe

There is endless debate over which recording should be considered the first rock & roll song. On the list of candidates. usually the earliest one is Sister Rosetta Tharpe's "Strange Thing Happening Everyday". That song was recorded in September 1944. So if you accept this as the first rock & roll song, rock & roll is now 65 years old.

There seems to be no video of Sister Rosetta performing this song, but here is the audio. I believe that this audio is from the 1944 recording, but I am not sure.




Considering what a dynamic performer Sister Rosetta was, I have to include some other videos of her performing. These videos would have been from the late 50's or early 60's, but she was still going strong. Here is "Up Above My Head". Let's do that again.



You can't get anymore rock & roll than this performance of "Down by the Riverside".






This performance of "Didn't It Rain" has my all time favorite entrance by any performer.

Fathers & Sons

A couple videos that involve fathers and sons in some combination.



Loudon Wainwright's song "One Man Guy" performed by Rufus Wainwright and Teddy & Kamila Thompson.






Here Richard & Teddy Thompson perform "Persuasion".





Del McCoury and his sons perform Richard Thompson's song "1952 Vincent Black Lightning".

Trombone Shorty

I went to a terrific Trombone Shorty concert tonight, so I am going to post some video of him.

Here he is doing "When the Saints Go Marching In" with the trumpet.





Here is a video of him playing trombone.

Happy Birthday B.B. King

Wednesday, 9/16/09, is B.B. King's 84th birthday and he is still going strong. In recognition I that I thought In would post some videos of him.

This first video is from a television appearance in 1968.



He performs "The Thrill Is Gone" in this video from the 1974 concert in Kinshasa, Zaire. This concert was staged to coincide with the Heavy Weight Championship fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, otherwise known as the Rumble in the Jungle.



Here King appears with Shemekia Copeland on the David Letterman show.



Finally, here he performs "When Love Comes to Town", a song written for him by Bono.

Hard Times Come Again No More

Not many songs have 100 years of recorded history. The song "Hard Times Come Again No More" does though. This song was written by Stephen Foster in 1854. For obvious reasons it was popular during the Civil War.

Foster wrote many other songs that are still remembered, including "Old Susanna", "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Camptown Races". But "Hard Times Come Again No More" is probably that one that is recorded the most today.

This song was first recorded in 1905 by the Edison Male Quartet. You can hear that recording here.

Mavis Staples recorded this song for a recent album of Foster songs called Beautiful Dreamer - The Songs of Stephen Foster. Here is a video that was made of that recording.





James Taylor, Yo-Yo Ma, Mark O'Connor and Edgar Meyer record the song for the album Appalachian Journey.





Here is an Irish version done by Dé Danann, with vocals by Mary Black and Dolores Keane.





And for good measure here is Bob Dylan covering the song.

St. Louis Blues/Bessie Smith

The film St. Louis Blues was released 80 years ago on September 8, 1929. I was not there, but evidently IMDB was. I believe this film contains the only extant footage of Bessie Smith, the Empress of the Blues.



Smith was killed in a car accident when she was only 43 years old. Many have covered her songs over the last 80 years. Dinah Washington recorded an entire album of Bessie Smith song call appropriately enough "Dinah Sings Bessie Smith" This is a great album, but I am hoping that someday Queen Latifah will record some Bessie Smith songs.

Here is Dinah Washington singing "Send Me to the 'lectric Chair".

Galveston 1900/Wasn't That a Mighty Storm

September 8 is the 109th anniversary of the of the 1900 Hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas. This was the deadliest natural disaster to ever strike the United States, killing at least 6,000 people. Here is a report, done several years ago, on the destruction of the St. Mary's Orphanage.



The most popular song that commemorates this disaster is "Wasn't That a Mighty Storm". This song was originally recorded by a man named Sin Killer Griffin, but unfortunately there is no video of this, or even a photograph of Sin Killer. There is this article published in the New York Daily News about the history of the song..

Several others have recorded this song since Sin Killer. I like this version done by The Duhks.

Labor Day - Woody Guthrie

The obvious choice for Labor Day is Woody Guthrie, so that is what I will do.

There is very little film of Woody Guthrie performing. Here, in some of the rare footage, Woody Guthrie joined by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee performs the song "John Henry". This is a traditional song, not one written by Woody.



In this video Odetta and Tennessee Ernie Ford perform three songs. The first, which Odetta sings, is the Woody Guthrie song "Pastures of Plenty". Tennessee Ernie Ford then sings "Nine Pound Hammer", which us credited to Merle Travis. Then together they sing "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago", which I think is a traditional song.



My favorite lyric by Woody Guthrie is "God's Promise". The original music to this lyric no longer exists, but here is Ellis Paul performing the song with music he wrote.

John Prine Covers (Duets)

This video was shot during Farm Aid 1985 at Memorial Stadium, University of Illinois. I thought I recognized the South Farms, and so I looked up where Farm Aid 1985 was staged to be sure. This was after I was there so I did not see this in person. Here Bonnie Raitt and Rickee Lee Jones perform "Angel from Montgomery".





From Scotland, here is a video of Natalie Merchant and Michael Stipe doing "Hello In There". I was not there either.





Finally, a more contemporary video of "That's the Way the World Goes Round", performed by Norah Jones and Richard Julian.

Homemade Jamz

The Homemade Jamz' Blues Band consists of 3 young siblings from Tupelo, MS. Ryan Perry, 17 yrs. old, Kyle Perry, 15 yrs old, and Taya Perry, 10 yrs. old. You have to see them to believe it. Plus they have a guitar and a bass made out of car mufflers.



Here is a performance of "Time for Change".



And here they are performing with the one and only BB King.