Senator Byrd

A couple videos to mark the passing of the fiddle playing senator.

"Cripple Creek"



"More Pretty Girls Than One"

Songs About Drinking

No Depression posted the first video below on Facebook, and it inspired me to do a post of songs about drinking. I have previously posted three of the best songs about drinking, or not drinking as the case may be—Great Big Sea's "The Old Black Rum", Corb Lund's "Time to Switch to Whiskey" and Elizabeth Cook's "Yes to Booty". So here are a couple more.

Townes Van Zandt - "Talking Thunderbird"



George Jones - "White Lightning"



I previously posted all of the known film of Bessie Smith. To include her again we have to go with just audio. So here it is, Bessie Smith with "Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer".




The Steeldrivers - Drinkin Dark Whiskey

Eva Cassidy

I have previously posted one Eva Cassidy song—"Autumn Leaves"—in my Fall post last year. Today I am going to post three more of her videos. All of these videos are from one or two concerts at Blues Alley. As far as I know these are the only live video recording made before she died in 1996.
"What a Wonderful World"

"Cheek to Cheek"
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" - Coincidently this song is also on Jeff Beck's new album that I did a post on earlier this week. I did not include this song in that post, or I could have had this song posted twice in one week.

Elizabeth Cook Interview

Here is a interview with Elizabeth Cook at Bonnaroo. She talks about her new album, Welder.

Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck has a new album—Emotion & Commotion—that come out recently. I got it from iTunes today after hearing an interview with Beck on NPR. Here are a couples songs that are on the album.

"Nessun Dorma"



Here is a song Nina Simone used to do, "I Put a Spell on You" performed with Joss Stone



This is a great piece of music from one of the greatest movie scenes ever filmed. The original version of this is from the evacuation of Dunkirk scene in the film Atonement. But this music is certainly good enough to stand on it's own. "Elegy for Dunkirk" performed with Olivia Safe

John Prine - Duets

To finish up the week a couple John Prine duets with some of my favorite singers.

"Angel From Montgomery" with Emmylou Harris



"In Spite of Ourselves" with Iris Dement



"Speed of the Sound of Loneliness" with Nanci Griffith

John Prine - Pt. 2

A couple more John Prine videos. Songs that I like, but that are not on his latest live album.

"It's a Big Old Goofy World" from the album The Missing Years.



"Jesus, the Missing Years" from the album The Missing Years.



"Souvenirs" originally from his second album, Diamonds in the Rough.



"Lake Marie" from the album Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings. It would be hard for me to pick a favorite John Prine song, but this song has my favorite John Prine line:

You know what blood looks like in black and white, don't you?
Shadows

John Prine

I have not posted any video of John Prine yet. I have posted some covers of his songs. Prine has a new live album out called In Person & On Stage. I am going to devote this week's posts to some of his videos, starting today with videos of some of the songs that are included on the new album.

"Spanish Pipedream"



"Flag Decal"



"The Late John Garfield Blues" with Sara Watkins from Nickel Creek.

Hazel Dickens

Hazel Dickens turned 75 earlier this week. You can listen to a interview she did with Marc Steiner. I did not make it to her concert in Baltimore this week, but I did see here perform at the Folklife Festival a couple years ago. Her are a couple videos.

Here is a video of "West Virgina, My Home" from her induction into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2008.



"The Mannington Mine Disaster"



"I Love to Sing the Old Songs"



I cannot find video of Dickens singing her song "Working Girl Blues", but to show how far her influence has extended here is a version of the song by the Japanese bluegrass band Daisyhill.

History of the Banjo

A short history of the Banjo.

Irma Thomas @ Jazz Fest 2010

A couple great videos from Irma Thomas' appearance at Jazz Fest a couple weeks ago.

"You Can Have My Husband (Please Don't Mess With My Man)"



"In the Middle of It All"



"Heart of Steel" performed with Galactic



Previous Posts with Irma Thomas
     - Irma Thomas - 2/22/2010