Them Delta Blues

In the movie we see Tommy Johnson singing that song around a camp fire. We do have a problem, the movie is about that 1927 Mississippi flood, that song belonged to Skip Jamesand he recorded it in 1930, oops!

In 1941 Alan Lomax who worked for the Library of Congress went searching for Robert Johnson down in the Delta, with no internet he didn't know Johnson died in 1937, story goes a jealous husband poisioned him. Wanted Robert for a concert along with some others.

Anyway....

He finally learns that Johnson is dead but over on the Stovall Plantation there was another cat who could play them blues like Robert, his name was McKinley Morganfield but was called...Muddy Waters. So he heads over to find Stovalls Plantation, hearing some white guy was looking for him Muddy ran and hid, had to be the law over his moonshine biz, so they get it worked out and the first time we ever hear Muddy Waters was right there on his front porch at the Stovall Plantation.

These recordings a must have.

Hey Deno-I with you brotha on da blues..Have the blues HOF on my bucket list but time is quickly running out.

Growing up I listened to whatever was on the radio like everyone else, Here in central Cali that was rock and country. Then we discovered Wolfman Jack who played something a little different, yep, blues and R&B and soul. That was my intro to them blues.

Started collecting everything I could find and afford, started getting the books, I educated myself and built up a huge collection of blues music, now I pretty much have it all. Yep, love it.

Buddy Guy is still kicking isn;t he?

This is in my opinion the best example on record of Mississippi Delta Blues,

Some years ago I was reading a magazine there was talk of Lacy who only recorded one record before getting into the ministry of being out here in Cali in Bakersfield, he had a church. So I start thinking about seeing if I could find a real legit prewar Mississippi Delta bluesman. Just how many churches in Bakersfield? Well before I headed south in search or Reverend Lacy I read he had died, yep, bummer.

Does anyone sound more angelic than Mississippi John Hurt? Listen to Louis Collins.

Back in the '60s the Delta Blues were making a comeback with the counter culture. Some music promoter trying to locate Mississippi John Hurt, who hadn't been heard of in decades, finally tracked him down in Avalon Mississippi. Hurt had a song called Avalon. In it were the lyrics "Avalon's my hometown..." Hurt hadn't played for years, but started to tour and became a hit with the boomers. At that time he was old enough to be their grandfather.

Hurt a great example of a cat who wasn't actually out of the Delta but,,,,,,hey.

He has a strange deal. in 1928 he recorded a dozen or so tunes, then got lost until that blues revival you talked about, so we have his old stuff and his 60's stuff.

Without question the most mellow of the Mississippi players

Mississippi Fred McDowell who was a bit unique in that he was born around 1904 so like so many of these cats he could have recorded in the late 20;s the 30's but he didn't. He was over 50 before we ever heard him on record, that is a shame. Texan Mance Lipscomb, and Louisiana Robert Pete Williams discovered in Angola prison the same story.

I used to play a few of his fingerpicking songs on guitar as a teenager. "Stager Lee" and "I'm Satisfied" come to mind, but i remember there were many more.
He was truly exceptional, and your description is spot-on.

This tune will usually be found on any Best of /Essential/Definitive blues anthologies. it is a true classic....

She only recorded three records a couple tiunes with Elvie Thomas.

Highly recommend this read for anyone wanting to learn the history of them blues. There are others but this one will get the job done.

The great Lonnie Johnson on the cover.

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I love Geeshie Wiley's "Last Kind Words." I'm impressed you posted it. Rhianna Gibbons does a version of it also. It's good, but nothing like the original.

How about a Robert Wilkins song? What a voice!

How about "That's No Way To Get Along" by Robert Wilkins? I don't know how to post songs. I be a luddite.

Yep, gotta have Geechie Wiley.

As you know Robert Wilkins was a preacher out of Memphis. Yep, one of the greats.

Love this tune.....

Think he was born in Mississippi but played his blues on those Memphis streets.

Here the Stones Bill Wyman gets involved, great read and a must have.

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I would bet this is the most covered of all Delta tunes.

Deno, you notice how your OP has 6 downvotes and 0 upvotes? This is because everyone is asking why there has to be yet another thread consisting almost entirely of you posting countless links to YouTube vids of old blues recordings. I understand you’re passionate about this stuff but you do know this is primarily a running forum, right? Surely there’s a more appropriate forum on the internet for this. And one or two threads would be fine, a third perhaps excusable, but it’s at the point where these threads should probably just be deleted for either “duplicate content” or “low or no content post”.