Didier Hébert  “I Woke Up One Morning in May“

Here are the lyrics of the song in french, followed by an english traduction (thanks to the Mudcat Cafe):

Je me suis levé matin dans Mai
Mais bien de bon matin
C’était pour passer
Mais un beau jour dans ma vie.

Oh j’ai trouvé mon père en train de pleurer,
Ma mère qui pleurait dans ses bras.
C’est adieu pour longtemps,
Je me donnes à un jeune garçon.

Oh moi je l’aimais beaucoup,
Beaucoup plus que ma vie.
Il m’avait fait une promesse,
Et cette promesse c’est d’être sa femme

Oh j’ons ferait des enfants,
Il m’a quitté d’un abandon;
Moi bien malade dans mon lit,
Et mes enfants là crèvent de faim

Et mon mari à la table après gambler,
Et moi je ne souhaît que la mort;
C’est tous ces jeunes bébés, grand Dieu,
Dans les jambes de moi

Oh mettez-vous tous vous autres à méfier
De tous ces jeunes garçons;
Ça, ça conte autant de menteries
Qu’en a d’étoiles dans le ciel.

Oh depuis dans l’âge de quatorze ans
J’après misèré avec toi,
Et dès de jour en jour
Mais moi je m’en vas dans l’abandon.

Oh moi je connais je m’en vas dans ces grands chemins,
Misereux moi toute seule,
Et dès je suis une délaissée
Mais que personne en veut de moi.

I woke up one morning in May, very early;
It was to spend a fine day of my life.

Oh I found my father crying, my mother crying in his arms.
Farewell for a long time, I’m giving myself to a young man.

Oh I loved him very much, much more than my life.
He made me a promise that I was his wife.

Oh we had children, he left me a year ago nevertheless.
Me sick in bed, and my children dying of hunger;

And my husband in the tavern gambling, and I just wish I was dead;
It’s all those young babies, great God, around my legs.

All you girls, don’t trust those young men –
They tell as many lies as there are stars in the sky.

When I was fourteen years old, I was always with you;
Since then, from day to day I’m left more alone.

Oh I know I’m going on the highways, I’ll be there all alone,
And since I’m a deserted wife, I wish someone would make me a widow

Hébert’s performance of the song may seems strangely out of tune, especially to modern ears but I think it fits the   song quite well and has a certain haunting charm to it. I can really hear the despair of the woman in Hébert’s voice…

A similar cajun song was recorded the same year (1929) by another blind guitar player from Louisiana, Blind Uncle Gaspard with fiddler Delma Lachney. (Go to this post to hear more of Delma Lachney and Blind Uncle Gaspard’s music) Also in waltz time, the song was called “Le Bébé et le Gambleur“ 

Here’s a modern recording of the song (followed by the “Happy One-Step“) by The Savoy/Doucet Family on their cd « Home Music With Spirits »:

Here are the lyrics, followed by an english traduction:

Mon bébé est malade couché dans le lit
Mon mari au gamblage ce soir surement.
Il m’a dit des menteries autant qu’(il y a d)es étoiles. (2x)

Juste avant j’suis mariée
Mes joues étaient roses
Et après j’suis mariée
(Ils) sont plus vertes que des choux
Ma maman m’a dit, “Quo’ faire fu me quittes
Ma chère ‘tite fille pour te marier?”
J’ai répondu, “Ouais, ma chère maman,
Mais tu connais, donc, que je l’aime trop gros.”

Mais surement, si j’aurais connu tout ça,
Mais j’aurais écouté ma chère maman.
Mon bébé est malade, il pleur dans le lit,
Il appelle pour toi mais tu viens pas à lui.

———

My baby is sick, bedded down in his bed
My husband is out gambling, surely.
He told me more lies than there are stars. (2x)

Just before I got married my cheeks were pink
And since I’m married they are greener than cabbage
My mama said to me, “Why are you leaving me,
My dear little girl, to get married?”
I answered, “Dear mama,
But you know that I love him too much.”

Surely if I had known all this
I would have listened to my dear mother.
My baby is sick, he is crying in the bed,
He’s crying for you but you won’t come to see him.

Didier Hébert and Blind Uncle Gaspard represent an older tradition of Cajun musicians that sang old songs and ballads, so rarely heard on recordings. For more of this, be sure to get the cd compilation issued by Yazoo Records called “Early American Cajun Music“ that feature other recordings by Blind Uncle Gaspard, Delma Lachney and John Bertrand.

Here are the three recordings made by Dewey Segura with Didier Hébert on guitar for Columbia Records in December 1929:

1. Rosalia
2. T’es Petite, t’es mignonne (You’re small and sweet)
3. Far Away from Home Blues

Gus Cannon, the leader of Cannon’ Jug Stompers, was a great musician and character, a central figure of the Jug Band scene in Memphis, a man who got his musical education at the beginning of the 20th century, around Clarksdale, Mississippi, home of many great Delta Blues musicians and on the road with Medicine shows. One of the rare black performer recorded on 78rpm records who played the 5-string banjo, which he taught himself to play on an instrument he made out of a frying pan and a raccoon skin, he also had a jug mounted on a rack that allowed him to blow bass figures while strumming and picking the banjo.

I think the best way to introduce Gus is to hear the man himself speak about his life and play and sing some numbers from his repertoire on this wonderful lp he recorded for Stax Records in 1963, some years after he was rediscovered by the Folk/Blues Revival (and most particularly by Samuel Charters) and that his song “Walk Right In” became a big hit sung by the folk group The Rooftop Singers. (which allowed Gus to get a more decent living with the royalties until the end of his life, at 97)

Gus Cannon, banjo, vocals (with Will Shade, from The Memphis Jug Band on the jug and Milton Roby on Washboard)

1. Narration
2. Kill It
3. Walk Right In
4. Salty Dog
5. Going Around The Mountain
6. Ol’ Hen
7. Gonna Raise A Ruckus Tonight
8. Ain’t Gonna Rain No More
9. Boll-Weevil
10. Come on Down to My House
11. Make Me a Pallet on the Floor
12. Get Up in the Morning Soon
13. Crawdad Hole

-You can read the excellent liner notes to this lp on line here.

Now let’s go back in time to 1927, when Gus made his first commercial recordings. Prior to his sessions with his jug band, he recorded 6 sides under his nickname “Banjo Joe” for Paramount in 1927. Among them was “Poor Boy, Long ways from home”, a beautiful song and a rare occasion to hear a 5-string banjo played with a bottleneck or slide.

It’s worth noting that the guitar player on this 1927 sides is the great ragtime guitar player, Blind Blake.

“My Money Never Runs Out” Banjo Joe

One year later,with the success of The Memphis Jug Band, he gathered some old friends and formed his own jug band. He recorded more than 30 sides with his Cannon’s Jug Stompers  for Victor between 1928 and 1930. On this sides he played with the great harmonica player Noah Lewis and with various guitar players: Ashley Thompson (January 1928 session), Elijah Avery (September 1928 sessions) and Hosea Woods (1929 and 1930 sessions).

The first Cannon’s Jug Stompers piece we hear on the Anthology, “Minglewood Blues” appears on their first session on January,30, 1928 where they recorded 4 sides for Ralph Peer, A&R man of Victor Records.

1. Minglewood Blues
2. Madison Street Rag
3. Big Railroad Blues
4. Springdale Blues

From all the Jug Bands recorded in the 1920′s and 1930′s, Cannon’s Jug Stompers had the most “Bluesy” sound, as you can hear on those sides, where the interaction between all the instruments (Banjo, jug, harmonica and guitar) and Gus vocals is superb all the way through.

We’ll hear other sides by Cannon’s Jug Stompers on this blog when we’ll discuss another of their recording featured on the Anthology, “Feather Bed”.

The Minglewood Blues Variations

“Minglewood Blues” was the first piece Cannon’s Jug Stompers recorded in 1928. Noah Lewis, the harmonica player in the band is said to have “compose” the song, the tune itself being a very common one used in many other Blues like “Rollin’and Tumblin” for example. The answer  to where exactly is this “Minglewood” is a bit uncertain. I have read somewhere that it was a lumber camp near the Mississippi where musicians (including Noah lewis and Gus cannon) gathered on weekends to have a good time, and judging from the lyrics of the “New Minglewood Blues” that Noah Lewis recorded with his own jug band (“If you’re ever in Memphis, better stop by Minglewood”), it was a place in the city or close to it. But I discovered recently an article, (on the website for the “Minglewood Hall” , a concert venue in Memphis) about “The myth of Minglewood” which I’ll quote here in full:

“The Myth of Minglewood”

An Interesting Story by someone looking for the Myth! Or is it? I knew the song was written by Noah Lewis and that he was from Henning,TN, just north of Memphis. I started with a map of western Tennesse and noticed a small town about an hour north of Memphis called Menglewood. Given the proximity to Memphis and the closeness of the name I thought this would be a good place to start.   I also have found other old blues songs that refer to Menglewood (spelled with the “e” instead of the “i”), but I can’t be sure that the different is not a transcription error.   While in Memphis I found a copy of a long, out of print, book called Memphis Blues that contains a lot of information about the music of Memphis in the 1920s and 1930s. It included a chapter on Cannon’s Jug Stompers and another on Noah Lewis. Here are a couple of quotes from that book about Minglewood.   John ‘Red’ Williams (Memphis pianist):”The song Minglewood Blues was popular around Ripley. There was a piano player there who played that song. I can play it too. I learned it from him. Minglewood is a box factory.”   Eddie Green:”I helped Noah to make up Minglewood Blues. At the time we both worked on the Minglewood.”   So one afternoon my wife and I set out to find the Menglewood I had seen on the map. We drove north of Memphis for about an hour. We passed the location were the town was on the map without seeing any signs, so we turned back and asked some of the locals at a gas station. Turns out we had driven right through it! What we found was about 8 to 10 houses bunched together along side a rural road.   We saw a woman in her yard planting flowers, so we stopped and ask her. Turns out, Menglewood is an old name for this very small community. The side road by her house used to be called Menglewood Road, but it had been changed to a route number. Menglewood itself had been merged with another nearby community and there were no signs left that refer to it as Menglewood. The locals still use the name, but it’s slowly fading away.   I was really hoping for a sign to take a picture of, but none was to be found. You may ask why would you stop by Minglewood when you’re in Memphis if it was a saw-mill or a box factory? One explanation I’ve seen is that the song refers to a “good time” place near Minglewood where the workers went to drink and gamble.   So, did I find Menglewood? Well, to be honest, I’m not sure. The little community that’s called Menglewood is sort of far (25 miles) from where the saw-mill was supposed to be in Ashport, especially for the 1920s. I guess I’ll just leave this one open until I get a chance to get back to Tennessee.

It’s Noah Lewis’s  « New Minglewood Blues »   that was covered a lot during the « Jug Band Revival » of the 1960’s, and The Grateful Dead’s version, which they called « New, New Minglewood Blues », was the most popular and was played ever since by a great number of rock bands.

-I’ve compiled a few « Minglewoods » for you that I enjoy (I included the Dead’s version because it’s so popular but I’m not a big fan of their music, I must admit…), included a great but too short « Minglewood Blues» by Bluesman John Lee Granderson, and a « Minglewood Memories » from the last duo recording by two great american guitar players, Bob Brozman and Woody Mann.

1. New Minglewood Blues – Noah Lewis’s Jug Band (Memphis Blues) 
2. Minglewood-Jim Kweskin (Garden of Joy)
3. Minglewood Blues – John Lee Granderson (Hard Luck John)
4. New, New Minglewood Blues- Grateful Dead (Grateful Dead)
5. Minglewood Blues-Guy Davis (Call Down the Thunder)
6. Minglewood Blues- John Sebastian and the J Band with Geoff Muldaur (Down Home Saturday Night)
7. An American Dream (Minglewood Memories)-Woody Mann, Bob Brozman (Get Together)

1. I was born in old Virginny,
South Carolina I did go,
Courted there a fair young lady,
O her name I don not know.

2. Her hair was of a dark brown colour,
And her cheeks was rosy red,
On her breast, she wore white lilies,
And tears for her I shed.

3. In my heart I love you darling,
To my door, you’re welcome in,
At my gate I love you darling,
Here’s the one I’m trying to win.

4. I’d rather be on some dark blue ocean,
Where the sun refused to shine,
For you to love another girl darling,
And to think you’ll never be mine.

5. I’d rather be dead in my coffin,
My pale face turned towards the sun,
Than to think of you my darling,
And to think of what you’ve done.

6. Here’s your letter and your postals,
Lie them closely by your heart,
The ring you gave to me, my darling,
From my finger will never part.

The song was also sung in another Kentucky county, Viper, by members of Jean Richie’s family. Jean remembered,”This beautiful family love song comes to me from my father, who used to slip off into the deep woods on Sundays with his young friends and play gourd fiddles.” The song was printed in 1955 in Ritchie’s book “Singing family of the Cumberlands”. In this version, the verse” I’d rather be on some dark, blue ocean” becomes “I’d rather be in some dark valley” and the valley would turn into a “hollow” in many other versions.

Jean Ritchie “In Old Virginny”

Another mountain folk singer who learned the song from his parents was Lee Monroe Presnell of Beech Mountain, North Carolina, who said that “In Old Virginny” was “one of the oldest song my mother sing”. 

Lee Monroe Presnell “In Old Virginny” (from “Nothing seems better to me” The Warner Collection volume 2)

For sure, in Virginia too, the song was found in the repertoire of many a folk singer and musician, like the great Dan Tate, from Carroll County.

Dan Tate “Once I Lived in Old Virginia” 

Many in the mountains would accompany their performance of “East Virginia” with the 5-string banjo, most of the time tuned in the “saw-mill” tuning (gDGCD), which allows the tune to keep his modal ambiguity, somewhere between the major and the minor mode. Exceptions would be Morgan Sexton’s beautiful version in major or Roscoe Holcomb and Pete Steele who would keep their banjo tuned in a regular major G tuning but would sing the modal melody over it. Of course, all made their own version, adding or changing some words to it, giving the melody some unique inflections. Some, like Clarence Ashley, Buell Kazee, or B.F Shelton recorded for some commercial recording companies in the 1920′s and 1930′s, others were recorded by collectors, for the Library of Congress or their own collections. All gave exceptional  renditions of this most haunting folk song.

1. Dark Holler Clarence Ashley (Greenback Dollar) County
2. East Virginia Buell Kazee  (Anthology Of American Folk Music) Smithsonian Folkways
3. Oh Molly Dear B.F. Shelton (The Music Of Kentucky: Early American Rural Classics 1927-37) Yazoo
4. East Virginia Pete Steele  (Banjo Tunes and Songs) Folkways
5. East Virginia Walter Williams (Kentucky Mountain Music) Yazoo
6. Born In Old Kentucky Banjo Bill Cornett (The Lost Recordings)  Field Recorder’s Collective
7. East Virginia Aunt Jenny Wilson    (Field Recording) Field Recorder’s Collective
8. Old East virginia Morgan Sexton   (Shady Grove) June Appal
9. East Virginia Blues Lily May Ledford   (Lily May, Rosie & Susie) County
10. East Virginia Blues Roscoe Holcomb   (Friends Of Old Time Music) Smithsonian Folkways

A different way of singing the song, played this time in a straight major mode, developed during the 1930′s, under the name “East Virginia Blues” and “Greenback Dollar”  with a slightly different set of lyrics. Clarence Ashley, who already recorded a modal banjo version under the name “Dark Holler”, recorded both “East Virginia Blues” and “Greenback Dollar” with the great harmonica player Gwen Foster in 1933. The Carter Family recorded their version in 1934 but it was issued only in 1940. During the 1930′s, the song was recorded numerous times by string bands and later by early bluegrass bands. Some recorded variants under names like “New Greenback Dollar” or “Answer to Greenback Dollar”. The Carter Family themselves issued a “East Virginia number 2″ in 1935. The Bolick Brothers (Blue Sky Boys) recorded their version in 1937 under the name “What Have You Done”.

1. East Virginia Blues Clarence Ashley and Gwen Foster (Blues Ballads strings bands)
2. Greenback Dollar Clarence Ashley and Gwen Foster (Greenback Dollar 1929-1933) County
3. The East Virginia Blues  The Carter Family  (1927-1934) JSP
4. East Virginia Blues No.2  The Carter Family (Volume Two 1935-1941) JSP
5. Answer To Greenback Dollar J. E. Mainer’s Mountaineers (Classic Sides 1937-1941) JSP
6. New Greenback Dollar Roy Acuff  (King Of The Hillbillies) JSP
7. What Have You Done The Blue Sky Boys  (Classic Country Remastered: Charlotte, NC 1936, 1937) JSP
8. East Virginia Blues The Stanley Brothers (Long Journey Home)

After World War 2 and during the folk revival, the song continued his life, either sang in his lonesome modal banjo form by Pete Seeger, or with straight major guitar chords by Woody Guthrie. In the UK, skiffle bands included it in their repertoire of classic american folk songs. But it’s Joan Baez’s delicate and beautiful version (based on Jean Ritchie’s) that popularized the song to a wider audience in the 1960′s. Since then, it’s still performed a lot, either by folk artists or Old-time and Bluegrass bands (I’ve included some of my favorites here), and the charm and attraction of its simple melody and lyrical verses is not ready to vanish yet.

1. East Virginia Pete Seeger (Darling Corey/Goofing-Off Suite) Folkways
2. Greenback Dollar Woody Guthrie (Complete Master Records)
3. Greenback Dollar  Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group (The UK Skiffle Boom 1954-57) Proper
4. East Virginia Blues Jack Elliot, Derrol Adams  (America)
5. East Virginia Joan Baez  (The Debut Album Plus)
6. East Virginia New Lost City Ramblers (Volume I) Folkways
7. East Virginia Doc Watson (Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City) Folkways
8. East Virginia Art Stamper (Goodbye Girls I’m Going to Boston) County
9. East Virginia Blues Big Medecine (Too Old To Be Controlled) Yodel-Ay-Hee

Click on Harry Smith to download the “East Virginia Variations” (30 tracks)

The Coo Coo Bird (or “The Cuckoo”) is a perfect example of a non-narrative song with a very complex and old history. As early as the 13th-century, the cuckoo bird made his appearance in this english round song sung in a Wessex dialect called “Sumer is Icumen In” which translate to “Summer has come in” or “Summer has arrived”.

Summer has arrived,
Loudly sing, Cuckoo!
The seed grows and the meadow
blooms
And the wood springs anew,
Sing, Cuckoo!

-Hear Richard Thompson’s rendition of “Sumer Is Incumen In” from his live cd “1000 years of popular music”

In many traditions, hearing the bird’s call is a first harbinger of the spring. But the roving bird is also a symbol of adultery (maybe because some female species have the particularity to lay their eggs in the nest of other birds) and of the inconstant lover. In the english versions of the song, the cuckoo conjure up all these ideas in a lyrical lament about deceptive love.

Here are a three english versions, all different in lyrics and melodies, by some of my favorite english traditional female singers: Anne Briggs, Shirley Collins and Maddy Prior

Like many other english songs and ballads, The Cuckoo crossed over the ocean and  found its place in the american folk repertoire. In the Appalachian mountains, the song survived in different forms: For some, usually women, it remained a lyrical song about lost love and the inconstancy of lovers. Often sung a cappella or with the gentle strum of a mountain dulcimer, the song retains some of the characteristics and contents of the old world version.

Here are some recorded examples of Appalachian singers, young and old, women and men who sing “The Cuckoo” in this manner:

Jean Ritchie, John Jacob Niles, Mr Sams (from “Mountain music of Kentucky”) and Elizabeth LaPrelle (from her great new cd “Bird’s Advice”)

But many men in the mountains would add some verses about gambling and rambling and turn it to a banjo song.

- Clarence Ashley’s “Coo Coo Bird” (for more about Clarence Ashley, including recordings, go to this previous post)

Black banjo players and songsters had their own unique way of playing and singing The Cuckoo with the banjo. Very reminiscent of african traditional music, their approach is both very rhythmic and improvisatory.

-Hear Rufus Kasey, Dink Roberts, John Snipes, John Calloway and John Lawson Tyree

Black and white songsters would often combine lyrics of different songs in one performance, so, for example, elements of “Stewball”, (an Irish song about a 18th-century racehorse that made his way to America and eventually became a black work-song), “Molly and Tenbrooks” (another racehorse song, this time happening in Kentucky, but often linked to the previous one), “Rye Whiskey” or “The Wagoner’s Lad” would often pop-up in a performance of “The Cuckoo”. That’s the way the folk process works, linking songs with the same verse meters or similar subjects and melting them all in one.

-Let’s hear Texas Gladden (“Old Kimball”) and her brother Hobart Smith (“The Cuckoo Bird”)

During the folk revival of the 1950′s and 1960′s, the song will be heard and played by a new generation, thanks to the Anthology and The New Lost City Ramblers (both John Cohen, Mike Seeger and Tom Paley played it on the banjo). With its simple two chords structure and melody, the song adapts itself well on the guitar also but the challenge for many was to reproduce Clarence Ashley or Hobart Smith’s rolling licks on the banjo. It adapts itself well also to different popular musical styles, like Bluegrass, Rock or the kind of acoustic folk heard today, but not every musician is capable of turning it to a real inspiring piece of music and there are many rather boring “Cuckoo” versions out there…

I will end with 10 other versions of the song that I enjoy, from different periods and musical genres…

1. The Cuckoo She’s A Fine Bird- Kelly Harell  (Worried Blues)
2. Coo-Coo Bird – Howie Tarnower  (Folk Music of Washington Square)
3. The Coo Coo Bird-  Jim Greer & The Mac-O-Chee Valley Folks (Sound Traditions: The Best Of Mountain Bluegrass)
4. The Cuckoo- Jim Kweskin (Relax Your Mind)
5. Coo Coo- Janis Joplin (Box of Pearls)
6. Coo Coo-Townes Van Zandt (Roadsongs)
7. Coo Coo Bird-Mike Seeger (True Vine)
8. The Cuckoo- Tom, Brad & Alice (Holly Ding)
9. The Coo Coo- The Dust Busters (The Dust Busters)
10. The Coo Coo- Casey Joe Abair & Hunter Robertson (If You Want to Go to Sleep, Go to Bed)

 (Click on Harry Smith to download all the tracks from this post)

“All Negro-made church music is dance -possible… The service is really drama with music. And since music without motion is unnatural among Negroes there is alwayas something that approaches dancing-in fact, IS dancing-in such a ceremony. So the congregation is restored to its primitive altars under the new name of Christ.” Zora Neale Hurston. The Sanctified Church. Turtle Island, Berkeley, 1983

Once again, I’ll use Paul Oliver’s “Songsters and Saints” book to tell about Reverend D.C. Rice, the last preacher to appear on Harry Smith’s Anthology and the one concluding the “Social” set, singing the joyful “I’m In The Battlefield For My Lord”, along with his Congregation and Jazz band.

“Rice was born around 1888 in Barbour County, Alabama and attended his father’s Baptist church there. During the war he moved to Chicago and was “saved” when he joined Bishop Hill’s Church of The Living God, Pentecostal on the East Side. After Hill’s death in 1920 he took over a small Sanctified church which expanded through the appeal of his leadership, and the attraction of the eight or nine piece bands which he often used. In 1928, having heard recordings by Reverend McGee and Reverend Gates, he sought a recording session with Jack Kapp of Vocalion Records, who told him “to preach like you’re preaching to the whole world out there”. Though scared, “I just let myself go and preached like the Lord told me to save all the sinners in the world”. His sermon, based on Luke 24:2, “and they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre”, was a forceful but very condensed summary of the Resurrection.

“The Angels Rolled The Stone Away”

It was more for his singing and music than for his preaching that Rice’s records are notable. A large proportion of his recordings were songs without sermons, including Who Do You Call That Wonderful Counsellor, Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?, and a version of the same song, Sin Is To Blame, that Rev. McGee has recorded earlier. When he preached, his sermons were brief, as on I Will Arise And Go To My Father, stating a text and describing it before leading his congregation into song. He was a firm, clear preacher with a full voice, but he did not match this with an interpretative skill; his sermons pointed no morals, drew no conclusions.  Clearly he was aware of other preachers, particularly Rev. McGee, and recorded a version of Shall Not A Dog Move His Tongue, quoting Exodus 11:7. “When I use the word “dog”, I do not mean the natural dog, but you that have a dog-like spirit. You bark at the pastors, you snap at the deacons…”, he explained. But he did not develop the theme, undoubtedly derived from McGee, nor did he fefer to it again in his short sermon, which continued the story of Moses before Pharaoh.

“Who Do You Call That Wonderful Counsellor”, “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?”, “Sin is to Blame”, “I Will Arise and Go to My Father”, “Shall Not A Dog Move His Tongue”

Most original of Rice’s recordings was the fifth to be issued, though it was made at his second session, Come and See. Drawing from the sixth chapter of Revelations it described the opening of the Seven Seals, with the title a sung refrain:

And I saw when the Lamb had opened one of the seals

And I heard the first beast saying-

Come and see; come and see; come and see….

And there went forth a white horse and he that sat upon him

Had a bow and a crown.

And he went forth conquering and to conquer,

And I heard the second beast saying-

Come and see; come and see; come and see…

So he continued through the opening of the seals in turn with the congregation singing the refrain in slow harmony, the trombone playing majestically with them. Rev. Rice, with his talent for condensing the scriptures continued:

I looked under the altar and I saw the souls

That were slain for the word of God,

And for the testament of Jesus,

And they looked out and cried with a loud voice,

How long, Oh Lord, dost thou judge and avenge our blood?

White robes were given to each of them,

That they might rest for a season,

And I heard the sixth beast saying-

Come and see; come and see; come and see…

“Come and See”

Testify-For The Lord is Coming Again was sung in responsorial form by Rice and his congreagation to the boom of a bass, piano and clattering tambourine:

Testify (Testify!) Don’t be sad (Don’t be sad!)

Tell the truth (tell the truth!) Don’t you add (don’t you add)

For no adder- can’t go in,

For my Lord is coming back again.

Sanctified father, sanctified son,

Sanctified people, all are one

If you’re not sanctified-can’t go in-

For my Lord is coming back again.

Testify- For The Lord Is Coming Back Again

We Got The Same Kind of Power Over Here, made at Rice, last session in mid-1930, was to the customary form of a Testifying meeting. Rev. Rice’s wife was called upon to testify:

I’m saved and I’m sanctified, baptized with the Holy Ghost and power,

Speaking with tongues as the spirit give up.

I thank God today for the same power,

That raised up jesus from the dead,

Has also quit my mortal body

And today I’m running up the King’s Highway- pray for me!

“Hallelujah!” responded Rice, “it’s a wonderful power in the blood”.

We Got The Same Kind of Power Over Here

Rev. Rice’s recording career stopped in 1930 because of The Depression and he left Chicago for Jackson, Alabama, where he had a small church for two years. In 1932, he became the pastor of the Oak Street Holiness Church in Montgomery , Alabama, and in 1941 also became Bishop of The Apostolistic Overcoming Holy Church of God for Alabama, Georgia and Florida. He had electric organ, and other instruments, depending on the musicians in his congregation. However, at this time only his Vocalion recordings survive. Bishop Rice passed on in March 1973, in Montgomery, Alabama. (from Roger  Misiezwicz’s notes on Document’s Complete recorded works of Rev D. C. Rice)

I’m In The Battlefield For My Lord

This classic gospel song, written by Sylvana Bells and E.V. Banks, and performed here with lots of swing by Rev. D.C Rice, his congregation and some jazz musicians, is the perfect closing for the religious set of the Anthology. The song itself is an old favorite of Gospel singers, using the war imagery to express one’s faithful worship of God.

I’ve selected a few recordings of the song, all but one (an electronic-pop version from australian songwriter Charles Du Cain) from Gospel performers.

1. I’m In The Battlefield For My Lord  Rev. D.C. Rice   1928-30
2. I Am On The Battlefield For My Lord/I’m A Soldier United States Army Field Band In My Dream
3. On The Battlefield For My Lord (feat. Juanita Harris) The Choral Project Tell the World
4. I’m On The Battlefield For My Lord Charles Du Cane Tomahawk
5. On the Battlefield for My Lord Curtis Lundy Gospel Glory
6. I’m on the Battlefield for My Lord Ethel Caffie-Austin The Harry Smith Connection: A Live Tribute to the Anthology

(Click on Harry Smith to download all the tracks of this post)

Tell it over again- (ain’t never been told)

The half ain’t never been told.

Dear brothers and sisters,

We come before you at this hour,

To tell you about the half ain’t never been told.

Our text is found in the Book of the First Kings,

The tenth chapter and the seven verse,

And reads as follows:

“Howbeit I believed not the words,

Until I came and mine eyes had seen it,

And behold-the half was not told me;

Thy wisdom and prosperity

Exceedeth the fame which I heard…”

“Before he began to preach, Reverend F.W. McGee led his congregation in a snatch of gospel song, their sung response lines overlapping antiphonally with his own, while the sweeping glissandi of a a broad-toned trombone and the cross-rhythms of guitar, piano and percussion contributed to the exhilarating sound. As the stanza ended, the tension was sustained with his powerful delivery of the story of the visit of the Queen of Sheba to the Kingdom of Solomon. Members of the congregation shouted their approval and sang or moaned in accord, while, with a strong and trembling voice, he lingered on specific words to an implied beat. His sermon was an allegory, an appeal for understanding, discernment and judgement, and was addressed not only to the congregation present but to the thousands of black people who purchased phonograph discs of preaching in the 1920′s.”

(This is the introduction to “Songsters and Saints” by Paul Oliver, a wonderful book about “Vocal traditions on Race records”, and I’m quoting him also for the biography of McGee)

Reverend Ford Washington McGee was one of the most popular preacher on the “Race” records of the 1920′s and 1930′s, along with Reverend J.M Gates, Rev. Nix or Reverend J.C Burnett. Born in Tennessee in 1890, he was raised in farming communities in Texas. His parents sent him to college in Oklahoma where he trained as a teacher, leaving this profession for evangelism and practicing faith healing, until he joined the Church  of God in Christ. The blind pianist and singer, Arizona Dranes, helped him build his congregation in Oklahoma City, while he successfully evangelized  in Iowa and elsewhere. In 1925 he established a church under canvas at 33th Street in Chicago’s South Side, and three years later laid the foundation stone of his “Temple” on Vincennes. His first recordings under his own name and with his Church of God in Christ Jubilee Singers was a single title for Okeh, Lion of the tribe of Judah, a shouting spiritual with stomping piano by Arizona Dranes.

Arizona Juanita Dranes was a blind girl from Texas of mexican and african-american parents. She has been instrumental in getting McGee to record and played with him and his Jubilee Singers on some of her sides in 1926.

Arizona Dranes (with McGee and his Jubilee Singers) on Bye and Bye We’re Going to see the King and Lamb’s Blood has washed me clean

A few months after his first session under his own name, he got a contract with Victor Records and recorded more than forty titles for the label in the following years until the Depression made a stop to his recorded career in 1930. Many of his records sold well and his 78rpm record coupling “Jonah in the Belly of the Whale” and “With His Stripes We Are Healed” sold more than 100,000 copies.

“Jonah in the Belly of the Whale” and “With His Stripes We Are Healed” by Rev. McGee

On his recordings, McGee’s rich and musical voice, which had more subtlety than other preachers, was accompanied by members of his congregation and some musical instruments like piano (played by Rev. D.C. Williams), guitars, mandolins, brass and rhythm instruments, creating a joyful and lively sound. On some recordings, the singing and playing is heard throughout, while on others, the preaching part is more important.

While his recording career stopped in  1930, Rev. McGee continued to increase his community in his own Chicago church and continued to preach until his death, in 1971.

-Document Records issued Rev. McGee’s complete recordings on two cds and have also one cd devoted to Arizona Dranes.

Fifty Miles of Elbow Room

Rev. McGee recorded “Fifty Miles of Elbow Room” with his congregation at his last session and it’s one of their best performance, sung throughout the whole side, with a full musical accompaniment of string and brass instruments. (Some even think this is the best song ever, read this fine article here)

Rev. McGee and Congregation, “Fifty Miles Of Elbow Room” (This is take 1 of the song, the one appearing on the Anthology is take 2)

The song was written by Herbert Buffum (1879-1939) a very prolific gospel song writer (who claimed to have written thousands of gospel songs). He was a Holiness/Pentecostal evangelist and lived and worked in California. It’s in this state  that Sara Carter claimed to have heard the song for the first time in an Adventist church. She recorded it with the Carter Family during their very last session in october 1941 and it is to their version that most of the singers afterwards would refer to when they sing the song.

The Carter Family “Fifty Miles of Elbow Room”

Here’s a little compilation of 8 versions of the song that I like, many being in the same vein and influenced by The Carters but also a more Honky-Tonk Country version by Hank Locklin and a Dixie Jazz version (which is closer in feeling to the Rev McGee’s upbeat version) by Turk Murphy, both from the 1950′s.

1.  Iris DeMent (Infamous Angel)
2.  The Red Clay Ramblers (Merchants Lunch)
3. Turk Murphy And His Jazz Band (At The Roundtable)
4. Dry Branch Fire Squad (Live At the Newburyport Firehouse)
5.  (Featuring Gillian Welch) James Alan Shelton (Gospel Guitar)
6.  Hank Locklin (A Year Of Time)
7.  Sonsy (Heaven’s Bright Shore)
8. Norman & Nancy Blake (Blind Dog)

In the summer of 1927, Ernest Phipps and His Holiness Quartet, all members of the Free Holiness Pentecostal  Church around Corbin, Kentucky, journeyed to Bristol, Tennessee, to record for Ralph Peer for the historical “Bristol Sessions”. These sessions were considered the “Big Bang” of real American Country Music recordings mostly because Jimmy Rodgers and The Carter Family,two of the most successful and influential early Country artists were discovered there. During these few days in in July and August 1927, Mr Peer recorded a large sample of vernacular music from the South, String bands,banjo players, singers and religious bands. Among the religious performers, the most exciting sound came from Phipps and His Holiness Quartet, who sang in the fervent and vigorous style of the Holiness Church, accompanied by string instruments and clapping. This type of religious performance evolved from “The Great Awakening”, when “American Protestant rebelled against Old World Puritanism ” and spread a new spirit of religious fervor and emotion, which lead to the foundation of new religious groups like the Pentecostal and Holiness Churches. Like in many african-american churches, the congregation was invited to sing and rejoice with all his heart and sometimes reach a kind of ecstatic experience  through the process.

-Listen to “A little talk with Jesus” by Ernest Phipps and His Holiness Singers

Ernest Phipps and His Singers would record six sides in 1927 and six more the following year. Apart from his preaching/singing occupations, Phipps was a coal miner. Born around 1900, he died in 1968.

Here are Ernest Phipps’s complete recordings:

1. A Little Talk With Jesus
2. Bright Tomorrow
3. Shine on Me
4. I Know that Jesus Set Me Free
5. Went Up in the Clouds of Heaven
6. If the Light has Gone Out in Your Soul
7. Don’t Grieve after Me
8. Happy in Prison
9. Jesus Getting Us Ready for that Great Day
10. Old Ship of Zion
11. Do, Lord Remember Me
12. I Want to Go Where Jesus is

-For another great example of this type of religious music, I strongly recommend the singing of Brother Claude Ely. I discovered him on the superb box set “Goodbye Babylon” issued by Dust-To-Digital a few years ago and this label issued a biography book this last winter that includes a cd of his best performances.

Shine on Me 

Listen to “Shine on me” by Ernest Phipps & His Holiness Singers

Some verses of “Shine on me”, sung on the Anthology by Ernest Phipps & His Holiness Singers come from of a 19th century hymn called “Maitland” by George N. Allen which was sung with the words of “Must Jesus Bear The Cross Alone”, a text by Thomas Sheperd. But the chorus (“Shine on me” ) comes from a popular  african-american spiritual “Let the light from the lighthouse shine on me” that was recorded many times during the last century. Usually sung with increasing speed and volume, (hear Leadbelly’s and Blind Willie Johnson’s for example), it is a beautiful and powerful song, really leading to elevate the “spirit”!

I’ve selected 10 versions of “Shine on me” that goes back to the early Gospel quartets of the 1920′s to the incredible harmony singing of the Gospel bands of the 1950′s, including some great guitar players/singers like Blind Willie Johnson, Leadbelly, Cliff Carlisle and Rev. Gary Davis.

1. -Wiseman Sextette (1923)
2. -Bryant’s Jubilee Quartet (1928)
3. -Fisk Jubilee Singers (1930′s)
4. -Blind Willie Johnson (1929)
5. -Leadbelly (1947)
6. -Cliff Carlisle Quintet (1930′s)
7. -The Swan Silverstones (1950′s)
8. -Kings of Harmony (1950′s)
9. -Soul Stirrers (1950′s)
10. -Reverend Gary Davis (1954)

Here are the lyrics:

1. Away by the river so clear,
The ladies were winding their way,
While Pharaoh’s little daughter stepped down in the water
To bathe in the cool of the day.

Before it was dark, she opened the ark
And found the sweet infant was there.
Before it was dark, she opened the ark
And found the sweet infant was there.

2. And away by the waters so blue,
The infant was lonely and sad;
She took him in pity and thought him so pretty,
And it made little Moses so glad.

She called him her own, her beautiful son,
And sent for a nurse that was near. (X2)

3. And away by the river so clear,
They carried that beautiful child,
To his own tender mother, his sister and brother,
Little Moses looked happy and smiled.

His mother, so good, done all that she could
To rear him and teach him with care. (X2)

4. And away by the sea that was red,
Little Moses, the servant of God,
While in Him confided, the sea was divided
As upwards he lifted his rod.

The Jews safely crossed while Pharaoh’s host
Was drownded in the waters and lost. (X2)

5. And away on the mountain so high,
The last one that ever did see,
While in his victorious, his hope was most glorious,
He’d soon o’er the Jordan be free.

When his labors did cease, he departed in peace,
And rested in the Heavens above. (X2)

The Carter Family’s version of “Little Moses” was covered many times during the last fifty years, from Joan Baez to Ralph Stanley… I ‘ve selected 15 recordings of the song that I enjoy and hope that you’ll enjoy too!

Track list:

1.  Joan Baez (Joan Baez)
   
2. E.C. Ball (Land of Yahoe)
   
3. Margot Leverett & The Klezmer Mountain Boys (Second Avenue Square Dance)
   
4. The Stairwell Sisters (The Stairwell Sisters)
   
5. Straight Drive (I’ll Take a Page From Your Book)
   
6.  John McCutcheon (Barefoot Boy With Boots On)
   
7. Wayne Henderson (Made & Played)
   
8. Ralph Stanley (A Distant Land To Roam: Songs Of The Carter Family)
9. Alex Campbell & Olabelle Reed (Old Time Gospel Singing)
10. Mac Wiseman (Great Folk Ballads)
    
11. Greg Morton (Solo Guitar)
    
12. Neal Morris & Jimmy Driftwood (Ozark Folksongs)
    
13. Mrs. Iva Haslett (Max Hunter Folk song collection)
    
14. The Seekers (The Seekers)
    
15. The Carter Family (Anthology Of American Folk Music)

-For elements of his biography, there are already many pages on the web you can look out. Here are a few interesting links:

-Wikipedia article, a cartoon illustrating his life, articles from Austin TX music and No Depression.

-An illustrated discography

-Blind Willie Johnson’s complete recordings were issued on a double-cd by Columbia-Sony and there is an excellent compilation of his best sides on Yazoo Records.

-I choosed to share with you his last session, 10 sides (which includes the Anthology selection “John The Revelator”), recorded on April 20, 1930 in Atlanta. He is accompanied by his first wife, Willie B. Harris who takes the lead on some tracks. During this session, Johnson uses mostly his guitar in regular tuning, played with a heavy thumb, returning only for the last track to his more celebrated slide playing. One song here seems to come from the white tradition (“If it had not been for Jesus”) and some are among his best performances (“The rain don’t fall on me”, “The Soul of a man” “John The Revelator”).

Track list:

1.Can’t Nobody hide from God

2.If It had not been for Jesus

3.Go to me with that land

4.The rain don’t fall on me

5.Trouble will soon be over

6.The soul of a man

7.Everybody ought to treat a stranger right

8.Church I’m fully saved today

9.John The Revelator

10.You’re gonna need somebody on your bond

Listen here

John The Revelator (The Variations)

“John The Revelator” is a classic “call and response” african-american song about John of Patmos, the author of the “Book of Revelation”, the final book in the “New Testament” corpus. Blind Willie Johnson’s version seems to be the most influential and have been “covered” many times by Blues and Rock artists. I have compiled some of my  favorite versions, which includes The Golden Gate Quartet, Son House, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, some contemporary bands like Frankenpine and Sacred Shakers,The Holy Modal Rounders (singing the “New John The Revelator”!) and a gospel a-capella choir recorded by Alan Lomax… Enjoy!

Track list:

1.Golden Gate Quartet (From “Negro Spirituals)

2.Belleville A-Capella Choir (From “Southern Journey vol.8:Velvet Voices”)

3.New Tradition (From “Daddy on his knees”)

4.Ron Campbell (From “A skinny old white man sings the Blues”)

5.The Sacred Shakers (From “The Sacred Shakers”)

6.Kirk Withrow (From “Hogtie the devil”)

7.Son House (From “The Delta Blues of Son House”)

8.Ethel Caffie-Austin (From “The Harry Smith Connection: A live tribute to the Anthology”)

9.Holy Modal Rounders (From “Too much fun”)

10.Frankenpine (From “The Crooked Mountain”)

11.The Dirty Dozen Brass Band (From “Funeral for a friend”)

12.The Spiritual Four Quartet (From “Field Recordings vol.14″)

Listen here

(Click on Harry Smith to download all the mp3 tracks from this post)