Blind Willie McTell mostly solo on a 12-string

This is a compilation of songs that were recorded during a brief surge of interested in country blues after World War Two. Most of these cuts gathered dust until 1979, when this session was rediscovered. Blind Willie McTell has easily the best voice of any of the bluesmen who were picked up by northern record labels between the mid-1920s and the mid-1940s. These tracks have a vividness that, although not lacking in his earlier cuts, are at least partially obscured  by the more primitive recordings. This is usually not a big deal, but his voice is so great it really benefits from the better quality made possible by Atlantic.

As was standard for most blues musicians, McTell was horribly exploited by Atlantic records - and all other labels who recorded him, for that matter. I highly encourage you to not buy this album. In this case it is far more ethical just to download it. 

A+ (obviously)

kill it

Before Music

Lonnie Holley works with found materials to rebuild the broken and reconsider the discarded before breaking down and rebuilding what he finds there. His process of artistic destruction and rebirth initially recalls that of the Tibetan sand mandala rituals, though Holley insists that he's working with dust rather than sand: "It’s taking from this earth the dust of all the dead. All the wars and all that humans had to deal with has become the dust. The earth is the grave, it’s the biggest graveyard that has ever been." Musical dust rather than physical dust, Just Before Music evokes the old and forgotten sounds of label Dust-to-Digital's output, while at the same time appears odd and spontaneous, Holley's concerns contemporary (our irresponsible embrace of the notion of technological progress- leaving the physical and mental relics of lives, deaths, and tragedies behind in our wake). Undoubtedly strange, yet remedial, and disarming in its absolute sincerity.

B

try / buy

You Better Run: The Essential Junior Kimbrough (2002)

try / buy / spotify

Ry Cooder - Paris, Texas (1989)

1. Paris, Texas 2:57

2. Brothers 2:07

3. Nothing Out There 1:35

4. Canción Mixteca 4:17

5. No Safety Zone 1:55

6. Houston in Two Seconds 2:07

7. She's Leaving the Bank 6:02

8. On the Couch 1:32

9. I Knew These People 8:43

10. Dark Was the Night 2:52

Last one for the night! That feeling when you click that one of your favourite movies (top 5, I think!) has an incredible soundtrack

Based on Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground by Blind Willie Johnson, Cooder's acoustic score I dunno feels around (Nothing Out There), sometimes finding something (Canción Mixteca) and when it does so still feels because the lost pieces are moving and the movie is just so sad. I think if I found it without having seen the movie I'd still love it because it just conveys all that, although the spoken part (I Knew These People) would probably confuse me. The movie's cool 'cause everything's aimless and inconsequential for a while and then it's nostalgic but then it looks underneath that confused nostalgia and the whole thing unravels into a mess. I saw it when I was real young and didn't get slow films but I still found it moving! Although melodies come together and it feels like there's a purpose for a bit, you can sense things unravelling a few tracks in but it's still sad when it does that and it makes you glare at the nice songs like they lied to you- Canción Mixteca makes me kinda sad now. Also I like having the spoken part 'cause it's one of my favourite movie scenes ever


I love this record but man it bums me out


A+

spotify

Nine Simone - Pastel Blues (1965)

1. Be My Husband
2. Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
3. End of the Line
4. Trouble in Mind
5. Tell Me More and More and Then Some
6. Chilly Winds Don't Blow
7. Ain't No Use
8. Strange Fruit
9. Sinnerman
10. Mood Indigo (not part of album, but still, a nice track)

The voice! Beginning with the chant Be My Husband which was covered by Jeff Buckley on a live DVD I saw long before I'd heard of Nina Simone and then thought I heard the influence but couldn't tell why exactly years later, moving into a frightening rendition of the already tragic Strange Fruit and then climaxing with one of the greatest songs of all time- Simone's 10 minute Sinnerman.

A+

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