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07 Jul 07 - 06:16 AM (#2096259) Subject: Blind Willie McTell Biography on Amazon From: Fred McCormick Fans of Blind Willie McTell will surely want to know that Michael Gray's hot of the press biography of him (Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes)is available on hardback on Amazon for just £10.78 plus p/p. Normal retail price is £25-00. http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_/026-0816969-9074867?initialSearch=1&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=hand+me+my&Go |
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07 Jul 07 - 08:17 AM (#2096291) Subject: RE: Blind Willie McTell Biography on Amazon From: Leadfingers A Must for the serious Blues afficionado ? |
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07 Jul 07 - 09:02 AM (#2096308) Subject: RE: Blind Willie McTell Biography on Amazon From: Fred McCormick I should cocoa. One of the most important American folk artists of all time, and one of the least written about. |
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07 Jul 07 - 11:48 PM (#2096765) Subject: RE: Blind Willie McTell Biography on Amazon From: Q (Frank Staplin) British book not yet available at Amazon.com. Michael Gray wrote previously on Bob Dylan. |
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08 Jul 07 - 06:27 AM (#2096857) Subject: RE: Blind Willie McTell Biography on Amazon From: Fred McCormick It's available on Amazon UK. Since it's brand new and they're asking less than half the retail price, I'd have thought it worth the while of people elsewhere in the world paying the import duty.
-Joe Offer- |
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06 Oct 07 - 05:26 PM (#2165404) Subject: Blind Willie Mctell From: GUEST,Albert Has anyone read the recent biography of Blind Willie Mctell or does anyone have any info about this singer? Albert |
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06 Oct 07 - 05:33 PM (#2165412) Subject: RE: Blind Willie Mctell From: Jean(eanjay) He comes up occasionally on Paul Jones' radio 2 programme midweek. I have one of his CDs. He was born William Samuel McTell in 1901 and lost his sight in late childhood. He could read and write music in Braille. |
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06 Oct 07 - 05:59 PM (#2165441) Subject: RE: Blind Willie Mctell From: GUEST,FLEADGH-MAN TULLAMORE Havent read his bio ---other than what i have gleaned from his albums. A street corner blues guitarist and soul singer ---came up from the mississppi delta and levi enviornment when rural blues stsrted to become urbanised--- circa 1928 to --1932 at a guess---met up there with kindrid spirit in the persona of such luminaries as Blind lemon jefforson--Rev mr Southie---B arbeq bob etc.Had an indeliable influence on the subsequent emerging R& B hybrid---very little stuff since happened with chuck berry --bo diddley--gram parsons--Jagger --beatles---stones===knoffler ---hank wiliams ---bill munroe or any one else musically that can truthfully say they have not been influenced and moulded musically and philosophically bby the great WIILIE MC TELL ni feichimeid a leitheid aris go ndeantaigh dhia troaicre ar an ndaham dhilis----FLEADH - MAN |
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06 Oct 07 - 06:01 PM (#2165445) Subject: RE: Blind Willie Mctell From: Peace From Wikipedia "Born in Thomson, Georgia, blind in one eye, McTell had lost his remaining vision by late childhood, but became an adept reader of Braille. He showed an inherent proficiency in music from an early age and learned to play the six-string guitar as soon as he could. His father left the family when McTell was still young, so when his mother died in the 1920s, he left his hometown and became a wandering busker. He began his recording career in 1927 for Victor Records in Atlanta.[citation needed] In the years before World War II, he traveled and performed widely, recording for a number of labels under a variety of names. His style was singular: a form of country blues, bridging the gap between the raw blues of the Mississippi Delta and the more refined East Coast sound. The style is well documented on John Lomax's 1940 recordings of McTell for the Library of Congress.[citation needed] In 1934, he married his wife Ruth Kate Williams[3] (now better known as Kate McTell).[4] She accompanied him on stage and on several recordings, before becoming a nurse in 1939. Most of their marriage from 1942 until his death was spent apart, with her living in Fort Gordon near Augusta, and him working around Atlanta. Post-war, he recorded for Atlantic Records and for Regal Records, but these recordings met with less commercial success than his previous works. He continued to perform live in Atlanta, but his continued career was cut short by ill health, predominantly diabetes. A record store manager, Ed Rhoades, met McTell in 1956 and captured a few final performances on a tape recorder. These were later released on Prestige/Bluesville Records as Blind Willie McTell's Last Session.[5] McTell died in Milledgeville, Georgia of a stroke in 1959. A blues festival in McTell's honor is held annually in his birthplace, Thomson, Georgia." |
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06 Oct 07 - 09:05 PM (#2165545) Subject: RE: Blind Willie Mctell From: Bob the Postman Free Blind Willie mp3s can be found by searching the word mctell here |
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06 Oct 07 - 09:31 PM (#2165561) Subject: RE: Blind Willie Mctell From: GUEST,282RA He wasn't really so much a bluesman as he was a songsman. He knew lots and lots of songs of every type. Kinda like Leadbelly. Even as a bluesman he would have been classified as Piedmont which is a mixture of rags, blues, country, religious, cowboy, even Tin Pan Alley. He's part of the region that spawned Blind Blake, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee and Blind Boy Fuller. |
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07 Oct 07 - 01:31 AM (#2165661) Subject: RE: Blind Willie McTell Biography From: GUEST,iancarterb Blind Willie McTell's Last Tape was a vinyl album released sometime in the early sixties, and knocked me out as much as Huddie Ledbetter had earlier. I agree with the word 'songsman'. His own songs were pretty loose in metric structure, to say the least- think Bob Bossin with a 12 string!- but his playing was dazzling to me in the throes of initial love of the 12 string guitar. I know little of his history, so the bio will be fun. Carter B |
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07 Oct 07 - 02:51 PM (#2165982) Subject: RE: Blind Willie McTell Biography From: Leadbelly He is one of the best 12-string blues musicians ever.If you have had the chance please listen to his "Statesboro Blues". He's even better than Lead Belly. |
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13 Aug 21 - 09:58 AM (#4116394) Subject: RE: Blind Willie McTell Biography From: Rain Dog Just finished the Michael Gray book. I think it is fair to say that it is more about Gray's search than it is about McTell's life. Information on McTell is hard to find but Gray has tried to track down as much as he can. I did notice that the hardback and paperback have different covers. I have the paperback and in that he refers to photo on the cover (the hardback copy). The photo in question was taken in the hotel room of John and Ruby Lomax, when they were recording him for the Library of Congress in 1940. Makes you wonder why they changed the cover. I did enjoy the book. |