Lyrics & Knowledge Personal Pages Record Shop Auction Links Radio & Media Kids Membership Help
The Mudcat Cafesj

Post to this Thread - Printer Friendly - Home
Page: [1] [2] [3]


Josh White

Related threads:
Lyr Req: songs by Josh White (31)
Chord Req: Where Were You, Baby? (Josh White/Don M (2)
Josh White guitar (1)
Lyr Req: song by Josh White, Jr. (2)
Lyr Req: Take a Girl Like You (Josh White) (6)
Josh White's guitar?? History Detective (30)
Chord Req: Freedom Road (Josh White) (2)
Lyr Req: Free and Equal Blues (Josh White) (8)
Sam Gary-musical partner of Josh White Sr. (5)
Lyr Req: Red Sun (Langston Hughes, Josh White) (3)
Lyr Req: Jelly Jelly (Josh White Sr) (4)
Josh White,Sr (7)
Josh White special on WFDU (19)
Thursday: Elijah Wald on Josh White (1)
Josh White, Jr. on Folk Roots/Folk Branc (1)
Lyr Req: song by Josh White Jr-park in a driveway (1)


Big Al Whittle 24 Jul 15 - 03:07 PM
Mark Ross 24 Jul 15 - 03:10 PM
Big Al Whittle 24 Jul 15 - 03:25 PM
GUEST,Peter verity 24 Jul 15 - 07:07 PM
Big Al Whittle 24 Jul 15 - 10:06 PM
GUEST,Mike Yates 25 Jul 15 - 02:42 AM
GUEST,Bignige 25 Jul 15 - 08:45 AM
GUEST 25 Jul 15 - 10:47 AM
Big Al Whittle 25 Jul 15 - 11:17 AM
PHJim 25 Jul 15 - 12:26 PM
Big Al Whittle 26 Jul 15 - 02:08 PM
The Sandman 26 Jul 15 - 06:19 PM
Deckman 26 Jul 15 - 08:50 PM
GUEST,Mike Yates 27 Jul 15 - 04:16 AM
Will Fly 27 Jul 15 - 04:45 AM
The Sandman 27 Jul 15 - 04:56 AM
Big Al Whittle 27 Jul 15 - 04:58 AM
GUEST,MikeOfNorthumbria (sans cookie) 27 Jul 15 - 05:16 AM
Will Fly 27 Jul 15 - 05:36 AM
GUEST,Tunesmith 27 Jul 15 - 05:53 AM
GUEST,Fred McCormick 27 Jul 15 - 06:52 AM
The Sandman 27 Jul 15 - 07:50 AM
GUEST,Hootenanny 27 Jul 15 - 07:58 AM
Will Fly 27 Jul 15 - 08:45 AM
Elmore 27 Jul 15 - 09:18 AM
meself 27 Jul 15 - 03:13 PM
dick greenhaus 27 Jul 15 - 08:22 PM
GUEST,Mike Yates 28 Jul 15 - 01:51 AM
Vic Smith 28 Jul 15 - 09:43 AM
John on the Sunset Coast 28 Jul 15 - 11:23 AM
GUEST,Tunesmith 28 Jul 15 - 02:22 PM
PHJim 28 Jul 15 - 03:15 PM
GUEST,Hootenanny 28 Jul 15 - 03:18 PM
Elmore 28 Jul 15 - 10:19 PM
Will Fly 29 Jul 15 - 04:29 AM
The Sandman 29 Jul 15 - 09:27 AM
Mark Clark 29 Jul 15 - 01:18 PM
PHJim 29 Jul 15 - 03:06 PM
Big Al Whittle 29 Jul 15 - 03:09 PM
PHJim 29 Jul 15 - 03:13 PM
GUEST,Joseph Scott 29 Jul 15 - 09:56 PM
GUEST,Joseph Scott 29 Jul 15 - 10:03 PM
GUEST,Joseph Scott 29 Jul 15 - 10:06 PM
GUEST,Joseph Scott 29 Jul 15 - 10:09 PM
GUEST,Joseph Scott 29 Jul 15 - 10:15 PM
Big Al Whittle 30 Jul 15 - 04:41 AM
PHJim 30 Jul 15 - 09:48 AM
The Sandman 30 Jul 15 - 12:51 PM
GUEST,Joseph Scott 30 Jul 15 - 09:58 PM
Big Al Whittle 30 Jul 15 - 11:24 PM
Share Thread
more
Lyrics & Knowledge Search [Advanced]
DT  Forum Child
Sort (Forum) by:relevance date
DT Lyrics:













Subject: Josh White
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 Jul 15 - 03:07 PM

just watching Josh on dvd.

he was a major influence on me as a guitarist. all the kids at school were into the Shadows - but my Dad got me to listen Josh as he was making a few tv programmes in England at the time.

i wonder if any of you guys ever saw him live and had any recollections. any thoughts about his guitar technique....


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Mark Ross
Date: 24 Jul 15 - 03:10 PM

Talk to Frank Hamilton (aka Stringsinger). He knew Josh, and taught Josh's basic strum to Odetta.

Mark Ross


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 Jul 15 - 03:25 PM

thank you Mark!


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST,Peter verity
Date: 24 Jul 15 - 07:07 PM

Rumour has it he learned by watching blind lemon Jefferson!


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 Jul 15 - 10:06 PM

Well according to Josh's biographer , Elijah Wald, Josh's family were impoverished by some peevish act of Jim Crow skulduggery.

So from the age of seven Josh had the job of leading round various blind singer guitarists - Jefferson being the most famous. They were all mean abusive characters, who kept nearly all the money and boozed and gambled it. They kept Josh barefoot even in the winter to make the act look more piteous. They were careful not to share their musical secrets - but I think - if we look carefully , we can see some of what he learned by observing. it was a tough apprenticeship.

From Jefferson himself. I would estimate the main technique he took was his way with bass staccato runs that are not just show pieces - they swing fiercely and drive the song along. With jefferson he added a sort of falsetto - Josh's voice is rich baritone but it weaves into these bass runs.

Josh doesn't go for the syncopated double finger picking. but he has ways of scooping and strumming at the strings that come at the listener as bewilderingly complex - making train noises, or bouncing a lyric at you. as people have pointed out Odetta used this kind of masterful strumming also.

The other thing that strikes me about Josh's work is the presentation. He is always telling you the story - trying to make you understand it, trying to draw you in. there is none of that celtic reverie business. he is in your face with interesting or amusing detail. his genius is taking the street corner shtick and making something that will work in the Gate of Horn or The Blue Angel, or down the lens of a tv camera. He must have worked hard at his diction to effect that translation.

There is also some quite exotic chording that gives an air of finesse.
These are my observations and I 'm sure there may be people who think I've got it wrong. Please put me right where i am wrong. This subject fascinates me..


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 25 Jul 15 - 02:42 AM

I saw Josh White perform once in Manchester. During one song a string broke on his guitar. He didn't stop playing, but changed the string as he played, without missing a beat. Needless to say, I was very impressed. Years later I mentioned this to Hootenanny who told me that, in fact, this was a part of his act and was something that he did on purpose! I cannot recall any of the songs that he sang that night (it was a long time ago), but I do remember how much I enjoyed listening to the man.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST,Bignige
Date: 25 Jul 15 - 08:45 AM

I seem to recall he did a late night series in the very early days of BBC2.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Jul 15 - 10:47 AM

He was a major influence on Walt Robertson. bpb(deckman)nelson


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Jul 15 - 11:17 AM

to be honest - i think maybe you can see his influence more in England - where he was totally unique, and where he spent a fair bit of time.

his in your face kind of presenting a song, concentrating your attention on the words by telling little stories was adopted to great effect by Derek Brimstone. plus we had a guitarist of genius cled Gerry Lockran who seemed to have a style reminiscent of Josh.

these two were round folk clubs for much of the latter part of the sixties for about twenty years.

having said that i have written to stringsinger and would love to hear from Walt.
it would be nice if we could isolate some of the great qualities and trto understand the nature of it.

what i said earlier about that scooping strumming style. i just noticed that he often bookends with a smooth arepeggio. its this clever interplay of wildness with sophistication that makes him seem so urbane.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: PHJim
Date: 25 Jul 15 - 12:26 PM

My third album, after Elvis's Golden Records and The Kingston Trio's Close Up, bought circa 1960, was "The Josh White Stories - Volume 1". My brother and I learned many of the songs from that album: House Of The Rising Sun, Nobody Knows You..., What You Gonna Do When Your Meat Runs Out, Boll Weevel, Frankie & Johnny... We first learned to bend strings from listening to that album. I'm not sure how close we came to Josh's style, but it seems that he did a bunch of palm muting.
Josh White Jr. used to play in Hamilton folk clubs in the sixties and we never missed one of his shows. He also played with no strap and one foot up on a chair, like his dad. I don't think he ever got the hang of playing with a lit cigarette stuck behind his ear though. I gave up on that after the first couple of tries.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 26 Jul 15 - 02:08 PM

refresh


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: CAN WE TALK ABOUT JOSH WHITE
From: The Sandman
Date: 26 Jul 15 - 06:19 PM

is there anyone on this forum who saw him live?


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Deckman
Date: 26 Jul 15 - 08:50 PM

The closest I came was in January of 1967. I was stuck for three days during a horrendous snow storm in Chicago. I saw that he was performing in one of the clubs (lounges) at the hotel where I was staying. I scurried down but the place was jammed and the ten foot tall bouncer would NOT let me in. By jumping up and down a little, I did manage to see his face once. But I could hear him ... somewhat.

CHEERS, bob(deckman)nelson


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 27 Jul 15 - 04:16 AM

Hi Good Soldier, don't you read what people write? I said above that I saw Josh White singing in Manchester.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Will Fly
Date: 27 Jul 15 - 04:45 AM

Oddly enough, I've listened to very little Josh White over the years, being more interested in Bill Broonzy and Brownie McGhee when I first started listening to blues back in the '60s. What I did hear of White was from his latter years - stuff which I found slightly bland or even mannered at the time. Understandable, given the environments in which he was playing at the time.

I've just been trawling through the chronological collection of his stuff from 1929 onwards (on Spotify) and enjoying much of it - his earlier guitar work seemed more akin to McGhee and Broonzy in the 1930s, and that appeals to me more.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: The Sandman
Date: 27 Jul 15 - 04:56 AM

I am inclined to agree Will, another guitarist i find very interesting is lonnie johnson, sophisticated guitar runs.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8fyb9vpIc0


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 27 Jul 15 - 04:58 AM

yes indeed Will - he was phenomenal.

i really want to talk to people who have drawn upon him as an influence.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST,MikeOfNorthumbria (sans cookie)
Date: 27 Jul 15 - 05:16 AM

Dear Private Schweik,

The short answer to your question is "Yes". Now here is the long answer...

I saw Josh at London's Royal Festival Hall in December 1960. I had never heard (or even heard of) him, but a knowledgable friend recommended him strongly,so I went. It changed my life.

Here are some of the reasons why - in no particular order.

Josh was a virtuoso guitar player, who opened my ears to what was possible on the instrument. But there was no self-indulgent grandstanding - the guitar was always the servant of the song.

He had a excellent voice, used in whatever way was necessary to get the best out of a song, but without ostentatiously drawing attention to itself.

He gave every song - from light-hearted romps like "Apples,Peaches and Cherries' to heavy stuff like 'The Man Who Couldn't Walk Around' - total commitment. And each song opened a window, or a door, through which he invited you look at(or maybe even walk into) the picture he was painting for you.

He could make prejudice and injustice look not just wicked, but stupid, with satirical songs like 'Free and Equal Blues'. (Look it up on Youtube - it's still relevant.) But he could also confront racism head on with 'Strange Fruit' - and then say that in spite of that cancer in his country's soul, he was still proud to be an American, and explain why by singing 'The House I Live In'.

And one more thing - about the string-breaking trick. Yes, he did it that night, and I was impressed. And I remained impressed after discovering that it was a regular occurrence.

He broke the string while hammering out the final verse of 'Betty and Dupree', and then fitted (and tuned up) the replacement while singing 'Summertime', accompanied by his bassist Jack Fallon. Josh brought in the (perfectly tuned) guitar seamlessly towards the end of the song, and got a thoroughly justified round of applause when he finished.

Anyone who's tried tuning up on stage - let alone tuning up while singing - should appreciate what an achievement that was. And yes. it was a stunt - but it was also a little piece of theatre, which helped create the informal atmosphere that he wanted, and that the audience appreciated.

Josh was both a craftsman and a showman, both a radical and a patriot. I wish we had more like him.

Wassail!


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Will Fly
Date: 27 Jul 15 - 05:36 AM

Quite right, Dick - Lonnie Johnson was a wonder. His duets with Eddie Lang (alias "Blind Willie Dunn") are stupendous. Lonnie J also had a superb singing voice.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 27 Jul 15 - 05:53 AM

I saw Josh on BBC TV around 1960, and was not impressed!
Even though I was only 15 or 16 I sensed that he was tailoring his material for a white audience.
Who wants to hear an authentic blues singer performing Molly Molone and I gave my love a cherry?
His watered down performance was big disappointment.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 27 Jul 15 - 06:52 AM

Tunesmith. Ditto. I remember those Josh White programmes. They went out fairly late in the evening, and I even recall him singing the two songs you mention.

I was about twelve at the time and was too young to have bitten the blues bullet. When I did and I heard the likes of Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson and Fred McDowell, I realised what a load of puerile puss White had been pumping out.

Many years later of course I discovered the young Josh White (aka Pinewood Tom and The Singing Christian)and found he'd once been a different, and far more agreeable, kettle of fish altogether. What a pity those smart New York nightclub audiences couldn't have accepted him as he was; brilliant guitar and all.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: The Sandman
Date: 27 Jul 15 - 07:50 AM

Well,ok, good points but did he introduce people by being commercial who then went on to discover more rootsy kind of blues?


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 27 Jul 15 - 07:58 AM

Fread, I too saw Josh at the Albert Hall and agree that he was an excellent musician. The string breaking schtick was interesting to say the least and some of the material was a bit naff. BUT Josh was making his living by being an entertainer which means catering to the masses or a least a goodly number of them and by doing that material he was able to obtain a reasonable living. If he had catered only to blues aficiandos we probably would never have seen him in the UK.
Some people criticised Broonzy for leaning more on "Folk/country" style blues in his later years (and having a publicity photograph taken dressed in denims)rather than the up-town stuff which he had played in Chicago. Short answer; the guy was trying to make a decent living.So let's be thankful that at least we had a chance to SEE and hear just how good they were.

In the early sixties the blues audience was tiny in the UK. I was also at Muddy Waters and Otis Spann's first UK appearances and the mainly jazz audience were very scathing. Electric blues was not for them.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Will Fly
Date: 27 Jul 15 - 08:45 AM

It's the old, old story, isn't it? If you really want to make a living in the music business, then you're often forced into playing what people want to hear - what's acceptable at the time - just to eat and put a roof over your head.

As I said, I didn't care for the older Josh White that I heard on record in the 60s but, as Hoot has just said, he was trying to make a decent living. Anyone who's gigged to any extent knows the feeling. I was knocking out "Peggy Sue" in the Bat & Ball (a market traders' local full of middle-aged boozers) in Brighton yesterday afternoon. I'd much rather have been playing "Johsefin's Dopvals" on my tenor guitar - but there you go. The cash can talk sometimes.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Elmore
Date: 27 Jul 15 - 09:18 AM

Saw him in Boston a few times. Excellent performer. Pretty slick compared to Rev. Gary Davis and Son House.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: meself
Date: 27 Jul 15 - 03:13 PM

I used to play harmonica with an older, Black bluesman. From time to time, he would grumble about audiences wanting him to play nothing but blues: "I like playing blues, but that ain't ALL I want to play!" Maybe Josh White liked performing that square stuff - as well as liking to eat.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 27 Jul 15 - 08:22 PM

If it weren't for Josh White, Blues would have remained a tiny niche in the music field. I've heard him ply in person dozens of times, and I'll maintain that he (and Brownie McGhee) remain among the most underrated bluesmen ever.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 28 Jul 15 - 01:51 AM

Totally agree with Dick. I saw Brownie McGhee a couple of times in Manchester (at around the same time that I saw Josh White). They were both excellent performers and I am amazed how overlooked they are today. I especially like the recordings that can be heard on the CD set "The Little Red Box of Protest Songs" (Properbox 147), not perhaps "blues", but rather songs for people who were aware of the social inequalities of that time, and who wanted to do something about it.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Vic Smith
Date: 28 Jul 15 - 09:43 AM

Mike Ainscough wrote
" Lonnie Johnson was a wonder. "


I saw Lonnie Johnson play live a couple of times; does that count?


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 28 Jul 15 - 11:23 AM

Last night I came across a Randolph Scott western, The Walking Hills. It features Josh White as a saloon habitue. I listened to his first song, then bookmarked the YouTube page to watch at a more convenient time. I'm expecting that White will be the best thing in the film, not that Randy is chopped liver.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 28 Jul 15 - 02:22 PM

Well, the reason that Brownie is not revered these days is that Delta blues seems now to be accepted by many as real, authentic blues while less intense styles of blues are undervalued


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: PHJim
Date: 28 Jul 15 - 03:15 PM

I never thought Sonny & Brownie were under rated. Most of the blues fans I know have their records in their collections.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 28 Jul 15 - 03:18 PM

My own thoughts on why Brownie McGhee is not given his due recognition is that "familiarity breeds contempt" Terry and McGhee were a great duo and both amazing musicians. They toured widely and and made numerous recordings their music therefore was readily available and perhaps too familiar. It's the old story, if they had only ever made a couple of sides we would be saying about how great they were and wouldn't it be wonderful if they had recorded more.
Fortunately Brownie lived reasonably comfortably to a reasonable age.
No tragic early death or fictitious legends and praise from expert pop musicians who never met him to tell us how wonderful he was.

He was a great picker and singer. As to which styles are "undervalued" Delta, Piedmont, Texas ? it's all a matter of personal taste.

Vic, I too saw Lonnie Johnson a couple of times. Unfortunately he was more into ballads when he came over like his King recordings using electric guitar. Personaly I would have preferred to hear him playing some of that old acoustic style that he did on a twelve string. However like Josh White he was playing what he thought his new audience wanted to hear.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Elmore
Date: 28 Jul 15 - 10:19 PM

Sort of of off topic, but I totally agree with Guest.Hootenanny. I really appreciated him when Brownie and Sonny were playing in smaller venues in NYC, like Gerde's and The Gaslight. Later on, in Boston, it sometimes felt like they were mailing it in.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Will Fly
Date: 29 Jul 15 - 04:29 AM

Sonny and Brownie famously didn't get on when they were off stage. An old mate of mine saw them when they appeared at a folk club in Blackburn in the 1960s. There was a party after the gig - which Brownie went to, playing into the early hours of the morning and enjoying the best part of a bottle of brandy - a party which my friend attended after walking Sonny back to his hotel when the gig had finished.

I think it can sometimes be difficult, when you've been playing the same stuff with the same partner for many, many years, to stay fresh and focused and up for it - particularly when your audiences expect the same repertoire year in, year out.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: The Sandman
Date: 29 Jul 15 - 09:27 AM

yes i have alive recording of them, live at the bunk house, brownie clearly says try playing in a some time ,after the number


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Mark Clark
Date: 29 Jul 15 - 01:18 PM

Oddly, I never saw Josh perform live. I do remember, however, my partner Herb Jones and I having a nice chat with Josh on Chicago's Rush Street after one of our gigs ca. 1963. Josh had finished someplace else and we all talked for quite a while there in the early hours. That was my only meeting with Josh.

Like Will, I was more into Brownie and Big Bill at the time.

      - Mark


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: PHJim
Date: 29 Jul 15 - 03:06 PM

I have a recording where Sonny taes the first two breaks, then Brownie says, "I'm gonna play some blues . . .if you'll let me."
Their awkward friendship was no secret.

I became a Josh fan first because I didn't even hear Brownie and Sonny and Big Bill till 1961 or 1962. I saw Mississippi John and Rev Gary Davis and Skip James in the summer of '64 and became a huge fan as well.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 29 Jul 15 - 03:09 PM

this album is fabulous - some of THE best blues playing ever! and it costs only £1.39 - get it!


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Empty-Bed-Blues-Josh-White/dp/B00OY1GGMW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438196842&sr=8-1&keywords=empty+bed+blu


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: PHJim
Date: 29 Jul 15 - 03:13 PM

I bought my first Josh White record because he was a folk singer, not a blues singer. The same was true of Lead Belly.
My dad said, "You're becoming a real blues fan, eh Jim?"
I said, "What do you mean?"
Dad listened to Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Taft Jordon & His Mob, Velma Middleton, Fatha Hines. . . and that's what I thought of as blues. T me the guys I was listening to were folk singers.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 29 Jul 15 - 09:56 PM

"My own thoughts on why Brownie McGhee is not given his due recognition" Well, he is, isn't he? How famous is Peg Leg Howell?


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 29 Jul 15 - 10:03 PM

"What I did hear of White was from his latter years - stuff which I found slightly bland or even mannered at the time. Understandable, given the environments in which he was playing at the time." Even his early stuff seems pretty bland and mannered to me.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 29 Jul 15 - 10:06 PM

"If it weren't for Josh White, Blues would have remained a tiny niche in the music field." Blues music became a national craze when Josh was about 2.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 29 Jul 15 - 10:09 PM

"how overlooked they are today" A google search on "brownie mcghee" gets about 367,000 hits. A search on brownie mcghee cd on amazon gets 218 hits.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 29 Jul 15 - 10:15 PM

"Well, the reason that Brownie is not revered these days is that Delta blues seems now to be accepted by many as real, authentic blues while less intense styles of blues are undervalued" "Intensity" is overvalued today whether the artist was from the Delta or not (e.g. Bessie Smith is valued for being "intense," Delta or not).


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 30 Jul 15 - 04:41 AM

look take my word for it. with Josh -there is substance there if you care to look. I want this thread to be really positive and i would like to discuss this great players techniques.

as a kid, he led round Jefferson - probably saw his music more than anyone else. and he was a deeply interested party. he was a star witness to history.

I notice that empty bed blues - very fine playing is in E flate. he has tuned his guitar a semitone down. was this a general thing? I know its said Leabelly tuned his 12 string a whole tone down.

Everybody plays stuff to make a living. Robert Johnson certainly did. Josh's audiences were wealthy enough to buy an album of the performance they had seen that evening in a night club.

Years ago I remember being in a hotel in germany opposite Luther Ellison. The German promoter was apologising for the unhip audience - he said, I was so ashamed when they asked for San Francisco Bay Blues.
Luther said, that's okay, I didn't mind playing it....


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: PHJim
Date: 30 Jul 15 - 09:48 AM

One of Robert Johnson's biographies states that "My Blue Heaven" was a song he loved to play, but wasn't allowed to record because, "Nobody wants to hear you play that stuff." Apparently he was almost prevented from recording "They're Red Hot" for the same reason.

There's a story of Elvis jamming backstage with either Scotty Moore or James Burton and Scotty (or James) said, "Why don't you do that on stage?" Elvis said, "Nobody comes to the show to see me play the guitar."


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: The Sandman
Date: 30 Jul 15 - 12:51 PM

yes, i too play stuff for a living, but one thing i never do is sing a song i do not like,
tuesday night, i was asked for fields of athenry, i just do not know it, but everyone had a great night there was solo dancing, set dancing, singing playing but not that song, and people still had a good   time, without that song.
i bet, josh never sang a song he did not like.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 30 Jul 15 - 09:58 PM

"probably saw his music more than anyone else" No, Josh did not probably see Lemon's music more than anyone else.

I agree with you that positivity is good, but I think perspective is too.

Peronally I don't dispute the notion that Josh genuinely liked "One Meatball" -- but in honesty I've heard multiple better "One Meatball"s, so...


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: Josh White
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 30 Jul 15 - 11:24 PM

well all i can say Dick is - have a go at singing songs you don't like. you often discover virtues you didn't realise existed! that's my experience. the whole Irish thing opened up for me when the thene pub made it possible for me to swap the rickenbacker for an acoustic guitar. i always loved acoustic guitar - but there was no possibility of making a living with one up til then - not for my generation. the same with country music really. i was afolkie - always disdainful of Nashville, til i won a competition singing a country song and that gave me my professional music career - or at least gave me the impetus.

I was very interested in Lemon. but he seems to have led a shadowy existence. the biographical material is really there in his songs - nobody much seems to have written much about him.

fellow mudcatter Elmore and i had a go finding out about Lemon but we hit a brick wall. the stuff that's written about him is very insubstantial. one of the few places i've found a solid recollection of the man is Elijah Wood's biography of Josh. his childhood memories of Lemon are very vivid and convincing. that's why i said i thought he knew more about him and his music than most. Also Josh has this intensity with blues. Lemon is intense - so intense that he doesn't seem to notice what's around him - whereas with Josh its all about the audience. nevertheless - he SO knows what the blues is about.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate
Next Page

  Share Thread:
More...

Reply to Thread
Subject:  Help
From:
Preview   Automatic Linebreaks   Make a link ("blue clicky")


Mudcat time: 24 April 4:33 AM EDT

[ Home ]

All original material is copyright © 2022 by the Mudcat Café Music Foundation. All photos, music, images, etc. are copyright © by their rightful owners. Every effort is taken to attribute appropriate copyright to images, content, music, etc. We are not a copyright resource.