Lyr Req: Old Lonesome Blues (Bowman Sisters)

Subject: Lyr Req: I got the lonesome Blues
From: GUEST,Bill Charleston
Date: 13 Apr 16 - 12:03 PM

This song is performed by two gals with cajun accordion accompaniment breaks between verses. In the 2nd verse it goes "give me some ???? I'm goll darn gettin'...I'd like to know what that word is....Thanks, BC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I got the lonesome Blues
From: Janie
Date: 13 Apr 16 - 07:59 PM

I think you are going have to provide a little more info. for some one to be helpful. There are some whizzes at finding songs and lyrics here (I'm not one of them), but gonna have to narrow it down a bit. Lonesome Blues figures in a lot of song titles, and some of them have a lot of variants, both in title and in lyrics. The lyric snippets you provided probably aren't enough for even the best researchers here to go on.

I found one song titled "I Got the Lonesome Blues", on "Misty Dawn sings Ozark Country." No accordian, though, and especially no lyrics that match your fragments.

Do you have more lyrics? A first verse? Who are the 'gals'? In otherwords, more clues?

Subject: Lyr Add: OLD LONESOME BLUES (Bowman Sisters)
From: GUEST,Bill Charleston
Date: 14 Apr 16 - 12:43 AM

I don't know who sings this duet but I'd sure like to


OLD LONESOME BLUES

[Accordion Intro]

I got those lonesome blues and I'm feelin' mighty,
I said mighty,
I mean bad.
I got those lonesome blues and I'm feelin' mighty bad.
Oh, the blues ain't nothin' but a good gal feelin' bad.

[Break]

Oh, gi' me some cover, honey, 'cause I'm gettin',
I said I'm gettin',
A lot of cold.
Well, gi' me some cover, honey, 'cause I'm gettin' cold.
He said: "The breeze ain't hittin' you; you're only gettin' old."

[Break]

Oh, I had a good man but the fool laid down an',
I said down an',
I mean died.
Oh, I had a good man but the fool laid down an' died.
I got the lonesome blues but I'm too darn mean to cry.

[Break]

Oh, the Mississippi River is so awful deep an',
I said deep an',
I mean wide.
Oh, the Mississippi River is so awful deep an' wide,
An' my man lives on the Arkansas side.

I've go those [ritard] blue-oo-oo-oo-oo-ues.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I got the lonesome Blues
From: cnd
Date: 14 Apr 16 - 06:26 AM

I found a song which is stylistically very similar which may be called the Dallas Blues. It also has the same part about the Mississippi river.

Google Book (p28)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I got the lonesome Blues
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 16 Apr 16 - 09:10 PM

Hi Bill, it's "Ole Lonesome Blues" by the Bowman Sisters. I'm listening to a good quality transfer and it's "Oh gimme some cover honey" like you thought.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I got the lonesome Blues
From: Janie
Date: 17 Apr 16 - 09:07 AM

Old Lonesome Blues - Bowman Sisters, 1929.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Lonesome Blues (Bowman Sisters)
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 19 Apr 16 - 12:28 AM

The lyrics in the _Collier's_ article that cnd found are based closely on "Blues" by the Leighton Brothers, copyrighted in 1916. Lee White had already used the "blues ain't nothing but a good ___ feeling bad" line in "Negro Blues," copyrighted in 1912.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Lonesome Blues (Bowman Sisters)
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 19 Apr 16 - 12:36 AM

Since Marie Cahill recorded the Leighton Brothers' "The Blues" under the title "Dallas Blues" before 1920, you might think the _Collier's_ writer was using her record for reference, but it's not that simple, because she chose to leave out the verse about peaches on the record.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Lonesome Blues (Bowman Sisters)
From: leeneia
Date: 19 Apr 16 - 10:58 AM

Thanks for the link, Janie. I like it. It sounds like ragtime.

I don't think that's an accordion. I think it's an organ of some kind.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Lonesome Blues (Bowman Sisters)
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 01 May 16 - 02:00 AM

Huge similarity, including order of stanzas, between the Bowman Sisters recording and this April 1923 recording by the banjoist Mitchell brothers from Tennessee (which also seems to have influenced "Banjo Blues" performed without banjo by Peg Leg Howell):

http://picosong.com/KQtJ

A 1949 article claimed, "From 1923 until 1929, John and his brother Bill Mitchell were recognized as the foremost banjo artists in America." An exaggeration I would think, but apparently they were more influential in the world of blues performances than they usually get credit for.

John Tilman Mitchell 1899-1981
William McGavock Mitchell 1901-1965

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Lonesome Blues (Bowman Sisters)
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Dec 17 - 06:50 PM

Fran Trappe on accordion: (He taught Jennie Bowman to play it too.)
https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/2000038815/W149257-Old_lonesome_blues

The swells give it away, as I don't think pump-organs have that dynamic control.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Lonesome Blues (Bowman Sisters)
From: leeneia
Date: 13 Dec 17 - 10:12 PM

Cover honey, huh? I bet that started out as clover honey.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Lonesome Blues (Bowman Sisters)
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Nov 19 - 03:05 PM

Here's a great recording of this song by Bill and the Belles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp-mRvbAlvg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Lonesome Blues (Bowman Sisters)
From: GUEST,Kate Early
Date: 10 Jan 20 - 12:25 PM

who wrote the version Bill and the Belles sing?