Slack It For Awhile

I recall Tia Blake appearing on my radar through a thorough feature on the always inspiring Aquarium Drunkard some years back, which told the remarkable story of an unknown singer from Pinehurst, North Carolina who recorded a breathtaking folk album in early seventies Paris. Since then, Tia's Folksongs & Ballads has never been far from the stereo at FTSOTS headquarters. Here's a fine example of her style.

Tia Blake - Hangman

Did Hangman ring a bell somehow? Could very well be. Maybe not because of the first recorded version from 1920 by one Bentley Ball, but if you've got some Leadbelly, Charlie Poole and/or Zep in your collection, as you should, chances are you've heard Child Ballad 95 before.

Bentley Ball - Gallows Tree
Leadbelly - The Gallis Pole
Charlie Poole & The North Carlina Ramblers - Hangman, Hangman, Slack The Rope
Led Zeppelin - Gallows Pole

Stop press: with reader Marie coming to the rescue, we now have a fine version by Odetta, too. And I found I had yet another wonderful take on it, courtesy of John Jacob Niles, the 'Dean of American Balladeers'. Enjoy!

Odetta - Gallows Tree (Gallows Pole)
John Jacob Niles - The Maid Freed From The Gallows

Very Melancholic Kid

Take a bow, Mark Kozelek, sir. You've just released the first really great album of 2014. Intense, naked and bleak, but often very funny, too, Benji will keep us busy for quite a while. Taster: a wonderfully titled life story of sorts in twenty verses or so, complete with hypnotic Bron-Y-Aur Stomp-inspired picking. "I'll go to my grave with my melancholy, and my ghost will echo my sentiments for all eternity..."

Sun Kil Moon - I Watched The Film The Song Remains The Same

From Golden Hill

This fascinating series of slowly but surely improving That's The Way run-throughs shows that hanging out in the pastoral Welsh cottage of Bron-Yr-Aur sure brought out the best in the Zep fraternity. Dog yelping? Priceless. 'Cause that's the way it ought to be...

Led Zeppelin - That's The Way (outtake)

A Mess Of Blues

Take five for a bit of heavy heavy Zep magic, incorporating some main Page & Plant inspirations: John Lee Hooker, Bukka White, Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup, and that white boy from Tupelo. Digging that double whammy called the BBC Sessions a lot at the moment, you see. "Whoops there goes a teardrop, rolling down my face..."

Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love (Medley) MP3

John Lee Hooker - Boogie Chillun MP3

Bukka White - Fixin' To Die Blues MP3

Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup - That's All Right MP3

Elvis Presley - A Mess Of Blues MP3

Wild Weekend Vol. 37

It´s gonna be a Wild Weekend, issue 37. Where East meets West and the well known goes hand in hand with the obscure. What have we got in store for you this week? Some Britfolk, soul, and afro-reggae, a shot of dino-rock, an Indian ghazal, and a promising new Americana trio to boot. Have a wild one, y´all.

We´ll kick off with some shimmering soul featuring brother Ry and friends, who give the Maurice & Mac classic Why Don´t You Try Me a whole new coat of paint. From the mighty fine Borderline album (´80). Give it a try why don´t you. Time to go pentangling now. I was enjoying some beers with a friend of mine recently when he put an old Pentangle album on, and it amazed us all over again how fresh these British folkrockers still sound today. Bert Jansch and John Renbourn: a wiz guitar team if ever there was one. "Look around for someone lying in the sunshine, marking time, hear the sighs, close your eyes..." And in case you were wondering: that´s the underrated Jaqui McShee on vocals.

Ry Cooder - Why Don´t You Try Me MP3

Pentangle - Light Flight (Take Three Girls Theme) MP3

May we continue with a new band now? Thanks. Presenting Woodsy Pride, an Americana threesome all the way from Redhook, Brooklyn. Wasn´t that the birthplace of Joey, the famous mafioso Dylan wrote such a great but controversial song about? Cool. Anyway, they call their stuff ´southern gothic´ and I sure can live with that. Nice lap steel, too, which is always a good thing. Next we move all the way to India for a relaxed ghazal by a contemporary singer called Hariharan. If I´m not mistaken, the delicate Hasti Apni Habab Ki Si Hai was written by Mir Taqi Mir, the most famous Urdu poet of the eighteenth century. Yes, it´s that old. No idea what he´s on about though. Anyone?

Woodsy Pride - As Always A Good Thing MP3

Hariharan - Hasti Apni Habab Ki Si Hai MP3

On to Jamaica now, with one of the weirdest ventures in the Lee Perry catalogue: his collaboration with Seke Molenga & Kalo Kawongolo. These two singers from Zaire were brought to Kingston in the year when the two sevens clashed, by some malafide promotor who abandoned them almost right away. The duo didn´t speak the language and had no money, but did manage to locate Perry´s famous Black Ark studio somehow. Scratch then worked his magic and produced what was probably the first Afro-Jamaican crossover. Irie or what? And we´ll be off with a pastoral classic by Led Zep. This time Sir Percy´s in pursuit of a Californian beauty who´s never been born. "Meet you up there where the path runs straight and high..." Deal.

Seke Molenga & Kalo Kawongolo - African Roots MP3

Led Zeppelin - Going To California MP3