Bothered All The Time

Great blues find: the late sixties recordings of Hayes McMullan, a guy who once played with the legendary Charley Patton. Powerful stuff.

Hayes McMullan - Look-A Here Woman Blues
Hayes McMullan - Kansas City Blues

Take Pity

"Yes on me, it's poor me, you must have pity on poor me..." Or: it's six pack time again, my amics del pobre, and strictly in a blues stylee at that. Come in please, heaven awaits.

Charley Patton - Poor Me
Floyd Council - Poor And Ain't Got A Dime
Smith & Harper - Poor Girl
Big Joe Williams - Providence Help The Poor People
The Cousins & Virginia DeMoss - Poor Mourner
John Fahey - Poor Boy

But Of Course

A moving and hypnotizing requiem to one of the true blues greats? Check! As Fahey, the original American Primitive guitar maestro, once said about this composition himself: "He was in his quiet way, a very great man, and I deeply mourn our loss of him. So, I wrote this requiem for him, about him, but I play it the way Charley Patton would have played it, had he ever thought of such a thing, which of course he never would have..."

John Fahey - Requiem For John Hurt

Foxtrot, Lope And Pace

Phase one, in which Doris gets her oats...

Presenting a galloping six pack.

The Beatles - Dig A Pony MP3

Charley Patton - Pony Blues MP3

Bob Dylan - New Pony MP3

Paul Siebel - Pinto Pony MP3

Lee Dorsey - Ride Your Pony MP3

Ween - Mister, Won't You Please Help My Pony? MP3

Crumb´s trading cards

I´ve always been an admirer of underground comic artist extraordinaire Robert Crumb, of Mr. Natural, Fritz The Cat and Devil Girl fame. Back in the eighties Crumb, who knows his music and also plays a mean banjo, created three beautiful sets of trading cards with musical themes: Heroes of the Blues, Pioneers of Country Music and Early Jazz Greats. The good news is that these have finally been collected in book form as R. Crumb´s Heroes Of Blues, Jazz & Country (Abrams Books). A handsome and nicely priced hardcover with tons of color portraits and short but accurate biographies of both famous and obscure musicians, you´d be a fool not to pick up a copy. Especially since it comes with a cd containing 21 great tracks from the archives of the great Yazoo label. Which means you get wonderful songs like High Water Everywhere by Charley Patton representing the blues, Big Bend Gal by the Shelor Family - who recorded only four sides in ´27 and were never heard of again - in the country section and Jelly Roll Morton´s Kansas City Stomps for early jazz. Keep on truckin´, Mr. Crumb...

Charley Patton - High Water Everywhere MP3

Shelor Family - Big Bend Gal MP3

Jelly Roll Morton´s Red Hot Peppers - Kansas City Stomps MP3