Music
Slow Drag
A ragtime instrumental with several different versions, also known as Cincinnati Flow Rag. I learned the basis of this in the guitar workshop run for many years by Roger Sutcliffe at Ilkley College in Yorkshire. Over time I’ve added bits culled from other versions, notably those of John James, Roy Book Binder and the man most associated with the tune, Rev. Gary Davis. This was recorded in Liverpool in March 2004 and produced by Melissa Davis and Jonathan Magill. A different version appears on my CD Big Road Blues.
Slow Drag
Vestapol/Guitar Rag
Recorded live at Korks Wine Bar in Otley, January 2005, and taken from my CD Live at Korks. Vestapol is a 19th century parlour guitar tune brought into the folk tradition by Elizabeth Cotten. It is played in the Open D tuning now commonly known as “Vestapol tuning”. Because many slide guitar tunes are played in this tuning, I thought it a good idea to play a slide version of Vestapol. To it I added my version of Sylvester Weaver’s Guitar Rag, one of the first solo guitar instrumentals ever recorded. It owes much to the influence of the Hawaiian music craze which swept the USA in the first decades of the 20th century, and went on to become a Western swing and bluegrass standard under the title of Steel Guitar Rag.
Vestapol/Guitar Rag
That Lovin’ I Crave
Recorded in Liverpool in March 2004, this Blind Blake song is typical of his bouncy, light-hearted numbers. A slightly different version should appear on my second album, provisionally titled Last Midnight Train. Produced, again, by Melissa Davis and Jonathan Magill.
That Lovin’ I Crave
Mississippi Blues
When Alan Lomax travelled through the Southern US in the early 1940s he recorded many great pieces of music for the Library of Congress. To my mind the version of this song performed by William Brown and recorded by Lomax in August 1942 is one of the greatest single blues ever. I’m still learning to play and sing this masterpiece of the bluesman’s art; this recording comes from the Liverpool sessions of March 2004 and another version appears on Big Road Blues.
Mississippi Blues
Wake Up Mama (aka Mama Tain’t Long Fo’ Day)
The sound of Blind Willie McTell’s 12-string guitar was one of the first blues sounds I heard, on a sampler LP a school pal of mine loaned me in about 1965. The song was Broke Down Engine and it made my hair stand on end. It was a long time before I acquired a 12-string and even longer before I ventured to put it into an open tuning to attempt some of McTell’s slide pieces. (For those acquainted with the vagaries of 12-string tuning, it took me even longer to get it back into standard!) I recorded this in Liverpool, incorporating some verses I heard sung by the late great JoAnne Kelly. The first time I saw her was at the University of Liverpool in either 1968 or 1969 and I was knocked sideways by this tiny young woman with the massive 12-string guitar and huge voice. A different version of this will appear on Last Midnight Train.
Wake Up Mama (aka Mama Tain’t Long Fo’ Day)