Various
Blues With A Message
Arhoolie CD 510
Noted folklorist (and writer of this CD’s liner notes), Paul Oliver firmly believes there has been a steep decline in blues with a
message since country blues became electrified. Dealing with that period of transition, this collection focuses on previous material,
which was predominantly recorded in the ’50s and ’60s. 18 artists perform abandoned songs that address inhumane working
conditions, taking advantage of animals, family concern, politics, the great migration, northern jobs and hope for a better tomorrow.
Sam Chatman’s protest song confronts the despair of segregation. Modern society cannot imagine what hopeless conditions
produced lyrics like ‘I have to paint my face / so I won’t be kin to that Ethiopian race’. John Jackson’s guitar is like a loyal friend
who supports his acceptance of integration. Mercy Dee’s (“With nothing but hard tack and sorghum to eat”) lyrics provide a
realistic reflection of a day in the life of a sharecropper. Her piano blazes while the harp wheezes. At the beginning of “Tom
Moore’s Farm,” Mance Lipscomb states “Oh well, he can’t hear me” referring to the immoral farmer. The proclamation reflects
the fear and reign Moore had over his repressed workers. Lightning Hopkins echoes Lipscomb’s sentiments by singing ‘he’s
the meanest mens I’ve ever seen’. With the use of a full band, Mississippi Fred McDowell defines the northern hill music. His
view, about being assigned a short-line mule, is bleak. Like a grand lady of the blues, Essie Jenkins sings about the epidemic
brought on by the Lord in 1919. Willie Eason delivers a Franklin D. Roosevelt biography. Eason pays particular attention to the
death, and emphasizes the President’s emancipation of African-Americans.
Mainly featuring songs with only vocals and guitar, these grim 73-minutes will not change the oppressive image of old fashioned
blues. However, they successfully draw attention that deep and realistic significance once prevailed in the music. Ironically, these
blues became the influence for modern screeching guitar blues. It is time to return to the roots, and to stop trying to make the
blues mainstream.
- Tim Holek -
Southwest Blues CD Review - July 2007
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