Label: Document Records (RST).
Release Date: September 26, 1995, (RST, 1990).
Recording Time: 42 minutes.
Recording Date: November 5, 1940 in Atlanta, GA.
Release Info: Compilation (BDCD-6001) Studio Recording.
Styles: Acoustic Blues, Country Blues, East Coast Blues, Georgia Blues, Spirituals, Regional Blues, Piedmont Blues.
By the time Georgia native William Samuel "Blind Willie" McTell earned ten dollars by sitting down in a hotel room in Atlanta on November 5, 1940, to preserve his artistry on 15 transcription platters for the Library of Congress, he had achieved a degree of fame by having recorded some 85 sides for multiple labels during the years 1927-1936. Document's 1995 release of McTell's Library of Congress recordings served as a welcome addition to several volumes of chronologically stacked McTell that had appeared on Document in 1990. McTell was a skilled 12-string guitarist, an expressive vocalist, and a well-versed interpreter of ragtime, spirituals, blues, and a wide range of rural folk forms. He performed well for the Library of Congress, sometimes narrating and explaining the social background for his music while fielding John Lomax's rather careless and insensitive questions. What you get here is an excellent spectrum of McTell's stylistic range and repertoire. His slide maneuvers on "Amazing Grace" are strikingly reminiscent of Blind Willie Johnson's technique. The overall content of this hotel room recital points directly to McTell's Atlantic session of November 1949. ~ arwulf arwulf
from BDCD-6001:
This album presents what must be one of the most historic recordings in African-American history. The result of this encounter in Atlanta, Georgia, was a recorded interview which shone a spotlight onto the life and music of one of the greatest Country Blues names to have been commercially recorded. Presented here in their entirety is a fascinating insight into the man who inspired among others the Allman Brothers, Taj Mahal, Bob Dylan and many others.
The history of these Library of Congress, Archive of American Folk Song, recordings is rooted in a visit made by John and Ruby Lomax to Atlanta, Georgia during November 1940. It is reported that Ruby spotted a "Negro man with a guitar" entertaining at a pig n whistle stand. Stopping their car to enquire, they discovered that the individual was Blind Willie McTell. The next morning in their hotel room he "sang and played his 12-string guitar vigorously for two hours", forty or so minutes of which were committed to tape.
Blind Willie discusses his life, recording career and the history behind his music. Twelve excellent performances including blues, spirituals, ballads and rags can be heard. His skills as a 12-string guitarist, including some beautiful bottleneck / slide guitar, underline his reputation as being one of the finest musicians from Georgia.
Chainey, is a variant on Stavin Chain, one of the great heroes of the black folklore who was renowned for his sexual prowess. The much traveled murder ballad, Delia, shares several verses in common with the version sung for Lomax in June, 1935 by Booker T. Sapps and Roger Matthews (Document DOCD-5587). The railroading number, Will Fox, makes reference to "this Moore art" and was probably an illusion to the locomotive which ran on the Moore Central Railroad in North Carolina. Dying Crapshooter's Blues is a rewording of a 19th century ballad which later became better known as "Streets of Laredo" whilst King Edward Blues is a rendition of "Baby It Must Be Love", a thirties popular song inspired by the Edward and Mrs. Simpson saga ("made King Edward give up his crown"). Numbers like Boll Weevil and Kill-it-Kid Rag were perhaps sung on request since they appear with great frequency in the repertoire of other Lomax discoveries.
Willie McTell, reputedly, was a fairly religious man even though the commercial sides were secular. The religious pieces presented here have nothing of the vocal intensity of, say, his friend and mentor Blind Willie Johnson, who McTell refers to during the interviews presented here, yet the tremendous slide playing on the bass strings in both versions of River Of Jordan are totally evocative of Johnson whilst Johnson's wordless moan, "Dark Was The Night", appears here in the guise of the minute long instrumental, Amazing Grace.
As the result of a sheer chance encounter on a cold November's evening in Atlanta, 1940, this surely must be one of the highlights in the history of recorded documentaries across the board of subjects and genres. ~ Alan Balfour, Document Records 1990.
Credits: Alan Balfour - liner notes; John A. Lomax - speech (uncredited); Blind Willie McTell - composer, guitar, primary artist, speech / speaker / speaking part, vocals; Johnny Parth - producer; Rudi Staeger - cover, executive-producer.
Tracklist:
1. Just As Well Get Ready, You Got To Die; Climbing High Mountains, Trying To Get Home;
2. Monologue On Accidents;
3. Boll Weevil;
4. Delia;
5. Dying Crapshooter's Blues;
6. Will Fox;
7. I Got To Cross The River Jordan;
8. Monologue On Old Songs; Old Time Religion, Amen;
9. Amazing Grace;
10. Monologue On The History Of The Blues; Monologue On Life As Maker Of Records; Monologue On Himself;
11. King Edward Blues;
12. Murderer's Home Blues;
13. Kill-It-Kid Rag;
14. Chainey;
15. I Got To Cross De River O Jordan.