Release Date: November 14, 2000.
Recording Time: 58 minutes.
Recording Date: January 3, 1965.
Recording Location: Gaslight Cafe, New York, NY.
Release Info: Live Recording (DOCD-5663), Remastered.
Styles: Acoustic Blues, Country Blues, Delta Blues, Regional Blues, Slide Guitar Blues.
Son House's earliest recordings, three two-sided 78s ("My Black Mama," "Preachin' the Blues," "Dry Spell Blues") recorded in New York on May 28, 1930, proved to be a hard act to follow, and House never really equaled these fierce, driving performances again, although he came close. The field recordings he did for Alan Lomax in 1941 and 1942 are certainly indispensable, featuring a loose, ad hoc Delta string band on half the cuts, and the intimacy on these is amazing, but the larger-than-life roar of his 1930s Paramount tracks is muted (Catfish Records has released the early 78s and the Lomax field material on a single disc as Preachin' the Blues -- still the best Son House purchase out there). House's rediscovery in 1964 led to some interesting sessions for Columbia Records, and a handful of live recordings from his time on the folk and blues coffee house circuit have surfaced, including a set from House's Rochester home, recorded in 1969, but on each of these House sounds increasingly tired, worn, and wearied. The fire had long since gone out, although he was capable of generating a facsimile of the old roar on occasion, as this set recorded at Gaslight Café in New York in 1965 shows. The versions here of "Empire State Express" and "Death Letter Blues" (nearly nine minutes long and still incomplete, even at that length) are startling in their intensity, showing some of the power of the 1930s material, but it is obvious on most of the other tracks that age and a long, hard life have left House a mere shadow of his former musical self. Still, just like you don't want to be caught by a Baptist preacher (an occupation House once practiced) trying to sneak out on the sermon, it's nearly impossible not to listen to this set clear through once it begins. It feels like an important bit of living history, and behind every tortured, exhausted note you can almost hear the ghost of Son House in his fiery prime. ~ Steve Leggett
Detailed discography.
Previously unreleased "in concert" recordings of the Mississippi blues marvel Son House, music associate of Charley Patton. The man who inspired musicians from Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters and to Johnny Winters and Mike Bloomfield and many others. He is known as the father of the Mississippi Delta Blues. Film footage of Son Houses rediscovery performances of the mid 1960s reveals a soft-spoken, somewhat shy old gentleman transmogrified into a shaman exorcising blue demons from the depths of his divided soul, eyes tightly shut, right hand flailing his National steel guitar, his right driving the bottleneck up and down the full length of the guitar’s neck, his magnificent voice strangling the syllables of his verses. For those of us who were never privileged to witness one of those live performances, the films and recordings are as close as we will ever get. Which brings us to the music contained on this CD. These types of recordings often surface unexpectedly, with little verifiable information other than the name of the artist in question. It is not difficult to conjure up the setting for this performance – a Sunday night in New York, snow on the ground from the previous day (January 2), Son House in his Stetson Hat, white shirt and red tie, facing the expectant patrons seated in a horseshoe arrangement of small tables, some of the audience wondering if this apparently frail old man will be able to make it through the set before he expires before their eyes, and then ... Son House rears back his head and charges into Pony Blues totally oblivious to his immediate surroundings and through sheer emotional intensity transports himself and his listeners back in time to a juke-joint in the Mississippi Delta. Of all the country blues players to have recorded Son Houses performances must surly be among the most intense. While being interviewed at the same Newport blues festival as Son House and being asked about being a blues / rock artist Mike Bloomfield told the interviewer to go and talk to Son House exclaiming that he was the blues! ~ Ken Romanowski, 2000 Document Records.
Credits: Gary Atkinson - Executive Producer, Cover (Album Cover); Son House - Arranger, Composer, Guitar, Primary Artist, Vocals; Johnny Parth - Compilation Producer, Producer; Charley Patton - Composer; Public Domain - Composer; Ken Romanowski - Liner Notes; K.H. Rosenzopf - Cover Art.
Tracklist:
01. Pony Blues - Son House
02. Motherless Children - Son House
03. Preachin' The Blues - Son House
04. This Little Light Of Mine - Son House
05. Son's Blues - Son House
06. Death Letter Blues (Incomplete) - Son House
07. I Shall Not Be Moved - Son House
08. Levee Camp Moan - Son House
09. Empire State Express - Son House
10. Pearline - Son House
11. Yonder Comes My Mother (When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder) - Son House
12. Louise McGhee (Incomplete) - Son House