Now the blues pile up on me, I brought it all on myself

May 5, 2013 7:51 AM

Hey y'all! Here's your waaaaay laid back, deeeep Southern blues for the day, and contrary to the title, it's an easy pill to swallow. You dig that? OK, then, there's...

Red Cross Store
Rabbit On A Log
Sitting Here Studying As The Time Roll On
My Three Women

posted by flapjax at midnite (7 comments total)

All from Lonzie Thomas, a wonderful musician about whom there is very little information to be found on the internet.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:18 AM on May 5, 2013

Yeah, I searched a bit and all I could dig up was this article about him with a pretty cute anecdote:

“Lonzie was blind and his daughter didn’t want him to get in the car with me,” George recalled on air. “She was very protective of him, but I finally convinced her to let him go with us. I started the engine, put the car in reverse, and promptly drove into a ditch. Lonzie turned to me and said, ’You might as well of let me drive.’”

Thanks for the links, flapjax at midnite. It's good Sunday listening.
posted by dubusadus at 8:28 AM on May 5, 2013 [4 favorites]

cool thanks for the posts man, great stuff
posted by weh546 at 9:06 AM on May 5, 2013

Say flapjax - what would you recommend as a place to start learning about these deep Southern blues you so lovingly curate? It seems like there's so much information out there but so hard to find a primer on it for the uneducated...
posted by OHSnap at 10:42 AM on May 5, 2013

what would you recommend as a place to start learning about these deep Southern blues

Hmm... best thing is maybe to just listen a lot, a hella lot. There are some books, of course, but the ones I've read never really grab me as much as the music itself. Here are some key figures (off the top of my head) of Delta (and related) blues I'd recommend heavy listening to, though...

Blind Lemon Jefferson
Charley Patton
Tommy Johnson
Robert Johnson
Blind Wille McTell
Son House
Skip James
Blind Wille Johnson
Tommy McClennan
Fred McDowell
Barbecue Bob
Ishman Bracey
Robert Petway
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:52 AM on May 5, 2013 [6 favorites]

OHSnap: Being a suburban kid who grew up listening to House of Blues every Sunday at 8pm I can't say too much about how accurate this is but Martin Scorcese produced a documentary about the blues that came with a soundtrack that won a couple of Grammy awards. It's a good a starting point as any though flapjax is right, you'll get a lot out of just cruising the Youtube.
posted by dubusadus at 11:36 AM on May 5, 2013

Those made my night, thanks flapjax.
posted by peeedro at 5:18 PM on May 5, 2013