Skip to main content

Traditional Mississippi

 

So, back from vacation with the task at hand. What can I say about a RadioactivaTX streaming radio program of old-timey blues and gospel? I’ve been here before. Turns out many of the songs chosen for this playlist showed up on Al compás del mundo previously and memory failed me (I try to not duplicate titles, but after almost four years of programming there’s room for that.) It was back in January, 2022 when I culled a whole raft of music from a single album: “Voices of Mississippi.” And it all still sounds good. This time I added and peppered a blues list with gospel music of the time – all of which was recorded and edited by ‘blues hunter’ Bill Ferris during tours of the deep South in the 1960s. It’s too bad that cut #8 remains anonymous, as I’d like to hear more from someone who dreams so big – “I had a dream, dream I had last night.  I went to the U.N. and set the whole nation right.” Brings to mind lyrics by Uruguayan singer Daniel Viglietti from “Cantaliso en un bar”. As translated: “I’m just a poor Black man, but I can see the world’s not on a proper course. I’ve got a mechanic friend who could fix it!” Here’s to the working class! May they straighten out our leaders and set us right with their music, poetry, and good sense.

Al compás del mundo Set Listo - Show #204, 10-23-25, Traditional Mississippi music

01 Mississippi Fred McDowell - I Got a Letter from Hot Springs

02 Sonny Boy Watson - Have You Seen My Baby

03 Mary and Amanda Gordon - Lord, I'm in Your Hand

04 Lovey Williams - I Feel So Good

05 anonymous - Little Red Rooster

06 The Southland Hummingbirds - You Don't Know Like I Know

07 Wallace 'Pinetop' Johnson - Baby Loves to Boogie

08 anonymous - I Dreamed I Went to the U.N.

09 Wash Heron and Big Jack Johnson – Nothing

10 Scott Dunbar - Lil' Liza Jane

11 Inmates at Parchman Farm - Water Boy Drowned in the Mobile Bay

12 Walter Lee Hood - Thank You Jesus

13 Tom Dumas - Cotton Eyed Joe

14 George Lee Sun Bud Spears - I Ain't Gonna Live It No More

15 Reverend Ott and Family - You Don't Knock, You Just Walk On In

16 James Hughes - Instrumental Guitar Piece

17 James 'Son Ford' Thomas - 44 Blues

18 Mary Alice and Alan McGowan - My Mother's on that Train

19 Sam Myers - Eyesight to the Blind

20 Fannie Bell Chapman and Family - He's My Rock, My Sword, My Shield



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

British Invasion - 1960s

I wanted to declare “Kick out the jams, mo’fos!” as a signpost towards the message in this week’s Al compás del mundo radio show, but that actually came about a little later. As humanity descended ever deeper into the Cro-Magnon state, Iggy Pop and the punks claimed that honor. What we have here instead, is a post-WWII let’s shake up the political order a bit, and no, not everyone has signed up to be an unconscious consumer attitude. There’s something afoot with these lads. Not exactly revolutionary fervor, but most certainly promoting a change in the general way of things. Recalling Che Guevara’s famous quote “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”, the Animals, Yardbirds, Rolling Stones et. al. pouted and preened – some more than others – in a way that hadn’t quite been done before. Youthful vigor ensued. These groups pushed the evolutionary chain of popular music a step further and we’re all better off for it.  Set list Al compás del mundo programa #183, 6-5-25 - The British Invasion, 1960s 01 Yar...
Post a Comment
Read more

India y Nepal y Tibet

W here a human voice is heard in today’s program it’s often starkly different from what most Westerners might find pleasing and melodic.  But I must remind my listeners that the West probably did not invent the concept of vocalizing as accompaniment to plucked/blown/percussed musical instruments. Why do we sing in the style that we do? I imagine there are knowledgeable tomes wrestling with that idea. I ’ve read that vocals were meant to imitate the sounds made by instruments...or vice versa? The chicken or the egg? I’m not here to answer that question, in spite of the college course I had taken of “Music Cultures of the World” decades ago. What I offer is the opportunity to pay attention to and digest musical expressions performed by people steeped in the traditional ways of their culture.  T here is a geographic component to lumping together India, Nepal and Tibet as the Himalayas served to isolate and circumscribe the peoples of those northern regions. But here’s where I fud...
Post a Comment
Read more

Funk and Soul

  Al compás del mundo - programa #169, 2-27-25, Funk and Soul   01 The Commodores - Brick House 02 Tower of Power - Drop It In The Slot 03 Parliament - Ride On 04 Sly & The Family Stone – Frisky 05 The Webb People – I’m Sending Vibrations 06 Ruby Delicious - Rock Steady 07 Mandrill - Git It All 08 The San Francisco TKOS – Herm 09 Ohio Players - Fire 10 Parliament - Mothership Connection (Star Child) 11 Kool & The Gang - Jungle Boogie 12 Chico and Buddy - A Thing Call the Jones 13 Little Ann – Possession 14 Lafayette Afro-Rock Band - Time Will Tell 15 Parliament - Ain't Nuthin' But a Jam Y'all   What did James Brown mean when he said “we’re gonna have a funky good time”? This “funky” of which he spoke, was it strictly musical (and danceable), or maybe sexual, sociable, or even political? Or maybe a little bit of each? Funk, funky, funkify, funkadelic, funkalicious…all pointing at the pleasure principle…a new dialect for the “blue...
Post a Comment
Read more