November 17th, 2007
The Blues at Newport
Various
The Blues at Newport/1964/Part 2
Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Reverend Robert Wilkins, Elizabeth Cotten and Willie Doss recorded live at the Newport Folk Festival on July 23/24 1964.
Simply stunning performances all around. Skip James is crushing singing “Sick Bed Blues” written while in the hospital just weeks before this appearance.
He walked away, mumblin’ very low
He said, ‘May get better
But he never get well, no mo’
But the real killer here (at least for me) is Elizabeth Cotten. Maybe its because I expected to hear something I expected or already knew. Whatever the case I’m buying up all of her recordings to see if she’s as wonderful as this 2-song performance implies.
