Our Blues Roots: “One Room Country Shack”

[Don D.]

This week, the featured song came from John’s (johnstrat) reply on Steve’s (sunjamr) Ronnie Earl post.

Thanks for checking this out. The next Blues Roots will appear on Thursday, September 14.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::E:D:D:I:E::::“:T:H:E:::::C:H:I:E:F:”::::C:L:E:A:R:W:A:T:E:R::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
A week ago Thursday, August 24, I went to Terra Blues and heard Eddie Clearwater and band play two of their three sets (had to leave at around 1 am, before the last one, needed to be a little fresh for work). It was their only NYC appearance; I’m still scratching my head about that. The recordings I made for myself aren’t good enough to post, but the live videos below are a lot like what he played. In his choice of material and the way he plays it, I hear a descendant of Magic Sam (not his voice or his melding of voice and guitar—that was the unreproducible magic). He plays 1950s-style rock ’n’ roll and rockabilly as well as blues (but I didn’t

At 82, he was moving slowly until he started performing, then the energy radiated from him. He really comes alive and brings the audience with him. The highlights for me were great versions his own “Came Up the Hard Way” and of Otis Rush’s “All Your Love” (a staple for him).

“Black Night” from Direct From Chicago, 1976

“Rock Me Baby” from Direct From Chicago, 1976
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAcypRAmCTA

“Blue Over You” live, September 2009

West Side Strut, full album, released June 2009
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZhEJkNKPODuG17AGpPDHQ9LnYOlmvKIH

“Came Up the Hard Way,” ninth song from West Side Strut (whole album directly above)

“Came Up the Hard Way,” recorded March 14, 1977, just a beautiful version (chords listed in viewer comments)

“Came Up the Hard Way” with Billy Branch (harp), Ronnie Baker Brooks (guitar), live at Chicago Blues Festival, June 14, 2015

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::O:N:E::::R:O:O:M::::C:O:U:N:T:R:Y::::S:H:A:C:K::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Mercy Dee Walton wrote this song, releasing this version on a 45 in 1953, backed with “My Woman Knows the Score” (see Mercy Dee section below for that song and others).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHI0LSKTQxs

Mose Allison, from Back Country Suite (1957)

Johnny “Guitar” Watson (1958), “Gangster of Love” was on the other side.

Although Robert Pete Williams’ “Thousand Miles From Nowhere” isn’t strictly a cover (4th song on the playlist), I included it because it was—to me—obviously created under the influence of “One Room Country Shack,” using the first line for its title, and when he refers to the “one horse town,” I heard that echoing the title of the other song.

Johnny Jones (vocal, piano), Billy Boy Arnold (harp) from Johnny Jones With Billy Boy Arnold, recorded live at the Fickle Pickle, Chicago, Illinois, June 25, 1963 (Fickle Pickle was a North Side Chicago coffeehouse that Michael Bloomfield managed and booked).

Buddy Guy from A Man and the Blues (1968, also see two other versions of “One Room Country Shack” by Buddy Guy, and see the Buddy Guy section below for complete album and personnel listing); then at 5 minutes and 38 seconds, Johnny “Big Moose” Walker (vocal and piano) from Blue Love (recorded 1984, released 1986), also see the 1989 version by Big Moose below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SePYOJeQfyY

John Lee Hooker from Simply the Truth, with session/jazz musicians including Wally Richardson (guitar), Ernie Hayes (keys), Bernard “Pretty” Purdie (drums), 1969

Sonny Blake (vocal, harp), Mose Vinson (piano), L.T. Lewis (drums) from The Devil’s Music (BBC production, first 4 videos on playlist), Memphis, TN, January 19, 1976. Do you recognize the snippet used as an introduction to all of the episodes? Prize involved.

Left Hand Frank from Live At The Knickerbocker Cafe (1978)

Buddy Guy (vocal, guitar), Jimmy Johnson (guitar), Dave Myers (bass), Odie Payne (drums), Algarve Jazz Festival, Portugal (1978)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYZc8qOk03k

Lowell Fulson (vocal, guitar) from Think Twice Before You Speak, with John Altman (sax), Eddie C. Campbell (guitar), Hammy Howell (piano), John Dummer or Wayne Elliott (drums), 1984
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh3NMMSvPfw

Johnny Winter (vocals, guitar), John Paris (bass), Tom Compton (drums), Piazza Duomo, Pistoia, Italy, July 1, 1988.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giZ6kmhhYBg

Johnny “Big Moose” Walker (vocal, piano), John Primer, Luther Adams (guitars), Willie Kent (bass), Timothy Taylor (drums), recorded October 25, 1989. Johnny “Big Moose” Walker has been on so many great sessions, check out this ever-growing playlist.

Buddy Guy at the Bluesfestival, “Hoochie Coochie Man” plays first, then at 5:34 is “One Room Country Shack,” Bern, Switzerland, 2000.

Vocalist/bassist Nick Holt (Magic Slim’s brother [birth name Morris Holt]) with Dutch pickup band (names at video), the Netherlands, 2003.

This playlist contains all the songs above, and many more in a roughly chronological order.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::M:E:R:C:Y:::::D:E:E:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
An August birth (some say the 3rd, some the 30th), Mercy Dee Walton composed “One Room Country Shack” and many other songs that covered the same ground, speaking of the loneliness and absurdities of life, especially the rural lives of black farm workers. Although his subject was specific, the result was songs with near-universal appeal.

“Lonesome Cabin Blues” (1949)

“Baba-Du-Lay Fever (G.I. Fever)” (1949)

“Evil and Hanky” (1949)

“Bird Brain Baby” (1950)

“Please Understand (All Over)” (1950)

“My Woman Knows the Score,” flipside of “One Room Country Shack” (1953)

“Dark Muddy Bottom” with Jesse Sailes (drums), Thelma “Lady Fox” Walton (tambourine), recorded Los Angeles, CA, Sunday, October 4, 1953

“My Woman And The Devil” as above

“Walked Down So Many Turnrows,” Stockton, California, February 5, 1961

“Have You Ever Been Out in the Country?” Berkeley, CA, April 16, 1961

Essential Blues, a compilation

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::B:U:D:D:Y:::::G:U:Y:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Because Buddy Guy covered “One Room Country Shack” so often and so well, starting in 1968 on his A Man and the Blues, it felt right to dig into his other music a little, starting off with a smattering of some of the wild clips of Buddy Guy you can find on YouTube. There’s one from the Generation Club, New York, April 7, 1968, that shows a spellbound Jimi Hendrix first in the audience then onstage (at numbers 30 and 31 on the playlist below).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmlsFWN51DU

Man and the Blues ; Buddy Guy (vocals, guitar), A.C. Reed, Bobby Fields, Donald Hankins (saxophones), Wayne Bennett (guitar), Otis Spann (piano), Jack Myers (bass), Fred Below, Lonny Taylor (drums); produced by Samuel Charters (1968).
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlBF5y7SM369AtCI_R7tn3_3E1K-UMu7g

Junior Wells and Buddy Guy videos

Videos numbered 32 and 33 on the playlist above, with Jack Bruce and Buddy Miles from 1969’s Supershow, are blocked in the U.S. (that whole show is blocked on YouTube now, with the exception of Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused,” but while you could see it, it was among the best footage on YouTube with Rahsaan Roland Kirk blowing multiple horns along with them—it was a magic moment for sure). Their version of “Stormy Monday” is viewable here, catch it while you can (there are a bunch of other nice videos off to the side too, some from the same show). Rahn Burton (keyboard), Jimmy Hopp (drums) were members of Rahsaan’s regular band at that time.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::J:O:H:N:N:Y:::::O:’:N:E:A:L::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Ike Turner on guitar. You may want to hear these Sun Records releases from the early 1950s, they’re powerful strange.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::T:R:A:I:N::::S:O:N:G:S:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
“All aboard!”

Don D.

[San Luis Rey]

Thanks Don! There are some new faces in this crowd for me. Will be checking them out.
Mike

Mike

[sunjamr]

Very cool indeed! You’ve just made a playlist of most of my all-time favorite blues musicians – starting with Ana Popovic and Ronnie Earl.

Sunjamr Steve

[Don D.]

Hi Mike, Steve, thank you for your comments.

Don D.

[Author]

Posts