"Ain't Nothin' Like Whiskey," Lightnin' Hopkins, Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry & Big Joe Williams
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I fell in love with country blues in high school, when I picked up my first instrument, the harmonica (foolishly, I thought it seemed easy to play). While pillaging my stepfather's cassette collection, Lightnin' Hopkins, along with the duo of harpist Brownie McGhee and guitarist Sonny Terry, became some of my favorites. On this 1960 session, they team up, along with an additional legend in Big Joe Williams, for eight minutes of an improvisational ode to the brown stuff. It's a document of four masters of their craft simply having a ball.
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"Willie Dixon, Sunnyland Slim and Big Mama Thornton discuss their careers in the blues and describe some of their songs," Studs Terkel Radio Archive
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Just in case hearing three of the greatest blues artists to ever walk the earth wasn't enough incentive to listen to this 1970 recording, you get to hear perhaps the greatest interviewer ever to pick up a microphone in conversation with them.
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"Fantastic Negrito Writes With Truth, Says His Story Is the American Dream," by Jacob Uitti, American Songwriter
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Lest you think that the blues is today only the province of old white guys with Paul Butterfield complexes, Oakland's Fantastic Negrito is mixing blues influences (his 2014 Fantastic Negrito EP, for example, seethes with bluesy desperation) with later styles, like those of his hero Prince, and a healthy dash of revolutionary weirdness to create a funky, soulful sound all his own. And if you ever get the chance to see him live, he puts on *one hell* of a show.
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Did you enjoy this newsletter? Tell a friend that they can sign up on our website, or support it by checking out Beartrap Spring Records' latest release:
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by The Long Farewells (2019)
The debut record that AmericanaUK calls a "fine album with lyrics to pique your interest and imagination... pleasingly literate songs with stories to tell" is available on Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, Amazon, and on just about every streaming service around.
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