A couple of traditional tunes

    As I explore this old country blues world I have emersed myself in, I keep coming across some great old traditional songs. Some of them I have heard covered by contemporary bands and did not know they were older songs that these musicians had heard and learned, and some I have never heard before.

    “Oh Death” I first heard on that great Coen Bros. movie “Oh Brother, where art thou?”. With a peaked interest I typed it into youtube and found a number of versions of it. Ralph Stanley is probably has the most famous version of it (I am pretty sure he performed it for the aforementioned movie). Davis Lindley does a great version of it as well but the one that has stuck with me the most is by a little known multi-instumental named Lauren O’Connel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLkWyuW2JTg

    Though my version is nowhere near as good as Laurens, I thought I would sit down and record anyhow.

    Recorded in 1947 by Allen Lomax an the Mississippi Parchman Prison by a Labour camp, “Black Woman” is a great example of the work songs of that era.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0LZiTPTsxc

    While the original lyrics are about not wanting “no jet black woman”, i felt in this day and age, and considering my caucasian heritage, that I would change the to read “no thick-skinned woman”. It’s a little less offensive. I also strayed a bit from the original tune and noodled around on my Cigar Box Guitar while singing it. I used my recently made “D” guitar in an open E tuning.