This is a collection of songs which, with three exceptions, I only recently learned. Some—most—of those had been sitting around in my head as songs I’d really like to sing someday. A couple, I discovered more recently.
Let’s begin with the exceptions, the songs I already knew, but had just never gotten around to recording. At the top of that list is Yes, Yes, Yes, a song I learned in my teens from a recording of Blake Alphonso Higgs, aka Blind Blake. I used to sing this song to my little sister, Drayton, who says she thought it was about her, because of the verses like, “Momma, Momma will you look at Sis/She’s out in the backyard shakin’ like this….” I’ve omitted here the verse that follows that one, but, for my sister’s sake, will tell you how it goes.
She say the young folks do it Momma, an the ol’ folks do it too
These are modern days, an’ the young folks tell the ol’ folks what to do
They say shake your shoulders, an’ shake ‘em fast
An’ if you can’t shake your shoulders, shake your Yes, Yes, Yes.
So when Drayton told me of her attachment to this song and asked if I’d record it for her, I happily obliged.
Then there’s Tom Paxton’s Last Thing On My Mind, which I learned from the radio while living by myself in the mountains east of San Diego, California. I was in the process of absorbing several “lessons too late for the learning,” and think the Weissenborn lap slide guitar is perfect for the mood of the song.
Finally, there’s James Taylor’s Bartender’s Blues, which I’d known since the day it came out. Here, for the recording, I just stole the lead guitar solo from James’ version.
The recent discoveries include Ryan Adams’ Desire, which I first heard on a rerun of House, M. D., and Loretta and Kathleen, both by Townes Van Zandt. I wanted to work up an all acoustic set, and so got hold of Townes’ double CD, Live At The Old Quarter, Houston, Texas, which is probably the archetype of solo acoustic performances. I knew I wanted to do Cocaine Blues, but Loretta and Kathleen were glorious surprises.
All the others had been looking over my shoulder for a while asking when I was going to get to them. Well, I got to them, and hope I did them some justice. You’ll probably notice this, but the fact that they’re covers didn’t burden me with the notion that I had to replicate the original arrangements. I hope you enjoy the departures.
