EclecticGuy » music

The world’s funniest fly fishing music video!

EclecticGuy — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:47:50 +0000

My publisher has a fantastic fishing/history blog – Fishing for History. Every Friday he posts a Video of the Week. This week’s music video is so funny and so good I just have to share it here! It can be found on YouTube too.

Cheers!

Acoustic Guitar: “Louis Collins” – a little Mississippi John Hurt

EclecticGuy — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:38:25 +0000

My first introduction to country blues was through the work of Mississippi John Hurt. Some day, I would like to visit his memorial in Avalon, Mississippi (where he was raised and learned to play guitar at age 9).

In the early 1920′s, John Hurt recorded a record with OKeh Records. The producer gave him the name “Mississippi” as a marketing gimmick. The record did not do well and OKeh went out of business. The story of his rediscovery in 1963 is amazing! At the height of the folk craze, Tom Hoskins (a folk musicologist) collected early recordings and came across Mississippi John Hurt’s record. One of the songs titled “Avalon, my home town” led Tom to search for him there. He was rediscovered and invited to the Newport Folk Festival in 1963. He had 3 great years as a performer before his death in 1966.

My past guitar teacher (Ken Perlman) relayed most of this story as well as taught me several Mississippi John Hurt tunes. “Louis Collins” is a piece I play all the time. I love the melody and bass line. The lyrics, printed below, are a little sad though!

[audio:http://eclecticguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/louiscollins.mp3]

Louis Collins

Mrs. Collins weeped, Mrs. Collins moaned,

to see her son Louis leavin’ home

The angels laid him away

The angels laid him away,

they laid him six feet under the clay

The angels laid him away

Mrs. Collins weeped, Mrs. Collins moaned,

to see her son Louis leavin’ home

The angels laid him away

Oh, Bob shot once and Louis shot too,

shot poor Collins, shot him through and through

The angels laid him away

Oh, kind friends, oh, ain’t it hard?,

to see poor Louis in a new graveyard

The angels laid him away

The angels laid him away,

they laid him six feet under the clay

The angels laid him away

Oh, when they heard that Louis was dead

all the people they dressed in red

The angels laid him away

The angels laid him away,

they laid him six feet under the clay

The angels laid him away

Mrs. Collins weeped, Mrs. Collins moaned,

to see her son Louis leavin’ home

The angels laid him away

The angels laid him away,

they laid him six feet under the clay

The angels laid him away

Acoustic Guitar: “Pack Up Your Sorrows”

EclecticGuy — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:15:48 +0000

Ok, this is going to be a first for me! I’ve never recorded or publicly shared any of my acoustic guitar playing prior to this post. I’ve been playing guitar since I was 10 – with (sometimes long) periods of dormancy. The past several years I’ve taken guitar more seriously and have been learning a number of new songs and styles.

“Pack Up Your Sorrows” was written and performed by the late Richard Fariña and his wife Mimi Baez (Joan Baez’s younger sister). This acoustic guitar arrangement was created by my past guitar teacher Ken Perlman (unfortunately Ken and his wife moved to Indiana several years ago). Ken has authored several excellent books on fingerstyle guitar (and clawhammer banjo, his specialty). His book “Fingerstyle Guitar” was ground breaking in its day for its clear tablature (along with traditional music notation).

So here without further delay or introduction is my recording of “Pack Up Your Sorrows” as an MP3.

[audio:http://eclecticguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/packupyoursorrow.mp3]