Hellhound on my trail

December 12, 2006 in Themed posts | 8 comments

I have a lot of writing commitments in the next week, and I still have to make it to #1 on my best of list. I’m not a good reviewer (overviewer?) and so we’ll see how I do. Meanwhile, today I have the blues. The blues is like a virus; you get it in your blood and some days it hits hard. If you download these songs, it’s likely you’ll catch the blues yourself, so proceed with caution.

Meanwhile, here’s the tune:
Bad luck, empty pockets,
Trouble walking your way
With his tin ear.
–Cornelius Eady, “Leadbelly.”

01. Eric Clapton – Blues Before Sunrise (Leroy Carr)
02. The Mountain Goats – Hellhound On My Trail (Robert Johnson)
03. Lightnin’ Hopkins – Catfish Blues
04. Bessie Smith – Cemetery Blues
05. Alice Moore – Just A Good Girl Treated Wrong

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  1. Ron’s avatar

    Ron on December 13, 2006 at 7:05 pm

    I always have the blues…now I need to burn you a copy of my Muddy Waters CD :)

  2. zara’s avatar

    zara on December 15, 2006 at 9:34 am

    I love Muddy Waters! I stole his “best of” CD from my dad when I went to college.

  3. Diesel’s avatar

    Diesel on December 17, 2006 at 1:06 am

    All good songs, but the the cover of “Hellhound On My Trail” is really not very good. It completely sucks the blues out of the song. It doesn’t have the sense of guilt or impending doom that makes RJ’s version what it is. The blues comes from the heart more than most other genres of music, and one must have his/her own experiences to draw upon when playing it. It sounds to me like the person singing is merely covering a song, instead of trying to infuse their own experiences of sadness and futility into it, or that they have none to draw from in the first place.

    Good post, though.

  4. Diesel’s avatar

    Diesel on December 17, 2006 at 1:12 am

    The songs are good, but the cover of “Hellhound On My Trail” isn’t; there’s no blues in it, or the sense of guilt and impending doom which made RJ’s version so great. Blues has to come from the heart, and the person singing sounds as if they’re merely covering a song, rather than drawing upon their own experiences of consequence and regret.

    JMHO.

  5. zara’s avatar

    zara on December 17, 2006 at 2:58 pm

    Yep — not that John Darnielle ever puts *that* much emotion into his music; he’s not a blues singer by trade. But you’re right, it’s more of a casual cover.

  6. rodeorobbie’s avatar

    rodeorobbie on December 19, 2006 at 2:10 pm

    Alice Moore is one of the classiest singers of her era. Too bad many others don’t know her.

  7. juliette’s avatar

    juliette on December 20, 2006 at 7:14 pm

    so THAT’S where the muddy waters cd went! egads woman!

  8. zara’s avatar

    zara on December 20, 2006 at 8:26 pm

    ahahaha I STOLE IT

    IT’S IN MY CD CASE RIGHT NOW