Here’s one just for fun… This is my Hartford inspired (read: stolen) version of “Bring Your Clothes Back Home”. Not sure where he got it but it’s almost certainly an old Blues/stringband tune. The title may also be “Try Me One More Time”. Not sure. Surely there’s a crusty historian out there who would love nothing better than to shred their larynx berating me for my stupidity on the subject… uncle?
I woke up feeling extremely funky this morning… I’ve been kinda couch-ridden all day and thus, mando playing. My mando is also feeling kinda funky today. Her strings are crusty and stale. Together in our mutual funks, we produced this odd little version of Evening Prayer Blues. A tune with a loose (extremely loose) lineage of DeFord Bailey to Monroe to Compton and then to me.
Old Mountaineer is one of those fantastic, yet obscure Monroe tunes. I stole it (like so many things) off of Mike Compton. Interestingly, I learned it off of the bootlegs from a house concert in Madison, WI (before I moved here) and have since become good friends with Bobby and Lori, who had hosted that show. If you don’t have that show, you should… but you can find the tune on Stomp as well.
Sidebar: while I’m on it, I’l throw out a quick rant for bootlegs… Some musicians feel that bootlegs cut into their bottom line and/or don’t care for folks to hear their “off” shows. I understand these opinions and have no problem with it… except that I disagree with them. My favorite shows are live. Live performances offer a true look into a musician. The allow me to hear tunes that they’re working into a set or are playing off the cuff. Mistakes provide more depth in understanding their playing. Eg. how one handles a mistake in music, like in life, tells a lot about folks. Please, please, PLEASE… allow live recordings where applicable. When I listen to your show I will have already bought your records (which is why I’m listening to your live show) or open to checking you out (and if I like you I will almost certainly buy your record). ‘Nuff said…
Okay, rant over…
I used “the folk process” to liberate this tune from a fantastic record by John Hartford and Jim Wood. It’s called The Bullies Have All Gone To Rest and I would highly recommend it. For the recording, I’m using a new toy called the MicPort Pro. Sounds pretty good… as does the Shure KSM32.
