Tag: Robert Johnson

Steve Earle “Ain’t Nobody’s Daddy Now”

Steve Earle Blues

Steve Earle’s newest song is “Ain’t Nobody’s Daddy Now” from his upcoming album Terraplane (2015). The country blues of “Ain’t Nobody’s Daddy Now” reveals that Earle is going in a blues direction with his backing band the Dukes on the new album.

A few months ago, Earle explained to Rolling Stone that “there’s a lot of sad stuff” on the album because he had recently been going through a divorce from singer-songwriter Allison Moorer. Thus, he notes, “It was a good time to make a blues record.”

In case you are wondering what is a “Terraplane,” the title of the blues album is a nod to blues man Robert Johnson’s song, “Terraplane Blues.” In Johnson’s song, he used the car model Terraplane (a model artistically rendered on the cover of Steve Earle’s album above) as a metaphor for sex. As for Earle’s new song, you may listen to “Ain’t Nobody’s Daddy Now” below.

Terraplane, which features 11 songs all written by Earle, will be available on Tuesday, February 17, 2015. Allison Moorer will be releasing her own new album, Down to Believing, one month later on March 17.

What do you think of “Ain’t Nobody’s Daddy Now”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Dion’s Tank Full of Blues (CD Review)

    Dion Tank Full of Blues

    With Tank Full of Blues (2012), Dion completes a trilogy of outstanding blues albums along with Bronx in Blue (2006) and Son of Skip James (2007). While Bronx in Blues focused on covering traditional blues standards from Robert Johnson and others, and Son of Skip James followed that formula with a few more originals, in Tank Full of Blues Dion wrote or co-wrote all but two of the songs, taking his blues to another level. The new album adds more percussion and electric guitar into the mix without overdoing it on these new classics. Here is the title track:

    Dion worked to build his blues cred with the previous two albums, paying homage to the kings with a little bit of Bronx street swagger thrown in. I have previously written about the two earlier CDs and how when Bronx in Blues came out it was a great discovery for me. On Tank Full of Blues, though, Dion uses his blues credibility to show a little more of his own wings, as Dion’s originals on this album transition smoothly next to ones by Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. Just as the album makes you wonder what else Dion can do, he closes with a spoken word rap on “Bronx Poem.” While he is not a hip-hop artist, one might root for him to try a rap album next as he shows here that his rhyming skills and bravado dating back to “Runaround Sue” are still there.

    Dion Dimucci is one of the great rock n’ rollers, and these albums have shown he is also a great blues man. These albums are not an artist’s self-absorbed dabbling in another genre, but music that has the great Dion’s heart. As AllMusic wrote about Tank Full of Blues, “it is the album he’s been waiting an entire career to make.” For the artist behind such hits as “I Wonder Why,” “The Wanderer,” “A Teenager in Love,” “Donna the Prima Donna,” and “Abraham, Martin, and John,” that is high praise. Check out this great album by a music legend.

    {In the above video, Dion plays “I Read It (in the Rolling Stone)” off the album during a Blues Cruise in January.}

    What do you think of Dion’s blues? Should he write a new song called “Runaround Blues”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Happy Birthday Robert Johnson!

    Robert Johnson Centennial Collection

    Blues legend Robert Johnson (probably) was born on May 8, 1911 in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. Although he was only 27 when he died — possibly poisoned by a jealous husband in Mississippi — and he only left us 29 recordings, he is more than a legend in the music world. The singer and guitar player who allegedly sold his soul to the Devil for his guitar skills has influenced generations of musicians.

    In Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues, Elijah Wald recounts a description of the birth written by Peter Guralnick: “Robert Johnson was born probably on May 8, 1911, the eleventh child of Julia Major Dodds, whose ten older children were all the offspring of her marriage to Charles Dodds. Robert was illegitimate, which . . . was the cause of the name confusion and the cause of many of Johnson’s later problems.”

    Here is a roundup of some websites about Johnson and stories from 2011 about the 100th anniversary of his birth:

    – A Sudbury Star article discusses Robert Johnson’s life and his influence on modern musicians.

    – USA Today gives an overview of events occurring to celebrate the anniversary, along with a video of Gregg Allman talking about Johnson.

    – The Gibson Guitar website has in interview with Robert Johnson’s grandson.

    – The Seattle Post Intelligencer has a review of a new 2-CD collection of Johnson’s music, The Centennial Collection. Amazon offers additional reviews of The Centennial Collection.

    – Here is a YouTube video of academics discussing what is thought to be the only known video of Johnson.

    – The Republic from Columbus, Indiana has an article about the connection between Johnson and Bob Dylan.

    – Mississippi’s Jackson Clarion Ledger discusses the planned celebration in Greenwood, Mississippi, where Johnson died in 1938.

    – Crawdaddy has a short article connecting Robert Johnson to current Mississippi blues.

    – The Robert Johnson Notebooks has a literary analysis of the lyrics to his songs.

    Of course, it all comes down to the music, so consider Robert Johnson playing and singing “Cross Road Blues.” Although many assume the song is about Johnson’s encounter with Satan at the crossroads, there is no mention of the Devil in the song. Instead, the song is most likely about the singer’s attempt to get home before dark, a genuine fear during a time when African-Americans did not want to encounter lynching parties in the South.

    For an electric version of the song, here is Eric Clapton introduced his version of “Crossroads,” by explaining what Johnson means to him. “It really shook me up.”

    Robert Johnson seems to be such a legendary figure of the past, one may find it hard to believe that his birth was not really that long ago. He could have lived to be alive today. Happy birthday Mr. Johnson, wherever you are.

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