Chad said:
>First off, the new JD Crowe record is splendid... and "White
>Freightliner" is a dandy as well, on most counts.
I was curious how Crowe would handle that one...and having just heard it
yesterday, it strikes me too as one o f the best of the very many out
there, of this song , which has practically become the Alt.Country National
Anthem (Take your hat off! there's bad news from Houston!) And since I'm a
P2 advocate of the Big Tent version of alt.country, hat Crowe and company
would decide to DO THIS at all is to me a really pleasant development in
itself. Just another reminder of good reasons that we should WANT
bluegrass, as handled by an always innovative (and accomplished) band like
this one... in the big tent. If they wanna be!
And Chad added:
>However, the guitar pattern Townes played on this tune is very particular.
> I don't know how to describe it best, it's
>just a constant downbeat in the bass notes that only seems to come back up
>in just a few instances (? Hopefully people know what I'm talking about).
>And generally, as much as this song has been covered, I don't think too
>many folks have ever quite "got it" (only one comes to mind) as it's
>something that seems to take incredible discipline to play. ...
Yup, sure does...exactly...though Townes accentuated the aspect Chad's
taking about differently at different times..as you'd expect .... I
rechecked the "Live at Old Quarter" and "Rain on a Conga Drum" solo
versions--the former, much earlier one drives the steady rhythm harder, and
most rock and roll versions have played off that and, I supposed, the
released studio version...the later, sparer one has even more of that
"mention it/don't mention" aspect to hearing the bass line...which is a
very blues man thing to do.
The thing to know is that the rhythm AND melody VanZandt uses in White
Freightliner is a knowlingly and nicely countrified version of that
mother of all American rhythms, the one heard in "Rollin" and Tumblin",
one of the most fundamental and unkillable of Delta Blues songs and riffs.
Townes' is probably most like Robert Johnson's version (See: "If I Had
Possession of the Judgment Day")...but the definitive version to check out
is probably, I admit, Muddy Waters "Rollin' and Tumblin"--except my
favorite most days will always be Howlin' Wolf's "Down in the Bottom"--if
that one don't rock you, nothing will....
This same rolling riff and bass was taken up by whorehouse piano players
and became "Vicksburg Blues" or "The Old 44s"--Check out Little Brother
Montgomery's definitive Vicksburg to see what I mean...and, in fact,
mucking around with that line is often said to have created the "left hand
like God"--which is to say--the birth of all Boogie Woogie in the hands of
piano players we almost surely never heard of.
There's a great TRADITION of playing around with that bass line!
Well, I hope that's all interesting and gets a few people to listen to a
few great records. It couldn't hoit...But the other thing is....TOWNES,
coming out of that real FOLK tradition (as outlined by no less than Mr.
Yates lately, the one twith a right to speak its name with a straight
face, and therefore could laugh.....) Townes absolutely knew everything I
just typed out here. He knewi all these takes, and he got in line and
mucked with it in a way that--I guess we can say by now--has stuck.
But I wouldn't make that approach a new gospel either (even he didn't!)
...but something else solid and lasting for new folks to add to. I say,
let the rockers rock it, as Steve Earle and half the acts we talk about
do, as encores...and let J.D. Crowe bring it into the smoother (but still
pretty frenetic, eh?) attack of the grassers.
I just think it's all pretty cool..the way it all moves along....and we
get these great records. Now as proof I'm in New York, I'd better get back
to the Jets, while I can.
Barry M.
