12.1.07
Fred McDowell nasceu em 1904 ou em 1905, não se sabe ao certo, em Rossville, Tennessee, no seio de uma família de agricultures que cultivavam terras nos arredores de Memphis. Passou a ser conhecido anos mais tarde por "Mississippi" Fred McDowell. Cultivou um estilo de Delta Blues personalizado, voz áspera, bottleneck e slide guitar a doer, muito influenciado por Charly Patton e por Son House, os maiorais do Delta. I made up a lot of the songs I sing. It's like you hear a record or something or other. Well, you pick out some words out of that record that you like. You sing that and add something else onto it. It's
just like if you're going to pray, and mean it, things will be in your mind. As fast as you get one word out, something else will come in there. Songs should tell the truth... When I play-- if you pay attention, what I sing the guitar sings, too. And what the guitar say, I say - "Mississippi" Fred McDowell.
just like if you're going to pray, and mean it, things will be in your mind. As fast as you get one word out, something else will come in there. Songs should tell the truth... When I play-- if you pay attention, what I sing the guitar sings, too. And what the guitar say, I say - "Mississippi" Fred McDowell.Shake 'em on Down, o disco, testemunha uma actuação de "Mississippi" Fred McDowell no Gaslight Club de Nova Iorque, a 5 de Novembro de 1971, com Tom Pomposello em baixo eléctrico. Fred revisita o seu songbook e alguns clássicos e tradicionais do género (Shake 'Em on Down, I'm Crazy About You Baby, John Henry, You Got to Move, Someday, Mercy, Lovin' Blues, White Lightnin', Baby Please Don't Go), que vai comentando alegremente com o seu característico sotaque rural do Mississipi.
posted by eduardo chagas
@ 12.1.07 
