Devil Got My Woman

Neither Vangauard records nor Skip James had high commercial expectations for Devil Got My Woman, when it was released in 1968.  After all James’s superb debut, Today! sold poorly two years earlier, despite widespread critical praise. Interest in country blues was fading. In fact, by the time Devil Got My Woman made it to record stores, the album had all but disappeared.

 What had happened, of course, was the birth of blues rock and the move by many traditional blues players to change their sound to sound more like the music of the times. The market for the blues was strong in the late sixties. Many rock fans, inspired by Paul Butterfields Blues Band, Cream, Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers Band, and other groups that built their sound from a solid blues foundation, embraced the blues with a new enthusiasm.

 Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf played rock venues and rock festivals and recorded with rock musicians. Johnny Winter brought whit blues into the rock mainstream. B.B. King had a pop hit with “The Thrill Is Gone”.

 About the only bluesmen not reaping the rewards of this new blues craze were the country artist whose music lacked the volume and thumping backbeat heard in electric blues. Despite Cream’s remake of his song “I’m So Glad.” Skip James and Devil Got My Woman never really stood a chance of attracting hoards of rock fans in 1968, Skip James played the same kind of style on Devil Got My Woman that he did when he first recorded it for Paramount label back in 1931.

By Bruce Lamb

http://TheGuitarWorkshop.com

Though he used to write his name as Charlie Patton, yet popularly called Charley, is considered as the father and proponent of the American Delta Blues genre of music. This style is one of the oldest renditions of blues style of music and hence it made Charley Patton as one of the oldest known figures of American Popular Music. Said to be been born in the year 1887 and have died in 1934, Charlie Patton is still considered one of the most influential figures of American music.

Charley and the Early Years of Delta Blues: The Origin of the Genre

Charlie Patton was born in Hinds County, Mississippi and had passed most of his life in the Mississippi Delta. He did most of his work on Delta Blues style from here and for that reason this style was also known as the Mississippi Delta Blues style of music. Most of that area was covered with extremely fertile land, yet poverty was rampant. The socio-economic condition became the soul of this genre. The cigar box guitar, guitar and harmonica formed the base for this genre’s music.

The Unique style that separated it from other country blues: The Differentiating Factor

Although there was not much of a subsequent rhythmic difference between Charlie Patton’s style and other country blues to have originated at the same time. Most of the areas had the same cultural background, yet Mississippi Delta Blues stood out because of its harmonic structure and theme that talked exhaustively about travelling musicians’ life, sexuality and life the delta.  Women also had a part in this style, but only a few made names for themselves. Read the rest of this entry »