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Friday 17 April 2015

Motherless Children


Something cheery for a Friday!
The Robster's recent excellent Memphis Minnie post had me reaching for Ramblin' the 1978 debut album by Lucinda Williams on Smithsonian Folkways. It is an album where she covers a number of Blues and Country standards including Minnie's Me and My Chauffeur which I have previously posted.
Another couple of tunes also caught my eye and indeed ear.
You know that way when you hear a song and know you have it elsewhere but can't remember where.
One such number is the cheery Motherless Children a traditional Blues number recorded by the likes of Blind Willie Johnson and the Reverend Gary Davis and latterly by Steve Miller, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan.
A quick search of the Blues section proved fruitless.
And then I found it in the Country Section on The List by Rosanne Cash.
To me a song which sounds much more plaintive when sung by a women.

I suspect that both Lucinda and Rosanne must have dueted with Emmylou at some stage but if they have I don't have anything so they will not feature in that particular series.
There will however by a further post in a similar vein featuring the Lucinda album.

Lucinda Williams - Motherless Children

Rosanne Cash - Motherless Children

4 comments:

  1. ..I think I prefer the Lucinda version of the two, it has a less polished feel to it that the RC version. Rather shockingly you may think, the Clapton version is better than either of the two.

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    1. Agreed the LW version is rawer and better that RCs.Haven't heard the Clapped Out version.Shocking indeed

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  2. Anyone know how to get rid of those dodgy Russian and Ukranian URLs that piggy back onto your webpage?

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  3. CC,
    Thanks for introducing me to Roseanne Cash! I quite like this version and will be checking out some more of her work now.

    Can you give more info about the Russian & Ukrainian URLs? Where is it that you see them?

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