Monday, October 24, 2011

Papa Charlie

Born in 1885, Papa Charlie Jackson eked out a modest living playing his Banjo/Ukelele hybrid and singing his ribald songs at medicine shows and on the streets of Chicago. In the 20s, several recordings were made. In 1972 an LP compiling these dusty delights from a bygone era was released by the brilliant Yazoo label. Most of these recordings were made with an audio horn rather than a microphone, and the technology of pressing records was still very new at the time, so almost needless to say, their is layers of hiss that often eclipse the music, but for me, this adds to the experience,and lends a ghostly, otherworldy feel to the whole thing.

3 comments:

JM said...

That's some fun stuff, man.

GRK. said...

Cheerz.

Anonymous said...

awesome... he's like George Formby playin the blues! Dig that thrashin breakdown towards the end of 'She Belongs to Me', too. The sex and drugs references are nice, too.