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Blind WIllie Jackson Has Been FOund!                    Well... One of 'Em Anyway.

8/22/2015

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My "Why did we call ourselves Davenport Johnson?" post (scroll down if you'd like to  read it) garnered a lot of emails, and we appreciate that. Thanks to everybody who took the time to get in touch with us. Glad you got a kick out it!

The most interesting one came from one Mr. Josh Larsen. He sent us an image of the label of a Blind Willie Jackson "Sittin' On The Davenport" record he said he found in his local resale shop. See it below on the left.

I gotta tell you it was pretty exciting to see some proof of it's existence. My original internet search yielded nothing and I wasn't sure people would believe that my story was real without a picture.
 
However the more I looked at Josh's image, the more something seemed a little off to me. While I didn't remember what record company put it out exactly, I could've sworn the label on my grandparent's copy was blue. This bugged me enough that I went onto the net again and scoured around for anything "Blind Willie."

Wow, I had no idea there were so many other blues guitar players using that nick-name. I found Blind Willie McTell, Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Willie Davis, Blind Willie Harris and Blind Willie Dunn.

I also found a Blind Roosevelt Graves, a Blind Tim Russell and a Blind Jeremiah Taylor. Apparently a lot of blues guys were "blind." Hmmm? Maybe they all played with Johnsons. ;-)

Anyway, after an exhaustive search I actually did find a Blind Willie Jackson. He was a gospel singer who had a record out with his brother called "Take Your Burdens to the Lord"  backed with "Telephone To Glory." Not likely the same guy who sang about playing with his johnson on the davenport. But very likely the same guy Josh found.
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The one Josh sent us on the left, the one I found on-line on the right.
I should have realized when I saw the "5050-B" at the bottom that I was looking at a B-side, and since "Sittin'…" was definitely the A-side, Josh's had to be a fake. Closer inspection shows the words "his Johnson" are clearly a different font than "Blind Willie and" (Check out the capital "J" for starters)… but damn, that's one heck of a Photoshopping job, and I'll admit I was completely fooled for a day or two.
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Close up of the same two images.
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So no free t-shirt or mug for you Josh, but we'll tip our hat to you for the effort. For a little while you gave me a nice warm feeling inside. Oh, and by the way, I also found out that Blind WIllie Jackson and Brother released the same two songs on Herwin records as well, so don't try to fool us again with that version… it won't work!

In the meantime the search is still on. If anybody can give us some real proof of Blind Willie Jackson's "Sittin' On The Davenport," (it's gotta be out there somewhere!) you'll get the aforementioned free t-shirt and mug of your choice from our shop, here.



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NOW PLAYING: "Junebug!" On Ukefarm Radio!!!!

8/14/2015

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Ukefarm Radio has recently added our song "Junebug" to it's playlist. Oh yeah!  John Baxter (Ukefarm's founder) is quickly becoming one of our biggest supporters with five tracks from "Constellation" making it to his airwaves so far! Go Ukefarm, Go!

This tune started out as a piece Timothy Jay came up with and then Chris and I added our two cents. It burst into existence in full form the very first time we played it together, just improvising our way around TJ's initial musical inspiration.


To me it feels like there are three melodies playing at once in places, like our three instruments are out for a walk together, each with their own particular gait. They all come together for a moment occasionally and then go on walking. Timothy Jay's on an acoustic uke, (a DaSilva pineapple tenor made entirely of bamboo!) Chris is on an electric bass and I'm twangin' my RISA LP electric uke, which is doubled here and there.
PictureJunebug
It's named after one of TJ's beloved cats rather than the familiar beetle. I'd say it was one of my favorites, but every track on the album is sooner or later so that wouldn't mean much. (But it is. ;-)

Check it out, along with many other incredible uke-centric artists, both up-and-coming independents and well-known staples of the instrument over at Ukefarm Radio:



Visit Ukefarm Radio
AND…. If anybody knows where the flying elephant image at the top of this post came from please contact us and let us know. I'm not sure why it seems to fit with this song. There's no cat in it, and the animals aren't out for a walk, but for some reason it just feels right to me.

We're not releasing a single of Junebug, but if we were I'd want to use that image and I have no idea who to ask for permission or who to give credit to (or who to expect to have to pay!). And yes, I've searched the interwebs and came up empty. Anybody know of a search engine that takes images instead of words?


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