Insect Trust-Memphis Swamp jam-Luke Faust-John Fahey-Bill Barth and me
bre...@rocketmail.com
Internet. As a result I found
out a most interesting fact. Years ago, circa 1970, I heard an album
called Mississippi Swamp Jam.
I taped the record with a microphone and I still have that tape 37
years later.
>From that album I heard and learned my first Country Blues/Ragtime
style picking tunes. The tunes
were called Memphis Rag and Praying on the Old Camp Ground/Lonesome
Blues. This was literally the
first time I heard this kind of music. I still play these
tunes today. At that time I knew nothing about Delta Blues, Texas
Blues, Georgia style, Robert
Johnson, Willie McTell, B.L. Jefferson, M.J. Hurt, Blind Blake, et al
etc etc. My main finger
picking influence was Donovan. So these tunes were
quite a revelation to me. The liner notes said they were played by
street musicians, R.L. Watson
and Josiah Jones. For 37 years I've always wondered why I've never come
across anything else by these guys
because their playing was great. Well tonight reading about the Insect
Trust I found out why the
fug I've never heard of these guys since. Son of a bitch it was John
Fahey and Bill Barth (a
member of Insect Trust) playing under psudonyms. Here is what I read.
"An accomplished guitarist, Barth himself appeared at these festivals
as a member of the
blues-tinged psychedelic band, The Insect Trust, and in duet with John
Fahey. One performance by
the latter pairing, under the comic pseudonyms Josiah Jones and R.L.
Watson, was recorded by
Arhoolie Records' owner Chris Strachwitz for the Blue Thumb two LP set
"Memphis Swamp Jam."
Because of their mastery of country blues guitar, the true identity of
the players remained for
many years a mystery to fans who believed the liner note description of
two black, mute pantomime
artists "discovered" on the streets of Memphis by Strachwitz."
Further research on John Fahey produced this: the liner notes on
Memphis Swamp Jam that took me in
37 years ago.
Anyone else on this group ever hear this and fall for the ruse as I
did?
"1969 MEMPHIS SWAMP JAM
Memphis Rag
Compare "Nobody's Business" by Mississippi John Hurt.
St Louis Blues
Praying on the Old Camp Ground/Lonesome Blues
>From John Hurt, and part two from "Lonesome Weary Blues" by Roy Harvey
& Leonard Copeland.
Three guitar duets by fahey and Barth issued under the pseudonyms R L
Watson and Josiah Jones on
"Memphis Swamp Jam" (Blue Thumb BTS 6000, later reissued by Arhoolie
under the title "Kings of
Country Blues Vols 1 & 2" with the sale sleeve note).
This recording was a jolly jape going right back to the days of
Fonotone.
On the original sleeve of "Memphis Swamp Jam" in 1969 someone composed
straightforward notes about
the performers (Fred McDowell, Furry Lewis et al), but for Fahey &
Barth performing as R L Watson
and Josiah Jones there was the following:
Whilst their names are new to collectors of authentic Negro American
folk music, the lineaments of
the delightful instrumental music of guitarists R L Watson and Josiah
Jones, longtime playing
partners, are firmly within the established playing practices of those
revered traditions.
Literally found on the streets of Memphis, to which they had repaired
in the hopes of earning
money through their sidewalk entertaining and pantomines (both are
mutes), the pair was brought to
the attention of producer Chris Strachwitz by his close friend, the
distinguished
ethnomusicologist Prof Franz-Georg Goldwasser, who was producing a
radio documentary on the
Memphis festival for his popular show "Blues, Boogie und
Schwarzermusik" , which is broadcast on
the German state radio network Sudwestrundfunk. Schrachwitz was
immediately taken with the
wistful, energetic music of the elderly pair of guitarists and arranged
that their insinuating
performances of three traditional pieces - a rag, a blues and a
spiritual - be included in this
set. Unfortunately, little is known of the backgrounds of the two
performers, as Strachwitz was
unable to conduct an interview with them and all attempts at
communication were forestalled in the
face of the pair's undisguised mistrust of, if not outright hostility
towards, blond, blue-eyed
Silesians."
Peter Huggins
This is fascinating. Now I gotta go find this record.
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Grins, Peter
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