- R. Crumb's rendering of the Mississippi Sheiks
Six months ago, or so, I was listening to KPLU (88.5 FM)on their weekend show All Blues with John Kessler and I was introduced to the Mississippi Sheiks. I'm pretty sure it was during an excellent segment that John Kessler does called Blues Time Machine. In the Time Machine he plays different versions of the same song over time. Last weekend he featured a song about Mardi Gras that was rooted in an American Indian song. It was phenomenal. And it reminded me of how I was introduced to the Mississippi Sheiks.
"All Things Considered, December 29, 2006 - As part of our series about students and teachers, musicologist Bruce Nemerov describes the way that one song is recorded by several different musicians in different decades of the 20th century. The older musicians are teaching the younger musicians through the song "Sitting on Top of the World." We hear the song as recorded by Al Jolson, The Mississippi Sheiks, Howlin' Wolf, Eric Clapton, Bill Monroe and The Grateful Dead." - NPR
To me, that isn't the finest description, possibly because I'm not a real fan of a lot of those artists. It was, however, the variety of styles and the raw strength of the song to be viable in so many different styles and eras, that made me like this portion.
Follow this link to hear the journey of this song, it is worth way more than 8 minutes.
- This is the album I purchased after listening to this segment on KPLU's All Blues.
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