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John Jackson“Don't Let Your
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SORRY! This CD is out of stock, and out of print. It is no longer available. 
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John Jackson — vocals & guitar.
John Jackson, from Rappahannock County, Virginia, is a national treasure, 1986 recipient of the National Heritage Fellowship, consummate guitarist equally at home singing the blues, playing country dance music, or frailing the banjo. John has earned his living mostly as a grave digger, but has toured widely in recent years with his music.
This CD presents John Jackson's best recordings made between 1965 and 1969. All selections previously available on ARH LPs 1025, 1035, & 1047.
A Mel Bay instructional song book is also available. It contains all of the songs on this album (except for the banjo tune, track 4).
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Listen to some of the tracks!! (uses RealAudio®) 1. Going Down In Georgia On A Horn 2. Black Snake Moan 3. John Henry 4. If Hattie Wants To Lu, Let Her Lu Like A Man 5. Nobody's Business But Mine 6. John's Rag 7. Boats Up The River 8. Rattlesnakin' Daddy 9. Flat Foot & Buck Dance 10. Bear Cat Blues 11. Reuben 12. Rocks And Gravel 13. Going Down The Road Feelin' Bad 14. Police Dog Blues 15. Don't Let Your Deal Go Down 16. Muleskinner Blues 17. I Bring My Money 18. John's Ragtime 19. Red River Blues 20. Knife Blues 21. Trucking Little Baby 22. Blind Blake's Rag 23. Goodbye Booze 24. Graveyard Blues 25. Early Morning Blues 26. You Ain't No Woman |
REVIEWS “John Jackson is one of the greatest living songsters, a musician who plays the mix of blues and older African-American and European-American styles that is the trademark of the Southern Appalachians. Jackson recorded three albums for Arhoolie in the late '60s and this album collects a representative sample of that work. The material ranges from Blind Blake covers and ragtime instrumentals to a banjo tune, a country dance medley, and a blue yodel. It all sounds great, but Jackson's outstanding work is in the pre-blues African-American repertoire, with songs like `Reuben,' `Nobody's Business,' and `Going Down The Road Feelin' Bad.' There is a grace and gentleness in his voice and guitar work that is perfectly suited to this style recalling the relaxed perfection of such older performers as Mississippi John Hurt. In a sense, though, it's wrong to single out any particular part of Jackson's repertoire for praise. He prides himself on his musical breadth, and his real achievement is the ability to work easily in such a wide range of styles. The three Blake tunes demonstrate his ability to recreate the sound and spirit of East Coast ragtime guitar. His bottleneck `John Henry' is a textbook example of the mountain classic. Jim Jackson's `Graveyard Blues' is completely reworked into a minstrel-style recitation, the chorus serving as a musical interlude between sections of humorous narrative. Jackson presents the back-porch mountain finger picking tradition at its best, with beautiful guitar work and a voice that conveys all the humor and depth of the lyrics.”(Elijah Wald — Living Blues) |
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“When sifting through obscure blues, you find lots of characters. Life stories can equal, and sometimes even surpass, the music, but it is the music - that ultimately counts, colorful stories only go so far. Of course, there are also the rarefied few like John Jackson whose personality runs through the music like water through blood. It's not that Jackson is a good singer and player (which he is), but by the end of `Don't Let Your Deal Go Down,' you'll probably want to call him up and talk for a while. It seems as if there's someone familiar in the CD player. Part of the reason for the familiarity Is the matter-of-fact delivery Jackson maintains in every song. `Nobody's Business But Mine' is a credo without bitterness, more strength than ego. It typifies Jackson's attitude. `Graveyard Blues' becomes vaudeville in his hands, despite the promise of the refrain: `I'm gonna start a graveyard of my own if that man don't leave my gal alone.' Jackson speaks the main action of the song, his rising intonation ending each sentence, punctuated with a questioning `who' or `huh' that was answered In the previous line. `Graveyard Blues,' in fact, is easily the consummate Jackson song in terms of vocal style: the speaking passages allow his Rappahannock County, Virginia accent to flourish where it had only been suggested throughout the rest of the album. Musically, Jackson owes as much to country and bluegrass as to anything else. These influences show themselves most clearly on, respectively, the title track (whose progression of sevenths recalls Texas swing) and `If Hattie Wants to Lu, Let Her Lu Like A Man' (a finely picked banjo solo). The largely traditional `Boats Up the River contains elements of country, bluegrass and blues in both melody and in a musical line that is echoed in altered form in other songs, lending a continuity to the collection. None of the above is meant to suggest that `Don't Let Your Deal Go Down' will change your life, but listening to this recording (put together from four different sessions between 1965 and 1969) is a pleasant introduction to a very talented man.”
(Jason Kruppa — Option) |
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“The ongoing task of transferring the riches of the Arhoolie catalogue from vinyl to compact disc is faced by Chris Strachwitz with continuing energy, devotion and - not least - generosity, as every disc is made up of tracks from more than one LP, or enhanced by the addition of previously unissued material. If you don't have the original John Jackson LPs, you can buy this disc with every confidence, as it brings together no less than 26 tracks, representing the best of his three Arhoolie LPs from the 1960s. Jackson comes from Virginia, and his easy-going, almost gentle brand of country blues (and this is one case where the adjective `country' really does seem apposite, for the double reason that the context is very definitely rural, and that there is a clear influence from traditional white country music) is very appealing, and his repertoire is wide and varied, encompassing older `songster'-style material, hillbilly songs, ballads, dance tunes and songs from the records of artists like Blind Blake and Blind Boy Fuller. His guitar style is light and bouncy, speaking of a style that could be described as old-fashioned for a man of his generation (he was born in 1924), and that seems just right for his warm, good-humoured vocals.”
(Blues & Rhythm) |
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