St Jame Infirmary Blues

I recently found this article vis a link over at Expecting Rain.com. It is an article about Robert R Harwood's new book on the history of the St James Infirmary Blues, which has long been one of my all time favorite blues songs (I've even recorded it myself!). Harwood says of the song:

There is something mythical about St. James Infirmary. It seems to have always been here, although in its present state it is perhaps a hundred years old. The late American trombonist Jack Teagarden called it "the oldest blues song I know," but it's also jazz, country, pop . . . it even migrated to modern classical music. A number of people claimed authorship in the early days, but when blues singer Mattie Hite released her interpretation in 1930, the composer credit was to "Everybody" -- and that's about as accurate as it gets.

More information about the book can be found on Harwood's website, from which I found a great blog on Pre-War Blues called 'Honey, Where You Been So Long?' Not only does the blog post mp3s of hard to find blues tunes, they've recently posted a huge anthology of virtually every version of St James ever recorded: So Young So Cold So Fair & Standing Pat



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Now playing: Blind Willie McTell - Dying Crapshooter's Blues
via FoxyTunes