Booklet: Mississippi Fred McDowell: Live in New York

CONTENTS

4th edition January 2015 release Track listing and creditsVolumes 1 & 2

Page 3

Page 5

Page 10

Page 19

Page 27

1st edition Spring 1972 release Graphics, liner notes, track listing and credits

2nd edition March 1973 release Graphics, liner notes, track listing and credits

3rd edition Spring 1999 release Liner notes and credits

Event and recording ephemera

Mississippi Fred McDowellLive in New York

OD-1/OD-1.1/OD-1.2 Oblivion Records 3

Volume 1, Set 1

1. Shake ‘Em On Down

2. Fred’s Worried Blues

3. Jesus is on the Mainline

4. Mercy

5. When the Saints Go Marchin’ In

6. Someday Baby

7. The Lovin’ Blues

8. You Got To Move

9. White Lightnin’

10. Louise

11. Baby Please Don’t Go

Volume 2, Set 2

1. Goin’ to the River (Carry My Rocking Chair)

2. Shake ‘Em On Down

3. 61 Highway

4. John Henry

5. My Babe

6. I’m Crazy ‘Bout You Baby

7. Red Cross Store

8. Levee Camp Blues

9. Good Mornin’ Little Schoolgirl

10. Don’t Mistreat Nobody (Cause You Got A Few Dimes)

11. Get Right Church

12. Good Night (Spoken Outro)

Mississippi Fred McDowellLive in New York Volumes 1 & 2 (available together or separately)

Released January 2015

Fred McDowell: Guitar and vocalsTom Pomposello: Bass Guitar

Fred McDowell (1897-1972) Tom Pomposello (1947-1999)


Credits, 4th edition, 2015:


Recorded by Fred Seibert, with assistance fromRoy Langbord November 5, 1971 The Village Gaslight 116 MacDougal Street New York City

Produced by Tom Pomposello and Fred SeibertExecutive Producer: Richard H. Pennington III

Mastered by Anton Glovsky at Grapeshot Studios Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

Front cover design by Frank Olinsky (www.frankolinsky.com)

Producer’s note:

Originally recorded for broadcast on Columbia University’s WKCR-FM, using a high quality, one track Nagra recorder intended for film and field recording. Microphones were Shure and Electro-Voice, the mixer was a Shure M68.

I asked my great friend Roy Langbord to split the taxi fare, lug half the equipment, and help with the (easy) set up at The Village Gaslight in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood. The equipment was improperly borrowed, my rationale was that the recording was only to be played on my weekend blues show on college radio.

We were rewarded with a recording of a supe-rior performance, and as it transpired, also a historic one. It was Fred’s last recording before his untimely passing less than a year later.

Within a few months Tom Pomposello and I decided to start Oblivion Records auspiciously with the final Fred McDowell recordings.

–Fred Seibert

1st edition: Spring 1972Front cover Oblivion Records, Vinyl LP

Design: Fred SeibertLogo: Lisa Lenovitz Eaton Typesetting: Steven HellerPhotographer: unknown

1st edition: Spring 1972Back liner and record labelsVinyl LP

Layout: Fred Seibert Typesetting: Columbia University SpectatorLabels: Viewlex Corporation, Hauppauge, NY


Liner notes, 1st edition, Spring 1972By Tom Pomposello and Fred McDowell

In 1959 folklorist Alan Lomax ventured into northwestern Mississippi during a recording field trip of the Southern USA. He passed through the town of Como, situated between Highways 51 and 55. Lomax explained that he was from a record company and asked whether there were any local musicians that he should hear. Among the first names given was Fred McDowell. Lomax found Fred at home that evening and proceeded to record him. Fred played well into the night for Lomax (the ses-sion lasted from 8 p.m. until about 7 a.m. as Fred recalls it). When Lomax finally departed, he left Fred with promises that these recordings would bring him world repute and a great sum of money. Lomax was at least half right. Despite the fact that the payment

was nominal, the recordings were greeted with abun-dant enthusiasm. Even though only eleven songs were released (on two Prestige LPs: Deep South-Sa-cred and Sinful; and Yazoo Delta-Blues and Spiritu-als; and two Atlantic LPs: Sounds of the South; and Roots of the Blues), the reaction was immediate. The blues world had discovered Fred McDowell.

Subsequent to the Lomax recordings things began happening and Fred found himself in the middle of a new career. There was a whole new audience anxious to hear his brand of the blues. In 1964 both Arhoolie and Testament issued solo LPs by Fred. In July of that same year Fred was a fea-tured artist at the Newport Folk Festival (selections from his performances were issued on three separate Vanguard albums). Then, in 1965, Fred visited Eu-rope with the American Folk Blues Festival. He was enthusiastically received wherever he played.

In 1966 he recorded a second album for Arhoolie. This contained the song that the Rolling Stones were soon to “borrow” – “You Got to Move” (incidentally, if Fred is ever paid the royalties for this song, he should earn more than he did on any of his own albums). More releases followed on Testament, Biograph, Polydor International, and Milestone.

Then in 1969 came a second tour of Europe. In Britain he recorded his first solo album using elec-tric guitar – Mississippi Fred McDowell in London (Volumes I and II on Sire and Transatlantic). The re-action was a mixed one. Everyone loved the music. But Delta blues on an electric guitar…? One critic commented that he thought some of the “subtlety” of the acoustic bottleneck’d high E string was lost with the electrified instrument. But the new sound was so


Now I want you all to know that Honest Tom is the boy who plays bass and 2nd guitar on “Shake ‘Em on Down” with me on this album. You know he first came to me and said, “Fred, can I come up and see you, you know where you’re staying?” Well, I wasn’t doing anything up there alone and I told him to come up. When he got there, he brought three instruments with him – a guitar, a harmonica, and a bass, and he asked me to say which one he was better at. Well, I carried him over on the harmonica. Alright, I said, let’s got to the guitar. Next the bass – I said, “hold it right there baby, that’s the one.” Tom, it’s been a real pleasure to have you play with me. Roll baby.

– Fred McDowell

compellingly ominous that its beauty was irresist-ible.

More electric albums followed. Blue Thumb’s Memphis Swamp Jam featured three cuts with Fred on electric guitar and accompanied by Johnny Woods on harmonica (later a full album by the two was issued on Revival Records). Arhoolie followed suit with Fred McDowell and his Blues Boys which featured Fred accompanied by acoustic guitar, elec-tric bass, and drums. Then came the now legendary I Do Not Pay No Rock and Roll album on Capitol. Most reviewers of contemporary music were as-tounded. Blues Unlimited called it “…a perfectely fine LP, beautifully recorded in stereo and and per-formed with the usual McDowell power and verve. Hmmm.” Rolling Stone went so far as to say: “Well, do you have to hear any more – this is one mother of a record.” I’ll never forget one of my musically naïve friends saying: “I never thought blues music could sound like that.” Still, there were some hold-outs. Bob Groom, a great fan and admirer of Fred’s and the editor of Blues World magazine wrote: “…not the best McDowell LP, but nevertheless recom-mended to all his fans… and for the first (and I hope lat) time Fred is accompanied by a heavily electri-fied rhythm group.”

I never could understand such criticisms for a variety of reasons. Perhaps, though, the best reply is by Bob Groom himself who wrote in his book, The Blues Revival: “Old and new blues cannot be com-pared, only contrasted…” Which brings us to this album – it’s electric, it’s heavy, and most important, it’s Fred McDowell, the way he likes it, today. Viva!

– Tom Pomposello


Credits, 1st edition:

Side One

SHAKE ‘EM ON DOWN (4:04)I’M CRAZY ABOUT YOU BABY (4:42)JOHN HENRY (4:40) YOU GOT TO MOVE (2:38) SOMEDAY (3:52)

Side Two

MERCY (5:25)THE LOVIN’ BLUES (4:01)GOIN’ TO THE RIVER (5:12)(carry my rockin’ chair) BABY PLEASE DON’T GO (3:42)

Fred McDowell: electric guitar and vocalsTom Pomposello: bass guitar or 2nd guitar

Recorded at the MacDougal Street Gaslight II, in New York City, on November 5, 1971, .

Supervision: Fred Seibert and Dick PenningtonLogo Design: Lisa LenovitzGraphics: the Oblivionettes Thanks much to David Reitman, Steve Heller, Ruth Rock, Billy M. and qSlim Langbord. Really.

Sidebar box:If this disk is not available at your local su-perior record store, mail the tidy sume of $4.98 (foreign customers use I.M.O.) to:

Oblivion RecordsP.O. Box XRoslyn Heights, New York 11577

– Dealer inquiries invited –

2nd edition: March 1973Front cover Oblivion Records, Vinyl LP

Design: Fred SeibertLogo: Lisa Lenovitz Eaton Typesetting: Steven HellerPhotographer: unknown

2nd edition: March 1973Back liner and record labelsVinyl LP

Liner and label design /layout: Fred Seibert Photography: Valerie WilmerTypesetting: Columbia University Spectator


Photographs of Fred McDowell by Valerie Wilmer MacDougal Street Gaslight II November 1971


2nd edition: March 1973Inner sleeve, McDowell discography Oblivion Records, Vinyl LP


Liner notes, 2nd edition, March 1973By Tom Pomposello

Well, as this album is about to go into its second pressing, and I sit here and read back the notes that I hastily put together for the liner about a year ago, it all seems strangely inappropriate – I say ‘strangely,’ but not really, I guess. Fred McDow-ell passed away on July 3, 1972. The details and circumstances are known to those of you waho are interested, I’m sure. You know, there is really no tactful way for me to express my thoughts now when I think about Fred, not withour making trhese notes sound like some kind of testimonial. And I don’t like that idea at all. Record liner notes never make good testicmonals anyway. The thinks Fred accomplished as an artist, those people whom he touch through his

music, those of us who were lucky enough to know him personally and be taken under the spell of his Misssissippi myustique; thse are things which ac-count for a far greater testimonial than anyone can ever put down on paper, because they’re written in people’s hearts.

So here I say I’m not foing to do it, and I do it. But I hope you’ll understand. As a student and an admirer of Fred’s music, I’m gratified in knowing that his legacy I s adequetly represented on disc. As a musician I take real pride in having been a small part of this msuci. The way it turned out, this album represents the last material that Fred was to record. I think that this album is an important one (although I do not feel it’s his most important) in that it presents a side of Fred McDowell that so many people will always remember.

The years 1968-1971 were the most rewarding for Fred in many ways. From a financial standpoint, he finally began to make a living from his music. He was well over sicty years of age when he was ulti-mately able to quit farming and devote his energies to music and his concert appearances. He purchased a mobile home for himself and his wife in Como, Mississippi. Later he even bought a new car, the first new car he had ever owned. From an artistic stand-point, these were the years that most people were exposed to Fred’s brand of blues. He was constantly in demand for convert dates, so much so that Dick Waterman, his manager and booking agent, couldn’t keep up with them all. He played all the American cities that had blues enthusiasts: Memephis, Chi-chage, Boston, Philadelphia, Ann Arbor, Portland, Notre Dame, Berlely, and of course, New York, He


he did play it all the same – from his heart. I know that may be a bit of an overworked phrase, but I also know that it was really true of Fred McDowell. I used to watch him from the side where I sat next to him, where only I could see hehind those sunglasses. He’s be playing one of those slow blues and he’d have his eyes closed, nodding his head in rhythm. And at the same time he’s be planning the next stan-za, maybe deliberately leaving off a word or two at the end of a line so he could let the vocalized slide fill the missing syllables. Anyhow, all this is to say what Fred said so much more concisely the night these recortdings were made: “I hope you’re all en-joying my type of playin’. That’s my type of playin’ y’all. And that’s the blues. ‘Cause you know know a lot of people don’t know what the blues is. But I do. Blues is a feelin’, you understand. And I really fell what I’m playin’.”

SHAKE ‘EM ON DOWN was Fred’s show-piece. As he admitted, this is as close as he got to rock and roll. The folks down in Mississippi nick-named him “Shake ‘Em” for this number. In fact, there probably never was a country barbecue that Fred attended where he could get away without per-forming it. I Sometimes when he did this in concert he used to get up and dance while playing it full out. It’s done here with two guitars, both bottleneck, with alternating and simultaneous leads.

I’M CRAZY ABOUT YOU BABY is one of those spontaneous, off the cuff things I was talking about. When Fred says, “Tom, we haven’t play that yet,” he means it. Pete Welding in his review of this album for Living Blues commented that this number is “by far the best performance on the album and es-

also frequented Canada, and twice toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival.

These were also the years he began plahing with electric guitar. It was different alright: electric delta blues, bottleneck style no less. But audiences and critics loved it. The editors of the Official Pro-gramme of the 1970 Ann Arbor Blues Festival wrote of him:

“Fred McDowell is undoubtedly the finest bottleneck guitarist alive, and many people believe his is the best who ever lived. (Bottleneck style guitar playing is done by placing either a broken off bottleneck or a highly polished pieve of pipe on the small or ring finger of the chording hand. This technique enables the guitarist to make the guiar sing with the tone incredibly similar to an anquished human voice.) He learned bottleneck from his un-clue, who used a ground bone on his finger, and Fred McDowell perfected the stule that made him the leg-endary guiarist he is today. If one listens carefully to Fred it soon becomes apparent the guitar sings every word he sings. This is Mr. McDowell’s style,and in the performance of it he has no equal.”

This album was recorded live in concert, and as such is indicative of the type of performance that audiences came to excpect from Fred. His raps. His deliberate and forceful slide work combied with those spontaneous lyrics. His uncompromoissing renditions of his “greatest hits,” never playing them exactly the same twice. Yet, in another way, wheth-er he was playing for a handful of loyalists at one o’clock A.M. in the Village Gaslight or to an ex-urberant blues audience ar the Ann Arbor Festival,


pecially lovely, resilient, stunning, slow blues played and sung with great feeling, even the tubby distant sound of Pomposello’s bass guitar adding to the muisc’s effectiveness by giving it a vaguely ominous quality.” (Hmm.)

JOHN HENRY has got to be the oldest folk blues in existence. Some musicologists trace it back as far as the 1880’s. Fred heard it as a boy, learned it, adapted it, and even re-adapted it with his own arrangement. The long instrumental intro is meant to convey the idea of something picking up steam.

YOU GOT TO MOVE is the hardest song for me to comment on objectively for a variety of rea-sons. It always seems ironic to me that if it weren’t for the Rolling Stones’ rendition of this number, Fred’s name might not have been known to a lot of people. However, the real irony lies in the fact that once the Stones credited Fred with the author-ship they remained true to form and made use of an unfortunate legal loophole which held up Fred’s royalty payments. Look, it was Keith Richard who said in a Rolling Stone interview that “Maybe once every six months someone’ll come through with an album. An Arhoolie album of Fred McDowell. And you’d say: There’s another cat! That’s another one. Just blowin’ my mind…” Actually, all you need to do is listen to the Stones’ version on their Sticky Fingers LP, compare it to Fred’s version, and you’ll know immediately from where their arrangement is copped. I think a further or more precise explanation seems rather pointless and unnecessarily maudlin and would fuel to a fire that is only now beginning to die down. But I guess you should know that Fred wasn’t paid anything that even approximated

a partial royalty payment until just days before he died. OK, enough of that. Let me tell you what Fred used to say about this song: “A lot of people whoever hear me sing this song would ask me, ‘What does it mean, you got to move?’ Well, this is a true song and one that has two meanings. Now you know why I say that? You know, a lot of people don’t own their own homes. So you pay so much a month for rent. Now when you get behind, well,maybe the landlord’ll allow you to skip the first month or so. But when the third one comes, if you ain’t paid up you come home one evening and you find your things sittin’ out on the street. You see, you got to move… And not only that, but here’s the more important meaning. We’re all sittin’ back listenin’. When this is over, maybe you plan to go out to next door. But you know, you may not live to walk out that door. If you fall dead, if you happen to die, you done moved. That’s one debt you can’t dodge. When the Lord gets ready, you got to move.”

SOMEDAY BABY is a blues that a lot of people have recorded thematic variants of. Muddy Waters calls his “Trouble No More” and Big Ma-ceo Merriweather titled his version “Worried Life Blues.” Be that as it may, like Fred’s they all derived from Sleepy John Estes 1935 clasic “Someday Baby Blues.” The thing to watch for here is the patented McDowell syncopation. Listen to the way he plays slightly off the beat while singing on it. Yeah, it is rather difficult.

MERCY is a really powerful slow blues es-pecially in terms of Fred’s vocal work. The melody rigg was one that Fred used quite often, but the lytics were almost always improvised in accordance with


his “mood.” The result is seem immediately in the opening stanza, which consists of some unusual lyrics (unusual for Fred that is) and lines which are of uncertain origin. “Everyone’s cryin’ mercy, Lord what do mercy mean? Well, if it means anything, Lord have mercy on me!”

THE LOVIN’ BLUES is a song with a univer-sal meaning. The lady in question is a delta woman. Fred’s delta woman. The song deals simply with the joys and sorrows of being in love. “You know you got a home little firl, so long as I got mine.”

WHITE LIGHTNIN’ was not included on the first editin of this album, but nonetheless we chose to substitue it for “Goin’ to the River” which already has been issued a number of times on some of Fred’s other albums. I know this is bound to annoy some people as well as foul up the annotations of discog-raphers everywhere, but I assume the responsibility based on the fact that this song is important as one of Fred’s last compositions. In some ways it’s relat-ed to “Smokestack Lightnin’,” but not really. Adter due consideration we also decided on the substi-tution because it’s a song not too many of Fred’s fans got to hear. (Althought one of Fred’s Arhoolie albums contains a similar piece titled “You Ain’t Treating Me Right.”) Besides, where are you gonna find lyrics like: “Wake up baby, get you big legs off of me. Put your left left leg baby, where you right ‘un oughta be.”

BABY PLEASE DON’T GO was written in the 30’s by Big Joe Williams and has always been a popular tune with bluesmen and audiences alike. The version here somes off as uniquely McDowell

with shades of “Shake ‘Em On Down.” This one’s another rocker, and was likewise on of Fed’s most requested pieces in later years. If you listen carefully you’ll hear another Fred McDowell trademark: See if you can count how many tempo accelerations the song contains.

– Tom Pomposello, March 1973

[Library of Congress Number 73-760456 applies to this record.]


Credits, 2nd edition:

Side one (Total: 22:57)

1. SHAKE ‘EM ON DOWN (4:05) (F.McDowell, Tradition Music, bmi) 2. I’M CRAZY ABOUT YOU BABY (4:42) (F.McDowell; By Full Co, bmi) 3. JOHN HENRY (4:39) (Traditional) 4. YOU GOT TO MOVE (2:40) (F. McDowell; Tradition Music, bmi) 5. SOMEDAY (3:51) (Sleepy John Estes, F. McDowell)

Side two (Total: 21:46)

1. MERCY (5:28) (F. McDowell; By Full Co, bmi) 2. THE LOVIN’ BLUES (3:57) (F. McDowell; By Full Co, bmi) 3. WHITE LIGHTNIN’ (4:55) (F. McDowell; By Full Co, bmi) 4. BABY PLEASE DON’T GO (Joe Williams; ascap)

Fred McDowell: vocals and electric bottleneck guitarTom Pomposello: bass guitar (2nd guitar on “Shake ‘Em On Down”)

Recorded on November 5, 1971, at the MacDougal Street Gaslight II, in New York City.

Produced by Fred SeibertExecutive Supervision by Richard H. Pennington, Jr.Liner Photo: Valerie WilmerLogo Design: Lisa LenovitzGraphics: the Oblivionettes with Lisa LenovitzTypesetting: Bridget Deal and the Bridgettes

The record you are holding is different from the original press run of od.1: on side two, “White Lightnin’” has been substituted for “Goin’ to the River”: the tapes have been remastered and a high quality pressing plant has been employed for an improvement of technical quality; and, the back liner has be rewritten. We hope you enjoy the im-provements. If this disc is not available at your local superior record store, send $4.98 (foreign customers use I.M.O.) to:

OBLIVION RECORDS BOX X ROSLYN HEIGHTS, NEW YORK, 11577

3rd edition: 1999Front cover & slipcaseLive Archive, compact disc

Art Direction: Steve Jurgensmeyer Photography: Dick Waterman

3rd edition: 1999Slipcase, J-card and disc Live Archive, compact disc

Art Direction: Steve Jurgensmeyer Photography: Dick Waterman

3rd edition: 1999CD graphics Art Direction: Steve Jurgensmeyer Live Archive, compact disc


Liner notes, 3rd edition, 1999By Tom Pomposello

It is not the easiest task for me to write the lin-er notes to a Mississippi Fred McDowell album, not without having them read like some kind of testimo-nial. It is especially difficult because this particular record turned out to be Fred’s last recorded album, although it was never intended that way. Fred died as a result of serious abdominal ulcers on July 3, 1972. This recording was made during the end of his last tour during the winter of 1971. As a student and occasional bass player with Fred McDowell, my life became so entwined with his, that I suppose for me to write an impartial evaluation of his music would be nearly impossible. But then, no one said that these were to be impartial. The funny thing is that record liner notes never make good testimonials. The things

Fred achieved as an artist, those people whom he touched through his music, those of us who were lucky enough to know him personally and be taken under the spell of his “Mississippi mystique”- these are the things which account for a greater testimonial than anyone can ever put down on paper, because they’re written in peoples hearts.

Nonetheless, this album becomes a tribute, of sorts, to one of America’s greatest bluesmen. Personally, I would like to devote a majority of this space to a discussion of his accomplishments during his later years. (For those who are interested in an in-depth profile of Fred’s life, personal recol-lections, biographical background, and analysis of his bottleneck guitar style, I would like to refer you to an article which I wrote for the November 1977 issue of Guitar Player Magazine, which is posted at


val” wrote of him: “Fred McDowell is undoubtedly the finest bottleneck guitar player alive, and many people believe that he is the best that ever lived. (Bottleneck style is done by either placing a broken off bottleneck or a highly polished piece of pipe on the small or ring finger of the chording hand. This technique enables the guitarist to make the guitar sing with the tone incredibly similar to an anguished human voice.) He learned bottleneck from his un-cle, who used a ground bone on his finger, and Fred McDowell perfected the style that made him the leg-endary guitarist he is today. If one listens carefully to Fred it soon becomes apparent that the guiar sings every word he sings. This is Mr. McDowell’s style, and in the performance of it he has no equal.”

This album was recorded live in concert, and as such is indicative of the type of performance that audiences came to expect from Fred. His raps. His deliberate and forceful slide work combined with those spontaneous lyrics. His uncompromis-ing renditions of his “greatest hits,” never playing them exactly the same twice. Yet, in another way, whether he was playing for a handful of loyalists at one o’clock AM in the Village Gaslight or to an exuberant blues audience at the Ann Arbor Festival, he did play it all the same -- from his heart. I know that that may be a bit of an overworked phrase, but I also know that it was really true of Fred McDowell. I used to watch him from the side where I sat next to him, where only I could see behind those sunglasses. He’d be playing one of those slow blues and he’d have his eyes closed, nodding his head in rhythm. And at the same time he’d be planning the next stan-za, maybe deliberately leaving off a word or two at the end of the line so he could let the vocalized slide

[http://frdr.us/FredTom]).

I will say that Fred McDowell was one of the most remarkable men I ever met. A more “giving” musician I cannot imagine. He was the kind of man who would take the time to discuss his experiences and share his music with anyone who was interested enough to ask. I believe that this album captures one facet but enthusiastic audience, working for them and playing to them.

The years 1968-1971 were the most reward-ing to Fred in many ways. From a financial stand-point he finally began to make a living from his music. He was well over sixty years of age when was ultimately able to quit farming and devote his energies to music and his concert appearances. He purchased a mobile home for himself and his wife in Mississippi. Later, he even bought a new car, the first new car he had every owned. From an artistic standpoint, these were the years that most people were exposed to Fred’s brand of the blues. He was constantly in demand for concert dates, so much so that Dick Waterman, his manager and booking agent, couldn’t keep up with them all. He played all the American cities that had blues enthusiasts: Mem-phis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Ann Arbor, Portland, Notre dame, Berkeley, and of course, New York. He also frequented Canada, and twice toured Europe with The American Folk Blues Festival.

These were also the years he started playing electric guitar. It was different all right. He played electric delta blues, bottleneck style no less, and the audience and the critics love it. The editors of “Offi-cial Programme of the 1970 Ann Arbor Blues Festi-


fill the missing syllables... Anyhow, all this is to say what Fed said so much more concisely the night these recordings were made: “I hope you’re all en-joying my type of playin’. That’s my type of playin’ y’all. And that’s the blues. ‘Cause you know a lot of people don’t know what the blues is. But I do. Blues is a feelin’, you understand. And I really fell what I’m playin’.”

Tom Pomposello wrote these liner notes for the original vinyl release of the Gaslight recordings. By restoring the entire concert, we have added eleven songs to the program. Unfortunately, Tom passed away before he was able to update his notes.

THE SONGS:

SHAKE ‘EM ON DOWN was undeniably Fred’s showpiece. “I do not play no rock’n’roll,” he used to say. Then he’d chuckle. “But this one kinda sound like it.” In his hometown, Como, Mis-sissippi, his friends and neighbors even nicknamed him “Shake ‘em” in admiration of his ability to get even the most tired feet jumping when he played his guitar, was probably invited to more than his share of sown-home Sunday barbeques. I can remember evenings when Fred would end his sets with rol-licking renditions of this number. I even remember occasions when hie would jump up and start dancing while he was flailing away on the guitar full speed ahead. This version is performed as a bottleneck guitar duet.

I’M CRAZY ABOUT YOU BABY is a spon-taneous, improvised blues. When Fred says, “Tom, we haven’t played that yet,” he means it. Pete Weld-ing, in his review of this album for LIVING BLUES, commented that this number is “by far the best per-formance on the album and especially lovely, resil-ient, stunning, slow blues played and sung with great feeling. Even the tubby, distant sound of Pomposel-lo’s bass guitar adding to the music’s effectiveness by giving it a vaguely ominous quality.” (Hmm.)

JOHN HENRY is perhaps one of the oldest folk blues in existence. Some musicologists trace it back as far as the 1880’s. Fred heard it as a boy, learned it, adapted it, and even re-adapted it with his own arrangement. The long instrumental intro is meant to convey the idea of something picking up steam.

YOU GOT TO MOVE has come to be re-garded as Fred’s best known song. The irony of that statement of course lies in the fact that more peo-ple are aware of it as a song on the Rolling Stones’ album Sticky Fingers, than those who know it as a Fred McDowell composition. Stones’ guitarist, Keith Richards, in an interview with Rolling Stone Maga-zine said: “Maybe once every six months someone’ll come through with an album. An Arhoolie album of Fred McDowell. And you’d say: There’s another cat! That’s another one. Just blowin’ my mind...” Well, the song certainly survives Fred, and that’s fitting. It is always so sad that many an artist’ recognition must come postumously. Fred never got to enjoy the roy-alties he should have, and would have received for “You Got To Move.” Let me share with you the ex-planation he once gave me of the song. “A lot of peo-


ple whoever hear me sing this song would ask me, ‘What does it mean, you got to move?’ Well, this is a true song and one that has two meanings. Now you know why I say that? Y’know a lot of people don’t own their own homes. So you pay so much a month for rent. Now when you get behind, well, maybe the landlord’ll allow you to skip the first month or so. But when the third one comes, if you ain’t paid up you come home one evening and you find your things sittin’ out on the street. You see, you got to move... And not only that, but here is the more im-portant meaning. We’re all sitting right here tonight. I’m sitting up here playin’ for you all, and you’re all sitting back listenin’. When this is all over, maybe you plan to go out to next door. But you know, you may not live to walk out that door. If you fall down dead, if you happen to die, you done moved. That’s one debt you can’t dodge. When the Lord gets ready, you got to move.”

SOMEDAY is a blues upon which many the-matic variants have been based. Muddy Waters calls his “Trouble No More” and Big Maceo Merriweath-er titled his version “Worried Life Blues.” Be that as it may, like Fred’s they all derived from Sleepy John Estes’ 1935 classic “Someday Baby Blues.” The thing to watch for here is the patented McDowell syncopation. Listen to the way he plays slightly off the beat while singing on it.

MERCY is perhaps one of the most powerful performances on this or an Fred McDowell record. This piece was crafted with such intensity that I still feel the chills when I listen to it. “Everyone’s cryin’ mercy. Lord, what do mercy mean? Well if it means any good, Lord have mercy on me.”

THE LOVIN’ BLUES is an obvious blues title for a song with a universal meaning. “You know you got a home little girl, so long as I got mine.”

WHITE LIGHTNIN’ is a moonshine whiskey. This is a fascinating piece of music. I heard Fred perform this song many times in later years. Each time with a new set of lyrics. (One of his albums for Arhoolie Records contains a great rendition titled “You Ain’t Treating Me Right.”) The riff --or melodic motive-- over which the lyrics are sung is very reminiscent of Howlin’ Wolf’s theme song, “Smokestack Lightning.”

BABY PLEASE DON’T GO was written in the 1930’s by Big Joe Williams, and has always been a popular tune with musicians and audiences alike. This version is uniquely McDowell with shades of “Shake ‘Em On Down.” One of the most fasci-nating things about this and several other of Fred’s performances can be heard in Fred’s very personal approach to rhythm and time. As you listen to McDowell’s playing, observe the sudden tempo accelerations, an uninitiated listener might find this quite unorthodox, but when you realize that Fred was totally in control -- these tunes he played his whole life -- and tha these tempo shifts were his way of building excitement, of skillfully creating a musi-cal “tension and release,” then you will understand the very special signature of a great artist: Mississippi Fred McDowell.

–Tom Pomposello, 1999


Credits, 3rd edition:


Recorded at The Gaslight Café, MacDougal Street New York City on November 5, 1971 by Fred Seib-ert with assistance from Roy Langbord.

Producers: Tom Pomposello and Fred SeibertExecutive Producer: Richard H. Pennington III Mastered by Anton Glovsky at Grapeshot Studios, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Ma.Art Direction: Steven Jurgensmeyer Photography: Dick Waterman

Special thanks to Patricia Pomposello, Dick Water-man, Steve DeTone, Jeff Raymond, Craig Bryant, Baird Dushchatko, and Mark Schwartz.

This compact disc is dedicated to the loving memo-ries of Fred McDowell and Tom Pomposello (and to the eternal blues jam in the sky).

Fred McDowell (1897-1972) Tom Pomposello (1947-1999)

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this re-cord are being donated to the Mississippi Fred Mc-Dowell Foundation, to purchase instruments for the underprivileged children in Northern Mississippi. For more information on the foundation, please visit www.GrapeshotMedia.com.


OriginalEngagement

Flyer

The Village

Gaslight MacDougal

StreetNew York

Doc Watson

November 11-16,

1971

MississippiFred

McDowellNovember

18-23,1971


First distributor

flyer for Live in

New YorkSpring 1972


Live in New York advertisement for Living Blues, 1972


Second distributor

flyer for Live in

New YorkSpring 1973


Some of producer Fred Seibert’s

Live in New Yorkgraphics and

pressing notes


Oblivion Records logo explorations (and detail)

from the sketchbook of Lisa Lenovitz Eaton

1972

Oblivion Records DiscographyJanuary 2015

VintageCover

2015Cover

Mississippi Fred McDowellLive in New YorkOriginal LP release 1972Oblivion Records OD-1

Johnny WoodsMississippi HarmonicaOriginal single release 1972Oblivion Records O#2

Marc Copland • John Abercrombie• Clint Houston • Jeff WilliamsFriendsOriginal LP release 1973Oblivion Records OD-3Charles Walker & The New York City Blues BandBlues from the AppleOriginal LP release 1974Oblivion Records OD-4Joe Lee WilsonLivin’ High Off Nickels & DimesOriginal LP release 1974Oblivion Records OD-5

Honest Tom Pomposello

Original LP release 1975Oblivion Records OD-6

Oblivion Records Box Set Complete 1972-1975


Oblivion Records 1972-1975

www.oblivionrecords.tumblr.com

Founded byFred Seibert, Tom Pomposello

& Dick Pennington

Oblivion Records logo designed by Lisa Lenovitz Eaton

Documents

Booklet: Mississippi Fred McDowell: Live in New York