Circle Bar - 7.25.09

Always on the run, I had just come from a wedding of some friends of mine from highschool. Congratulations Sandy and Robert. It was a nice wedding and it was great seeing all the old friends. It was hard leaving early to go to the show but I was pumped about playing that night and eager to perform.

The more we play the better it gets and coming off of a great show at One Eyed Jacks last week, I was impressed that we were able to kick it up a notch at Circle Bar. There's just something about the intimacy of that club that just really gets it going. It's a special place (as are so many others in New Orleans). John Marcey, on his second show with us, really started showing his chops as a guitar player and let loose on a few amazing solos. It's always fun when you can tell the other band members are having a blast.

I've been getting alot of response from our rendition of House of the Rising Sun. BTW, it was Matthew Sexton's (bassist) idea to play that one. The thing I've been hearing alot is "I like how you mashed up House of the Rising Sun with St. James Infirmary". There's a history lesson here and I was talking to a fan last night about this. Don, I hope you're reading this:

Don was at an Animals show at the House of Blues and overheard Eric Burdon of the Animals taking credit for writing House of the Rising Sun... ehhhhhh... I don't think so!! As with many folk songs, it's often debated where they came from our who penned/contributed what but the original recordings of House of the Rising Sun were done in the 1930s. One of those recordings was done by Alan Lomax. The song was being performed and recorded in the 40's more commercially by legends such as Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. In 1960 it was recorded by John Baez. Bob Dylan recorded it in 1962 on his first self-titled album. Dylan also apparently thinks he wrote the song and often takes credit for it as well but stopped playing it because when the Animals released it 2 years later it became so popular that fans accused Dylan of doing a lousy Animals cover.

So why does House of the Rising Sun and St. James Infirmary work so well together? THEY EVOLVED FROM THE SAME FOLK SONG!!! Which is most likely an 18th century English ballad known as Unfortunate Rake. Louis Armstrong made St. James Infirmary international in 1928. Billie Holiday performed it as did Joe Cocker and even Van Morrison who recorded it on his 2003 Grammy Nominated album What's Wrong With this Picture?.

Renew, Reuse, Recycle. The battles of yesterday are the battles of today and they all make for great lyrics. It's all been sung before. Evolution is a pretty fascinating thing, especially when we can pinpoint it in music. Where are the origins before the 18th century? What land or civilization will it take us to? We're all connected here. All I know is that some unknowing English family is probably due a gazillion dollars in royalties for their great grandfather's battle with gambling and prostitution.