Son House
Unknown venue
1965-xx-xx

Source: AUD > PCM (clone)
Transfer: Sony SL-HF860D > Sony PCM-601ESD > Behringer Ultramatch Pro > Tascam DA-3000 > WAV
Master: WAV > Wavelab 10 (tracking, remove DC offset) > FLAC 16

Thanks to Charlie Miller for the transfer

01. intro to ...
02. Death Letter Blues
03. intro to ...
04. Levee Camp Blues
05. intro to ...
06. Empire State Express
07. intro to ...
08. Lord Have Mercy Before I Come To Die
09. intro to ...
10. Grinnin' In Your Face
11. intro to ...
12. Louise McGee
13. intro to ...
14. Preacher Blues
15. intro to ...
16. This Little Light Of Mine (Let It Shine)
17. intro to ...
18. Pony Blues
19. intro to ...
20. John The Revelator
21. intro to ...
22. Blues Medley

The last track, Blues Medley, includes Death Letter Blues, Walking Blues, Downhearted Blues, Forever on My Mind and probably more.

This PCM came marked "1956-xx-xx studio" which is certainly wrong. Whatever Son House was doing in 1956, it wasn't this. The accompanying article, "Child is Father to the Man," gives some more background to Son House's "revival" in 1965. Based on the article and other sources (Wikipedia, etc.) it's likely that this recording is from 1965-69. "1956" seems like a good typo for "1965" so let's go with that.

The recording is quite fine, crisp and clean. The venue sounds like a small auditorium or music room with a very polite and quiet audience (which doesn't sound like a 1950s audience, either). Probably larger than a radio studio but maybe not. Given where Son House was playing in the mid 1960's, this could have been a college campus or recorded for a radio station. Son House's introduction about how he got his name suggests he was playing for strangers, not regulars. But there's nothing in his banter to suggest a location. The recorder was stopped between songs -- most likely, the PCM recorder, not the original equipment -- and there is some misplaced applause here and there.

So what is this? It's not the 1965 Studs Terkel interview broadcast on April 19, 1965. You can hear parts of that here: https://studsterkel.wfmt.com/programs/son-house-discusses-his-life-and-career-blues-musician The banter is similar but not identical. (For example, at 19:21 Son House talks about his Bible debating society. Compare it to the intro to Preacher Blues.) It also doesn't seem to be a Columbia album called “Father of Folk Blues” (song timings are different) or http://www.arcolarecords.com/sonhousecd.html either which is a different performance. After poking around the Internet for a few hours, it remains a mystery.

Whoever made it, thank you. It's fantastic. Enjoy!

--mhg :: 2020-10-08