Quote:
Originally Posted by JonPR
There's just one guy who I think has come closer than anyone else I know to the true spirit of the blues - while not being from that culture himself - and that's Kelly Joe Phelps. 20 years ago I was struck by how thoroughly convincingly he turned an English traditional ballad into a blues:
Obviously inspired by Robert Johnson and Blind Willie Johnson, but becoming a "bluesman" in his own right.
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But did he really?
20 years ago Natalie Merchant released a similar version of this song on her album House Carpenters daughter, where did she get it from?
I've heard several people in English folk clubs sing that song but never with quite that melody or those words.
I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't one of those folk songs like Raggle Taggle Gypsies which travelled to America with early immigrants and morphed into Black Jack Davy so maybe by the time Phelps and Merchant heard the song it had already been 'Americanised' somewhere in the Appalachian mountains?