Static Live Magazine February 2019

Appetite for the Blues
By Mark “Muddyharp” Hodgson
Old Crow Medicine Show, “Tell It to Me”
“Now won’t you tell it to me
Tell it to me
Drink the corn liquor let the cocaine be
Cocaine’s gonna kill my honey dead
All them rounders think they’re tough
But they feed their women on beer and snuff
Cocaine’s gonna kill my honey dead”
A rounder has a few different connotations. The one in the Old
Crow Medicine lyric depicts someone who sounds like a kind of
a complicated character. Another definition refers to a person
who “rounds the edges” on a piece of lumber. Considering the
many lumber camps in Florida at the turn of the 20th century, I
think it is safe to say a combination of the two definitions might
be appropriate when speaking of a typical African American
bluesman in Florida back in those days.
“If you understand the music, you understand how much time
it takes to get anywhere close to being a good player. Then you
come to the reality of how you can you get people to hear you
once you sound ok. Then you come to grips with the fact music
is being paid for in nightclubs. You can actually make money
playing music in nightclubs. One thing leads to another and
after a time you are ready to make a record.”
Gabriel Brown is journeyman blues artist who spent most of
his time in Florida. He was born in 1910 in Gadsden County.
Attended Florida A&M and in 1934 he performed at the first
National Folk Festival in St. Louis, Missouri. He was discovered
by folklorist Zora Neale Hurston who contacted Alan Lomax
who then recorded Mr. Brown for the Library of Congress in
1935. Brown’s career was varied. He was part of a Miss Hurston
light Opera called “Polk County” which ran in New York City and
toured with the Florida Arts Theatre under the direction of Orson
Welles. His first commercial recording for Flyright Records
in 1943, showed Mr. Brown in a variety of styles. He was known
as a songster defined by the influences and alternate picking
Piedmont style of guitar playing and vocals. The Piedmont style
leans more toward Jimmie Rodgers (the singing brakeman),
than say, Son House.
Mr. Brown disliked performing nightclubs. “Too many rounders
and things going on in them night spots. They don’t care
about no music ‘cept if it helps somebody get over.” I did have
a guy showed me some chords on the guitar. Just give him a
taste of gin and he would be all mellow and patient and show
me things, he helped me a lot. Most them old timers knew the
blues... just give ‘em a little taste!”
I like Gabriel Brown. I think, even though he never became a
big star, he kept it together in his real life and his music was
more Florida because of all the influences in his sound. He
could lay down 12 Bar blues all night long but he also sang
‘hits’. This is his strength. Gabriel Brown was a real Florida bluesman.
Library of Congress discography:
-John Henry (355-A)
- John Henry (instr.) (355-B)
- Blues (357-B) #
- Tone The Bell Easy (358-A-1)
- The Motherless Child (358-A-2)
- A Dream Of Mine (359-A)
- Education Blues (360-A) #
- Talking In Sebastapol (360-B)#
- Careless Love (361-A)
rec. late (poss. 20) June, 1935 in Eatonville, FL by Elizabeth
Barnicle, Zora Neale Hurston, & Alan Lomax; Gabriel Brown, voc,
g; # Rochelle French, g
Library of Congress
Unissued
Flyright-Matchbox
SDM 257
Florida isn’t Mississippi. The Mississippi River, it’s delta and
tributaries are unique. The music that comes out of that entire
region could not be made anywhere else. The Florida state of
mind is transitory and adaptive. Florida naturally absorbs and
redistributes all the energy it receives. So, many different type
of people end up here as did the blues which found its way to
Florida as a transplant from someone looking for a better life.
“I’m a rake and a rambler and an old time rounder too
I can tell tales to ladies and I can sing the blues for you
I don’t know where I’m heading but I can tell you where I’ve
been
I’ve been down to Florida just to see an old friend.”.....-1924
artist unknown
Next month Florida Blues “ Swamp” ( part 3)
34
static-magazine-template Feb 19.indd 34
2019-01-28 1:28:40 PM