I just received today my copy of Michael Gray's new book "Hand Me My Travelin Shoes, In Search of Blind Willie McTell", published in the U.K. only (thus far), ordered from amazon.co.uk

I'm only 80 pages in, but this is a simply remarkable book! It is a must-have for any serious fan of pre-war blues. What impresses me most is that Mr. Gray is a very gifted writer, and he has produced a work that is a nearly unparalleled combination of historical research and social commentary and observation. I am hard-pressed to think of any blues books from the last 50 years that are equally as compelling and as well-written.

Early on, he quotes a passage from one of my favorite books of the last 25 years, William Least Heat Moon's "Blue Highways". That was a telling and highly positive sign to me, because Mr. Gray's descriptions of the small towns and the people he encounters in them while searching for Blind Willie's past are a proud successor and companion piece to Moon's great book.

There is a most revealing description of Mr. Gray's meeting with Curly Weaver's daughter in one of the early chapters. I won't detail it here, but it is the sort of story that crystallizes the joys and frustrations of blues researchers everywhere for the last 60 years: so close, yet so very far from moments of incredible discovery and learning. And it is the social/cultural/racial/class barriers that define and often divide us that are at the heart of those joys and frustrations.

This book is not a trifle as I had feared it might be, long on general historical background and short on facts. It is not a trifle akin to the thin little book that was "Searching For Robert Johnson", however interesting that book may have been. This is a long, substantive work, and almost all readers will learn much they did not previously know about McTell. Gray says in his introduction that the book is not intended for blues aficionados like me, that it is for the casual reader who may never even have heard of McTell. Indeed the book does work on that level. You do not have to have any interest or knowledge to find this book of interest. Still, I believe the McTell enthusiasts will be the ones who will value it most.

It would be my guess that there are other researchers out there who have information about Blind Willie McTell that Mr. Gray does not know or detail in his book. It's unknown to me whether the small community of blues researchers helped or hindered Mr. Gray's work. However, I suspect some helped, and others didn't give him the time of day.

My observation of blues researchers in general is that they often tend to be a combative, secretive lot, often unwilling to lend a hand to others working in similar areas. It's not an accident that we've never seen Mack McCormack's 3-decades-promised research on Robert Johnson, which he will apparently take to the grave with him rather than share it with someone, anyone, with a similar interest.

It's not an accident that distinguished blues researchers like Dr. David Evans and Gayle Dean Wardlow routinely sniped and jibed at each other caustically in Blues Unlimited magazine in the early 1970s, and beyond.

And what are we to make of the very public trainwreck that is Larry Cohn's long-delayed Blind Willie McTell box set, complete with book and DVD that allegedly will contain vast amounts previously undocumented research? Sadly, that's a project that shows every sign of joining Mack McCormack's Robert Johnson research as nothing more than dust collectors in someone's file cabinet.

All of which raises a question: what are any of these folks waiting for? The audience for this research and these books is growing older, and frankly, diminishing rapidly. Research gathering dust in those literal or figurative file cabinets and computer hard drives will be lost forever, never to be duplicated, unless some of these people decide to share their findings publicly for the greater historical good.

Mr. Gray has written one of the great blues books of our lifetime. It may not contain everything we'd want to know about Blind Willie McTell, but for me, after 40 years of devouring every pre-war blues recording and publication I could lay my hands on, it contains more than I ever thought I'd be fortunate enough to read and learn.

Run, don't walk, and order a copy if you love the early blues.

Thanks man....will be a fine read....

Scarey Day Blues...One of my favourite Willie songs...



ROCKMAN

Blind Willie McTell circa 1950....



ROCKMAN

thanks for your review highanddry -will definitely check it out

Already 140 pages in (and Blind Willie's still a child). Can only echo highanddry that this is a wonderful and impeccably researched book that places Willie's upbringing in a historical and social context. Looking forward to reading more on the train home tonight (and this is before he even picks up a guitar in earnest!).

Oh yeah, there's also a full discography which has already prompted me to send off to fill in the gaps in my Blind Willie collection.

If you enjoy reading and are a fan of pre-war blues, you'll love this book. Michael Gray, the author, has written a number of music and travel books. Dylan fans will know his work (song and dance man, encyclopaedia).

They just don't make lyrics like this every day.....Classic Stuff!!!!


Dyin' Crapshooter Blues....Blind Willie McTell

Little Jesse was a gambler, night and day
He used crooked cards and dice
Sinful guy, good hearted but had no soul
Heart was hard and cold like ice
Jesse was a wild reckless gambler
Won a gang of change
Although' a many gambler's heart he led in pain
Began to spend a-loose his money
Began to be blue, sad and all alone
His heart had even turned to stone
What broke Jesse's heart while he was blue and all alone
Sweet Lorena packed up and gone
Police walked up and shot my friend Jesse down
Boys I got to die today
He had a gang of crapshooters and gamblers at his bedside
Here are the words he had to say
Guess I ought to know
Exactly how I wants to go
(How you wanna go, Jesse?)
Eight crapshooters to be my pallbearers
Let 'em be veiled down in black
I want nine men going to the graveyard, Bubba
And eight men comin' back
I want a gang of gamblers gathered 'round my coffin-side
Crooked card printed on my hearse
Don't say the crapshooters'll never grieve over me
My life been a doggone curse
Send poker players to the graveyard
Dig my grave with the ace of spades
I want twelve polices in my funeral march
High sheriff playin' blackjack, lead the parade
I want the judge and solic'ter who jailed me 14 times
Put a pair of dice in my shoes (then what?)
Let a deck of cards be my tombstone
I got the dyin' crapshooter's blues
Sixteen real good crapshooters
Sixteen bootleggers
to sing a song
Sixteen racket men
gamblin'
Couple tend bar while I'm rollin' along
He wanted 22 womens outta the Hampton Hotel
26 off-a South Bell
29 women outta North Atlanta
Know little Jesse didn't pass out so swell
His head was achin', heart was thumpin'
Little Jesse went to hell bouncin' and jumpin'
Folks, don't be standin' around ole Jesse cryin'
He wants everybody to do the Charleston
whilst he dyin'
One foot up, a toenail dragging
Throw my buddy Jesse in the
hoodoo
wagon
Come here mama with that can of booze
The dyin crapshooter's, leavin' the world
The dyin' crapshooter's, goin' down slow
With the dyin' crapshooter's blues



ROCKMAN

An all time classic and one of my personal favourites. The "toenail dragging" line gets me every time.

Thanks for the review highanddry. Will definately get that book