Bahamian Songs

summer starts here with this absolute gem of a release from megaphone. blind blake's first ever cd including tracks that later went on to be covered by everyone from the beach boys to johnny cash!. as label owner stephane bismuth explains: "i was introduced to blind blake's music by joe loop, the man who for almost five decades hung onto karen dalton's earliest known recordings (1962 private recordings now known as 'the loop tapes'). joe had a cassette made from his heavy vinyl blind blake lp that had broken in two halves. this broken lp is now bound by scotch tape and gets played whenever joe needs a new cassette. i am glad i can now offer joe the first cd ever made out of blind blake's lps, recorded in the 50s for the tiny art label." blind blake was from the 30s to the 60s the singer and leader of the house band at the royal victoria hotel in nassau, bahamas. his music was a strange mix of old island classics, more recent calypso compositions and american ballads. his musicians combined jazz guitar licks with vocal harmonies and west indian rhythms, with the result that his recordings have an easy humor and swing that few musicians from any continent can match. alphonso blake higgs, commonly known as 'blind blake', was born at matthew town, inagua, bahamas, in 1915. he was adept at string instruments - ukulele, banjo, tenor banjo, six-string guitar - and also played the piano. he lost his eyesight at the age of sixteen and kept pursuing the goal of a career in music and a unique style, a blend of folksong, calypso and early jazz. the traditional song 'peas and rice', nearly a bahaman national anthem, originated during the first world war when the scarcity of imported cooking fats forced the substitution of local coconut oil. and one of the oldest bahamian song is the tragi-comic ballad 'john b sail' (later adapted and performed by many artists, notoriously the beach boys as 'sloop john b.' on their 'pet sounds' album). the 'john b.' was an old sponger boat whose crew were in the habit of getting merry whenever they reached port. his most popular song 'love, love alone' ("it was love, love alone, cause king edward to leave the throne") was based on the love affair of king edward viii with wallis simpson. blind blake wrote about sixty goombay songs starting in the 30s including 'run come see jerusalem', based on the effects of the 1929 hurricane, 'jones (oh jones)' and 'j p. morgan'. this cd is drawn from a series of recordings made in the early 1950s. his band 'the royal victoria hotel calypsos' featured dudley butter (guitar, maracas), chatfield ward (guitar), freddie lewis (lead guitar), george wilson (bass fiddle), and at times lou adams on trumpet. its popularity with tourists led to them being widely heard in the us, and they became an inspiration to many folk revival musicians. josh white and johnny cash covered 'delia', pete seeger 'foolish frog', dave van ronk 'yas, yas, yas', and 'run, come see jerusalem' was done by dozens of groups, not to mention blake's influence on harry belafonte.