Bishop Dready Manning -Country Blues Preacher

You may have been going to church all your life, but chances are you have never attended a church with as much spirit as Bishop Dready Manning's St. Mark Holiness Church outside Roanoke Rapids. Bishop Manning, a traditional guitarist, harmonica player, and gospel singer, has infused his church with music, and the spirited singing, often of tunes written by him, is a joy to behold.


"The Lord gave me this way of playing," he explains in his velvety voice," and He told me to use it in his service. So that's just what I'm doing." But Bishop Manning didn't always use his extraordinary musical talent to serve the Lord. In his early days, he was a blues musician playing in clubs and piccolo joints and selling moonshine and he was "out of hand," according to his wife Marie, who is an integral part of his church.

A big change came when he suffered a mysterious hemorrhage in 1962 and was saved both physically and spiritually when some neighbors came to pray over him. "I had a converted mind right then," he says.

His family is a big part of his musical life - he and Marie and their five children toured for years and produced numerous 45s, albums, tapes and CDs. They still sing together in church every Sunday. His church services are rebroadcast on both radio and cable TV and he has a recording studio as well.

Timothy Duffy sums it up when he says, "Besides his tremendous musicianship of guitar and harmonica, Dready is a powerful singer and songwriter. His recorded work has been given rave reviews throughout the world and earned the state of North Carolina great praise for being a home to such a wonderful musician." Check him out at Bishop Dready Manning

John Dee Holeman - A Modern Day Blind Boy Fuller

John Dee Holeman was born in Orange County, North Carolina in 1929. He is a storyteller, dancer and a blues artist. He played with musicians who learned directly from Blind Boy Fuller. He possesses an expressive blues voice and is a wonderful guitarist incorporating both Piedmont and Texas guitar styles. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage fellowship and a North Carolina Folk Heritage award, John Dee has toured the U.S, Europe and Asia. John works as a heavy machine operator. If you are not a believer yet,check out these YouTube Videos! -Rev. KM

Mance Lipscomb

Mance Lipscomb (April 9, 1895 – January 30, 1976^[1]) was an influential blues singer, guitarist and songster. Born Beau De Glen Lipscomb near Navasota, Texas, he as a youth took the name of 'Mance' from a friend of his oldest brother Charlie (Mance short for emancipation). Lipscomb was the son of an ex-slave from Alabama and a half Choctaw Indian mother.
Lipscomb spent most of his life working as a tenant farmer in Texas and was "discovered" and recorded by Mack McCormick and Chris Strachwitz in 1960 during the country blues revival. He released many albums of blues, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley and folk music (most of them on Strachwitz' Arhoolie label^[1]), singing and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. He had a fine finger-picking guitar technique, and an expressive voice well suited to his material. His debut release, Texas Songster (1960) revealed how broad and catholic his repertoire was. To me, Mance Lipscomb Was Part Blind Lemon Jefferson, Part Blind Willie Johnson and Part Leadbelly rolled into an East Texas Blues Juggernaut.Unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not record in the early blues era, but his life is well documented thanks to his autobiography, I Say Me for a Parable: The Oral Autobiography of Mance Lipscomb, Texas Bluesman, narrated to Glen Alyn, which was published posthumously, and also a short 1971 documentary by Les Blank, A Well Spent Life^[1].

Bukka White

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

It's the Birthday of Bukka White

Today is the birthday of Bukka White. He was born November 12, 1909 and passed away February 26, 1977.

According to Wikipedia

Bukka White (November 12, 1909 -- February 26, 1977) was a delta blues guitarist and singer. "Bukka" was not a nickname, but a misspelling of White's Christian name by his second (1937) record label, (Vocalion).

Born Booker T. Washington White near Houston, Mississippi, he gave his cousin B. B. King, a Stella guitar, King's first guitar. White himself is remembered as a player of National Steel guitars. He also played, but was less adept at, the piano.
White started his career playing the fiddle at square dances. He claims to have met Charlie Patton early on, although some doubt has been cast upon this; regardless, Patton was a large influence on White. White typically played slide guitar, in an open tuning. He was one of the few, along with Skip James, to use a crossnote tuning in E minor, which he may have learned, as James did, from Henry Stuckey.

He first recorded for the Victor Records label in 1930. His recordings for Victor, like those of many other bluesmen, fluctuated between country blues and gospel numbers. His gospel songs were done in the style of Blind Willie Johnson, with a female singer accentuating the last phrase of each line.
Nine years later, while serving time, he recorded for folklorist John Lomax. The few songs he recorded around this time became his most well-known: "Shake 'Em On Down," and "Po' Boy."

Bob Dylan covered his song "Fixin' to Die Blues", which aided a "rediscovery" of White in 1963 by guitarist John Fahey and ED Denson, which propelled him onto the folk revival scene of the 1960s. White had recorded the song simply because his other songs had not particularly impressed the Victor record producer. It was a studio composition of which White had thought little until it re-emerged thirty years later. White was at one time managed by experienced Blues manager, Arne Brogger. Fahey and Denson found White easily enough: Fahey wrote a letter to "Bukka White (Old Blues Singer), c/o General Delivery, Aberdeen, Mississippi." Fahey had assumed, given White's song, "Aberdeen, Mississippi", that White still lived there, or nearby. The postcard was forwarded to Memphis, Tennessee, where White worked in tank factory. Fahey and Denson soon travelled to meet White, and White and Fahey remained friends throughout White's life.. He recorded a new album for Denson & Fahey's Takoma Records, whilst Denson became his manager.

White was, later in life, also friends with fellow musician, Furry Lewis. The two recorded, mostly in Lewis' Memphis apartment, an album together, Furry Lewis, Bukka White & Friends: Party! At Home.

One of his most famous songs, "Parchman Farm Blues", about the Mississippi's infamous Parchman Farm state prison, was to be released on Harry Smith's fourth, never realized, volume of the Anthology of American Folk Music. His 1937 version of the oft-recorded song, "Shake 'em on Down," is considered definitive, and became a hit while White was serving time in Parchman.

White was sampled by electronic artist Recoil for the track, "Electro Blues For Bukka White", on the 1992 album, Bloodline; the song was reworked and re-released on the 2000 EP "Jezebel".

Bukka White - Parchman Farm Blues


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Rev. KM Williams - New Preachin Blues

Reverend KM Williams plays in the manner of Son House on the original Composition "New Preachin' Blues" from the Film "Sanctified Boogie" on Level Ground films http://www.levelgroundfilms.com/sanctified_boogie.htm