"High Water Everywhere" | ||||
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Single by Charley Patton | ||||
A-side | "High Water Everywhere, Part 1" | |||
B-side | "High Water Everywhere, Part 2" | |||
Released | 1929 | |||
Recorded | December 1929 | |||
Studio | Paramount, Grafton, Wisconsin | |||
Genre | Delta blues | |||
Length | 3:08 | |||
Label | Paramount (no. 12909) | |||
Songwriter(s) | Charley Patton | |||
Charley Patton singles chronology | ||||
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"High Water Everywhere" is a Delta blues song recorded in 1929 by the blues singer Charley Patton. The song is about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and how it affected residents of the Mississippi Delta, particularly the mistreatment of African Americans. Patton recorded it during his second session with Paramount, in late 1929; his recordings from this session are frequently considered his best works.
The song's subject is the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the largest flood in American history, which affected much of the Mississippi River valley, devastating large parts of Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta, the home of Patton and many other early bluesmen. [1] [2] [3] [4] The flood exposed inequalities in the treatment of African Americans, and its outcome was a contributing factor to the exodus of many blacks to northern cities. [1] [2] Patton's lyrics include:
I would go to the hill country but they got me barred [1]
Patton was likely referring to the levee in Greenville, Mississippi, where black people were held in the aftermath of the flood and not allowed to leave. [1] They were bound to the custody of the landowners for whom they served as sharecroppers and could not go where they wanted to. [1] The song features Patton's intense vocals and rapid beating on the guitar body. It is regarded as one of the finest of his recordings and considered by some his magnum opus. [5]
Bob Dylan paid tribute to the song in his 2001 "High Water (For Charley Patton)". [6]
Blind Willie McTell was an American Piedmont blues and ragtime singer and guitarist. He played with a fluid, syncopated fingerstyle guitar technique, common among many exponents of Piedmont blues. Unlike his contemporaries, he came to use twelve-string guitars exclusively. McTell was also an adept slide guitarist, unusual among ragtime bluesmen. His vocal style, a smooth and often laid-back tenor, differed greatly from the harsher voices of many Delta bluesmen such as Charley Patton. McTell performed in various musical styles, including blues, ragtime, religious music, and hokum.
Edward James "Son" House Jr. was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist, noted for his highly emotional style of singing and slide guitar playing.
Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the style. Vocal styles in Delta blues range from introspective and soulful to passionate and fiery.
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States, with 27,000 square miles (70,000 km2) inundated in depths of up to 30 feet (9 m) over the course of several months in early 1927. The period cost of the damage has been estimated to be between $246 million and $1 billion, which ranges from $4.2–$17.3 billion in 2023 dollars.
Charlie Patton, more often spelled Charley Patton, was an American Delta blues musician and songwriter. Considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues", he created an enduring body of American music and inspired most Delta blues musicians. The musicologist Robert Palmer considered him one of the most important American musicians of the twentieth century.
"Blind Willie McTell" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Named for the blues singer of the same name, the song was recorded in the spring of 1983, during the sessions for Dylan's album Infidels; however, it was ultimately left off the album and did not receive an official release until 1991, when it appeared on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 1961–1991. It was also later anthologized on Dylan (2007).
Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White was an American Delta blues guitarist and singer.
Willie Lee Brown was an American blues guitar player and vocalist. He performed and recorded with other blues musicians, including Son House and Charlie Patton, and influenced Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. Brown is considered one of the pioneering musicians of the Delta blues genre.
Robert Hicks, known by the stage name Barbecue Bob, was an early American Piedmont blues musician. His nickname was derived from his working as a cook in a barbecue restaurant. One of the three extant photographs of him show him playing a guitar and wearing a full-length white apron and cook's hat.
Henry Thomas was an American country blues singer, songster and musician. Although his recording career, in the late 1920s, was brief, Thomas influenced performers including Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Grateful Dead, and Canned Heat. Often billed as "Ragtime Texas", Thomas's style is an early example of what later became known as Texas blues guitar.
Ishmon Bracey, sometimes credited as Ishman Bracey, was an American Delta blues singer-guitarist. Alongside his contemporary Tommy Johnson, Bracey was a highly influential bluesman in Jackson, Mississippi, and was one of the area's earliest figures to record blues material. Bracey's recordings include "Trouble Hearted Blues" and "Left Alone Blues", both of which appear on several compilation albums.
The Mississippi Sheiks were a popular and influential American guitar and fiddle group of the 1930s. They were notable mostly for playing country blues but were adept at many styles of popular music of the time. They recorded around 70 tracks, primarily in the first half of the 1930s. In 2004, they were inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame.
Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton is a boxed set collecting remastered versions of the recorded works of blues singer Charley Patton, with recordings by many of his associates, supplementary interviews and historical data. The set won three Grammy awards, for Best Historical Album, Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package, and Best Album Notes.
"High Water " is a song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released as the seventh track on his 31st studio album "Love and Theft" in 2001 and anthologized on the compilation album Dylan in 2007. Like much of Dylan's 21st century output, he produced the track himself under the pseudonym Jack Frost.
"Pony Blues" is a Delta blues song recorded by blues musician Charley Patton. Patton recorded the song in June 1929 during his first session. The song was also the first song to be released by Patton on the Paramount label.
Henry "Son" Sims was an American Delta blues fiddler and songwriter. He is best known as an accompanist for Charley Patton and the young Muddy Waters.
"Ragged & Dirty" is an old southern blues song, popular in Memphis and other cities of Tennessee and Mississippi. The song was recorded and improvised by many southern blues artists in the 1920s and 1930s, and is still covered by many younger blues musicians.
Louise Johnson was an American Delta blues singer and pianist, who was active in the 1920s and 1930s. From her brief recording career, Johnson completed four songs during a famed recording session in 1930 which included Charley Patton, Son House, and Willie Brown. Little else is known about her, although Johnson's self-accompaniment during the session is stylistically unique among female musicians of the era.
Walter Rhodes was an American blues musician, who recorded briefly in the late 1920s and was unusual in being a blues accordionist and singer from Mississippi. It was reported that Rhodes may have been the oldest Delta musician recorded. Little is known of his life outside of his recordings.