“Listening to Big Joe’s music before contributing a recording for this project, I was moved and humbled by the power, beauty and subtlety of his music.”
Lucky Oceans, September 2010.
Now available at iTunes.
16 of Big joe William’s classic delta blues tunes reworked by some of our favorite independent roots artists. It’s ‘Album of the Day’ on ABC Radio National’s DAILY PLANET on 24 January at 2.20pm. Tune in people!
Being born in Crawford, Mississippi in 1903 meant Big Joe Williams had to navigate a new and changing world. The guns of the American Civil war had fallen silent just 38 years earlier signalling the end to the enslavement of his forbears. Jim Crow laws were taking root, boll weevils were in the cotton and the musical traditions that travelled from West Africa on the slave ships gave way to what we now know as THE BLUES.
Big Joe rambled, recorded and played consistently from the 1920’s right through until his death in Macon, Mississippi in 1982.
‘These Are My Blues’ is the first annual Stobie Sounds compilation and pays tribute to the immense body of work that is the legacy of Big Joe Williams.
Between November 2009 and July 2010 we begged, pleaded, cajoled and convinced some of our favorite independent roots artists to revisit the back catalogue of Big Joe Williams and choose a song to rework in their own style.
By August we had 16 disparate tracks from Adelaide, around Oz and the US that paid respect to the great bluesman.
The tracks were recorded in studios, loungerooms and store rooms from San Francisco to Crafers.
“A wonderful compilation tribute to a great songwriter and is one well worth hunting down”
Anthony Moulay, BayFM, Byron Bay
The album was mastered at EarFuck Studio by local luthier and engineer Steve Salvi and launched at the Juke Joint Fest in Adelaide on October 10 2010.