Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Born In Louisiana

This is a live performance by blues musician and multi instrumentalist Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown performing his song "Born In Louisiana". According to the video description the performance is from 2003 which doesn't seem unlikely.
Brown was a multi instrumentalist who played many instruments, he played: Guitar, fiddle, mandolin, viola, harmonica and drums. In this performance clip he sticks to guitar though, but if you are attentive you can spot a violin or a viola by one of the front speakers at the stage. Brown died in 2005.
He was a very influential guitarist in that his techniques inspired other guitarists, such as: Albert Collins, Guitar Slim, J.J. Cale, and Johnny "Guitar" Watson. He was also noted as one of the first guitarists to use a capo in his technique.
Brown also appeared on Kenny Wayne Shepherd's album "10 Days Out". The mission of that album was to record some of the old blues players before they pass away. And in this case it did just that, because Brown died prior to the album's release and was among the credited since deceased people honoured in the credits of the film that was included with the album. On this version he also pulls out his fiddle and does a solo on that which sounds quite astounding and unique. I definitely recommend checking out this version, as well as the rest of "10 Days Out", because it's great and a good way to get introduced to some of the roots of this thing called "the blues".

Enjoy ; )

Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down To Georgia

This song may be considered to be country, and I'm not really sure where to put it. In my book it's a little fast to be country, but then again not all country sounds like Dolly Parton, some of it is fast and something you can dance to.
The song however has been embraced by the rock community, and the lyrics share a lot of similar things to blues music. The lyrics are about a kid who is challenged by the devil to a fiddle battle against the devil. If he wins he'll get a solid gold violin and if he loses the devil gets his soul. The devil also often appears in blues lyrics.
The song has been embraced by the rock world, and was featured in an updated version in the video game "Guitar Here III: Legends of Rock".
It's a great song and a delightfully energetic performance from the band and Charlie Daniels himself. He plays the fiddle so hard he breaks several hairs in his bow, and needs to switch bow towards the end of the song. That's cool. It's just a great performance.




The band Primus also did a cover of the song. They did a really nice clay-mation video for it, and I thought I'd include that. It's not as good as the original, but visually it tells the story very well.

Enjoy all of it ; )