Tom Pomposello never wanted the first Oblivion release to go out of print. After all, it was his first professional recording, playing alongside of his hero and teacher, Mississippi Fred McDowell.  And my debut as a record producer, I should add. In late 1999, he arranged for a small Boston label, Live Archive (defunct within months of this release, by the way) to release a two CD set. He remastered my original, crude, live recording, added 16 bonus tracks and an addendum to the liner notes.

So, this 2000 release has 23 tracks from Fred’s performances at the Gaslight in New York City, November 5, 1971. Completely remastered for your listening pleasure.

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Mississippi Fred McDowell > Live in New York
2000 edition; released as “Live at the Gaslight” by Live Archive Music.
(Listen to the original release here.  Read the stories behind the record here. And click here for covers, photographs, and other printed ephemera from Mississippi Fred McDowell: Live in New York.)

Click the titles to listen to MP3s.
Disc 1
1. Shake ‘Em On Down ∞
2. Fred’s Worried Blues *
3. Mercy
4. Jesus is on the Mainline *
5. When The Saints Come Marchin’ In *
6. Someday Baby
7. The Lovin’ Blues
8. White Lightnin’
9. You Got To Move
10. Louise *
11. Baby Please Don’t Go
Disc 2
1. Goin’ To The River (Carry My Rocking Chair) **
2. Shake ‘Em On Down **
3. 61 Highway *
4. John Henry
5. My Babe *
6. I’m Crazy ‘Bout You Baby **
7. Red Cross Store *
8. Levee Camp Blues*
9. Good Mornin’ Little Schoolgirl *
10. Don’t Mistreat Nobody (Cause You Got A Few Dimes) *
11. Get Right* 
12. Good Night (Spoken Outro) *
* Not included on the original editions
** From the original editions

All songs written by Fred McDowell and published by Tradition Music Co. (BMI) except where noted.

Mississippi Fred McDowell: vocals, guitar
Honest Tom Pomposello: bass guitar & 2nd guitar ∞

November 5, 1971, Live at the Village Gaslight, 116 MacDougal St., New York City
Engineered* by Fred Seibert, assisted by Roy Langbord
Produced by Tom Pomposello, Fred Seibert, & Dick Pennington 

Reissue produced by Tom Pomposello

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2-CD set Liner notes
Last release, 2000

It is not the easiest task for me to write the liner notes to a Mississippi Fred McDowell album, not without having them read like some kind of testimonial. It is especially difficult because this particular record turned out to be Fred’s last recorded album, although it was never intended that way. Fred died as a result of serious abdominal ulcers on July 3, 1972. This recording was made during the end of his last tour during the winter of 1971. As a student and occasional bass player with Fred McDowell, my life became so entwined with his, that I suppose for me to write an impartial evaluation of his music would be nearly impossible. But then, no one said that these were to be impartial. The funny thing is that record liner notes never make good testimonials. The things Fred achieved as an artist, those people whom he touched through his music, those of us who were lucky enough to know him personally and be taken under the spell of his “Mississippi mystique”- these are the things which account for a greater testimonial than anyone can ever put down on paper, because they’re written in peoples hearts.

Nonetheless, this album becomes a tribute, of sorts, to one of America’s greatest bluesmen. Personally, I would like to devote a majority of this space to a discussion of his accomplishments during his later years. (For those who are interested in an in-depth profile of Fred’s life, personal recollections, biographical background, and analysis of his bottleneck guitar style, I would like to refer you to an article which I wrote for the November 1977 issue of Guitar Player Magazine, which is posted at www.livearchive.com).

I will say that Fred McDowell was one of the most remarkable men I ever met. A more “giving” musician I cannot imagine. He was the kind of man who would take the time to discuss his experiences and share his music with anyone who was interested enough to ask. I believe that this album captures one facet but enthusiastic audience, working for them and playing to them.

The years 1968-1971 were the most rewarding to Fred in many ways. From a financial standpoint he finally began to make a living from his music. He was well over sixty years of age when was ultimately able to quit farming and devote his energies to music and his concert appearances. He purchased a mobile home for himself and his wife in Mississippi. Later, he even bought a new car, the first new car he had every owned. From an artistic standpoint, these were the years that most people were exposed to Fred’s brand of the blues. He was constantly in demand for concert dates, so much so that Dick Waterman, his manager and booking agent, couldn’t keep up with them all. He played all the American cities that had blues enthusiasts: Memphis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Ann Arbor, Portland, Notre dame, Berkeley, and of course, New York. He also frequented Canada, and twice toured Europe with The American Folk Blues Festival.

These were also the years he started playing electric guitar. It was different all right. He played electric delta blues, bottleneck style no less, and the audience and the critics love it. The editors of “Official Programme of the 1970 Ann Arbor Blues Festival” wrote of him: “Fred McDowell is undoubtedly the finest bottleneck guitar player alive, and many people believe that he is the best that ever lived. (Bottleneck style is done by either placing a broken off bottleneck or a highly polished piece of pipe on the small or ring finger of the chording hand. This technique enables the guitarist to make the guitar sing with the tone incredibly similar to an anguished human voice.) He learned bottleneck from his uncle, who used a ground bone on his finger, and Fred McDowell perfected the style that made him the legendary guitarist he is today. If one listens carefully to Fred it soon becomes apparent that the guiar sings every word he sings. This is Mr. McDowell’s style, and in the performance of it he has no equal.”

This album was recorded live in concert, and as such is indicative of the type of performance that audiences came to expect from Fred. His raps. His deliberate and forceful slide work combined with those spontaneous lyrics. His uncompromising renditions of his “greatest hits,” never playing them exactly the same twice. Yet, in another way, whether he was playing for a handful of loyalists at one o’clock AM in the Village Gaslight or to an exuberant blues audience at the Ann Arbor Festival, he did play it all the same — from his heart. I know that that may be a bit of an overworked phrase, but I also know that it was really true of Fred McDowell. I used to watch him from the side where I sat next to him, where only I could see behind those sunglasses. He’d be playing one of those slow blues and he’d have his eyes closed, nodding his head in rhythm. And at the same time he’d be planning the next stanza, maybe deliberately leaving off a word or two at the end of the line so he could let the vocalized slide fill the missing syllables… Anyhow, all this is to say what Fed said so much more concisely the night these recordings were made: “I hope you’re all enjoying my type of playin’. That’s my type of playin’ y’all. And that’s the blues. ‘Cause you know a lot of people don’t know what the blues is. But I do. Blues is a feelin’, you understand. And I really fell what I’m playin’.”

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Tom Pomposello wrote these liner notes for the original vinyl release of the Gaslight recordings. By restoring the entire concert, we have added eleven songs to the program. Unfortunately, Tom passed away before he was able to update his notes.

THE SONGS:

SHAKE ‘EM ON DOWN was undeniably Fred’s showpiece. “I do not play no rock’n’roll,” he used to say. Then he’d chuckle. “But this one kinda sound like it.” In his hometown, Como, Mississippi, his friends and neighbors even nicknamed him “Shake ‘em” in admiration of his ability to get even the most tired feet jumping when he played his guitar, was probably invited to more than his share of sown-home Sunday barbeques. I can remember evenings when Fred would end his sets with rollicking renditions of this number. I even remember occasions when hie would jump up and start dancing while he was flailing away on the guitar full speed ahead. This version is performed as a bottleneck guitar duet.

I’M CRAZY ABOUT YOU BABY is a spontaneous, improvised blues. When Fred says, “Tom, we haven’t played that yet,” he means it. Pete Welding, in his review of this album for LIVING BLUES, commented that this number is “by far the best performance on the album and especially lovely, resilient, stunning, slow blues played and sung with great feeling. Even the tubby, distant sound of Pomposello’s bass guitar adding to the music’s effectiveness by giving it a vaguely ominous quality.” (Hmm.)

JOHN HENRY is perhaps one of the oldest folk blues in existence. Some musicologists trace it back as far as the 1880’s. Fred heard it as a boy, learned it, adapted it, and even re-adapted it with his own arrangement. The long instrumental intro is meant to convey the idea of something picking up steam.

YOU GOT TO MOVE has come to be regarded as Fred’s best known song. The irony of that statement of course lies in the fact that more people are aware of it as a song on the Rolling Stones’ album STICKY FINGERS, than those who know it as a Fred McDowell composition. Stones’ guitarist, Keith Richards, in an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine said: “Maybe once every six months someone’ll come through with an album. An Arhoolie album of Fred McDowell. And you’d say: There’s another cat! That’s another one. Just blowin’ my mind…” Well, the song certainly survives Fred, and that’s fitting. It is always so sad that many an artist’ recognition must come postumously. Fred never got to enjoy the royalties he should have, and would have received for “You Got To Move.” Let me share with you the explanation he once gave me of the song. “A lot of people whoever hear me sing this song would ask me, ‘What does it mean, you got to move?’ Well, this is a true song and one that has two meanings. Now you know why I say that? Y’know a lot of people don’t own their own homes. So you pay so much a month for rent. Now when you get behind, well, maybe the landlord’ll allow you to skip the first month or so. But when the third one comes, if you ain’t paid up you come home one evening and you find your things sittin’ out on the street. You see, you got to move… And not only that, but here is the more important meaning. We’re all sitting right here tonight. I’m sitting up here playin’ for you all, and you’re all sitting back listenin’. When this is all over, maybe you plan to go out to next door. But you know, you may not live to walk out that door. If you fall down dead, if you happen to die, you done moved. That’s one debt you can’t dodge. When the Lord gets ready, you got to move.”

SOMEDAY is a blues upon which many thematic variants have been based. Muddy Waters calls his “Trouble No More” and Big Maceo Merriweather titled his version “Worried Life Blues.” Be that as it may, like Fred’s they all derived from Sleepy John Estes’ 1935 classic “Someday Baby Blues.” The thing to watch for here is the patented McDowell syncopation. Listen to the way he plays slightly off the beat while singing on it.

MERCY is perhaps one of the most powerful performances on this or an Fred McDowell record. This piece was crafted with such intensity that I still feel the chills when I listen to it. “Everyone’s cryin’ mercy. Lord, what do mercy mean? Well if it means any good, Lord have mercy on me.”

THE LOVIN’ BLUES is an obvious blues title for a song with a universal meaning. “You know you got a home little girl, so long as I got mine.”

WHITE LIGHTNIN’ is a moonshine whiskey. This is a fascinating piece of music. I heard Fred perform this song many times in later years. Each time with a new set of lyrics. (One of his albums for Arhoolie Records contains a great rendition titled “You Ain’t Treating Me Right.”) The riff –or melodic motive– over which the lyrics are sung is very reminiscent of Howlin’ Wolf’s theme song, “Smokestack Lightning.”

BABY PLEASE DON’T GO was written in the 1930’s by Big Joe Williams, and has always been a popular tune with musicians and audiences alike. This version is uniquely McDowell with shades of “Shake ‘Em On Down.” One of the most fascinating things about this and several other of Fred’s performances can be heard in Fred’s very personal approach to rhythm and time. As you listen to McDowell’s playing, observe the sudden tempo accelerations, an uninitiated listener might find this quite unorthodox, but when you realize that Fred was totally in control — these tunes he played his whole life — and tha these tempo shifts were his way of building excitement, of skillfully creating a musical “tension and release,” then you will understand the very special signature of a great artist: Mississippi Fred McDowell.

–Tom Pomposello, 1999
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* Producer’s note:

Originally recorded for broadcast on WKCR-FM, Columbia University, using a high quality, one track Nagra recorder intended for film and field recording. Microphones were Shure and Electro-Voice, the mixer was a Shure M68.

I asked my great friend Roy Langbord to split the taxi fare, lug half the equipment, and help with the (easy) set up at Greenwich Village’s Village Gaslight. We were both rewarded with not only the great performance by Fred and Tom, but by the first New York appearance of Bonnie Raitt, who shared Fred’s manager (Dick Waterman). The equipment was improperly borrowed, my rationale was that the recording was only to be played on my weekend blues show on college radio. Within a few months Tom Pomposello and I decided to start Oblivion Records with the Fred McDowell sessions.

–Fred Seibert, 2007
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I’m posting many of my out-of-print record productions from the 1970s. Travis Pomposello and I are the owners of these master recordings.