Blind Arvella Gray The Singing Drifter(blues)(mp3@320)[rogercc][h33t]

Blind Arvella Gray The Singing Drifter
CD Released : June 14, 2005
Label : Conjuro
Format : [email protected]




Original LP

The only album by Blind Arvella Gray, a nearly forgotten street singer who spent the latter part of his life performing folk, blues and gospel music at Chicago’s Maxwell Street flea market and at rapid-transit depots. The album, The Singing Drifter, was originally released in 1972 on vinyl and fewer than 1,000 copies were sold.



Arvella Gray (real name James Dixon) was born in Texas in 1906 and was blinded in the ‘30s, possibly while holding up a bank, possibly in Peoria (he never told the story the same way twice). Arriving in Chicago in the ‘40s, he brought the music of the cotton fields and chain gangs to the industrial North, proving an unheralded missing link to the origins of American folk music, blues and gospel. His repertoire included many standards, such as the chain gang standard “John Henry” and the traditional country song “More Pretty Girls Than One,” while touching on the gospel tradition with songs like “Take Your Burden to the Lord and Leave it There.” He accompanied himself on slide National Dobro — an instrument that was later sold on eBay. His fans included Bob Dylan, whose 1961 song “He Was a Friend of Mine” was said to have been borrowed from Gray. Arvella Gray died in Chicago in 1981



Tracklist :
1. There's More Pretty Girls Than One [2:21]
2. John Henry [7:01]
3. Arvella's Work Song [3:20]
4. Take Your Burden To The Lord [4:03]
5. When The Saints Go Marching In [4:19]
6. Standing By The Bedside Of A Neighbor [2:40]
7. Those Old Fashioned Alley Blues [7:48]
8. Gander Dancing Song [4:24]
9. Stand By Me [2:23]
10. What Will Your Record Be [2:14]
11. If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again (Prev Unreleased) [2:40]
12. Motherless Children Have A Hard Time (Prev Unreleased) [3:49]
13. Take My Hand Precious Lord (Prev Unreleased) [2:55]
14. Cryin' Holy Unto The Lord (Prev Unreleased) [2:08]
15. Standing By The Beside Of A Neighbor (Outtake) [1:34]