Spencer Bohren
The term "Dirt Roads" implies the era before pavement,before the automobile,bare feet.The songs on this collection evoke the same era.Some are actually from the era.and the original songs are so heavily influenced by the tradition that they are indistinguishable from the others....
That's the idea...
"I was raised in a gospel singing Family and my first exposure to "blue notes" came in the Baptist church.At the age of thirteen I acquired my first guitar,that same year a music teacher)Glen Vliet) introduced me to the chord arrangement of the negro spiritual...I am eternally grateful...The inspiration for "Thhe water is wide" and "Wade in the water" comes directly from him.

The best known of the classic blues tracks on this album was originally recorded by pianist Leroy Carr and his guitar playing sidekick "Scrapper Blackwell"who helped to usher in the commercial era of blues music in 1928 with the "How long,How long blues".The song virtually defined the form of the blues,even as we hear it today.The wistful "Look down the road"belies the notion that all Missisippi music was dark and intense.It`s naivette attracted me from my first listening in 1968,and still evokes the hot dusty delta for me.The "Yazoo bottom messaround"derives from many sources,including Gus Cannon's Memphis Jug Stompers,boogie woogie piano,and more recently Dr John and the Holy modal rounders.
The lyrica are written as an excercise in the folk process...rewritten but hardly original.
The bold and singulay"Wild Ox moan" was sung into a tape recorder for Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress by Vera Hall of Livingstone Alabama.The original is a strangely powerful acapella piece that was a favorite of New Orleans musical advocate Allison Miner..Thank you Allison for your graceful sympathetic musical companionship..We all miss you tremendously.

The structural and lyrical similarities between southern blues and early country music are undeniable.One is black One is white..but they are both blues."Wind in the moutains"transports us to a porch of a cabin in the Appalachian mountains.It is based on what I can remember of an old 78 rpm recording by Carson Robison.

The traditional originals include the topical"Cry of the blues" which comments on the eternal human condition and"Night is falling"the lament for whom the day is only a temporary reprive from his demons.The achingly beautiful town of Natchez Missisippi provides the mythical deatination for the prodigal traveller in "Goin up the river"

"Eloise" is a basic "Why do you like me the way you do"song.It`s one of the first songs I`ve ever finished,the guitar figure I learnt from the great Bhukka White."Travellin",on the other hand is hot off the press and puts us firmly on the road,on foot,goin no place in particular.

Recording this album was like putting on a pair of old boots.Very comfortable.Jab Wilson has been a good friend and a musical cohort for over ten years.I appreciate the economy of his playing.Texture always wins over technique.Jab plays the song first the harmonica second...Very rare...!