Description | |
Part 1 | The Huddie Ledbetter (“Lead Belly”) story |
Part 2 | Precursors to Lead Belly’s “original” version |
Part 3 | Covers of the song by some later artists |
In that last installment, I referred to the Secondhand Songs site — a database, essentially, listing cover versions of a given song. At the time of the original post, a little over 70 covers of “Goodnight Irene” were included; as of today, it lists over 150. (No grass growing under the song’s feet, for sure — nor under Secondhand Songs‘s feet. for that matter.)
This led me, of course, to wonder about the remakes I might’ve missed, for one reason, on my earlier visit. That’s when I stumbled on this, from 2015; I recommend it to you not only for the song itself, and for the lead performer, but for his sideman: blues harmonicist Jean-Jacques Milteau. I have a feeling M. Milteau has found his way into my rotation of most listened-to instrumentalists.
(If by some chance you’re really an oldtimer here at RAMH, you may recall Eric Bibb’s name from an even earlier post — back when the site toddled around the Internet as a mere two-year-old. His “Don’t Ever Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down,” featured there and in several playlists since, continues to be for me a solid Keep your chin up, damn it anthem for life in the early 21st century — certainly in the USA, anyhow!)