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Crow Jane/ Crow Jane Blues
Painting by Richard Matteson C 2009
Traditional Old-Time, Blues- US Southeast; Mississippi
ARTIST: Skip James; 1967 version
SEE ALSO Richard Matteson's version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6WuJ64IUNk
To learn how to play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSzMmYMv9Qw
DATE: circa 1920; earliest recording date- 1927 Julius Daniels. Crow Jane lyrics also found in "Pistol Blues" 1926 recording by Bo Weavil Jackson.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes.
RECORDING INFO: Crow Jane Rt- Dry Land Blues; Jim Lee Blues Part 1
Baker, Etta. Music from the Hills of Caldwell County, Physical 12-001, LP (1975), trk# 4 Cohen, Andy. Shuffle Rag, June Appal JA 027, LP (1979), trk# B.05
Davis, Reverend Gary. Lord I Wish I Could See. Vol. 2 Blues & Gospel, Biograph BLP 12035, LP (1971), trk# 7
James, Skip. Grossman, Stefan; Stephen Calt, Hal Grossman / Country Blues Songb, Oak, Sof (1973), p 64
Von Schmidt, Eric. Folk Blues of Eric Von Schmidt, Prestige 7717, LP (1963), trk# A.01
Crow Jane BluesRt - Cocaine
Martin, Carl. Crow Jane Blues, Testament TCD 6006, CD (1997), trk# 1 [1966/05/31]
OTHER NAMES: “Crow Jane Blues” "Blood Red River" "Bye Bye Baby Blues" "Poor Jane Blues"
SOURCES: Folk Index; Mudcat; Wiki;
NOTES: This usually 8-Bar Blues (Carl Martin's version is 12 bars) has been traced to the Piedmont area and also Mississippi.
Skip James adds a tag after the 8 bars:
Crow Jane, Crow Jane, Crow Jane
Don't you hold your head high
Someday baby, you know
You got to die
[tag] You got to lay down an -
You got to die, you got to -
Crow Jane, one of the primordial blues guitar songs, was a slang word sung by bluesman for a woman. The typical lyrics connected to Crow Jane were first recorded in 1926 by Bo Weavil Jackson under the title "Pistol Blues":
Crow Jane, Crow Jane,
What makes you hold your head high
Oughta remember,
You just live so long and die.
Another blues referencing the term was "Crow Jane Alley." Other blues use this eight bar form including Furrie Lewis "Dry Land Blues" and the later blues, "Key to the Highway."
Crow Jane was in the repertoire of most of the Piedmont blueman from the Greenville SC area. Blind Gussie Nesbitt recorded "Poor Jane Blues" in 1930. Born in 1910 in Spartanburg SC, Nesbiit played with Lil McClintock from Clinton, SC near where Rev. Gary Davis and Willie Walker were born.
Pink Anderson (Pinkney Anderson, born February 12, 1900 in Laurens, South Carolina)
played “Crow Jane,” which he said was also known as “Slidin’ Delta.”
Josh White had recorded the Crow Jane theme as early as 1932 as Blood River Blues (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs2_6LRPgqo), while Julius Daniels from Greenville SC had recorded Crow Jane in 1927.
Carl Martin who was born near Stone Gap, VA, on April 1, 1906, did a different 12 bar version of Crow Jane for Bluebird in 1933. His main instrument was mandolin but he also mastered the guitar, and according to those who saw him perform, could play anything with strings. Martin not only performed solo, but also spent much of his career in a trio featuring Ted Bogan (guitar) and Howard Armstrong (violin). The trio enjoyed a career that spanned five decades and was known under several different monikers, including the Four Keys, the Tennessee Chocolate Drops, and the Wandering Troubadours. Martin, Bogan, and Armstrong initially traveled all over the south entertaining at medicine shows, county fairs, and on the radio. When they couldn't get an actual paying gig, they would play for tips in local taverns. In the late '30s, they followed the great migration to Chicago where they would eventually go their separate ways, occasionally playing together. In the ensuing years, Martin would benefit greatly from playing for the diverse ethnic crowds spread out over countless neighborhoods in Chicago, developing a repertoire of blues, jazz, pop, country, and even non-English songs. Following years of playing solo, Martin, Bogan, and Armstrong reunited in the early '70s and played the folk and blues festival circuit all over the country. Luckily, a few discs remain in print that trace Martin's long career from the '30s to his final sessions before he passed away in Pontiac, MI, on May 10, 1979.
Julius Daniels recorded Crow Jane Blues for Victor in 1927. Daniels (b. 20 November 1901 in Denmark, South Carolina; d. 18 October 1947) was an American blues musician. His song "99 Year Blues" appeared on the box set Anthology of American Folk Music and has been covered by Jim Kweskin, Chris Smither, Johnny Winter, Charlie Parr and Hot Tuna on their album Burgers. It has been often credited as a possible source for the tune "Viola Lee Blues", recorded by Cannon's Jug Stompers in the 1920s and the Grateful Dead in 1966.
Although he only recorded a few tunes, Daniels plays an important role in the history of Piedmont blues. One of the first black artists to record in the Southeast, Daniels inspired future bluesmen with his mix of finger-picked blues, sacred and country music
Recording for the first time, in 1927, Daniels was accompanied by the guitarist Bubba Lee Torrence, with whom he shared billing. During his second recording session, Daniels was joined by the guitarist Wilbert Andrews.
Daniels lived in Pineville, in Berkeley County, between 1912 and 1930. Relocating to Charlotte, North Carolina in 1930, he lived the rest of his life there, working in a variety of jobs, including as a firefighter.
Joe Williams was born in Crawford, Mississippi, on October 16, 1903. He
remembered one of his early songs, "Crow Jane Blues," about a neighborhood woman named Jane Tripley. Big Joe Williams (born Joseph Lee Williams, October 16, 1903 - December 17, 1982) was an American Delta blues musician and songwriter, known for his characteristic style of guitar-playing, his nine-string guitar, and his bizarre, cantankerous personality.
Born in Crawford, Mississippi, Williams as a youth began wandering across the United States busking and playing stores, bars, alleys and work camps. In the early 1920s he worked in the Rabbit Foot Minstrels revue and recorded with the Birmingham Jug Band in 1930 for the Okeh label.
In 1934 he was in St. Louis, where he met record producer Lester Melrose who signed him to a contract with Bluebird Records in 1935. He stayed with Bluebird for ten years, recording such blues hits as "Baby, Please Don't Go" (1935) and "Crawlin' King Snake" (1941), both songs later covered by many other performers. He also recorded with other blues singers, including John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson, Robert Nighthawk and Peetie Wheatstraw.
Williams remained a noted blues artist in the 1950s and 1960s, with his guitar style and vocals becoming popular with folk-blues fans. He recorded for the Trumpet, Delmark, Prestige and Vocalion labels, among others. He became a regular on the concert and coffeehouse circuits, touring Europe and Japan in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and performing at major U.S. festivals.
Crow Jane was a known in the Greenville, SC area and was in the repertoire of Blind Willie Walker and Gary Davis both born in 1896. Josh White did the song as "Blood Red River" in 1933 and Blind Boy Fuller as "Bye Bye Baby Blues" in 1937.
Listen to Brownie McGhee and Sonny terry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R2C4ReXg4M In "Guitar Styles of Brownie McGhee" by Happy Traum (Brownie says he heard his father sing this song first, and lists only one verse of it: "Crow Jane, Crow Jane, don't hold your head so high, Remember Crow Jane, you gotta lay down and die." In "The Blues Fakebook" by WoodyMann (1995) its said that the song was recorded by Big Bill Broonzy, Carl Martin and Skip James as well as Brownie, and to the verse above are added these others:
I dug her grave with a silver spade,
ain't nobody gonna take my Crow Janes place.
You know I let her down with a golden chain,
and every link I would call my Crow Jane's name.
I never missed my water till my well run dry,
didn't miss Crow Jane until the day she died.
In Country Blues Songbook by Stefan Grossman et al, there is a longer version attributed to Skip James. On the audio tape that goes with this book, Stefan Grossman plays an excellent instrumental version.
Blues guitarist John Cephas and harp player Phil Wiggins played together for a long while. They complete and finish each other's musical sentences, and Wiggins' harp moans in sweet bluesy sympathy behind John's guitar and vocals.
They're known for their long work in the Piedmont blues -- a thumb-and-finger-picking style described by Cephas [note Cephas is dead now] before he kicked off their appearance last night for Calliope at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. He demonstrated how he does it, then how it sounds, as performed by one of its masters.
In his mini-lectures between songs, Cephas explained that there were basically two styles of blues, coming from Africa, the Piedmont and the Delta styles.
But while the history is good, the music is better, and they provided plenty of it -- from the Piedmont to the Delta. Among my favorites from the set: "Key to the Highway," "Crow Jane," "Stagger Lee," "Big Boss Man," "Freight Train Blues."
CROW JANE arranged by Skip James 1967 Listen on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytVww5r4Nk0
Guitar intro
Crow Jane Crow Jane,
Don’t you hold your head too high
Someday, baby you know
You got to die.
You got to lay down and...
You got to die…
You got to….
You know I wanna buy me a pistol,
Want me 40 rounds of ball
Shoot Crow Jane, just to see her fall
She got to fall She go to
She got to
I wanna dig her grave
With a silver spade
I aint gonna let nobody take her place
No, you can’t take her…
No, you can”t take her place
solo
I never missed my water
Till my well went dry
Didn’t missed crow jane until she…
Till the day she died, till the day she…
There’s a reason I begged Crow Jane
Not to hold her head too high
Someday, baby, you know you got to die
You got to lay down…
And I dug that women’s grave
Eight ft in the ground
I didn’t feel sorry
Until they let her down
They had to let her down, let her…
There’s a reason I begged Crow Jane
Not to hold her head too high
Someday, baby, you know you got to die
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