Song of the day: Roscoe Holcomb

Song of the day (4/8/2010):
Roscoe Holcomb - Stingy Woman Blues

Maybe the funniest spoken intro to a song ever. Love how proudly Holcomb says, "And I made it myself!" It's like he's smirking at the listener, thinking: "Women, oh women...look out or they'll be your ruin as they have been mine."

This song proves that you don't have to be loud and wild to be intense.

No Depression published a really great article on Holcomb back in 2002. It frames the history and geography that went into creating such an unparalleled musician.

For northern lovers of southern music, 1960 seems to have been a watershed year. The Newport Folk Festival presented Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, and Sam Charters’ seminal The Country Blues had just been published (in 1959). Meanwhile, I heard from a fellow student and banjo player named Manny Meyer that John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers had been in eastern Kentucky to record an incredibly intense banjo player and singer named Roscoe Holcomb. [read the whole article]

Taken from the very essential Mountain Music of Kentucky compilation, released by Folkways.

Roscoe Holcomb - Stingy Woman Blues.mp3