Motherless Children have a Hard Time ...

Michael and Melissa perform "Motherless Children Have a Hard Time when their Mother is Dead" at the Navasota Blues Fest in August, 2009. This version is based on that of Mance Lipscomb, who often used this song to close a set. Mance Lipscomb, who is honored at the Navasota Blues Fest, learned this song from Blind Willie Johnson. Blind Willie was two years younger than Mance, and Mance recalls that when Blind Willie first came to Navasota he did not yet know how to tune the guitar, so Mance tuned it for him. Later, both men would learn and invent a lot more about the guitar. The woman who took this video had never used a video camera before. Somehow she set the camera to "Night Shot," so my black shirt looks light blue, and she occasionally lost the target when looking for the camera controls. Nevertheless, we thank her for recording our performance in Navasota.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Motherless
• children
• blues
• spirituals
• folk
• music
• Blind
• Willie
• Johnson
• Mance
• Lipscomb
• acoustic
• guitar
• fingerpicking
• slide

[lenaspieltblues]

Wonderful singing, you really fixes that Blind Willie Johnson sound ... love it!

Lena :=))