You can hear the wink in her eye and smirk on her face as she sings these songs. You've got to remember she's singing them into a microphone probably sitting in her living room or kitchen not on stage, but it still sounds for all the world like she's playing the room for all her might.
There aren't too many people who can get away with singing this type of bawdy song and not sound embarrassing, (think of Chuck Berry's "My Ding–a–Ling" without wincing) but she can. She doesn't even sound like a cute old lady being dirty with a coy hand over her mouth. She still sounds like she's living up to the titles of her past; you can definitely see why she would have been called "The Wild Enchantress"
Richard "Big Boy" Henry is almost as far from Willa's world of Burlesque as you can get without being in a church. He does the old Hollar type of Blues, which were based on the call and response shout songs the field hands would sing in the fields to each other. You forget that the Carolina's are on the coast occasionally, but Richard was born in Beaufort a fishing village on the North Carolina Coast.
He typifies so many of the performers that Tim Duffy unearthed at this time in that he's worked tirelessly alongside his musicianship to get by in the day to day world. So many of these men and women have made some of the most beautiful music of the last century, creating the foundations for any of the popular styles you might listen to today on your iPods or whatever, but have gone completely unrecognized. There is an air of authenticity and honesty to Richard's performances that no amount of electronics or publicity can manufacture.
Both discs fittingly take their names from Guitar Gabriel. "Expressin' The Blues" is the title given to a track featuring Gabriel trying to define what exactly the Blues are and when they happen. What makes it so darn important to be "Expressin' The Blues" in other words.
One of the things he does say that's so special about what he does, what compelled him until almost his death bed to keep singing and playing, was that singing the songs he did made him feel like he was part of "A Living Past". When he says that you realize why these records can't and shouldn't be looked upon as just mementoes of another time, because the past is living everyday in the music played everywhere.
Article comments