Nelsonville Ohio Show Recap

I’m so pissed I didn’t buy tickets to this show. Someone kick me.

@West Words wrote:

Stuart’s Opera House – Nelsonville, Ohio 2/26/11

18) He’s God – “I learned this from a guy named Blind Pearly Brown – a blind preacher street singer – my dad took me to see when I was 6 years old living in Macon, Georgia. My first musical influence I can remember. You can find his music out there if you look.”

“Sending this out to Christopher Hayseed Wyant; he wrote one of my favorite songs – ‘I got a God-shaped hole in my soul’.”

“I used to, in the heyday of the feminist movement, used to say ‘She’s God’.”

I loved this song so much, after this show, that upon Lu’s advice, I went searching for Blind Pearly Brown’s music, since Lu said it was her first musical interest. It lead me to some fascinating finds and more dot connecting.

I easily found a few CD’s of Blind Pearly Brown’s on amazon, ordered one, and discovered, upon listening to the CD, that “He’s God” is actually “God Don’t Never Change.” Further research had me discovering that Blind Pearly Brown was covering Blind Willie Johnson. The song (if my research is accurate) was originally recorded in New Orleans in Dec, 1929.

Link to Blind Pearly Brown CD:

http://www.amazon.com/Youre-Gonna-Need-That-Religion/dp/B0011USJTW/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303782428&sr=8-1-fkmr1

Link to information on “God Don’t Never Change” by Blind Willie Johnson:

http://www.folkways.si.edu/TrackDetails.aspx?itemid=4350

http://reocities.com/bourbonstreet/delta/2541/blbjohns.htm

I’m copying and pasting this information along with a few additional nuggets in the singer/songwriter thread.