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Special
Christmas Cracker Issue
Happy Christmas, happy holidays and all the very best from Jesse & Lula and
the staff at Document Records.
What a year! But instead of harping on about how difficult it has been, keeping the good ship Document from the cold and jagged rocks of the financial institutions, not to mentioning any names but the initials are HBOS, we would like to thank all of our customers for their support (we will wear it always). We have received many wonderful messages from out there in Docky land and have found them so encouraging and inspirational. Thanks.
Although we are not completely through the storm, we do seem to be through the eye of it. The financial Services Ombudsman (U. K) is now gathering in more information and as we pick ourselves up, we gather strength and prepare for battle, this time on our terms.
This time last year the doors of Document were virtually closed and our faithful staff had been dismissed. Looking back, it was a cold and lonely time with Gary (and Gillian who was very ill at the time) trying to keep it together. Now, we have Daniel back and there has been the more recent addition of Ian to the fold. Momentum continues to pick up and the staff's determination has now been joined by an air of optimism.
Of course, Jesse and Lula remained stalwart and faithful throughout. At one point Jesse did wander off into the hills for a few days "to do some thinking", as he put it. Lula also proved, once again, to be a rock, telling us "Don't worry 'bout old Jesse, he and I got through the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Ain' t nothin', includin' those HBOS varmints and their cronies, gonna stop Doc-u-ment".
Whilst working on the damage, brought upon us by what our lawyer has referred to recently as "the inappropriate actions of the bank", we have miraculously, managed to get some new titles out and this will continue. We have also, after what has seemed like a life time, produced our news letter and the reaction to the October edition, the first for nearly a year, has been superb.
We hope that you enjoy this special Festered Edition and find things that will go towards making your holiday a good one.
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Last Posting Dates Before Christmas
The following dates are the last dates for orders going out so that they can be delivered before Christmas. If you wish orders to be with you before Christmas then please order in good time.
Thank you.
Last recommended posting dates for Christmas Delivery via Royal Mail are:
Australia and NZ 04th December 2009 AirMail.
Japan: 10th December 2009
Europe: 11th December 2009.
USA/Canada 18th December 2009
United Kingdom 21st December.
If you are unsure of your last recommended date and destination
click here for the Royal Mail Website
We also use carriers and other services so please drop us a line if you wish to discuss other carriage/mail options to
sales@document-records.com
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New Releases!
Blues Blues Christmas Vol 2
Blues Blues Christmas Vol 1
2010 Calendar Vintage Blues; Volume 7 (with Free CD)
Memphis Blues Vol 4
Charlie Burse And His Mudcats
Bankers Blues
Memphis Blues Vol 3
Memphis Jug And Harp Blowers
(Re-mastered,
Blues Blues Christmas Volume 1- (1925-1955) Various artists
Double album with full colour 20 page booklet.
DOCD-32-20-9
Blues Blues Christmas Volume 2 - (1926-1958) Various artists
Double album with full colour 24 page booklet.
DOCD-32-20-15
![Blues Blues Christmas](http://www.document-records.com/images/120s/DOCD-32-20-09.jpg) The idea of Christmas themed blues and gospel numbers stretches back to the very dawn of the recorded genres. “Hooray for Christmas” exclaims Bessie Smith to kick off her soon to be classic “At The Christmas Ball”, which inaugurated the Christmas blues tradition when it was recorded in November 1925 for Columbia. A year later, circa December 1926, the gospel Christmas tradition was launched when the Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers recorded “Silent Night, Holy Night” for Paramount Records. After these recordings it was off to the races with numerous Christmas blues numbers recorded by singers of all stripes, a pace that continued as blues evolved into R&B and then rock and roll. For some reason there’s far fewer gospel Christmas songs although there were plenty of Christmas sermons in the 1920’s and 1930’s when recorded sermons rivaled blues in popularity among black audiences.
Going hand in hand with Christmas is quite a number of New Year’s songs, a good vehicle for juxtaposing the problems of the past year with the glimmer of hope that the upcoming year will bring better fortune. Whether these artists sung these numbers as part of their regular repertoire is unclear but it’s almost certainly the case that many of these songs were recorded at the prompting of the record companies. Like any business they were always looking for a new angle or gimmick to sell records and advertised these boldly, often with full-page ads, in black newspapers like the Chicago Defender.
Perhaps you think this is a bit cynical but then you probably still believe in Santa Clause and good will towards men! Well, sit back, tip a glass of holiday cheer and enjoy our survey of yuletide classics spanning the 1920’s through the 1950’s, a simpler, more wholesome time – right!
Informative booklet notes for both volumes by Jeff Harris.
Detailed discography
Click here to visit Jeff's excellent site and and on-line radio show Big Road Blues. The show airs on Sundays 5 to 7 PM (EST) on WGMC Jazz90.1 and streams live on the web. The show is an exploration of traditional blues spanning the 1920’s through the 1970’s. In addition to classic artists, the show will focus an equal amount of time on those forgotten blues figures from the past; from the once popular artists who are now forgotten to the obscure artists who may have only cut a handful of 78's or 45's. This site is updated regularly with playlists, show notes, blues articles and reviews.
Click here for more details and to order DOCD-32-20-09 Blues Blues Christmas Volume 1
Click here for more details and to order DOCD-32-20-15 Blues Blues Christmas Volume 2
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2010 Calendar Vintage Blues; Volume 7 (with Free CD)
Blues Images 12" x 12" (35 x 35 mm) Printed full colour onto substantial, high quality paper. Punched for hanging.
From the very beginning blues recordings have inspired the visual arts. As recordings were being prepared for release, so graphic artists have scratched away with pen and ink in an attempt to depict their interpretations of song titles into advertisements for papers such as the Chicago Defender, New York Amsterdam News and The New York Times.The wonderful collection of Blues Image Calendars are a must for the walls of any self respectable lover of vintage blues. Over the last seven years these productions have been thoughtfully put together using the wonderful and often humorous advertisements placed by Paramount, Okeh, Vocalion and others.
The reproduction of the hand drawn illustrations and the original publicity photographs are excellent. The original advertisements for the blues recordings which appear on the CD are reproduced on the top half of each calendar month. Also included are brief biographies of each month's featured blues singer as well as birth and death dates marked in the date boxes of numerous important blues artists and other prominent African americans.
As with all of the previous Calendars, Volume 7 (2010) comes with a FREE CD. The Eighteen tracks on this year's gem INCLUDES A PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED GOSPEL / BLUES CLASSIC BY FRANK PALMES, and TWO NEVER BEFORE RELEASED TAKES OF AN UNRELEASED SONG BY BLIND BLAKE WITH IRENE SCRUGGS.
Click here for more information and to order.
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Memphis Blues Volume 4 (1929-1953)
Jenny Pope / James De Berry
Document DOCD-5686
Although the blues city of Memphis is known, in particular, for it's Jug Bands, most notably the Memphis Jug Band, Jed Davenport and Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers and for some of the biggest names in vintage blues recordings such as Frank Stokes and The Beale Street Sheiks, Jim Jackson, Memphis Minnie and Robert Wilkins, to mention a few, there were also Memphis based artists who's styles were not straight out of the so called 'pre-war country blues' packet.
This album presents two artists who, unlike the names given above do not instantly spring to mind when the halcyon days of vintage Memphis blues is being discussed, yet there recordings are evidently those of regular, working professionals of the day. If tags and pigeon holes are to be used then Jenny Pope's performances seemed to be more rooted in the 'Classic Blues' era of the early twenties than the more driving, rhythmic blues of Memphis Minnie or Minnie Wallace, though, if anything Jenny is nearer to the latter rather than the former. She takes up the first six tracks singing her blues of hard times, drink and men and his given some fine accompaniment by Georgia 'Tom' Dorsey and Tampa Red and Judson Brown.
Many will know James De Berry from his handful of Sun recordings made in 1953. They're here, with the wonderful accompaniment of Walter Horton on harmonica ('Easy' is an absolute "must"), Houston Stokes, drums, Mose Vinson, piano and Ratmond Jones, drums on second session. All excellent, "down-home" blues. But De Berry's recording began in the same decade that Jenny Pope's finished. In a similar vain to Charlie Burse, James De Berry's early recordings are a blend of blues vocal set with the backing of blues/jazz band. Mellow blues and up-beat, good time, swing paced pieces are abound and it interesting to hear how De-Berry developed through to the fifties.
With Pope and Berry, this album takes a little time away from the mainstream of the typical Memphis vintage blues scene and presents a fascinating alternate view which transcended from an acoustic and somewhat sophisticated style developed in the early days of blues recording through to stark, raw, powerful electric blues of the 1950's.
Informative booklet notes by Chris Lee
Detailed discography
Click here for more information and to order.
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Charlie Burse and his Memphis Mudcats
Memphis Highway Stomp
Complete recorded titles 1939
Document DOCD-5687
If this isn't good time music then what is? Many will know Charlie Burse as being one of the central figures, alongside Will Shade, of The Memphis Jug Band. Yet, during the late 1930s at least Charlie had another musical interest, a band which he led called The Memphis Mudcats This band gave Charlie the ability to "open up" and unleash his artistic and performance eccentricities that he evidently held at bay during the MJB recoding sessions. The MJB was able to reach the level of jollity and a sound that would make the listener smile. Charlie's sense of humor and notable abilities as a musician created something more sophisticated one might even use the phrase 'surreal blues'! Put Cab Calloway at his most manic and Spike Jones and City Slickers together you have Charlie Burse and his Mudcats.
Charlie leads the way with some nifty playing on his National Tenor guitar (watch out for his solo on 'Magic Spell Blues') and behind him is the very competent, tight, Mucdcats with guitar, alto sax, piano, double bass and drums. But that isn't the end of it. The humor is provided by the inappropriately timed interjections of police car sirens, duck calls, rattles (of the football rattle kind) and ridiculous drum, cymbal and cow bell rolls. Could this be the great grandfather of the Bonzo Dog Do-Da Band?
The fast pieces such as Beale Street Holiday and the excellent Scared To Death and many others are hectic enough, with Charlie occasionally throwing in an effected laugh. There first, slow piece Wee Smoking Mama doesn't arrive until the seventh track. But rather than settling down to a moment of decorum the hum our is even more effective with romantic passages being underlined with the odd rattle and duck call.
But who were The Mudcats? As it stands, they are a mystery band with every band member unidentified. It is obvious that they were of a professional standard and certainly swung and were very much in tune with both Charlies
This is a superb album which stands out from the norm. A great collection that can be there on stand by when those blues get too heavy and things get a little too serious.
Alan Lomax Visited Haiti In 1936-1937. This is the tale of his trip, the music he found. The result has been put together into a massive box set that tells the complete story.
On December 21st, 1936, Alan Lomax sent a report to Herbert Putnam at the Librarian Of Congress, about his first impressions after arriving in Haiti.
"I have looked about enough to be sure this is the richest and most virgin field I have ever worked in. I hear fifteen or twenty different street cries from my hotel window each morning while I dress. The men sing satirical ballads as they load coffee on the docks. Among the upper-class families many of the old French ballads have been preserved. The meringue, the popular dance of polite society here, is quite unknown in America and has its roots in the intermingling of the Spanish and French folk-traditions. The orchestras of the peasants play marches, bals, blues, meringues. Then mama and papa and kata tambours officiate at as many kinds of dances; the congo, the Vodou, and the mascaron. Then there seem to be innumerable cante-fables [oral tales punctuated by songs or rhymes performed by the audience]. Each of these categories comprise, so I am informed, literally hundreds of melodies; French, Spanish, African, mixtures of the three. The radio and the sound movie and the phonograph record have made practically no cultural impression, so far as I can discover, except among the petit-bourgeois of the coastal cities. And American jazz is hardly known here except among the rich who have visited America. Composition, by which I mean folk composition, is still very active. So I think I can say that unless a piece of sky falls on my head, this trip will mean some beautiful records for the Library’s collection."
Disc 1; Urban Music. Disc 2; Music Under the Arbor: Haiti's Rustic Troubadour Music. Disc 3; Marti Gras.
Disc 4; Rara. Disc 5; Children's Songs; Disc 6; European Son / Romances. Disc 7; Francilia. Disc 8; Kraze Gato. Disc 9; Work Brigades and Worship. Disc 10; Zondo Ceremony / Sosyete Workbook
"Alan Lomax was capturing the human spirit in song... The music moves us... not only because the traditions it documents are disappearing, but because it lives and breathes anew each time it's heard." - David Greenberg. NPR's All Things Considered. |
As many of our customers and subscribers know, we got quite a bashing by those HBOS banking people. It has been a life changing experience and for us. It has brought into question the world that we live in and what such organisations such as the banks and its so called trustees are prepared to do in the name of money. Beware; we are witnessing asset stripping by the banks on a grand scale. It’s as if nothing else matters and to Hell to all to those that get in their way, despite the fact the world's economy, along with the livelihoods of thousands of innocent people, has been brought to its knees as the result of the finance world's fiscal mischief.
We have been very fortunate to have survived the battering that we have had and to pull the Document through, intact. If you have not been affected by Fiscal Mischief then you have done well and long may that be the case. If you have, then our thoughts are with you and we hope that the effects are not too deep or that they will not be long lasting.
It was as if we could not avoid bringing Bankers Blues out. Not Banker's Blues but Blues about the Bankers. As we worked on other things, including the time consuming effort of fighting off HBOS along with its parasites, including and in particular its appointed trustees and many others on the high finance band wagon, titles kept popping up at us; Mortgage Blues, No Money, We Sure Got Hard Times Now, Money Kills Love, Trying To Make A Living, Poor Millionaire, Save That Money and many more. The appalling fact was that people have been here before and before that and despite cries, warnings, documentation and history itself, greed and the insatiable thirst for money, money, money, money at all costs, has not been suppressed or cured. Lil Son Jackson, Hop Wilson, One String Sam, Blind Alfred Reed and many others have known what it is like to have their livelihoods threatened if not decimated in the name of “market forces”. The words of caution from the first hand accounts of past victims are all here on our latest, special production, ‘Bankers Blues- A Study In Fiscal Mischief’. Has anything, will anything be learned? Those that have lost everything will not be heard because, conveniently for the perpetrators, it takes money to fight ones way through the court and that money was siphoned off into the fat wallets of the perpetrators themselves. A sophisticated, legal, mugging. So, it is hoped that this album, this CD, will remain as a reminder, a cautionary tale. Listen to it, enjoy the music but more importantly regard it as a tiny, tiny thorn in the financier’s side. Better still, buy it as an ideal gift for your “favorite” bank manager or financial adviser and tell them that, next time, when they consider being party towards anything as outrageous as, let’s say “sub prime” which actually means “less than good”, they give a few tracks of ‘Bankers Blues’ a listen.
![Memphis Blues Vol 3](http://www.document-records.com/images/200s/DOCD-5685.jpg)
Oh, to have walked down Beale Street on a balmy summer's evening in the nineteen twenties and thirties. The bars and good time houses would be full of raucous laughter, loud voices, joking, arguing, loving, threatening... Had you survived the stroll by dodging the odd knife, razor or axe using your charm and winning smile, what music would you have heard spilling out into the street? A good example of what you would hear is on these two CDs.
Of course, The Memphis Jug Band would not be too far away. 1927 and things were going well for the band. A few months ago they had been auditioned by the highly respected A & R man, Ralph Peer who had been very impressed by the band. As a result he had booked them to record for the Victor record company during its first field recording trip to Memphis. The records were selling very well. "Sun Brimmer's Blues", "Lindberg Hop" and the brooding "Newport News Blues" were captured during the record company's first and return trip. Three members of the band took the opportunity to make records under their own names; Will Weldon, Vol Stevens and Will Shade and it would be interesting to see if these band members came to the front of the band, as they played in the bars and clubs, and headed renditions of "Turpentine Blues", "Baby Got The Rickets" and the chilling "She Stabbed Me With An Ice Pick". Hattie Hart can be heard as she pleads "Won't You Be Kind To Me" and it's an irresistible invitation with Milton Roby playing alley fiddle and it sounds as if that could be Jab Jones on piano.
Perhaps Minnie Wallace and her friends from the Memphis Jug Band, Will Shade, and Charlie Burse can be heard whipping it up with "Dirty Butter" and the "The Old Folks Started It". Or is she there with Will, Little Son Joe and Robert Wilkins?
Jed Davenport and his Beale Street Jug Band may well be holding court, providing energy and excitement to the proceedings with "Beale Street Breakdown", "The Dirty Dozen, "Move Out Of Town" and "Save Me Some".
Then there's the unmistakable figure of Little Buddy Doyle. You may have seen him earlier, playing in Handy Park. Now as the evening draws on he can be found in one of the bars, or maybe on the sidewalk, playing his guitar and singing some the most poetic blues to have come out of Memphis. And who's that on harmonica with him? Is it Hammie Nixon or a very young Walter Horton?
What a night, what a great couple of albums, with 46 tracks in total, full discographies and booklet notes written by Bob Groom.
![holly1](09-images/holly7.gif)
Back In Stock
At only £5.21 (ex vat)
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![Skip James](http://www.document-records.com/images/120s/DOCD-5633.jpg)
Skip James
Bloomington, Indiana Concert Pt 1 1968
DOCD-5633
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Special Offers!!!
Only £3.99 each
![Beat the Crowds](09-images/crowd2.gif)
Crowds gather patiently outside of Document's offices waiting for the doors to open so that they can take advantage of more exciting Document offers. Some have been queuing since 1936. |
Over 140 Gospel CDs
Gospel / Guitar Evangelists / Spirituals / Choirs / Jubilee Singers /
Preachers with their Congregations / Vocal Groups
Above shows just a handful of the many CDs on offer
We decided to scour the Docky Catalogue and see what we could come up with as something that would be relevant for this time of year for our "Special Offers". Well, as we're coming up to one of the biggest religious events of the year, whether you're into it or not, we thought that it would be a good idea to let everyone out there loose on some of the many Gospel items in the catalogue. We can't give them away but they're still a gift at only £2.99 each.
Offer lasts until 10th January 2010. Subject to availability.
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Tammy Floo's
Christmas Gift Tips.
Howdy and festive greetings to y'all! Those folks at Document asked me for my Christmas gift guide and
some tips for the festive season. First my tips! Everyone seems to love my tips!
![swineflue](09-images/swine-flu.gif) |
![santaknowsbest](09-images/Santa-knows-best.gif) |
Before anything else, I'd like to recommend that you get plenty of stuffing. You can buy it ready made in a packet and every gal loves a big packet!
Now, y'all know I recently had a big prick, to ward off the HN1N1 strain but for those of you who cannot handle it, I'd recommend the following scrummy medicine... If you wake up in the morning sweating like a pig an' you ain't even done nothin' to work yourself up into a lather, why, heck you've got Swine Flue. Did you know that so's I could get the right advise on what to do I rang up that there Swine Flue Help Line but all I got down the line was cracklin'. Anyway, just a sachet of that there powder should help you real good.
You know, we all love to smoke heavily at Christmas and do you know there is nothing finer , as some men say, than having twenty fags a day at Christmas. So, which brand should you buy..? Well, let Santa be your guide... Oooh, feel those lungs tingle!
![tammyhelp](09-images/Tammy-says-lets-help-this-w.gif) |
Now, we all know that Christmas can be a time of marital strain but I recommend the following cocktail, at least two fingers of rye if you can fit them in and half a bottle of Lysol for that fem-en-nine touch, followed by a good
stuffing mixture and the next thing you know you and your partner will soon be laughing in the face of strain.
Finally, Christmas can be a financial worry but I seriously recommend buying absolutely everything you can get your hands on, on credit... Why ruin your December? After all, you have all of the new year to feel miserable.
And if you you get into a bit of a mess. why, help is on its way! Just look at these kind people in the U of K. There's some real kindly folks called Shopcheck and do you know, they really ARE tryin' to help the the poor..
They will let them borrow £500, (that's English quids) and they are only charging 254.5% APR!!!
Now you just click here and you can see for yourself... You crazy, kind hearted,
Capitalist Brits.. I so much love ya! Happy Holiday.
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Blues Posters
As Blind Blake might have said "These Blues Posters look absolutely Fab!... err, according to Charlie Jackson"
And how right Charlie would have been. They do look terrific.
As with the calendars, an awful lot of time, effort and care has been put into reproducing these works of art.
Each of the posters, shown below, are 18' x 24" (457mm x 610mm) printed full colour onto good quality, gloss paper. |
"This Old World's In a Hell of a Fix"!
by Evangelist
The Black Billy Sunday
on
Paramount
Click here to order
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Post Cards and Calendars
Beautiful and inexpensive African American Postcards, Calendars and more from
Pomegranate Stores
Click here for more
Books
Barrelhouse Blues
Location Recording and the Early Traditions of The Blues
Paul Oliver
The beginnings of the blues are uncertain, shaded by myth and legend. To some this American musical idiom now seems to have emerged fully formed from the genius of a few pioneering innovators in the Mississippi delta. But the truth is that without quick and wise intervention of recording companies during the 1920s throughout the South, the earliest iterations of the blues world would have been lost to us.
Fired by the runaway success of the first blues records, emissaries from Okeh and Columbia Records lugged primitive recording equipment into makeshift studios in Cities like Dallas, Atlanta and New Orleans. To preserve the music they brought in street singers, medicine show performers, pianists from the juke joints and barrelhouses. The music that circulated through southern work camps, prison farms and vaudeville shows would have vanished if it hadn't been captured on location by these performers-and their recorders.
Blues historian Paul Oliver uncovers these folk traditions and the circumstances under which they were recorded, unpacking the blues writings of scholar Alain Locke and the earliest recordings themselves to rescue the forebears of the blues who were lost before they even had a chance to be heard. A careful examination of the earliest recordings of the blues by one of the foremost experts, Barrelhouse Blues expands our definition of that most American style of music. |
Click here to
order
NOTE: Document Records will be following up the publication of this book by releasing a three CD album of the same name in the new year.
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Delta Blues
The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters
Who Revolutionized American Music
Ted Gioia
![Book - Delta Blue](09-images/Delta blues.jpg) The blues grew out of the plantations and prisons, the swampy marshes and fertile cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta. With original research and keen insights, Ted Gioia'"the author of a landmark study of West Coast jazz and the critically acclaimed The History of Jazz'"brings to life the stirring music of the Delta, evoking the legendary figures who shaped its sound and ethos: Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, B. B. King, and others.
Tracing the history of the Delta blues from the field hollers and plantation music of the nineteenth century to the exploits of modern-day musicians in the Delta tradition, Delta Blues tells the full story of this timeless and unforgettable music. No cultural force boasts such humble origins or such world-conquering reverberations.
In this evocative rags-to-riches tale, Gioia shows how the sounds of the Delta altered the course of popular music in America and in the world beyond. |
Click here to order
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Blues T shirts
Black & Blues T Shirts from
Bluesyworld
Jazz & Blues T Shirts
Gearink
![Gearink Elmore James T Shirt](09-images/gearinkelmorejamestshirt.jpg)
Including Robert Johnson, T Bone Walker and a very nice Elmore James design from Gearink.
Essential Hill Billy... stuff
Got a Hill Billy in the family? Or perhaps it's that friend of yours. Are you a Hill Billy locked inside an accountant or bank manager's body?Do you have a secret that you need to share with your wife or girlfriend but don't know how. Look no further. Hillbilly's understanding staff can guide you to the ideal gifts that will tell your loved ones; "I like banjos and it feels natural for me to wear dungarees. I just need to be understood".
There's everything here which can help you and your friends unlock the torment only experienced by a closet Hill Billy; Banjos & Mandolins (an amazing selection of the best makes), Instrument Accessories, Badges, Belt Buckles, Caps, Pins, Flags and Apparel, a Confederate Chess Set, Soft Toys (including Dueling Hamsters and "Mischief The Racoon") and more. Why, Hell, they even got joke "Deliverance Teeth, Dag Nabbit!!
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Better click here, cousin, fo' mo' info
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Magazines
Subscriptions to a magazine or periodical make a great gift too.
Here are some of our favorites
![typinginwater](09-images/typing-in-water.gif)
Cold off the press. Cross Channel typist Helvetica Bold, seen here in training in the Manchester Ship Canal, increases her typing skills to 150 words per minute, whilst maintaining a steady swimming rate of 90 strokes per minute. Luckily, she had just finished the latest Document Newsletter before suffering an attack of severe cramp and had to be dragged out.
Thanks for subscribing. |
Music Magazines
Blues and Rhythm
Click here
Living Blues
Click here for more
Dirty Linen
Click here for more
Oxford American
Click here for more
Record Collector
Click here for more
Downbeat
Click here for more
No Depression
On line Country MusicMagazine.
Absolutely Free:
You could help them out with a donation to the site though! |
Click here for more
Politics & Satire
Private Eye
Click here for more
DoomDaily
We have recently subscribed to Doom Daily and it cheers us up no end.
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Click here for more
The Huffington Post
Click here for more
Other Interest
New Scientist
Click here for more
More Books
The Failing Logic of Money
by Duane Mullin
Click here for more
The Christmas Books:
A Christmas Carol;
The Chimes;
The Cricket On The Heath
by Charles Dickens
Click here for more
Christmas Miscellany
Eat Drink and be Merry
Christmas Drink
Christmas Merriment
Knitting!! (Knitting?)
Did you know that Knitting is the new Rock and Roll? We know for a fact that listening to rock and roll
makes you knit faster... So, check out one of our fave Knitting sites Planet Purl.
The knitters guide to the planet
Click, click, click here for more |
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Competition Results
We were taken aback at how a great many of you took part in our "Spot The Rotter" competition, which app reared in the last Document news letter. Many thanks to all of those that took part. The response told us a couple of things. One was that, judging by them and the wonderful comments that accompanied many of them, it would seem that we share the same quirky, off beat humor and it is nice to be able to splash it about in and amongst a subject that often runs the danger of becoming too teeth grit tingly serious.
The second was that a great many of you appear to have the amazing stamina to read all of what we write without the need to take gas and air from the Docky paramedics who stand by just in case you collapse whilst on your way to the bottom of the page!
Because of the overwhelming amount of entries for the competition we have decided to take four winners out of the hat.
So, without further a-do, the winners for the "Spot The Rotter" competition are;
Jon Hampstead
Gary Herzenstiel
Karen Gearhart
Frithjof Hungnes
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Congratulations to them. Everyone else who took part should take heart. Because of the wonderful response to the competition we are going to produce more in the future. We wanted to put in a Christmas competition and after a bit of head scratching all that we could come up with was something to do with Santa Claus and Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president that gave Europe the surprise present, this year, of signing the Lisbon Treaty. Which is which etc. Somehow it just didn't seem to work and on top of that there has been an awful lot to cram into this particular news-letter.
In the meantime, until the next competition, here is a little something a little more sobering to tax the brain...
As the much of the West braces itself for the average life expectancy to rapidly reach the 80 year old mark, did you know that the men of Haiti have the lowest life expectancy in the Western Hemisphere at 56 yrs 4 months?
Which place is second to this appalling statistic from Haiti?
(Swaziland has the lowest in the world of 39.6 yrs)
![Haiti beach](09-images/haiti_beach_2006_05_23.gif)
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A large cruise ship, probably full of Wealthy 60 to
90
year
olds,
anchors just off
Labadie beach, Haiti. |
Click here for the solution
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Your direct link
to
over 1,000 blues, gospel, jazz and old timey CDs
and over 25,000 tracks
Thinking of diving into the Document Catalogue?
It can be a daunting experience plunging yourself into the depths of a catalogue as huge as Document's. It might be that you know exactly what you want and how to find it. Even so, there's a lot of treasure down there.
As you can see on the left, Reginald Herringbone's wife, Penelope, helps her intrepid husband with the final checks before he descends into the depths of the catalogues index. Yet, even though he is weighted down with charts, note books, maps and oops there goes the catalogue itself, will he be able to find what he's looking for? It's been the same for Mrs Herringbone every weekend, ever since Reginald came out and admitted that he gone overboard for Document's CDs seven years ago.
On this occasion he was on the search for a track which he had heard on the radio but "blast" he didn't get the name of the artist! All that he caught was the title "Dusting The Frets" and that it might be by a jug band.
Reginald had been up five nights, tossing and turning like a ship on the deep, blue sea. ‘"Frets" means strings not jugs’, he kept thinking. It was something that he just could not fathom. If only he had know about the extensive search facility on Document's web site. The mystery would have been solved in a trice.
If he had clicked on the search button he would have been given two ways of finding what he wanted. Either by putting in the title or just a key word into the "Search - Anything or Everything" box or the "Search for track by Keyword" box, he would have found it. He would have struck gold even if he had only put in the word "Dusting"! Another way would have been to put in the words Jug Band into the "Search - Anything or Everything" box which would have given him ten results to investigate.
Very quickly Reginald would have discovered that his elusive track was "Dusting The Frets" by Carl Davis & Dallas Jamboree Jug Band" on DOCD-5162 Texas: Black Country Dance Music. He could have ordered it on line there and then and Mrs Herringbone could have had a good nights sleep.
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![holly6](09-images/holly7.gif) |
Document's Top Ten
Now then, now then, now then. Cigar, cigar, joowlry, joowlry, uha, uha. Here I am sat, in the Top Of The Pops studios spinning the platters that matter and it’s December, 1963 . Marvelous!
As you can see, Cliff’s at number twelve with “Don’t Talk To Him”, The Stones are at thirteen with “I Wanna Be Your Man” and John, Paul George and Ringo are at number fourteen with their second album “With The Beatles”. Fab, Rolls Royce, Duchess, Duchess. I’m just breaking off, so that I can let you all you guys and gals out there in Docky Land what latest Top Of The Docks are, uha, uha, Pan’s People dancers, hot pants, my word, gorgeous…
- Blues, Blues Christmas Vol.1 (1925-1955) Various Artists
(double Cd with 20 page full colour booklet)
Click here for more information.
- Bukka White “Aberdeen Mississippi Blues”: The Vintage Recordings (1930~1940)
Click here for more information.
- Muddy Waters 1941 - 1946
Click here for more information.
- Blind Willie McTell "Statesboro Blues" 1927-1935
(3 CD set with 20 page full colour booklet)
Click here for more information.
- Tommy Johnson "Canned Heat" (1928 - 1929)
Click here for more information.
- Blind Lemon Jefferson Vol 2 1927
Click here for more information.
- Sister Rosetta Tharpe Vol 3 (1946 - 47)
Including 8 duets with Marie Knight
Click here for more information.
- Lead Belly "Live" New York 1947 & Austin, Texas (University) 1949
Click for more information.
- Sister Rosetta Tharpe Vol 2 (1942 - 44)
Click here for more information.
- Meade "Lux" Lewis (1939- to late 1940s)
Alternate Takes, Live Performances, Soundies etc.
Click here for more information.
Note: For those of you who haven’t the faintest idea of what Jimmy Saville is saying, please click here and watch the sixties and seventies 'Top of The Pops' dj in action. Marvelous.
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News
Mr and Mrs Drive-Gravel and family wait patiently for more
news.
They have been waiting since Saturday, 1956.
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WNYC's Sara Fishko has produced a series based on the Jazz Loft tapes that
will begin airing on WNYC this week.
A well known contributor to an on-line discussion group which deals with sound restoration related topics recently posted the comment "I was on jury duty yesterday and caught this segment on the Today Show. I thought it was worth sharing......" I hope that the court case wasn't too serious, with the outcome depending one deciding vote!
In 1957, Eugene Smith, a thirty-eight-year-old magazine photographer, walked out of his comfortable settled world—his longtime well-paying job at Life and the home he shared with his wife and four children in Croton-on-Hudson, New York—to move into a dilapidated, five-story loft building at 821 Sixth Avenue (between Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth streets) in New York City’s wholesale flower district. Smith was trying to complete the most ambitious project of his life, a massive photo-essay on the city of Pittsburgh.
821 Sixth Avenue was a late-night haunt of musicians, including some of the biggest names in jazz—Charles Mingus, Zoot Sims, Bill Evans, and Thelonious Monk among them—and countless fascinating, underground characters. As his ambitions broke down for his quixotic Pittsburgh opus, Smith found solace in the chaotic, somnambulistic world of the loft and its artists. He turned his documentary impulses away from Pittsburgh and toward his offbeat new surroundings.
From 1957 to 1965, Smith exposed 1,447 rolls of film at his loft, making roughly 40,000 pictures, the largest body of work in his career, photographing the nocturnal jazz scene as well as life on the streets of the flower district, as seen from his fourth-floor window. He wired the building like a surreptitious recording studio and made 1,740 reels (4,000 hours) of stereo and mono audiotapes, capturing more than 300 musicians, among them Roy Haynes, Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans, Roland Kirk, Alice Coltrane, Don Cherry, and Paul Bley. He recorded, as well, legends such as pianists Eddie Costa, and Sonny Clark, drummers Ronnie Free and Edgar Bateman, saxophonist Lin Halliday, bassist Henry Grimes, and multi-instrumentalist Eddie Listengart.
Also dropping in on the nighttime scene were the likes of Doris Duke, Norman Mailer, Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Salvador Dalí, as well as pimps, prostitutes, drug addicts, thieves, photography students, local cops, building inspectors, marijuana dealers, and others.
Click here to see a short interview (NOTE: You will have to suffer a short advertisement before the interview begins) with Sam Stephenson author of the the book 'The Jazz Loft Project', a documentation of an amazing find of a treasure trove of thousands of "lost" recordings and photographs made by Eugene W Smith of Jazz artists in New York between 1957 and 1965, featuring some the biggest names of Jazz at that time. |
'Blues & Rhythm' Magazine Reports
(October 2009 issue);
Son House Book
Alan Balfour says that writer and University Professor Dan Baeaumont is to publish a biography of Son House. titled 'Preachin' the Blues - The Life And Music Of Son House'. The book will will be the first full length biography of the great Mississippi bluesman. It will be published by Oxford University Press. |
$10,000 for Sun blues 45
Blues collector and rare records dealer John Tefteller won a recent eBay auction which featured a previously unknown and potentially 'one of a kind' blues 45 rpm record released on Sun Records back in 1953. "I think I stole it" said Tefteller of the record when the auction ended with his winning bid of $10,323.
'Lonesome Old Jail' / 'Greyhound Blues' (Sun 183) features an outstanding downhome acoustic performance by Alabama blues singer D. A. Hunt...
This issue also includes; Applejack Applejack! - the story of an R&B classic - by Dan Kochakian; Nelson Wilborn: The Red Devil - by Bob Groom; the King of Queen City - Neil Slaven examines a new book on the major Cincinnati label; The late great Johnny Ace - by Luke Dormehl and much, much, more. |
Click here for more information and how to subscribe
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Hear Me Callin'
(Some Alternative Links)
![Alternative Links](http://img.ymlp.com/document_1930telephoneoperator3.gif)
Here's Tammy's friend Bell. She's ready to put you in touch with all kinds of interesting folks.
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Father Christmas School
I always thought that the only way to be found with a shiny red nose, rosy cheeks, straggly gray hair, unshaven, wearing questionable clothing, laughing unpredictably at nothing in particular and yammering on about being pulled through the air on a sleigh drawn by several named reindeer was by having a few "snifters" too many at the local drinking hostelry. But No! There's a far easier way than that. Just enroll at Father Christmas School which can teach you all of the delights of how to handle kids and how to experience the joy and excitement of taking an old bag out once a year! |
Click here for BBC News report.
1959 film of the Document Office's and warehouse
when it was a creamery.
Ever wondered what the Document office and warehouse looks like? No, I don't blame you. Here's a short, 8 minute promotional colour film, with sound, made by an independent film company for the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society. Why? Well, even before Minnie Wallace was singing about "Dirty Butter" and Banjo "Ikey" Robinson was recording "Got Butter On It" the Document buildings were part of a creamery (Cool!). Eighteen seconds into the film you will hear the no-nonsense, BBC type, narrator mention the name Bladnoch and as the camera pans to the left you will see a long single story double pitched roof building. And that's us! As the lorry's go trundling by the buildings just before they turn into the complex you can just see us waving out of the office window. Gary is three years old at the time and Gillian is six. Daniel hasn't been born yet and Ian is still another planet. It's like something straight out of one of Enid Blyton's 'Famous Five' books. Hurraahh! Now were off with some cucumber sandwiches and lashings of ginger beer! |
Click here to settle down with popcorn and watch film
Andy Cobb "Was I hired to stand in the way of Health Care...?"
You may know Andy Cobb from the series of humorous video sketches he’s done about Republicans, the media, and assorted inanities. But he works by day as an actor. A a few years ago, he was a commercial spokesman for Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance of Florida. Having appeared in TV commercials for the company he is now speaking out about the insurance industry in a new video produced by Brave New Films for their Sick for Profit campaign and asks the question; Was I hired to stand in the way of Health Care...? |
Settle down with a couple of Aspirin and see more.
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Document Pocasts
Lonnie Donegan
From the Document vaults we bring you the Lonnie Donegan Podcast
.This interview with Lonnie Donegan was conducted by Document's Gary Atkinson
in 1995 for the New York based Lead Belly Letter.
Running Time 44:17 |
James Booker
Gary Atkinson interviews the man resoponsible for James Booker's appearence
in Manchester, England in 1977, and the performance captured on Document 30-20-13
'James Booker: Manchester 77', David B Lunt. Recorded in Manchest,
David reminisces about his dicvoery of Booker's music, the lead up to him putting him on,
the show and the reaction to it.
Running Time 22:48 |
Edison Lateral Cut Recordings
Running Time 65:45
Size of file 60.2 MB |
Edison Country Music of the 1920s
Running Time 65:31
Size of file 59.9 MB |
Ada Jones
First Lady Of The Phonograph
Edison
Edison Early Wax Cylinders
"Holiday Greetings from the Bunch at Orange!"
Eva Taylor - Edison
Edison Hit of the Week Recordings
Final Word
from
![Mad Doreen](09-images/Mad-Doreen-&-witches.gif) |
Mad Doreen
(The Voice of Truth)
PYSCHOS! Both of them. Is it any wonder they've been in trouble. Victims of financial mischief, my eye. Have you heard that rubbish they listen to? FILTH! One of them blokes calls himself the Devil's Son-In-Law and that other one, John Robertson, going on about Hellhounds on his trail. I'm not surprised, he's a bad 'un is that one. No good'll come of him. And them two think it's marvelous. HEATHENS!
My Andrew's never listened to music since he was a child, other than Cliff Richard and the Osmunds of course. But he never bring anything by that U2 in the house.
Have you seen them two that run all of this? He goes skipping out to his car nearly every Sunday afternoon loaded up with guitars and amplifiers so's he can go and make a racket with his mates in Manchester. And do you know, he's got one of those electric petrol cars. DEVIL'S WORK!
She's no better. Part Native American Indian. Goes strutting back and forth like she owns the place... In jeans! Oh yes, she doesn't care and sometimes she goes out with a feather in her hair. OUTRAGEOUS!!!
Well, I don't know who they think they are or what they're up to but no good'll come of it. And you should see who the mix with. There's a constant stream
of weirdoes going in and out of their house, night and day; writers, photographers, artists, film makers, musicians. Is there any need for it... MANIACS!!
My Andrew's always kept himself to himself. Never had a girlfriend
in his life... DISGUSTING!!! What's wrong with a fifty two year old man living with his mother?
Anyway, don't you worry I've got my on on them two, mark my words. The truth will prevail! |
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