June 21st
Blind Alfred Reed-Explosion in the
Fairmount Mines- How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?
Not a
comedy record, this one. A grim tale of
death and destruction in Virginia. Blind
Alfred Reed was a bit of an expert in this field. He also recorded such happy
ditties as “The Fate of Chris Lively and His Wife”, “The Prayer of the
Drunkard’s Little Girl” and “Beware” (the latter being a list of bad things
that is best not to get involved with). I bought the Rounder Records
compilation of Blind Alfred Reed’s entire output, “How Can A Poor Man Stand
Such Times And Live?”, based purely on the title of the album alone. I’d never
heard of him or any of his music. The album sleeve was made of thick
cream-coloured card and the black and white sleeve photo showed a very stern
looking chap clutching a violin (whom I presumed was Blind Alfred himself). I
recall that it cost me a fair old amount back in the early 1980’s-I was on the
dole at the time and it left me so skint that I had to walk home with the album
tucked under my arm and my last 10 pence in my pocket. That 10 pence would have
had to last me a couple of days until my next giro. This was fairly appropriate
bearing in mind the album title. When I got home -after a long, long walk- and
put it on the record player, I was surprised to hear old-time folk/country
music rather than pre-war blues. This wasn’t something that I would have
actively sought out, but it was so over-the-top that it was worth it; it made
Joy Division sound as jolly as Black Lace.
Blind
Alfred Reed was born completely blind in Virginia in 1880. Nothing is known
about his early life except that he was brought up in a very strict,
conservative family and that he learned to play violin at an early age.
Apparently he performed at country fairs, church halls and even on street
corners, where he used to sell printed copies of his songs for 10 cents
a-piece. As well as being a composer and a musician, he also served as a
Methodist lay preacher-which accounts for the religious subject of some of his
songs, “I Mean To Live For Jesus” and “Walking in the Way With Jesus”, for
example. By chance, he was recorded in 1927 by a visiting recording engineer,
and he laid down some more tracks (I sincerely doubt that he would have termed
it in that way), in 1929. All in all, in his lifetime, Blind Alfred Reed
recorded 21 songs between July 1927 and December 1929 in four separate
sessions; two in 1927 and two in 1929. (One particular song he must have liked
was “Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Girls?” which he recorded twice. As an
indication of how hardcore Blind Alfred was, in this song he exhorted women who
had the popular 1920’s bob to “ask Jesus to forgive them”). Whilst it’s
recorded that he carried on playing after 1929, this all stopped in 1937 due to
a Virginian statute being passed which outlawed blind street musicians from
performing. Blind Alfred Reed lived to the ripe old age of 76, but sadly died
of starvation in 1956. I’m not sure what he would have made of the nascent
birth of rock and roll; hopefully it never reached him in deepest Virginia.
Get/read/see Totally Shuffled here:
UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CJYZ3CA
US
http://www.amazon.com/Totally-Shuffled-Listening-Music-Broken-ebook/dp/B00CJYZ3CA
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