RickyC6
Infuriate the frog-men
Don't know if there are any Etta fans here. But the old lady of piedmont blues has died aged 93 - a good innings. She inspired Martin Stephenson's classic "When I Grow Up I Want To Play Guitar Like A Woman".
Blues legend Etta Baker passes on
> Acclaimed Piedmont-style guitarist, singer was 93
>
> David Menconi, Staff Writer
>
> Etta Baker, legendary Piedmont blueswoman and an inspiration to
> generations of guitar players, passed away Saturday. She was 93.
>
> No cause of death was given, but Baker had been in failing health for
> years.
>
> Baker played Piedmont blues, a style that drew from the clattery
> rhythms of bluegrass as well as blues. In spite of her declining
> health, she kept making music until she died. She appears on
> million-selling blues-rock guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd's next
> album, due out in November, and she has an album of banjo tunes coming
> out next year.
>
> "She embodied everything we love about the South," said Tim Duffy, who
> worked with Baker through his Music Maker Relief Foundation.
>
> "She was strong, warm, witty, gentle; a gardener and also the world's
> premiere Piedmont-style blues guitarist. ... Anybody who has picked up
> acoustic finger-style guitar has been influenced by Etta, whether they
> know it or not."
>
> Baker's ill health didn't stop her from tending to family. She died in
> Fairfax, Va., while visiting one of her daughters who had suffered a
> stroke.
>
> "She just had to go, she just had to see my sister," said Darlene
> Davis, another daughter who lives next door to Baker's house in
> Morganton. "She was a great mother and a tower of strength for the
> family. We always looked up to her."
>
> Baker grew up in a musical family in Western North Carolina and first
> made her mark in 1956. That year, she appeared on a compilation album
> called "Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians," which would
> be enormously influential on the growing folk revival -- especially
> Baker's versions of "Railroad Bill" and "One-Dime Blues." Musicians
> who could keep up with her rapid finger-picking on "One-Dime Blues"
> were said to be "one-diming it."
>
> Bluesman Taj Mahal, who recorded an album with Baker in 2004, was
> among those who found inspiration from Baker's rhythmic
> finger-picking.
>
> "I came upon that record in the '60s," Mahal said. "It didn't have any
> pictures, so I had no idea who she was until I got to meet her years
> later. But man, that chord in 'Railroad Bill,' that was just the
> chord. It just cut right through me. I can't even describe how deep
> that was for me, just beautiful stuff."
>
> While her music inspired Mahal, Bob Dylan and other younger musicians,
> Baker was busy raising a family that eventually numbered nine
> children.
>
> She had to cope with a fair amount of tragedy in the 1960s. Her
> husband suffered a debilitating stroke in 1964, the same year Baker
> had a serious car accident that killed one of her grandsons.
>
> Then in the span of one month in 1967, her husband died and one of her
> sons was killed in the Vietnam War.
>
> After working for 26 years at a textile mill in Morganton, Baker quit
> to pursue a career as a professional musician -- at age 60.
>
> She was a hit on the international folk-festival circuit, earning
> awards including a 1991 Folk Heritage Fellowship from the National
> Endowment for the Arts. And she made an impression on almost everyone
> she met.
>
> "I remember being at this banjo [festival] one time, and I wanted to
> have my picture taken with her," Mahal recalled. "And she looked at me
> kinda sideways and asked, 'Now you ain't gonna get in no trouble with
> me, are ya?' And she was 80-some years old."
>
> Baker stayed on the road well into her 80s, but she finally had to
> quit touring because of heart problems. By this year, she no longer
> had the strength to play guitar.
>
> So she put most of her musical energy into playing banjo. Wayne
> Martin, who plays fiddle on her upcoming banjo collection, reports
> that Baker was still playing great a month ago when he saw her for the
> last time.
>
> "I consider her to be one of the most important traditional artists of
> our lifetime," Martin said. "She meant a lot to me personally, and to
> North Carolina. She touched hundreds of thousands if not millions of
> people with her music. It's amazing that she raised nine kids,
> attending to their needs, then had a career that didn't even start
> until she was in her 60s, and it touched all these people. What she
> did resonated with many, many people."
>
>
> Etta Baker's career highlights
>
> N.C. Folk Heritage Award, 1988
>
> National Endowment for the Arts' Folk Heritage Fellowship, 1991
>
> North Carolina Award, 2003
>
> DISCOGRAPHY
>
> "Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians" (1956)
>
> "One-Dime Blues" (1991)
>
> "Railroad Bill" (1999)
>
> "Etta Baker With Taj Mahal" (2004)
>
> Etta Baker & Cora Phillips, "Carolina Breakdown" (2005)
>
> ARRANGEMENTS
>
> Funeral arrangements for Baker are still pending, but services will be
> handled by Kirksey Funeral Home and conducted in Morganton.
Cheers
Rich
Blues legend Etta Baker passes on
> Acclaimed Piedmont-style guitarist, singer was 93
>
> David Menconi, Staff Writer
>
> Etta Baker, legendary Piedmont blueswoman and an inspiration to
> generations of guitar players, passed away Saturday. She was 93.
>
> No cause of death was given, but Baker had been in failing health for
> years.
>
> Baker played Piedmont blues, a style that drew from the clattery
> rhythms of bluegrass as well as blues. In spite of her declining
> health, she kept making music until she died. She appears on
> million-selling blues-rock guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd's next
> album, due out in November, and she has an album of banjo tunes coming
> out next year.
>
> "She embodied everything we love about the South," said Tim Duffy, who
> worked with Baker through his Music Maker Relief Foundation.
>
> "She was strong, warm, witty, gentle; a gardener and also the world's
> premiere Piedmont-style blues guitarist. ... Anybody who has picked up
> acoustic finger-style guitar has been influenced by Etta, whether they
> know it or not."
>
> Baker's ill health didn't stop her from tending to family. She died in
> Fairfax, Va., while visiting one of her daughters who had suffered a
> stroke.
>
> "She just had to go, she just had to see my sister," said Darlene
> Davis, another daughter who lives next door to Baker's house in
> Morganton. "She was a great mother and a tower of strength for the
> family. We always looked up to her."
>
> Baker grew up in a musical family in Western North Carolina and first
> made her mark in 1956. That year, she appeared on a compilation album
> called "Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians," which would
> be enormously influential on the growing folk revival -- especially
> Baker's versions of "Railroad Bill" and "One-Dime Blues." Musicians
> who could keep up with her rapid finger-picking on "One-Dime Blues"
> were said to be "one-diming it."
>
> Bluesman Taj Mahal, who recorded an album with Baker in 2004, was
> among those who found inspiration from Baker's rhythmic
> finger-picking.
>
> "I came upon that record in the '60s," Mahal said. "It didn't have any
> pictures, so I had no idea who she was until I got to meet her years
> later. But man, that chord in 'Railroad Bill,' that was just the
> chord. It just cut right through me. I can't even describe how deep
> that was for me, just beautiful stuff."
>
> While her music inspired Mahal, Bob Dylan and other younger musicians,
> Baker was busy raising a family that eventually numbered nine
> children.
>
> She had to cope with a fair amount of tragedy in the 1960s. Her
> husband suffered a debilitating stroke in 1964, the same year Baker
> had a serious car accident that killed one of her grandsons.
>
> Then in the span of one month in 1967, her husband died and one of her
> sons was killed in the Vietnam War.
>
> After working for 26 years at a textile mill in Morganton, Baker quit
> to pursue a career as a professional musician -- at age 60.
>
> She was a hit on the international folk-festival circuit, earning
> awards including a 1991 Folk Heritage Fellowship from the National
> Endowment for the Arts. And she made an impression on almost everyone
> she met.
>
> "I remember being at this banjo [festival] one time, and I wanted to
> have my picture taken with her," Mahal recalled. "And she looked at me
> kinda sideways and asked, 'Now you ain't gonna get in no trouble with
> me, are ya?' And she was 80-some years old."
>
> Baker stayed on the road well into her 80s, but she finally had to
> quit touring because of heart problems. By this year, she no longer
> had the strength to play guitar.
>
> So she put most of her musical energy into playing banjo. Wayne
> Martin, who plays fiddle on her upcoming banjo collection, reports
> that Baker was still playing great a month ago when he saw her for the
> last time.
>
> "I consider her to be one of the most important traditional artists of
> our lifetime," Martin said. "She meant a lot to me personally, and to
> North Carolina. She touched hundreds of thousands if not millions of
> people with her music. It's amazing that she raised nine kids,
> attending to their needs, then had a career that didn't even start
> until she was in her 60s, and it touched all these people. What she
> did resonated with many, many people."
>
>
> Etta Baker's career highlights
>
> N.C. Folk Heritage Award, 1988
>
> National Endowment for the Arts' Folk Heritage Fellowship, 1991
>
> North Carolina Award, 2003
>
> DISCOGRAPHY
>
> "Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians" (1956)
>
> "One-Dime Blues" (1991)
>
> "Railroad Bill" (1999)
>
> "Etta Baker With Taj Mahal" (2004)
>
> Etta Baker & Cora Phillips, "Carolina Breakdown" (2005)
>
> ARRANGEMENTS
>
> Funeral arrangements for Baker are still pending, but services will be
> handled by Kirksey Funeral Home and conducted in Morganton.
Cheers
Rich
