Turning weird, old music into pop gold

In the last post, I shared my enthusiasm for what I call weird, old American music: fiddle tunes, blues, early country, bluegrass, western swing, and all sorts of music that refuses to be categorized. It’s an adventure to search out this music, give it a listen, and try to understand the people, attitude and culture that produced it.

Over the decades, this musical quest has led me to some talented musicians who have made music that shows a lot of passion, humor, fun, anger, sadness and general humanity. The music may be sound quaint or odd to our ears. The recording quality may be poor (not surprising, if it’s 70, 80 or 90 years old), but a lot of this music still has appeal, even for ears accustomed to radio-friendly current pop, country and hip hop music.

But there’s the thing: Sometimes today’s artists are creating their art by drawing DIRECTLY from weird, old American music. Here are a few examples of pop gold made out of weird old music. Okay, some of it isn’t exactly pop gold. It’s only gold to NPR listeners or Americana fans. But these are thoroughly modern and contemporary recordings made out of source material from weird, old America:

First up, Lily Allen channels Professor Longhair. Here’s Allen’s song, "Knock ‘Em Out:"

Here’s Professor Longhair’s song “Big Chief," from which the piano part was lifted in its entirety:

One could argue that Professor Longhair’s music isn’t as old and weird as, say, Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers. But one thing’s for sure: he’s utterly unique, and his life story is compelling. If you’re not familiar with “Fess,” learn more here: http://www.allmusic.com/artist/professor-longhair-mn0000369270/biography

Next up, for you Boomers, "I’m So Glad" by Skip James:

"I'm So Glad" by '60s power trio Cream, with Eric Clapton on guitar:

"John Henry" by Woody Guthrie:

An electronic version of the song by a band called Snakefarm:

Finally, "Crossroads" by bluesman Robert Johnson:


Like Professor Longhair, Robert Johnson maybe shouldn't be lumped in with some of the more obscure "old, weird" artists. As one of the key forefathers of rock 'n' roll, and a bluesman who died under suspicious circumstances, he's become a legend. But this is a great illustration of how a decades-old song, which was obscure at the time, was made modern and turned to gold. Here's the same song by Cream, with a fresh opening riff by Eric Clapton:

And about 10 year’s later, Steve Miller appropriated Clapton’s guitar lick for his song "Jet Airliner:"

 Does that make Steve Miller the musical step grandson of Robert Johnson?