Willy Gantrim Sings The Blues

I'm generally opposed to anyone but old, black dudes playing blues. That's especially true about country/Delta blues. Yet, somehow, this Willy Gantrim kid is impressing the hell out of me. The guitar playing is solid, especially his slide technique. His voice might not be quite as gravely and worn as I prefer but it fits very well, nonetheless. What I'm saying is, you should check this dude out because he's doing a very difficult thing to do - playing Delta blues and making it sound authentic. Some of these songs are classics and it takes balls to attempt them in their original form.

Link:

Willy Gantrim Bandcamp

For reference:

Son House "Death Letter"

One of my favorite genres of music is blues. There was a time when I was borderline obsessed with it. While I love Chicago/electric blues, in particular Muddy Waters, there's just nothing better then Delta blues. Charlie Patton and Robert Johnson (although his style was more Texas blues) were great but when it comes to pure raw emotion Son House was second to none.

Today I was surprised to see a post with Son House in the title on Boing Boing. I checked it out and they have an amazing sounding version of "Death Letter" posted. It's really bad ass and bums me out that there's just nobody making country blues like this anymore.

Link:

Boing Boing

White Stripes version