Louis Collins

Post date: Oct 21, 2013 1:24:28 AM

Unfortunately, as you've probably noticed, there's an extended amount of time between posts recently.  This is due to several factors, with the most significant reasons relating to an ample amount of travel, a spectacular summer, and the need to obsessively rehearse for a recent open mic.  I went about learning this song as a result of seeing Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton play at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival this year.  He played a blistering version of this song, "Louis Collins", which inspired me to learn how to play it this way.  The song is a traditional folk song, and was made famous via a 1928 recording by Mississippi John Hurt (pictured above).  Josh Ritter also recorded a modified version of the song under the name Folk Bloodbath.  What I decided to do in the end was use the lyrics from Folk Bloodbath with a Mississippi John Hurt style fingerpicked melody.  This is incredibly difficult to do, and I'm not surprised that Josh stripped down the instrumentation for his version.  Enjoy!

Production notes: MXL960 tube microphone for vocals and MXL993 for guitar were used directly into Maudio DMP3 preamp.  Done in one take, but with some minor deletions to fix verses with incorrect lyrics!

Louis Collins/Folk Bloodbath (MP3)