Last Saturday I saw a couple of documentary films in Sheffield as part of that UK city’s “Docfest”. The latter of these was called “Two Trains Runnin”, and documented the search in August 1964 by some guys from Boston. Mass., in Mississippi for Skip James and Son House, a couple of blues giants from the 1930s. Surprisingly they found both of them, Son House in fact being in New York.
I already had three Son House CDs, and had always wondered why he sounded so different from all the other blues chaps. Well, the film contained about seven minutes footage of Son House performing, and it became clear that here was a tortured soul genuinely living the blues. I shall never forget the look of terrified desperation that filled his face from time to time as he did some of his songs.
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