Crow Jane

I just assumed that everyone else's versions of "Crow Jane" were based on  Skip James, but as I went to put this playlist together I realized "Crow Jane" is not among James' original prewar recordings, only showing up for the first time in his folk revival repertoire. As with "House of the Rising Sun" and the Animals, most versions since the Sixties reflect the Skip James feel, form, lyrics and E-shapes guitar arrangement – but not all. Ernie Hawkins and Mary Flower, for example, hew to the 12-bar iteration exemplified by Carl Martin's 1930s version, the earliest I've been able to find. As Richard L. Matteson Jr. points out in this blog post, there are many prewar permutations of "Crow Jane," and Blind Boy Fuller's "Bye Bye Baby Blues," Josh White's "Blood Red River," Sonny and Brownie's "Red River Blues" all share more than a little DNA with "Crow Jane."

I put our arrangement in Dropped-D tuning but kept the Skip James tag. The playlist includes both live and studio versions by James, Sonny Terry with and without Brownie McGhee, three different passes by Etta Baker, and takes by Hawkins, Flower and Cephas and Wiggins. There's also a great two-guitar version by Rory Block and Stefan Grossman, a handful of  ensemble interpretations, a rockin' electric version by the Derek Trucks Band, and several prewar permutations for you to compare with what Skip James did.