Nearly five years ago, I had my first in depth experience diving into music history with my late mentor Joan Crane. This new record "Folk Songs For Old Time's Sake" is a culmination of what she taught me, and harbors mostly traditional material revisited and rearranged that Joan inspired in me. Some of the songs are by pioneers such as Elizabeth Cotten, The Carter Family, Mississippi John Hurt and Jimmie Rodgers, with the mindset of preserving their legacy and exposing their history to my generation and its successors. After starting the music history podcast "American Songcatcher", my desire for preservation has become a mission, and inside the liner notes of the limited edition vinyl gatefold resides a summary of the song or artists history behind the 14 tracks. This installment is the first of many to come honoring the legacy of American roots music.
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Originally called “Lonesome Road Blues” from the Round Peak, North Carolina/Galax, Virginia area, “Going Down The Road Feeling Bad" is a traditional American folk song with old-time, bluegrass and blues roots. Written in the style of an African-American folk song, old-time fiddler Tommy Jarrell remembered hearing the song coming to the Round Peak area around 1918. The earliest versions of the lyrics contain floating verses, non-narrative lines that don’t necessarily correlate, some of which appear in other folk songs. It was sung as a migration song when refugee farm families from the Southern Plains both black and white, known as “Okies” made their way west. Some versions of the song came to reflect the perspective of an inmate in prison, with lines such as "I'm down in that jail on my knees" and refer to eating "corn bread and beans." The first known known recording is from 1923 by Henry Whitter, an Appalachian singer, sparking frequent recordings in the 1920s and 1930’s by hillbilly artists such as Ernest Stoneman and Fiddlin' John Carson before being recorded by the likes of Flat and Scruggs, Bill Monroe and Big Bill Broonzy, who inspired this version.
lyrics
Goin' down this road now feelin' bad, baby
Goin' down this road feelin' so low and bad
I ain't gonna be treated this-a way
I'm tired of eatin' your cornbread and beans, baby
I'm tired of eatin' your cornbread and beans, right now
I ain't gonna be treated this-a way
These two dollar shoes is killin' my feet, baby
Two dollar shoes is killin' my feet, right now
I ain't gonna be treated this-a way
Takes ten dollar shoes to fit my feet, baby
Ten dollar shoes to fit my feet, right now
I ain't gonna be treated this-a way
I'm goin' where the chilly wind don't blow, baby
I'm goin' where the chilly wind don't blow, no more
I ain't gonna be treated this-a way
I'm goin' where the weather suits my clothes, baby
I'm goin' where the weather suits my clothes, tomorrow
I ain't gonna be treated this-a way, no more
I ain't gonna be treated this-a way
credits
from Folk Songs For Old Times' Sake,
released November 2, 2021
Nicholas Williams - Guitar, Vocals, Banjo, Stomp, Mouth Jug
Gordon Inman - Clarinet
Cody Ray - Guitar
Host of the music history podcast
"American Songcatcher", Nicholas is a 37 year-old multi-instrumentalist and
storyteller who is dedicated to playing it forward by preserving the songs and styles that have shaped America: ragtime, Piedmont blues, traditional folk, old time and early country. He's opened for Taj Mahal and The Wood Brothers.
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