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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    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.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Folk Songs For Old Times' Sake via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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about

Saint James Infirmary (Traditional)

Sometimes titled “Gambler’s Blues” or “St. James Infirmary Blues”, “Saint James Infirmary” is a traditional blues song first recorded as "Gambler's Blues" in 1927 by Fess Williams and his Royal Flush Orchestra. It’s origin is unknown, and the song was brought to prominence in jazz and blues music by Louis Armstrong, who recorded it in 1928. Some musicologists have suggested the song has ties to an old 18th century folk song called “The Unfortunate Rake”, though only the music bears a small resemblance. The English song collector Cecil Sharp collected a song in Appalachia during 1918 that was the first reference to a “Saint James Hospital”, lending to the opinion that the song can be traced to England, though the origins remain unclear as St. James Hospital closed in 1532. Most versions of the song have similar themes of alcohol abuse, gambling, violence, death and despair, and in addition to being popular in blues music it became a standard during the jazz era, chalking up at least 18 different recorded variations by 1930. This version has been heavily influenced by Snooks Eaglin’s rendition, recorded in 1959.

lyrics

I went down to St. James Infirmary
To see if my baby was there,
She was stretched out on a long white table,
So sweet, so cold, so fair.

Let her go, let her go God bless her
Wherever she may be
She done looked this whole wide world over
She'll never find another man like me


When I die, you can bury me in Frisco
You can buy me a $20 hat
Put a $20 dollar gold piece in my pocket
Let the fellas know I died standing up

Let her go, let her go God bless her
Wherever she may be
She done looked this whole wide world over
Never find another man like me

credits

from Folk Songs For Old Times' Sake, released November 2, 2021
Nicholas Williams - Guitar, Vocals
Gordon Inman - Clarinet
Cody Ray - Guitar

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Nicholas Edward Williams Chattanooga, Tennessee

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.

“Beautifully uplifting and rootsy…” - Folk Radio UK ... more

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