''Live in New York'' is the final album recording by the American

country blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...

musician Mississippi Fred McDowell. New York-based American independent

Oblivion Records Oblivion Records is an independent American record label that focuses on under recorded blues and jazz musicians. The company was originally based in Huntington, New York and the WKCR-FM studios at Columbia University in New York City, with a p ...

released the first edition in the Spring of 1972, months before McDowell's death in July 1972. A subsequent Oblivion issue with a one song substitution, and new and redesigned liner notes came out one year later.

Recording

Producer/engineer

Fred Seibert Frederick (Fred) Seibert (born September 15, 1951) is an American television producer, co-founder of MTV and the CEO of FredFilms, an animation production company based in Burbank, California. His official biography states he has led five (working ...

(assisted by Roy "Slim" Langbord) recorded Fred McDowell's November 1971 performance at The Gaslight Cafe in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

for radio broadcast over

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

WKCR-FM WKCR-FM (89.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is a Radio broadcasting, radio station licensed to New York City, New York, New York, United States. The station is owned by Columbia University and serves the New York metropolitan area. Founded in 1941, the s ...

, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. He hosted the station's Saturday blues show and was hometown friends with McDowell's second on the performance, bassist

Tom Pomposello Tom Pomposello (July 17, 1949 – January 25, 1999) was an American roots musician, notably playing and recording with country blues musician Mississippi Fred McDowell, who also worked as a cable television and advertising producer for clients like ...

. Recording was done with

Shure Shure Incorporated is an American audio products corporation. It was founded by Sidney N. Shure in Chicago, Illinois, in 1925 as a supplier of radio parts kits. The company became a consumer and professional audio-electronics manufacturer of mi ...

Electronics microphones and mixers and a one-track monaural

Nagra Nagra is a brand of portable audio recorders produced from 1951 in Switzerland. Beginning in 1997 a range of high-end equipment aimed at the audiophile community was introduced, and Nagra expanded the company’s product lines into new markets. ...

tape recorder. Editing was accomplished in one 14-hour session at

WKCR WKCR-FM (89.9 FM) is a radio station licensed to New York, New York, United States. The station is owned by Columbia University and serves the New York metropolitan area. Founded in 1941, the station traces its history back to 1908 with the fir ...

using

Ampex Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name AMPEX is a portmanteau, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence.AbramsoThe History ...

tape decks.

Release

The album has remained available continuously from 1972 until the present. Currently, there are streaming versions of all editions that can be accessed at the official Oblivion Records archive blog. Digital downloads are available worldwide from

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

, iTunes, Amazon.com, and other major digital retailers. Buyers should be aware of inferior bootlegs available as of 2010 on Amazon.com from Labor Records and Tomato Records. The last authorized physical retail release of the recordings was in 2000 by the almost immediately defunct CD label Live Archive. Bassist/producer Pomposello went back to the original tapes and re-edited, re-sequenced, and remastered all nine tracks from the first two editions, plus 16 bonus outtakes. Slight hints of equalization and echo were added. Release formats: * LP record (12") record (mono) eleted late 1970s* CD (2000 version) (mono) eleted late 2000*

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

(mono) * Audio streaming (mono)

Packaging

On the original 1st pressing the cover sleeve consisted of very thick cardboard outer sleeve and the 12" vinyl record was protected with a white paper album liner. The 2nd edition pressing included a Fred McDowell discography printed on the inner sleeve.

Sleeve notes

Live session bassist and album producer Tom Pomposello wrote three different variations of the liner notes, consisting of several essays, across all officially licensed editions. Fred McDowell contributed a paragraph to the original release. There is a lengthy producer's notated digital booklet at the Oblivion archive site.

Album cover and label

The original album covers and liners were designed by producer/engineer

. First edition labels were designed at the Viewlex pressing plant in

Hauppauge, New York Hauppauge ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the towns of Islip and Smithtown in Suffolk County, New York on Long Island. The population was 20,882 at the time of the 2010 census. Geography Hauppauge is located at (40.818205, ...

; second edition labels were designed by Seibert. The cover photo was of Fred McDowell at a live festival concert; back liner photos on the second edition are by noted UK writer and photographer Val Wilmer.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Fred McDowell; except where indicated 1st edition, vinyl, 1972

Side one

Shake 'Em on Down "Shake 'Em On Down" is a Delta blues song by American musician Bukka White. He recorded it in Chicago in 1937 around the beginning of his incarceration at the infamous Parchman Prison Farm in Mississippi. It was his first recording for produc ...

" - 4:04 #"I'm Crazy About You Baby" - 4:42 #" John Henry" - 4:40 (Traditional) #"You Got To Move" (aka " You Gotta Move")- 2:38 #"Someday" - 3:52 (

Sleepy John Estes John Adam Estes (January 25, 1899 or 1900June 5, 1977),
known as Sleepy John Estes, was an Am ...

, Fred McDowell)

Side two

#"Mercy" - 5:25 #"The Lovin' Blues" - 4:01 #"Goin' to the River (Gonna Carry My Rockin' Chair)" - 5:12 #"

Baby Please Don't Go An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...

" - 3:42 ( Big Joe Williams) 2nd edition, vinyl, 1973

Side one

#"Shake 'Em On Down" - 4:04 #"I'm Crazy About You Baby" - 4:42 #" John Henry" - 4:40 (Traditional) #"You Got To Move" (aka " You Gotta Move")- 2:38 #"Someday" - 3:52 (

Sleepy John Estes John Adam Estes (January 25, 1899 or 1900June 5, 1977),
known as Sleepy John Estes, was an Am ...

, Fred McDowell)

Side two

#"Mercy" - 5:25 #"The Lovin' Blues" - 4:01 #"White Lightnin'" - 5:12 #"

" - 3:42 ( Big Joe Williams) 3rd edition, CD, 2000

Disc one

#"Shake 'Em On Down" - 4:04 #"Fred's Worried Blues" #"Mercy" - 5:25 #"Jesus is on the Mainline" (Traditional) #"When the Saints Come Marchin' In" (Traditional) #"Someday Baby" - 3:52 (

Sleepy John Estes John Adam Estes (January 25, 1899 or 1900June 5, 1977),
known as Sleepy John Estes, was an Am ...

, Fred McDowell) #"The Lovin' Blues" - 4:01 #"White Lightnin'" - 5:12 #"You Got To Move" (aka " You Gotta Move")- 2:38 #"Louise" #"

" - 3:42 ( Big Joe Williams)

Disc two

#"Goin’ to the River (Carry My Rocking Chair)" - 5:12 #"Shake 'Em On Down" - 4:04 #"61 Highway" #" John Henry" - 4:40 (Traditional) #"

My Babe "My Babe" is a Chicago blues song and a blues standard written by Willie Dixon for Little Walter. Released in 1955 on Checker Records, a subsidiary of Chess Records, the song was the only Dixon composition ever to become a number one R&B single ...

" ( Willie Dixon) #"I'm Crazy About You Baby" - 4:42 #"

Red Cross Store Fred McDowell (January 12, 1904 – July 3, 1972), known by his stage name Mississippi Fred McDowell, was an American hill country blues singer and guitar player. Career McDowell was born in Rossville, Tennessee, United States. His parents were f ...

" #"Levee Camp Blues" #"

Good Morning, School Girl "Good Morning, School Girl" is a blues standard that has been identified as an influential part of the blues canon. Pre-war Chicago blues vocalist and harmonica pioneer John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson first recorded it in 1937. Subsequently, a ...

" #"Don’t Mistreat Nobody (Cause You Got a Few Dimes)" #"Get Right" #"Good Night (Spoken Outro)"

Personnel

* Mississippi Fred McDowell –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

& second guitar ;Additional musicians and production *

– producer & audio engineer *Dick Pennington &

– producer

Release history

References

{{Reflist

Sources

The Official Oblivion Records websitePomposello, Tom "Mississippi Fred McDowell" Guitar Player Magazine, November 1977Pomposello.com

External links

"Live in New York" on the Official Oblivion Records websiteComplete liner notes and free MP3s for "Live in New York"
Mississippi Fred McDowell albums 1972 live albums Oblivion Records albums Albums recorded at WKCR-FM