Of Influential Albums 5 - Oh Really!? by Mike Cooper

There may be some surprise that there is no traditional folk music album in my list, specially considering the importance of folk song and dance in my work. I decided to exclude any of these because I did not encounter them initially through recorded music, but rather inherited folk song and country dance as a child through participating at school. I learned many English folk songs from mouth to ear and we danced the country dances of England and occasionally other parts of the UK. We were still part of a continuity that had probably received a boost from the work of pioneers like Cecil Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Maud Karpeles earlier in the twentieth century. As I became interested in rock music I lost sight of the songs of my childhood. I had to rediscover my folk heritage through folk rock, beginning of course with Fairport Convention who were essentially a rock band that bridged the worlds of Bob Dylan and the singer-songwriters, back to English traditional music. I would guess that people like Billy Bragg, Jim Moray and Sam Lee may have introduced or reintroduced later generations to their own culture in the same way.

The same is not true of the blues. I encountered blues initially through the white British Blues explosion of the sixties through the music of the Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Cream, John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack and any number of electric blues bands, but it was not until I heard and bought Mike Cooper's first album, "Oh Really!?, that I found myself confronted with the raw acoustic sound of the country blues. Because of Mike Cooper I went back to looking up the names of the composers of the electric blues songs in my record collection, which led me to seek out and listen to old recordings of Son House, Robert Johnson and on the way discovering Leadbelly, Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGee, Lightnin' Hopkins and any number of other performers. My learning journey was an analogue, pre-internet version of surfing the web. It was a revelation and it helped me put into perspective the electric music I already knew and loved. I guess it was probably through being woken up by Mike Cooper to this kind of sound that I was aware in time to be able to see Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee play live two or three times and Son House play during a final UK tour. Strangely, for an album I found so formative, all the songs on this album were credited Mike Cooper except the first two. I found that weird because Bessie Smith recorded Electric Chair Blues in 1927 and a song with the same title and similar melody and lyrics to "You're Gonna Be Sorry" was recorded by Mississippi Fred McDowell in 1959 ... Oh Really!?

I once played my grandmother a recording of Son House singing, "Pearline" and asked her if she listened to, or liked, "the blues" when she was younger. "Blues? Is that what you call it now? We used to call it jazz," was her response. I'm so glad I asked. Her reply was a simple statement, but with it she accidentally opened another world to me.

1. Death Letter (Son House)

2. Bad Luck Blues (Blind Boy Fuller)

3. Maggie Campbell (Mike Cooper)

4. Leadhearted Blues (Mike Cooper)

5. Four Ways (Mike Cooper)

6. Poor Little Annie (Mike Cooper)

7. Tadpole Blues (Mike Cooper)

8. Divinity Blues (Mike Cooper)

9. You're Gonna Be Sorry (Mike Cooper)

10. Electric Chair (Mike Cooper)

11. Crow Jane (Mike Cooper)

12. Paper Rag (Mike Cooper)

13. Saturday Blues (Mike Cooper)