LP cover 1st & 2nd editions 1972 & 1973

CREDITS PRODUCER’S NOTE

Fred McDowell (1897-1972): guitar and vocals These are the last recordings of Mississippi Fred
Tom Pomposello (1947-1999): bass guitar McDowell, accompanied by bassist Tom
Pomposello in concert at a legendary nightclub,
Produced by Tom Pomposello (uncredited) The Village Gaslight on MacDougal Street in
& Fred Seibert Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.
Executive Producer: Richard H. Pennington III
Over the past 40 years there have been four au-
Recorded live by Fred Seibert thorized release editions in vinyl, CD and digital
Assisted by Roy Langbord streaming from Oblivion Records.
at The Village Gate
116 MacDougal Sreet
Greenwich Village
New York, New York USA
November 5, 1971

.....
• 1st edition, vinyl LP, 1972 (out of print):
1st edition 1972
Supervision: Fred Seibert and Dick Pennington
Logo design: Lisa Lenovitz a curated selection of nine songs from the live
Graphics: the Oblivionettes
Thanks to David Reitman, Steve Heller, Ruth Rock, concerts.
Billy M., and Slim Langbord. Really.
Mastering, pressings, printing by
• 2nd edition, vinyl LP, 1973 (out of print):
Viewlex, Hauppauge, New York virtually the same as the year before, with one
2nd edition 1972
song changed, significantly higher quality
Liner photos: Valerie Wilmer pressings and expanded liner notes.
Graphics: the Oblivionettes with Lisa Lenovitz
Logo design: Lisa Lenovitz
Typesetting: Bridget Deal and the Bridgettes
Mastering, pressings, printing by
Wakefield Manuafacturing, Phoenix, Arizona

3rd edition 1999
Mastered by Anton Glovsky at
Grapeshot Studios,
Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts
Art Direction: Steve Jurgensmeyer • 3rd edition, 2-CDs, 1999 (out of print): the

Photography: Dick Waterman entire concert of 22 performances, released for
Special thanks to Patricia Pomposello,
Dick Waterman, Steve DeTone, Jeff Raymond, the first time, remastered in stereo.
Craig Bryant, Baird Duschatko, and Mark Schwartz.

4th edition 2015

Digital cover art direction & illustraiton:
Frank Olinsky

Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co

 recording of a legend was to be played on my
Saturday afternoon blues show on the station.

We were rewarded with a recording of a superior

performance, and as it transpired, also a historic one
before Fred’s untimely passing less than a year
• 4th edition: streaming, 2015: the original LP later on July 3, 1972.
release and the remastered CD release tracks.
Within a few months Tom Pomposello and I
decided to start Oblivion Records, auspiciously
debuting with the final recordings of the one and
only Missisisippi Fred McDowell.

–Fred Seibert
New York City
2015

This recording turned out to signifiant. Not only was

it one of Fred McDowell’s finest, but sadly it would
become his final recorded performance. Original-
ly recorded for radio broadcast in New York City,
we used a high quality, monaural, one track Nagra
recorder intended for film and field recording. Mi-
crophones were Shure and Electro-Voice, the mixer
was a Shure M68. There was no equalization.

I asked my great friend Roy Langbord to split the

taxi fare (remember, we were college students), lug
half the equipment, and help with the simple, three
microphone set up at the Gaslight. The equipment
was surreptitiously borrowed from the news depart-
ment of Columbia University’s radio station,
WKCR-FM; my rationale was that the unique, live

Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co

LP back cover 1st edition 1972

Liner notes, 1st edition, Spring 1972
By Tom Pomposello and Fred McDowell
In 1959 folklorist Alan Lomax ventured into north-
western Mississippi during a recording field trip of
the Southern USA. He passed through the town of
Como, situated between Highways 51 and 55. Lo-
max explained that he was from a record company
and asked whether there were any local musicians
that he should hear. Among the first names given
was Fred McDowell. Lomax found Fred at home
that evening and proceeded to record him. Fred
played well into the night for Lomax (the session
lasted from 8 p.m. until about 7 a.m. as Fred recalls
it). When Lomax finally departed, he left Fred with
promises that these recordings would bring him
world repute and a great sum of money. Lomax was
at least half right. Despite the fact that the payment
was nominal, the recordings were greeted with
abundant enthusiasm. Even though only eleven
songs were released (on two Prestige LPs: Deep
Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1
South-Sacred and Sinful; and Yazoo Delta-Blues
and Spirituals; and two Atlantic LPs: Sounds of the
South; and Roots of the Blues), the reaction was
immediate. The blues world had discovered Fred
McDowell.
Subsequent to the Lomax recordings things began
happening and Fred found himself in the middle of
a new career. There was a whole new audience
anxious to hear his brand of the blues. In 1964 both
Arhoolie and Testament issued solo LPs by Fred. In
July of that same year Fred was a featured artist at
the Newport Folk Festival (selections from his per-
formances were issued on three separate Vanguard
albums). Then, in 1965, Fred visited Europe with
the American Folk Blues Festival. He was enthusi-
astically received wherever he played.
In 1966 he recorded a second album for Arhoolie.
This contained the song that the Rolling Stones
were soon to “borrow” – “You Got to Move” (in-
cidentally, if Fred is ever paid the royalties for this
song, he should earn more than he did on any of his
own albums). More releases followed on Testament,
Biograph, Polydor International, and Milestone.
Then in 1969 came a second tour of Europe. In Brit-
ain he recorded his first solo album using electric
guitar –Mississippi Fred McDowell in London
(Volumes I and II on Sire and Transatlantic). The re-
action was a mixed one. Everyone loved the music.
But Delta blues on an electric guitar…? One critic
commented that he thought some of the “subtlety”
of the acoustic bottleneck’d high E string was lost
with the electrified instrument. But the new sound
was so compellingly ominous that its beauty was
irresistible.
More electric albums followed. Blue Thumb’s
Memphis Swamp Jam featured three cuts with
www.OblivionRecords.co
Fred on electric guitar and accompanied by Johnny
Woods on harmonica (later a full album by the two
was issued on Revival Records). Arhoolie followed
suit with Fred McDowell and his Blues Boys which
featured Fred accompanied by acoustic guitar, elec-
tric bass, and drums.
Then came the now legendary I Do Not Play No
Rock and Roll album on Capitol. Most reviewers of
contemporary music were astounded. Blues Unlim-
ited called it “…a perfectly fine LP, beautifully re-
corded in stereo and and performed with the usual
McDowell power and verve. Hmmm.” Rolling
Stone went so far as to say: “Well, do you have to
hear any more – this is one mother of a record.” I’ll
never forget one of my musically naïve friends say-
ing: “I never thought blues music could sound like
that.” Still, there were some holdouts. Bob Groom,
a great fan and admirer of Fred’s and the editor of
Blues World magazine wrote: “…not the best Mc-
Dowell LP, but nevertheless recommended to all his
fans… and for the first (and I hope lat) time Fred is
accompanied by a heavily electrified rhythm
group.”
Now I want you all to know that Honest Tom is the
boy who plays bass and 2nd guitar on “Shake ‘Em
on Down” with me on this album. You know he first
came to me and said, “Fred, can I come up and
see you, you know where you’re staying?” Well, I
wasn’t doing anything up there alone and I told him
to come up. When he got there, he brought three
instruments with him – a guitar, a harmonica, and
a bass, and he asked me to say which one he was
better at. Well, I carried him over on the harmonica.
Alright, I said, let’s got to the guitar. Next the bass
– I said, “hold it right there baby, that’s the one.”
Tom, it’s been a real pleasure to have you play with
me. Roll baby.
– Fred McDowell

I never could understand such criticisms for a vari-

ety of reasons. Perhaps, though, the best reply is by
Bob Groom himself who wrote in his book, The
Blues Revival: “Old and new blues cannot be com-
pared, only contrasted…” Which brings us to this
album – it’s electric, it’s heavy, and most
important, it’s Fred McDowell, the way he likes it,
today. Viva!

– Tom Pomposello

Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co

LP back cover 2nd edition 1973

Liner notes, 2nd edition, March 1973
By Tom Pomposello
Well, as this album is about to go into its second
pressing, and I sit here and read back the notes that I
hastily put together for the liner about a year ago, it
all seems strangely inappropriate – I say ‘strangely,’
but not really, I guess. Fred McDowell passed away
on July 3, 1972. The details and circumstances are
known to those of you who are interested, I’m sure.
You know, there is really no tactful way for me to
express my thoughts now when I think about Fred,
not without making these notes sound like some
kind of testimonial. And I don’t like that idea at all.
Record liner notes never make good testimonials
anyway. The thinks Fred accomplished as an art-
ist, those people whom he touch through his music,
those of us who were lucky enough to know him
personally and be taken under the spell of his Mis-
sissippi mystique; these are things which account
for a far greater testimonial than anyone can ever
Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1
put down on paper, because they’re written in peo-
ple’s hearts.
So here I say I’m not going to do it, and I do it. But
I hope you’ll understand. As a student and an ad-
mirer of Fred’s music, I’m gratified in knowing that
his legacy Is adequately represented on disc. As a
musician I take real pride in having been a small
part of this music. The way it turned out, this album
represents the last material that Fred was to record. I
think that this album is an important one (although I
do not feel it’s his most important) in that it presents
a side of Fred McDowell that so many people will
always remember.
The years 1968-1971 were the most rewarding for
Fred in many ways. From a financial standpoint, he
finally began to make a living from his music. He
was well over sixty years of age when he was ulti-
mately able to quit farming and devote his energies
to music and his concert appearances. He purchased
a mobile home for himself and his wife in Como,
Mississippi. Later he even bought a new car, the
first new car he had ever owned. From an artistic
standpoint, these were the years that most people
were exposed to Fred’s brand of blues. He was con-
stantly in demand for convert dates, so much so that
Dick Waterman, his manager and booking agent,
couldn’t keep up with them all. He played all the
American cities that had blues enthusiasts: Mem-
phis, Chichage, Boston, Philadelphia, Ann Arbor,
Portland, Notre Dame, Berkely, and of course, New
York. He also frequented Canada, and twice toured
Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival.
These were also the years he began playing with
electric guitar. It was different alright: electric
delta blues, bottleneck style no less. But audienc-
es and critics loved it. The editors of the Official
Programme of the 1970 Ann Arbor Blues Festival
www.OblivionRecords.co
wrote of him: “Fred McDowell is undoubtedly
the finest bottleneck guitarist alive, and many peo-
ple believe he is the best who ever lived. (Bottle-
neck style guitar playing is done by placing either
a broken off bottleneck or a highly polished piece
of pipe on the small or ring finger of the chording
hand. This technique enables the guitarist to make
the guitar sing with the tone incredibly similar to
an anguished human voice.) He learned bottleneck
from his uncle, who used a ground bone on his fin-
ger, and Fred McDowell perfected the style that
made him the legendary guitarist he is today. If one
listens carefully to Fred it soon becomes apparent
the guitar sings every word he sings. This is Mr.
McDowell’s style,and in the performance of it he
Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1
has no equal.”
This album was recorded live in concert, and as
such is indicative of the type of performance that
audiences came to expect from Fred. His raps. His
deliberate and forceful slide work combined with
those spontaneous lyrics. His uncompromising ren-
Photograph
by Valerie Wilmer
The Village Gaslight
MacDougal Street
Greenwich Village
New York
USA
November 1971
ditions of his “greatest hits,” never playing them
exactly the same twice. Yet, in another way, wheth-
er he was playing for a handful of loyalists at one
o’clock A.M. in the Village Gaslight or to an exu-
berant blues audience at the Ann Arbor Festival, he
did play it all the same – from his heart. I know that
may be a bit of an overworked phrase, but I also
know that it was really true of Fred McDowell. I
www.OblivionRecords.co
used to watch him from the side where I sat next to
him, where only I could see behind those sunglass-
es. He’s playing one of those slow blues and he’d
have his eyes closed, nodding his head in rhythm.
And at the same time he’s been planning the next
stanza, maybe deliberately leaving off a word or
two at the end of a line so he could let the vocalized
slide fill the missing syllables. Anyhow, all this is
to say what Fred said so much more concisely the
night these recordings were made: “I hope you’re
all enjoying my type of playin’. That’s my type of
playin’ y’all. And that’s the blues. ‘Cause you know
a lot of people don’t know what the blues is. But I
do. Blues is a feelin’, you understand. And I really
feel what I’m playin’.”
Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1
SHAKE ‘EM ON DOWN was Fred’s showpiece.
As he admitted, this is as close as he got to rock and
roll. The folks down in Mississippi nicknamed him
“Shake ‘Em” for this number. In fact, there proba-
bly never was a country barbecue that Fred attend-
ed where he could get away without performing it.
Photograph
by Valerie Wilmer
The Village Gaslight
MacDougal Street
Greenwich Village
New York
USA
November 1971
Sometimes when he did this in concert he used to
get up and dance while playing it full out. It’s done
here with two guitars, both bottleneck, with alter-
nating and simultaneous leads.
www.OblivionRecords.co
I’M CRAZY ABOUT YOU BABY is one of those
spontaneous, off the cuff things I was talking about.
When Fred says, “Tom, we haven’t played that yet,”
he means it. Pete Welding in his review of this al-
bum for Living Blues commented that this number
is “by far the best performance on the album and
especially lovely, resilient, stunning, slow blues
played and sung with great feeling, even the tubby
distant sound of Pomposello’s bass guitar adding to
the music’s effectiveness by giving it a vaguely om-
inous quality.” (Hmm.)
JOHN HENRY has got to be the oldest folk blues
in existence. Some musicologists trace it back as
far as the 1880’s. Fred heard it as a boy, learned it,
adapted it, and even re-adapted it with his own ar-
rangement. The long instrumental intro is meant to
convey the idea of something picking up steam.
YOU GOT TO MOVE is the hardest song for me
to comment on objectively for a variety of reasons.
It always seems ironic to me that if it weren’t for
the Rolling Stones’ rendition of this number, Fred’s
name might not have been known to a lot of people.
However, the real irony lies in the fact that once
the Stones credited Fred with the authorship they
remained true to form and made use of an unfor-
tunate legal loophole which held up Fred’s royalty
payments. Look, it was Keith Richard who said in a
Rolling Stone interview that “Maybe once every six
months someone’ll come through with an album.
An Arhoolie album of Fred McDowell. And you’d
say: There’s another cat! That’s another one. Just
blowin’ my mind…” Actually, all you need to do is
listen to the Stones’ version on their Sticky Fin-
gers LP, compare it to Fred’s version, and you’ll
know immediately from where their arrangement is
copped. I think a further or more precise explana-
Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1
tion seems rather pointless and unnecessarily maud-
lin and would fuel a fire that is only now beginning
to die down. But I guess you should know that Fred
wasn’t paid anything that even approximated a par-
tial royalty payment until just days before he died.
OK, enough
of that. Let me tell you what Fred used to say about
this song: “A lot of people who hear me sing this
song would ask me, ‘What does it mean, you got
to move?’ Well, this is a true song and one that has
two meanings. Now you know why I say that? You
know, a lot of people don’t own their own homes.
So you pay so much a month for rent. Now when
you get behind, well, maybe the landlord’ll allow
you to skip the first month or so. But when the third
one comes, if you ain’t paid up you come home one
evening and you find your things sittin’ out on the
street. You see, you got to move… And not only
that, but here’s the more important meaning. We’re
all sittin’ back listenin’. When this is over, maybe
you plan to go out to next door. But you know, you
may not live to walk out that door. If you fall dead,
if you happen to die, you done moved. That’s one
debt you can’t dodge. When the Lord gets ready,
you got to move.”
SOMEDAY BABY is a blues that a lot of people
have recorded thematic variants of. Muddy Waters
calls his “Trouble No More” and Big Maceo Mer-
riweather titled his version “Worried Life Blues.”
Be that as it may, like Fred’s they all derived from
Sleepy John Estes 1935 clasic “Someday Baby
Blues.” The thing to watch for here is the patented
McDowell syncopation. Listen to the way he plays
slightly off the beat while singing on it. Yeah, it is
rather difficult.
www.OblivionRecords.co
MERCY is a really powerful slow blues especially
in terms of Fred’s vocal work. The melody rigg was
one that Fred used quite often, but the lyrics were
almost always improvised in accordance with his
“mood.” The result is seen immediately in the open-
ing stanza, which consists of some unusual lyrics
(unusual for Fred that is) and lines which are of un-
certain origin. “Everyone’s cryin’ mercy, Lord what
do mercy mean? Well, if it means anything, Lord
have mercy on me!”
BABY PLEASE DON’T GO was written in the 30’s
by Big Joe Williams and has always been a pop-
ular tune with bluesmen and audiences alike. The
version here comes off as uniquely McDowell with
shades of “Shake ‘Em On Down.” This one’s anoth-
er rocker, and was likewise one of Fred’s most re-
quested pieces in later years. If you listen carefully
you’ll hear another Fred McDowell trademark: See
if you can count how many tempo accelerations the
song contains.

– Tom Pomposello, March 1973

THE LOVIN’ BLUES is a song with a universal
meaning. The lady in question is a delta woman. [Library of Congress Number 73-760456
Fred’s delta woman. The song deals simply with the applies to this record.]
joys and sorrows of being in love. “You know you
got a home little girl, so long as I got mine.”

WHITE LIGHTNIN’ was not included on the first

edition of this album, but nonetheless we chose
to substitute it for “Goin’ to the River” which al-
ready has been issued a number of times on some of
Fred’s other albums. I know this is bound to annoy
some people as well as foul up the annotations of
discographers everywhere, but I assume the respon-
sibility based on the fact that this song is important
as one of Fred’s last compositions. In some ways
it’s related to “Smokestack Lightnin’,” but not re-
ally. After due consideration we also decided on
the substitution because it’s a song not too many
of Fred’s fans got to hear. (Although one of Fred’s
Arhoolie albums contains a similar piece titled “You
Ain’t Treating Me Right.”) Besides, where are you
gonna find lyrics like: “Wake up baby, get your big
legs off of me. Put your left left leg baby, where you
right ‘un oughta be.”

Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co

LP inner sleeve 2nd edition 1972
 LP lables 1st edition 1972

LP lables 2nd edition 1973

Graphic design credits 1st edition 1972 Typesetting: Columbia 2ndedition 1973 Typesetting: Columbia
Layout: Fred Seibert University Spectator Liner and label design /layout: University Spectator
Logo: Lisa Lenovitz Eaton Labels: Viewlex Corporation, Fred Seibert Labels: Viewlex Corporation,
Typesetting: Steven Heller Hauppauge, NY Photography: Valerie Wilmer Hauppauge, NY
Photographer: unknown
Fred McDowell Eulogy July 1972
Tom Pomposello would be dedicated to the memory
of Fred, his teacher and musical colloaborator,
for the rest of his life. During the first week of July
1972, he phoned into his radio show’s home at
Columbia University’s WKCR-FM with this eulogy
for his great mentor and teacher, Fred McDowell.
.....
It’s with the deepest regret that I inform you tonight
of the death of Mississippi Fred McDowell on July
3rd. Fred died late Monday evening at Baptist Hos-
pital in Memphis.
Fred really meant a great deal to me. Those of you
who know me know that for the past two years I
studied with Fred and worked as his bass player
here in New York. Consequently, it’s kind of hard to
put it exactly into words just what I want to say. It’s
hard not to sound cliche when I tell you Fred was
the most remarkable man I ever met.
.....
He was born in Rossville, Tennessee in January of
1904 or thereabouts. They didn’t keep birth certif-
icates if you were black and born on the plantation
back then. He moved to Como, Mississippi to be
with his sister when he was still a young man, and
it was there he spent the better part of his life until
1959, when he was, quote, discovered by Alan Lo-
max who proceeded to record him that same year.
Fred’s earliest recordings met with the highest
critical acclaim by the blues world. Fred was best
known as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, ex-

When Fred
would travel
to New York,
sometimes he
would crash
with Tom
Pomposello’s
family in
Commack,
Long Island,
New York.

Fred McDowell
with Travis
Pomposello,
Commack,
New York
1971
Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co
ponents of the bottleneck guitar. If you’re interested really miss very much.
he has albums on Arhoolie, Capitol, Testament, and
Biograph, which all really attest to his remarkable I just a few minutes ago spoke to his wife over the
musicianship. His most recent is called “Live in New telephone and funeral services will be held in Como,
York” on which I played with him. Mississippi this sunday and should you wish and I
hope you do decide to drop his wife a letter or send
He was also known as as a distinguished composer a sympathy card. Address it to Esther Mae McDow-
and lyricist, and many people know him only from ell, General Delivery, Como, Mississippi and if you
the Rolling Stones rendition of his classic “You Got want, the zip code is 38619.
To Move” and only then because it was recorded by
the Stones which makes me kinda sad. Because Fred That’s about all I can say right now.
was the kind of man who would take time out of his
life to show his music to anyone who asked. Those of I’ll miss you Fred.
you who were lucky enough to get to meet him know
what I mean when I tell you that his sense of humor
and his sense of understanding and the way he could
put you at ease just by rapping with you.

I didn’t find out about Fred’s death until early this

morning when I received a call from Dick Waterman
his manager. The last time I spoke to Fred was less
than a week ago when he was in the same hospital
in memphis and i could tell that he was slipping fast
and yet whenever i asked him about himself he just
wouldn’t give me a direct answer, he would always
change the subject and asked me how my wife was
and how my child was. He meant it sincerely.

The last time he was in new york was this November

where he played the Gaslight, and his last major ap-
pearance was at the Notre Dame Blues Festival, also
this last November. He went home for the holidays
and it was there he became pretty ill. He tried to put
us at ease when he had to go into the hospital in the
early part of this year, when he told us he had to go in
for an ulcer operation. But, it was about time that we
learned from his physician that it was really terminal
stomach cancer. I was with Fred Mississippi in late
april, early may of this year, and he was in good spir-
its. And I’ll never forget the time he showed me. I’ll
Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co
 3rd edition: 1999
Mississippi Fred McDowell: Live at the Gaslight
Front cover & slipcase
Live Archive, compact disc (out of print)

Art Direction: Steve Jurgensmeyer

Photography: Dick Waterman

......
In 1999, Tom Pomposello felt it was time to release
the complete recordings of the two sets that he
played with Fred McDowell on November 5, 1971.

As Fred’s last recorded performance it had historical

importance, and the compact disc format made it
practical to expose all 22 tracks.

Tom remastered the original mono recording,

adding some stereo ambiance to more
approximate the sound of the Village Gas-
light, and then licensed the results to Anton
Glovsky’s short lived Live Archive CD label.
All the tracks are now available on global
streaming platforms.

Unfortunately, after Tom’s untimely passing

the original recordings disappeared, and these
remastered songs are all that survive.

–Fred Seibert
September 2021

Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co

Liner notes, 3rd edition, 1999
By Tom Pomposello
It is not the easiest task for me to write the liner
notes to a Mississippi Fred McDowell album, not
without having them read like some kind of testimo-
nial. It is especially difficult because this particular
record turned out to be Fred’s last recorded album,
although it was never intended that way. Fred died
as a result of serious abdominal ulcers on July 3,
1972. This recording was made during the end of
his last tour during the winter of 1971. As a student
and occasional bass player with Fred McDowell,
my life became so entwined with his, that I suppose
for me to write an impartial evaluation of his music
would be nearly impossible.
But then, no one said that these were to be impar-
tial. The funny thing is that record liner notes never
make good testimonials. The things Fred achieved
Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1
as an artist, those people whom he touched through
his music, those of us who were lucky enough to
know him personally and be taken under the spell
of his “Mississippi mystique”- these are the things
which account for a greater testimonial than anyone
can ever put down on paper, because they’re written
in people’s hearts.
Nonetheless, this album becomes a tribute, of sorts,
to one of America’s greatest bluesmen. Personal-
ly, I would like to devote a majority of this space
to a discussion of his accomplishments during his
later years. (For those who are interested in an in-
depth profile of Fred’s life, personal recollections,
biographical background, and analysis of his bottle-
neck guitar style, I would like to refer you to an arti-
cle which I wrote for the November 1977 issue of
Guitar Player Magazine, which is posted at [https://
bit.ly/TomFred]). I will say that Fred McDowell was
one of the most remarkable men I ever met. A more
www.OblivionRecords.co
 Philadelphia, Ann Arbor, Portland, Notre dame,
Berkeley, and of course, New York. He also fre-
quented Canada, and twice toured Europe with The
American Folk Blues Festival.

These were also the years he started playing electric

guitar. It was different all right. He played electric
delta blues, bottleneck style no less, and the audi-
ence and the critics loved it. The editors of “Official
Programme of the 1970 Ann Arbor Blues Festival”
wrote of him: “Fred McDowell is undoubtedly the
finest bottleneck guitar player alive, and many peo-
ple believe that he is the best that ever lived. (Bot-
tleneck style is done by either placing a broken off
bottleneck or a highly polished piece of pipe on the

“giving” musician I cannot imagine. He was the

kind of man who would take the time to discuss his
experiences and share his music with anyone who
was interested enough to ask. I believe that this al-
bum captures but one facet of his enthusiastic audi-
ence, working for them and playing to them.

The years 1968-1971 were the most rewarding to

Fred in many ways. From a financial standpoint he
finally began to make a living from his music. He
was well over sixty years of age when was ultimate-
ly able to quit farming and devote his energies to
music and his concert appearances. He purchased a
mobile home for himself and his wife in Mississip-
pi. Later, he even bought a new car, the first new
car he had ever owned. From an artistic standpoint, small or ring finger of the chording hand. This tech-
these were the years that most people were exposed nique enables the guitarist to make the guitar sing
to Fred’s brand of the blues. He was constantly in with the tone incredibly similar to an anguished
demand for concert dates, so much so that Dick Wa- human voice.) He learned bottleneck from his uncle,
terman, his manager and booking agent, couldn’t who used a ground bone on his finger, and Fred Mc-
keep up with them all. He played all the American Dowell perfected the style that made him the legend-
cities that had blues enthusiasts: Memphis, Chicago, ary guitarist he is today. If one listens carefully to
Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co
 vocalized slide fill the missing syllables... Anyhow,
all this is to say what Fred said so much more con-
cisely the night these recordings were made:

“I hope you’re all enjoying my type of playin’.

That’s my type of playin’ y’all. And that’s the blues.
‘Cause you know a lot of people don’t know what
the blues is. But I do. Blues is a feelin’, you under-
stand. And I really feel what I’m playin’.”

–Tom Pomposello

Tom Pomposello wrote these liner notes for the

original vinyl release of the Gaslight recordings.
By restoring the entire concert, we have added
eleven songs to the program. Unfortunately,
Fred it soon becomes apparent that the guitar sings
Tom passed away before he was able to update
every word he sings. This is Mr. McDowell’s style,
his notes.
and in the performance of it he has no equal.”

This album was recorded live in concert, and as

such is indicative of the type of performance that
audiences came to expect from Fred. His raps. His
deliberate and forceful slide work combined
with those spontaneous lyrics. His uncompromising
renditions of his “greatest hits,” never playing them
exactly the same twice. Yet, in another way, whether
he was playing for a handful of loyalists at one
o’clock AM in the Village Gaslight or to an exu-
berant blues audience at the Ann Arbor Festival,
he did play it all the same -- from his heart. I know
that that may be a bit of an overworked phrase, but I
also know that it was really true of Fred McDowell.
I used to watch him from the side where I sat next
to him, where only I could see behind those sun-
glasses. He’d be playing one of those slow blues
and he’d have his eyes closed, nodding his head in
rhythm. And at the same time he’d be planning the
next stanza, maybe deliberately leaving off a word
or two at the end of the line so he could let the

Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co

Digital cover 4th edition 2015
 4th edition: 2015
Oblivion Records
Digital streaming

Art Direction & illustration: Frank Olinsky

The 4th edition of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s

“Live in New York” is the digital streaming version of
the complete recorded performances at the Village Gas-
light, using Tom Pomposello’s remastered masters from
the CD edition.

The albums are available as a complete set (Volumes 1

& 2) and separate recordings with 11 songs each.
.....

Several times over the years, my late, great Oblivion

Records partner, Tom Pomposello, expressed his deter-
mination to always keep “Live in New York” available
for the world’s fans. Not only did he admire Fred Mc-
Dowell’s musical talent, his deep esteem for the man
himself (not always a combination that went together
on everyone) knew no bounds. Beyond that, of course,
was the connection that Tom got with his beloved blues
that came with his brief, but enduring friendship.

The last phone call I had with Tom before his passing
in a freak car accident was his exhilaration about final-
ly being able to remaster and release the entire concert
we’d recorded that night in 1971. As much as he revered
the hundred years of blues traditions, he was never shy
about moving forward with the technologies of the day.

So, as downloads and streaming began to replace phys-

ical embodiments of music reproduction I made sure
that all the Oblivion records –and especially Fred’s
“Live in New York”– would stay with the times.

This digitally streaming 4th edition is dedicated to

the memories of Fred McDowell and, of course,
Tom Pomposello.

–Fred Seibert
Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co
 Engagement
Flyer

The Village
Gaslight
MacDougal St.
Grennwich
Village
New York

Doc Watson
November 11-16,
1970

Mississippi
Fred McDowell
November 18-23,
1970

Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co

 First
distributor
flyer for
“Live in
New York”
Spring 1972

Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co

 “Live in New York” advertising in Living Blues Magazine 1972

Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co

 Second
distributor
flyer for
“Live in
New York”
Spring 1973

Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co

 Some of producer
Fred Seibert’s
“Live in New York”
graphics and
pressing notes

Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co

 Logo exploration and detail
from the sketchbook of
Lisa Lenovitz 1972

Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co


TOM NEVER GAVE UP THE FLAME
For almost 30 years after Mississippi Fred McDow-
ell passed in 1972, Tom Pomposello never gave
up the flame, continuing to listen closely to Fred’s
recordings and reflecting on their conversations
together on lessons learned, especially about the
guitar. Tom shares some of them in this detailed arti-
cle about Fred’s style in the November 1977 Guitar
Player, calling him “one of the most important rural
blues guitarists to come out of the Blues Revival of
the 1960s.”
Even now, I can remember hearing my first Missis-
sippi Fred McDowell record. I remember monkeying
around with a slide piece for the guitar, saying to my
wife: “Boy, if I could learn to get that sound, I would
Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1
leave for Mississippi tomorrow and find Fred Mc-
Dowell and persuade him to teach me.” The kind of
stuff dreams are made of. About one month later, in
November of 1970, I was going to get the chance to
make a dream come true.
I was walking around the West Village in New York
City one night, and I passed by the old Gaslight club
on MacDougal Street. Their sign read “Appearing
next week: Mississippi Fred McDowell.” On opening
night I was at the Gaslight two hours early, so I could
get the first table. I sat there in awe, about five feet
away from Fred, watching this old man of the blues
execute some of his classic bottleneck guitar licks,
making them sound brand new.
After the show, I weaseled my way backstage and
approached him. I asked him about his music, and he
answered without any reluctance. Then I finally got
around to the big question. “You know, Mr. McDow-
ell, if I could, I’d really like to have the chance to
take a few lessons from you.” If you’d like to show
me a few things while you’re here in New York,
I’d be glad to pay you for the opportunity!” He just
smiled and said, “Well, I’ll tell you. Someday this
week, you just come up to where I’m staying at. Give
me a call, and I’ll show you whatever I can. There’s
no sense in me taking any money for the few little
things I can show you.”
As I got to know Fred better over the years, I found
this to be indicative of the genuine musician that he
was. He would take the time out of his life to show
his music to anyone who would ask, flattered that
they were interested. Unlike so many artists who are
reluctant to explain the intricacies of their styles for
fear (often with good reason) of being ripped off and
receiving no recognition, McDowell’s philosophy
was, “Well, that might be true; that’s just what they
may do. But I do know that in their hearts, after I’m
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dead and buried, they’re always gonna remember
that I was the one that taught it to them even if they
don’t tell nobody else.
I did call Fred while he was in town, and he said
“Sure, come on up.” I went to see him nervous as
hell, brought along my guitar, and stuck my bass gui-
tar (which I was playing in a rock band) in the trunk
of my car. Well, he tried hard to show me things,
but I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t get the finger-
picking motion coordinated. My intonation with the
bottleneck would have made a dog how, but Mc-
Dowell did get me started. I was about to leave when
I decided that I would like to redeem myself in my
idol’s eyes. I told him I played some bass, and asked
if I could try to accompany him on a few numbers.
Fred said, “Sure why didn’t you say so?” So I hur-
ried downstairs to get my instrument, came up, and
plugged into an amp. We began playing, and evident-
ly I was following him pretty well, because he kept
throwing one song at me after another, each one get-
ting a bit faster and a little more intricate.
A couple of times he laughed out loud, I guess sur-
prised this long-haired Italian kid from Long Island
seemed so familiar with his songs. What Fred didn’t
know was that by this time I had collected all of his
records and used to sit home and try to figure them
out on guitar; when I couldn’t do that, I would play
along with the records on my bass. Fred carried me
through a few numbers, then paused for a moment.
“Well, how about playing with me at the Gaslight
tonight?” he said laughing. I was kind of stunned by
that question and made some sort of lame excuse as
to how I had to get back to my job. Fred gave me
every opportunity to change my mind, but my inhibi-
tions won out. Before saying goodbye, he gave me a
couple of mementos, and I gave him a bottle of Beef-
eaters gin. More important, he gave me his address in
Mississippi where he would be returning shortly.
Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1
We stayed in close touch by mail, and when he re-
turned to New York a few months later, I was musi-
cally ready. I got in touch with his close friend and
manager Dick Waterman, and when Fred came to
town, he stayed at my house. I worked the gigs with
him in New York City, which were by this time get-
ting to be quite frequent. This is how I began a rela-
tionship that lasted for almost two years, until Mc-
Dowell’s death in July of 1973.
I would be trite to relate the way Fred turned my
musical perspectives around, but perhaps the most
important moments in my musical development oc-
curred during the time I spent with him at his mobile
home in Como, Mississippi, enjoying his hospitality
and that of his devoted wife, Ester Mae. Fred was re-
cuperating from an operation that would never fully
recover from, and he still took the time to show me
what Mississippi blues was really about.
McDowell was born somewhere between 1903 and
1906. No one seems certain, because back then if you
were black and living on a plantation no one kept
accurate documentation of such things. He was born
in Rossville, Tennessee – a fact which always used to
bemuse Fred. “They call me Mississippi Fred, but re-
ally my home is in Rossville, Tennessee.” He became
interested in guitar when he was in his late teens. I
remember him telling me one time, “When I was a
boy, I think the first blues record I ever heard was
Blind Lemon Jefferson singing ‘Black Snake Moan.’
‘O-oh, ain’t got no mama now.’
“Man, I tell you, I thought that was the prettiest lit-
tle thing I’d ever heard.” By this time, music was all
around Fred. His Uncle Gene Shields was a guitarist
and a leader of a trio. He credits Shields with being
the first one he saw play in the bottleneck style. His
uncle had taken a beef rib bone and filed it down
www.OblivionRecords.co
smooth and then played with it on his little finger.
Also in Uncle Gene’s trio was a harmonica player
named Cal Payne, who showed Fred “John Henry.”
Cal’s son Raymond was about the same age as Fred,
who used to say, “He was a real good guitar player,
regular style, not bottleneck.” But Raymond would
never show anyone anything. “If you’d walk into the
room when Raymond was playing,” Fred recalled,
“he’d right away put the guitar down so you couldn’t
see what he was doing. Then he’d make some kind of
excuse, ‘I’m tired now’ or ‘My fingers hurt.’” I often
think this early experience was one of the reasons
why McDowell was so open about his style. “Oth-
er musicians might try to lose you when they play
with you to make themselves look better than you,”
he said, “but they don’t know how bad it make them
look.”
Despite Raymond Payne’s reluctance to teach him
anything, Fred still insisted that “no one could show
me nothing anyway. Everyone could play ‘cept me.
All the boys. But I had to learn things my own way.
Even if you’d be showing me, I’d have to go off on
my own and get it my way. They’d all be playing
ball or something, and I’d be practicing on Booster
Green’s guitar.” (Eli “Booster” Green was an old-
er friend and one-time mentor of Fred’s with whom
he was later reunited musically by Chris Strachwitz
on a 1966 recording session for Arhoolie [Fred Mc-
Dowell, Vol. II]. It was Eli who taught McDowell the
celebrated tune, “Write Me A Few Lines”.) The first
song Fred ever learned was Tommy Johnson’s “Big
Fat Mama (With The Meat Shakin’ On Your Bones).”
“I learned it on one string,” he explained, “then two,
note by note. Man, I about worried that first string to
death trying to learn that song.” This note-by-note
method was one that was going to become an intri-
cate part of Fred’s later day technical approach.
Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1
Even though McDowell experienced his share of
obstacles on guitar, he was always sought after as a
vocalist. He would be invited to the old time Satur-
day night suppers and would always be asked to sing
along with the other guitarists. When they would get
tired, Fred would take over on guitar, too.
Fred left Rossville when he was about 21, tired of
plowing fields with a mule. During a trip south to
Cleveland, Mississippi in the later 1920s at a Satur-
day night juke joint, he heard the legendary Charlie
Patton perform. He was quite impressed, and con-
sciously began to adapt several of Patton’s tunes to
his own style. “Gravel Road Blues” is his adaptation
of Patton’s “Down The Dirt Road Blues.”
McDowell also spent a good deal of time in Mem-
phis before he ultimately settled in Mississippi. He
held down a variety of jobs as a laborer. In Memphis
throughout the 1930s he tried to master the guitar but
was hampered by not owning his own instrument.
While working at a dairy outside of Memphis, he got
his first guitar. A white man from Texas, by the name
of Mr. Taylor, whom Fred remembered quite fondly,
presented it to him. This was 1941, just before Fred
decided to move south to Mississippi and settle down
near his sister.
It was in Como, Mississippi, that Fred McDowell
was to ultimately refine the style that would one day
classify him as one of the greatest country bluesmen
of the postwar years.
In 1959, folklorist Alan Lomax ventured into North-
western Mississippi during a recording field trip of
the southern United States. When Lomax came to
Como, he inquired as to whether there were any lo-
cal bluesmen that he should hear, explaining he was
from a record company. Among the first names given
was Fred McDowell.
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Lomax found Fred at home that evening and pro-
ceeded to record him. Fred played well into the night
for the session (from almost 8pm until almost 7am,
as he recalls it!). When Lomax finally departed, he
left with promises that these recordings would bring
McDowell fame and fortune. Well, he was half right.
Despite the fact that the payment was nominal, the
recordings when issued were met by much enthusi-
asm in folk and blues circles. What the recordings
did for Fred was to establish him, at the age of 55,
as one of the great “new discoveries” in the blues
world.
Fred had the opportunity to play and record for a
whole new audience. In 1964, fully five years later,
he performed at the Newport Folk Festival. By this
time Arhoolie and Testament Records had issued solo
albums by McDowell. In 1965 and again in 1969, he
toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festi-
val. In German and especially Great Britain, he was
wonderfully received. Rolling Stone Keith Richard
heard Fred’s version of the spiritual “You Got To
Move” and arranged it for the Rolling Stones’ Sticky
Fingers album [Rolling Stones 59100].
In 1969, Fred made country blues History in Great
Britain. He recorded a solo album for the Transat-
lantic label using electric guitar. It seems odd today,
but reaction at the time among purists was mixed.
Everyone was used to Chicago blues played electri-
cally, but Delta blues on electric guitar? One critic
commented that he thought much of the subtlety,
especially in McDowell’s fills, was lost. But nothing
could have been further from the truth. One listen to
“Amazing Grace” performed on the electric instru-
ment and you were a believer. Strangely enough, the
instrument was very appropriate for the spirituals
Fred loved to perform. That shimmering tone he used
to creat and his sophisticated hand/bottleneck vibrato
Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1
were seemingly intensified by the electric. Likewise
his blues numbers, particularly the percussive, driv-
ing rhythmic patterns in such songs as “Shake ‘Em
On Down” and “Drop Dead Mama” were greatly
enhanced. And the electric instrument undoubtedly
made Fred’s music more accessible to a new gen-
eration of blues enthusiasts. He was well aware of
this and used to caution his admirers (quite tongue
in cheek, I might add): “I do not play no rock’n’roll,
y’all. Just the straight and natch’l blue.”
Prior to 1968, the majority of McDowell’s recordings
were performed on an acoustic guitar, either his old
wood bodied National or his acoustic Hofner. I am
not sure of the make of Fred’s first electric; it was a
red dual-pickup imitation of a Gibson ES-335. I only
saw him use that electric once; by the time I began
playing with him, he had a replacement. His old elec-
tric conked out while he was on tour in California,
and he had it assessed as simply not worth repair-
ing. By now, he had grown accustomed to the elec-
tric sound, and had no desire to go back to playing
acoustic.
Fred found a good deal on a cherry-colored, mid-Six-
ties Trini Lopez Standard model Gibson. This in-
strument was not unlike the ES-335, except that the
headstock has all six tuning machines on one side,
like a Gibson Thunderbird, or similar to a Fender.
Instead of f-holes, the guitar had elongated, diamond
shaped soundholes. I can recall one night on stage,
Rev. Gary Davis was in the audience. He came up
to play a guest set, and Fred gave him his Gibson to
use. McDowell left the stage, and Davis (who was
blind) began retuning it. Feeling the strange head-
stock, he asked, “What kind of guitar is this anyway
that Fred’s using? A Fender? What’s Fred doing with
a Fender?” A few people in the audience tried to
explain that the guitar was a Gibson, but Rev. Gary
insisted that he knew a Fender from a Gibson.
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McDowell used this Trini Lopez guitar until his
death. The only modification he had done to it was to
slightly raise the strings, or more precisely, have the
angel at which the strings touched the nut, altered.
This was done by the installation of a small metal
shim, sort of like a long inverted “U” just above the
nut. This helped to raise the action ever so slightly in
the lower position of the guitar, without resulting in
higher action throughout, and not noticeable affect-
ing the guitar’s intonation.
Fred used Black Diamond Light-Gauge Electric
Strings (.0114, .014, .025, .031, .040, .051). Actu-
ally, the brand or the gauge didn’t matter much, so
long as the set included a plain, unwound G string.
Whenever he bought a new set of strings, before he
laid the money on the counter, he made sure to check
for that unwound string. When he would play my
guitar, he would always say, “Tom, I can’t hardly do
nothin’ with this. You’ve got one of them wrapped G
strings.”
When playing straight acoustic, he would pick with
his bare fingers – the thumb and index on his right
hand. To get that acoustic clarity on an electric, he
found that picks were a necessity. He simply used
a regular plastic thumbpick and a plastic fingerpick
on his index finger. His style of picking ranged from
simple note-to-note to highly complex rhythmic and
heavily syncopated brush strokes, or any combina-
tion of the two.
Most of McDowell’s touring during the late Sixties
and early Seventies was done in a Greyhound Bus.
He hated to fly unless it was absolutely necessary.
Consequently, he used to carry only a small practice
amp with him, hoping that when he arrived at a club
or festival, he could plug into whatever better equip-
ment was available. Oftentimes there would be noth-
ing available, or else some well meaning producer
Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1
would want to record the bluesman through his own
amp, insisting that it would be inaccurate to record a
blues artist using someone else’s equipment.
This was unfortunate, because those little amps were
maybe 10 or 15 watts, with one 8” speaker, and not
really sufficient for his purposes. Sometimes a club
would combat this by close miking his amp through
the PA system, but unless this was done absolutely
right, the result was often a very muddy sound. This
is why many of Fred’s recordings leave the listener
with a false impression of his tone. I know from his
reaction to good amps that what he was after was a
clean, clear sound with a good amount of top end.
The first time Fred tried to play bottleneck guitar (as
a child) he used a pocket-knife to emulate the style
his Uncle Gene had using the beef rib bone. It didn’t
take long for Fred to realize that in order to get the
volume and clarity he wanted, he would have to
switch to a glass bottleneck. Since his style did not
utilize full chords barred with a bottleneck, he chose
to use a short neck (about 1” long) off of a Gordon’s
gin bottle. I remember him telling me how many dif-
ferent things he had tried, but this gin bottleneck was
the one he really liked.
McDowell made his bottleneck, I believe, by first
scribing the bottle with some sharp object along the
lines where he wanted it to break. Then he ran it
under hot water in a bathtub, then under cold water
while he gently tapped it along the scribed seams.
It worked on the first try. (Fate must have been with
him, because I could never get this method to work
for me!)
It’s funny how a musician can get attached to some-
thing like a bottleneck. One evening, I saw Fred ner-
vously rummaging through his guitar case, and then
breathing a sigh of relief upon finding his treasured
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Gordon’s bottleneck. “Tom, if I’d have lost that,” he
said, “I might as well turned around and went back
home.” Once in Germany, when Fred was touring
with the American Folk Blues Festival, he told me
how he reluctantly lent his bottleneck to Buddy Guy,
who wanted to try to work in a couple of slide tunes.
Buddy returned it and explained his had accident-
ly dropped the slide, and it had broken. Fred almost
fainted. He tried in vain to find a replacement in
downtown Hamburg. He did finally find a glassware
bottle store and tried to explain to the proprietor how
he would like him to cut off the neck of this one bot-
tle. The two struggled through the language difficul-
ties until finally the shopkeeper nodded his head and
gave an understanding smile. He disappeared into
the backroom and returned, beaming about fifteen
minutes later with the bottle beautifully cut into an
antique vase!
Mississippi Fred wore his bottleneck on his third or
fourth finger, depending on the tuning he was using.
He used three basic tunings: open E, open A, and
standard tuning. On his earlier acoustic records, he
of used the A tuning [E, A, E, A, C#, E, low to high].
For this tuning he wore the bottleneck on his little
finger. In standard tuning as well (which he used in-
frequently), he would wear the bottleneck on his lit-
tle finger, playing usually in the key of E, using the
bottleneck sparingly, on perhaps a lead descending
pentatonic scale done on the high E string. In open E
tuning [E, B, E, G#, B, E, low to high] Fred wore his
bottleneck on his third (or ring) finger. He preferred
to use his bottleneck more often in the E tuning, be-
cause it lends itself more toward melodic playing.
It is important to point out that when I refer to E or
A tuning in Fred’s case, I’m talking about a very
relative thing. When he tuned his guitar to an E, he
would note always tune to a perfect E. This is not to
say his guitar wasn’t in tune, but more correctly that
Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1
his guitar was in tune with his voice. Usually, before
going on stage, McDowell would sing a few bars
and tune the guitar to where it felt right for his voice.
There was no problem, since the pitch of the open
tuning determines the key of the song. By my own
estimation, he did have an exquisite sense of relative
pitch, anyway. I saw him stop a song more than once
because he was unsatisfied with the tuning, saying,
“Wait a minute, y’all. I’m sorry, but I just can’t play
for you the way I want unless this is tuned just so.”
It might be advantageous at this point to define bot-
tleneck playing as opposed to “slide guitar” playing.
While either makes use of a metal slide bar, piece of
pipe, or an actual bottleneck, the basic approach is
different.
A slide guitarist might play in either open or stan-
dard tuning, but usually favors the standard. The
player will most often use a flatpick and use the slide
to play single-note leads or double-stops at most. In
other words, what emerges is not really a self-accom-
panied style, but one where the slide is able to sup-
plement the guitarist’s already existing style. I would
call Duane Allman and his predecessor, Earl Hooker,
slide guitarists rather than bottleneck guitarists. Slide
guitarists are generally ensemble players, throwing
out chords and fills like conventional guitarists, and
then perhaps adding a solo with the slide. Although
they do not usually fingerpick, they have the added
versatility of using more keys. It is this inherent lim-
itation of being into one or two keys in the open-tun-
ing bottleneck approach that is also its strength.
Bottleneck playing, in my estimation, refers only to
open tunings and fingerpicking. It is generally con-
ceived of as a self-contained style. Anyone who has
ever messed around in an open tuning can see how
wonderful having three strings tuned to the same
note can be. In E tuning, a usual picking pattern
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takes on the characteristics of a monotonic or “dead
thumb” bass line, combined with fingerpicking a usu-
ally syncopated melody line with the first finger. The
strength in the bottleneck lies in the fact that you can
be thumbpicking your bass notes open, while play-
ing melody notes at the 12th fret or higher. This, as I
have said, is also the limitation. It is nearly impossi-
ble to play that style in another key without altering
the tuning. Try it! In E tuning, barre across the 3rd
fret. Now, while wearing the bottleneck, try to reach
up to high G at the 15th fret on the E string. No way!
So, fingerpicked bottleneck playing almost demands
that you be in open tuning, because to keep that
monotonic bass line going, and still use the bottle-
neck in the upper extremities, you’ve got to be tuned
open. This style, incidentally, precludes many chord
changes. This is why so much bottleneck music has
that “drone” sound with the melody superimposed.
This is also why Fred favored the short bottleneck.
Most of his playing, and that early Mississippi coun-
try sound, is all based in the tonic. He would pick
the open bass strings with his thumb, and at the same
time be picking melody lines with his fingerpick,
using the bottleneck to affect the pitch. Sometimes,
as in “You Got To Move,” he might depart from that
procedure and simply play the melody line on the
bass strings alone.
When he would sing, the guitar part would echo his
vocal phrasing almost exactly. Much has been made
of the McDowell style of letting the vocalized bot-
tleneck fill in. Listen to his version of “Baby Please
Don’t Go” [I Do Not Play No Rock’N’Roll] where
he would be playing and singing simultaneously.
“Baby, please don’t go,” then maybe the next time
through, he would sing only “Baby, please…” – let-
ting the vibrato of the bottleneck vocalize the two
missing words. He would say, “When you hear me
play, if you listen real close, you’ll hear the guitar
Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1
say the same thing I’m saying, too.” He was very
flattered one time by a perceptive fan who came up
after the show and said, “You know, that’s the first
time I ever heard a talking guitar.” That was the ef-
fect Fred was out to achieve. This is a very funda-
mental point about the blues that is easy to lose sight
of. In the traditional blues, the lyric is everything.
As Fred would tell me, “I love the guitar, but it’s the
words saying that the people are listening to.”
During the winter of 1971, when he was staying
with me between engagements at the Gaslight, I
was in the process of laying down some of my own
demo tracks at a recording studio in New York. I
asked Fred if he would like to come along and do
some coaching, maybe sing or play a duet with me.
Although he was not feeling well (something I did
not realize at the time), he agreed in an instant. One
of the songs he led me in that day, “Hey Little Girl
(Who Made Your Dress),” was so effective we de-
cided to issue it on my own album Honest Tom
Pomposello [Oblivion OD-6]. A few days after this
session, Fred returned home, canceling the remainder
of his tour because of severe stomach pains. On the
advice of his doctor, they operated, and he was not
to leave his home again. I visited him there in MIs-
sissippi that following spring. He was in good spirits
and showed me the time of my life. A few days after,
I returned home and called, only to find Fred back
in the hospital. We talked over the phone. He never
complained, but I could tell the great pain he was in.
Instead, he kept asking me how I was doing and told
me to say hello to my wife Chris, and his “little bud-
dy,” my son Travis. On July 5, 1973 we headed back
down to Mississippi to attend his funeral. Fred Mc-
Dowell had died from abdominal cancer.
To my knowledge, that informal session he had done
with me in New York City was the last time he set
foot in a recording studio. I am very proud of that
www.OblivionRecords.co
session.

All too often, musicians who stop and analyze the

style of another musician, make the mistake of nev-
er looking beyond the man’s technical prowess. I
have never heard anybody play or sing like Missis-
sippi Fred McDowell. But I am convinced that what
made Fred great as a musician was what made him
great as a man. That “Mississippi mystique” of his,
that undefinable something that is the spirit of the
real blues.

Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co

Mississipi Fred McDowell: Live in New York OD-1 www.OblivionRecords.co
 MISSISSIPPI FRED McDOWELL INDEPENDENT
Live in New York AMERICAN
MUSIC
Oblivion album OD-1
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