October Song #1: Jesus On The Mainline
Like most folks of my generation, I'm most familiar with this song from Ry Cooder's version. Some sources credit Mississippi Fred McDowell as the writer, but that's an Alan Lomax thing. This is best described as a traditional African-American spiritual in the call and response form, where where the "what you want" can be whatever, well, you want.
This was an easy one to learn, mostly I-IV, with an odd little major 6th thing thrown into Ry's studio version. Ry recorded it in C, which is a very comfortable key for me to sing it in. But for funsies, here's a video of Ry and David Lindley performing it at NOLA Jazzfest in 1994. It's in A here.
This was an easy one to learn, mostly I-IV, with an odd little major 6th thing thrown into Ry's studio version. Ry recorded it in C, which is a very comfortable key for me to sing it in. But for funsies, here's a video of Ry and David Lindley performing it at NOLA Jazzfest in 1994. It's in A here.
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