The Ragpicker String Band

Mary Flower

Good little interview with Mary Flower.  Check it: Mary Flower – Interview and Music

Here's a song from Mary's latest CD, Misery Loves Company, one I highly recommend.

 

And then there is this little gem.  I love it and it's on my list of songs to learn!  

   

   

Mary Flower - Misery Loves Company

Her 4th album on Yellow Dog Records - An intimate collection of duets with some of Oregon's accomplished Blues and Roots musicians.

When she is not teaching at guitar workshops or busy touring concerts and blues and folk festivals Mary Flower is busy making wonderful albums such as "Misery Loves Company".  Her impeccable fingerstyling incorporates folk, blues, and ragtime elements seamlessly.

On "Misery..." Ms. Flower and friends created 12 captivating tracks - 8 songs and 4 instrumental pieces that are sure to draw the attention of any fingerpicking and blues aficionado.  I especially like her cover of Son House's "Death Letter Blues", crystal execution.  Quite different from House's - I like both versions.


I would be remiss in this review if I did not mention the sweetness of her voice, like "honey and smooth whiskey."  I read that somewhere. It's true!

Find Mary Flower on youtube as user: TheGibsongal.

Buy the cd, so you won't be miserable.

- Andrew Stranglen
 

Mary Flower - Blues Jubilee

Chances are that you'll find Mary Flower in the folk section of your local record shop. She did found a folk-cum-jazz-based ensemble called Mother Folkers in Denver, which was the mile-high city's leading women's folk collective; and she could look the part of a folkie "Earth mother" type. Flower moved seriously into blues over the last decade, however, and hasn't looked back since.
Born in Delphi, IN, Flower made her way to Denver at the beginning of the '70s, when she was in her twenties, and set up shop in the city's folk community; her gigs made her a name locally, and she established Mother Folkers. She always appreciated the blues, but it was a two-week period of study with Jim Schwall and Steve James at a blues workshop in West Virginia that transformed her.
Flower described herself as "consumed" by the experience, and made the decision to devote herself to the blues. She restarted her career, but initially encountered resistance, partly because she was a white blueswoman who didn't conform to expectations -- ever since Janis Joplin, white female blues performers have been expected to sound like Big Mama Thornton, which Flower didn't, Scrapper Blackwell being more of a role model. Since the early 1990s, however, she has gradually achieved acceptance, and has played places like Buddy Guy's club in Chicago as well as various festivals, where she has been well received, and tours regionally and nationally.
As a folk artist, Flower played alongside Geoff Muldaur, David Bromberg, and Ramblin' Jack Elliot. Her work in blues, however, has been strongly influenced by Scrapper Blackwell, Henry Glover, and Robert Johnson, but especially Blind Lemon Jefferson. She plays with passion, none of it forced or posed, and she has a husky voice to go with the kind of stuff she covers -- she could sing prettier than she does, but what she does seems honest. She also writes originals with a cutting, clever edge. Flower has been around about as long as Bonnie Raitt, only without the major-label record contracts, the arena and movie appearances, or the Grammy, and deserves to be known by at least as many people. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
Content provided by All Music Guide Copyright © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC

1. Memphis Town - Blackwell, Scrapper
2. Drown in My Own Tears - Glover, Henry
3. Me and My Chauffeur Blues - Memphis Minnie
4. Six White Horses - Jefferson, Blind Lemon
5. Broke Down Automobile - Flower, Mary
6. Carroll County Shuffle - Flower, Mary
7. Walking Blues -Johnson, Robert
8. Long-Legged Daddy - Flower, Mary
9. Wing and a Prayer - Flower, Mary
10. Jane Jane - Mary Flower, Traditional
11. Fool's Parade - Brown, Charles

12. Michigan Water - Morton, Jelly Roll
13. Hymn - Flower, Mary

Artist website: http://maryflower.com/

Label site: http://yellowdogrecords.com/maryflower/index.html