Chanteur et
guitariste Bluegrass US né le 10 mars 1938 à Chattanooga (Tennessee).
Although
he is proficient with a variety of stringed instruments, Norman Blake is famous
for his acoustic guitar skills — he was one of the major bluegrass guitarists of
the '70s. Blake came into view in the late '60s, when he began performing as a
sideman with artists as diverse as June
Carter and Bob Dylan. During the '70s, he began a solo career that quickly
became one of the most popular and musically adventurous within bluegrass. He
continued recording and performing — occasionally with his wife, Nancy — well
into the '90s.
Blake began playing music professionally when he was 16 years old, joining the
Dixieland Drifters as a mandolinist in 1954; the group debuted on Tennessee
Barn Dance, a radio show based in Knoxville. After two years, he left the
band and became a member of the Lonesome Travelers, which was led by banjoist
Bob Johnson. By the end of the '50s, the Lonesome Travelers had added a second
banjoist, Walter Forbes, and had made two records for RCA. Although he joined
Hylo Brown & the Timberliners in 1959,
Blake continued to perform with Johnson. The following year, he also became a
member of June Carter's touring band.
In 1961, Blake was drafted into the Army, where he was stationed in Panama.
While he was in the service, he was a radio operator on the Panama Canal and he
formed a band called the Kobbe Mountaineers. The band became a popular
attraction and was voted the best band in the Caribbean Command. In 1962, Blake
recorded 12 Shades of Bluegrass with the Lonesome Travelers while he was on
leave. He was discharged from the Army the following year and moved to
Nashville. Once he was in Nashville, Blake joined
Johnny Cash's band. That same year, he
married Nancy Short and settled in Chattanooga, TN. For the next few years he
played with Cash, both on recordings and
concerts. In 1969, Bob Dylan hired Blake to play on his country-rock album
Nashville Skyline, providing the guitarist a whole new audience. That
audience expanded even further when he became
Cash's main guitarist on the singer's television show.
Cash's program featured a wide array of
musical guests, who were often impressed with Blake's talents.
Kris Kristofferson asked him to
join his touring band and Norman did so, playing both guitar and dobro; he also
played on several of Kristofferson's
records. Blake also played on several of Joan Baez's records, including her hit
version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down."
Following his folk and country-rock experiments, Blake returned to his bluegrass
roots in 1971 when he joined John
Hartford's band, Aeroplane, which also featured fiddler
Vassar Clements. Aeroplane fell
apart quickly, but Blake stayed with
Hartford for a year and a half. In 1972, Norman recorded his first solo
album, Back Home in Sulphur Springs, which began a long relationship with
Rounder Records. This arrangement lasted through Blake's 1990 album Norman
Blake and Tony Rice 2, a follow-up to an earlier collaboration with
Tony Rice. Most of Blake's output in
the '90s was released on the equally venerable Shanachie label, including 1999's
Be Ready Boys: Appalachia to Abilene. Far Away, Down on a Georgia Farm
arrived that same year, followed by Flower from the Fields of Alabama in
2001. Blake teamed up with Ukrainian fiddler/mandolin player Peter Ostroushko
for 2002's Meeting on Southern Soil in February of the following year,
with the compilation Old Ties arriving later that spring. Norman and
Nancy put out Morning Glory Ramblers in 2004 and Back Home in Sulphur
Springs in 2006. Norman released Shacktown Road in early 2007.
http://www.normanblake.com/NormanBlake/index.html
Talents : Singer, Songwriter, Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin, Dobro
Style musical : Old-Time Country, Bluegrass
I AM A MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW
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Années en activité :
| 1910 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | 2000 |
DISCOGRAPHY
Albums
| 1972 | LP 12" ROUNDER 0012 (US) |
 |
BACK HOME IN SULPHUR SPRINGS - Bully Of The Town / Randall Collins / Done Gone / Down Home Summertime Blues / Warp Factor / Orphan Annie / Spanish Fandango / Little Joe / Richland Avenue (Front Porch-Wood Pile) Rag / When The Fields Are White With Daisies / Cattle In The Cane / Crossing No. 9 / Weave And Way / Ginseng Sullivan / Bringing In The Georgia Mail. |
| 1974 | LP 12" FLYING FISH ? (US) |
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GOING PLACES |
| 1974 | LP 12" FLYING FISH FF-004 (US) |
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THE FIELDS OF NOVEMBER - Green Leaf Fancy / Last Train From Poor Valley / White Oak Swamp / Ruins Of Richmond / Grey Coat Soldiers / Caperton Ferry / Southern Railroad Blues / Lord Won't You Help Me / Krazy Kurtis / Coming Down From Rising Fawn / Uncle / The Old Brown Case / The Fields Of November |
| 1975 | LP 12" FLYING FISH FF-010 (US) |
 |
OLD AND NEW - Widow's Creek / Bristol In The Bottle / Billy Gray / Forked Deer (traditional) / Rubagfre / Cuckoo's Nest (traditional) / Witch Of The Wake (traditional) / My Old Home In The Green Mountain Side / Miller's Reel (traditional) / Dry Grass In The High Fields / Harvey's Reel / The Railroad Days / Valley Head / Sweet Heaven (traditional) / Sally In The Garden (traditional) / Ajamina / Flat Rock |
| 02/1976 | LP 12" FLYING FISH HDS-701 (US) |
 |
HDS SESSIONS - NORMAN BLAKE / TUT TAYLOR / SAM BUSH / BUTCH ROBINS / VASSAR CLEMENTS / DAVID HOLLAND - Sweet Georgia Brown / Sauerkraut 'n Solar Energy / The Old Brown Case / Take The "A" Train / Going Home / McKinley's Blues / Oconee / Vassar And Dave |
| 1976 | LP 12" TAKOMA 1052 (US) |
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LIVE AT McCABE'S - Introduction By Nancy COVEY / Nine Pound Hammer / Sweet Heaven When I Die / Introducing Nancy BLAKE / Border Widow / "G" Medley : Green Leaf Fancy - Fields Of November - Fort Smith / Dry Grass On The High Fields / John Hardy / Arkansas Traveler / Medley : Bully Of The Town - Bonaparte's Retreat - Richland Avenue Rag / Harvey's Reel |
| 1976 | LP 12" ROUNDER 0063 (US) |
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WHISKEY BEFORE BREAKFAST - Hand Me Down My Walking Cane / Under The Double Eagle / Six White Horses / Salt River / Old Grey Mine / Down At Milow's House / Sleepy Eyed Joe - Indian Creek / Arkansas Traveler / The Girl I Left In Sunny Tennessee / The Minstrel Boy To The War Has Gone - The Ash Grove / Church Street Blues / Macon Rag / Fiddler's Dram -Whiskey Before Breakfast / Slow Train Through Georgia |
| 1977 | LP 12" FLYING FISH FF-047 (US) |
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BLACKBERRY BLOSSOM - Are You From Dixie / The Rights Of Man Hornpipe / The Highland Light / Railroad Blues / Foggy Valley / Lonesome Jenny / Blackberry Blossom / D Medley / Jerusalem Ridge |
| 1978 | LP 12" TAKOMA ST-72764 (US) |
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DIRECTIONS - Blue Ridge Mountain Blues / Thebes / The L & N Don't Stop Here Anymore / Medley: Loch Lavan Castle - Santa Ana's Retreat - Cattle in the Cane / Poor Ellen Smith / Uncle Sam / Ice On The Road / Rake And The Rambling Blade / High Dad In The Morning / Father's Hall / White Horse Breakdown / '76 Blues |
| 1979 | LP 12" ROUNDER 122 (US) |
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THE RISING FAWN STRING ENSEMBLE |
| 1981 | LP 12" ROUNDER 144 (US) |
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FULL MOON ON THE FARM - NORMAN BLAKE & The RISING FAWN STRING ENSEMBLE - Kennedy Rag / Nancy's Hornpipe / Texola Waltz / Gilderoy / Davenport March / OBC #3 / Cairo Waltz / Jacky Tar / Sleepy-Eyed Joe / The Dog Star / Salty / Diamonds In The Rough |
| 1982 | LP 12" ROUNDER 166 (US) |
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ORIGINAL UNDERGROUND MUSIC FROM THE MYSTERIOUS SOUTH |
| 1984 | LP 12" ROUNDER 188 (US) |
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NASHVILLE BLUES |
| 1985 | LP 12" ROUNDER 211 (US) |
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LIGHTHOUSE ON THE SHORE |
| 1986 | LP 12" ROUNDER 0211 (US) |
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NORMAN & NANCY BLAKE - Hello Stranger / New Bicycle Hornpipe / Marquis Of Huntley / Florida Rag / Jordan Am A Hard Road To Travel / Belize / Elzic's Farewell / Lighthouse On The Shore / Grand Junction / Butterfly Weed / President Garfield's Hornpipe / In Russia (We Have Parking Lots, Too) / Wroxall / If I Lose, I Don't Care / The Chrysanthemum / Lima Road Jig / Boston Boy - Last Night's Joy / My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose / Peacock's Feather / Wildwood Flower / Tennessee Mountain Fox Chase |
| 1987 | LP 12" ROUNDER 0233 (US) |
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BLACK & RICE - NORMAN BLAKE & TONY RICE - New Chance Blues / Greenlight On The Southern / I'm Not Sayin' / Texas Gales / Ridge Road Gravel / Monroe's Hornpipe / Last Train From Poor Valley / New River Train / Stoney Point / Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar / Little Beggarman - Gilderoy / The Shipyard Apprentice / Medley : Fiddler's Dream - Whiskey Before Breakfast / I'm Coming Back (But I Don't Know When) |
| 1987 | CD ROUNDER 11526 (US) |
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SLOW TRAIN THROUGH GEORGIA - Fiddler's Dram - Whiskey Before Breakfast / Slow Train Through Georgia / Old Grey Mare / Down Home Summertime Blues / Spanish Fandango / Randall Collins / Church Street Blues / Done Gone / Bully Of The Town / Nashville Blues / Ginseng Sullivan / Macon Rag / Nobody's Business / The Streamlined Cannonball / Cattle In The Cane / Little Joe / Weave And Way / Six White Horses / Richland Avenue (Front Porch Wood Pile) Rag / The Banks Of Good Hope - The Green Fields Of America / Columbus Stockade Blues / Down At Mylow's House |
| 1987 | CD ROUNDER 11530 (US) |
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NATASHA'S WALTZ - NORMAN & NANCY BLAKE - New Brick Road / Dusty Rose / Walnut River / Pig On The Engine / Third Street Gypsy Rag / Georgia Home / Peezlewhister / Old Fiddler's Roll Call / Pueblo / The Toneality / Natasha's Waltz / Blake's March / Texola Waltz / Diamonds In The Rough / Jeff Davis / Nancy's Hornpipe / Three Ravens / Sleepy-Eyed Joe / Cairo Waltz / Davenport March / Obc, No. 3 |
| 1988 | CD ROUNDER 0254 (US) |
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BLIND DOG - NORMAN & NANCY BLAKE - Little Stream Of Whiskey / Grand Coulee Dam / Prettiest Little Girl In The Country / Billy Gray / Otto Wood The Bandit / Blind Dog / Everybody Works But Father / Fifty Miles Of Elbow Room / Shallegra / Old Time Farmer / Wreck Of The Old '97 / Black Mountain Rag |
| 1990 | CD ROUNDER 0266 (US) |
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NORMAN BLAKE & TONY RICE 2 - It's Raining Here This Morning / Lost Indian / Georgie / Father's Hall / The Two Soldiers / Blackberry Blossom / Eight More Miles To Louisville / Lincoln's Funeral Train / Molly Bloom / D-18 Song (Thank You, Mr. Martin) / Back In Yonder's World / Bright Days / Salt Creek |
| 1992 | CD SHANACHIE 6001 (US) |
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JUST GIMME SOMETHIN' I'M USED TO - NORMAN & NANCY BLAKE - Waiting For The Boatman / Georgia Railroad / Silence Or Tears / The Poor Little Sailor Boy / Medley : Green Leaf Fancy - The Fields Of November - Gonna Go Huntin' ... / When The Work's All Done This Fall / Brickyard Joe / Mr. Garfield / Old Grimes / Wabash Cannonball / I'd Rather Be An Old Time Christian / Little Matty Groves / Walking Tune |
| 09/1992 | CD FLYING FISH FF-70004 (US) |
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THE FIELDS OF NOVEMBER / OLD AND NEW - Green Leaf Fancy / Last Train From Poor Valley / White Oak Swamp / Graycoat Soldiers / Southern Railroad Blues / Lord, Won't You Help Me / Krazy Kurtis / Coming Down From Rising Fawn / Uncle / The Old Brown Case / The Fields Of November / Widow's Creek / Bristol In The Bottle / Billy Gary / Forked Deer / Cuckoo's Nest / Witch Of The Wave / My Old Home On The Green Mountain Side / Miller's Reel / Dry Grass On The High Fields / Harvey's Reel / The Railroad Days / Valley Head / Sweet Heaven / Ajimina / Flat Rock |
| 1994 | CD SHANACHIE 6012 (US) |
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WHILE PASSING ALONG THIS WAY - NORMAN & NANCY BLAKE - He's Passing This Way / I'm Going To Leave Old Dixie / Bonaparte Crossing The Rhine - Going Down The Valley / The Grave Of Bonaparte / On & On & On / The Greenwood Tree / Sweeet Freedom / Sweet Heaven / God's Radio Phone / Old Mother Flanagan / Last Train From Poor Valley / Hangin' Dog / The Fate Of Talmage / Old Stepstone |
| 08/1996 | CD SHANACHIE 6020 (US) |
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THE HOBO'S LAST RIDE - NORMAN & NANCY BLAKE - The Democratic Donkey (Is In His Stall Again) / Tell Mother I'll Meet Her / Forked Deer / The Hobo's Last Ride / Thebes / Leaving Home / Home Of The Soul / Midnight, The Unconquered Outlaw / The Old Grey Mare Came Tearin' Out Of The Wilderness / I Know My Name Is There / Starving To Death On The Government Claim / Old Shady Bothreen / Tying A Knot In The Devil's Tail / Angel Gabriel / The Two Little Orphans / Memories That Never Die |
| 01/1998 | CD SHANACHIE 6027 (US) |
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CHATTANOOGA SUGAR BABE - The Rescue From Moose River Goldmine / The Weathered Old Caboose Behind The Train / Ol' Bill Miner (The Gentleman Bandit) / Poor Old Dad / Chattanooga Sugar Babe / Platonia, The Pride Of The Plains / Dr. Edmundo's Favorite Portuguese Waltz / The Founding Of The Famous C.P.R. / Paramount Rag / Keep Smiling Old Pal / Balmullo House - Broke Down Gambler / Ragtime Texas / Chattanooga Rag / Dixie Flyer Blues |
| 06/1999 | CD SHANACHIE 6043 (US) |
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BE READY BOYS - APPALACHIA TO ABILENE - NORMAN BLAKE & RICH O'BRIEN - Tennessee Wagoner / Old Pal Of Yesterday / Texola Waltz / When It's Lamplighting Time In The Valley / Bowling Green Rag / Homestead On The Farm / Mexico / Going Home / Kentucky's Your Home / Under The Double Eagle / Grandpa's Barn / Seamus O'Brien / Flop-Eared Mule / A Maiden's Prayer / Callahan / Heavenly Sunlight |
| 11/1999 | CD SHANACHIE 6045 (US) |
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FAR AWAY, DOWN ON A GEORGIA FARM - New Century Hornpipe / Whiskey Deaf And Whiskey Blind / Far Away, Down On A Georgia Farm / Goin' Back To The Blue Ridge Mountains / Savannah Rag / Pasquale Taraffo's First Night In Leadville / The Winds Of Time Won't Change / Rag Baby Jig / Thelma Hatfield / Constitution March / Faded Flowers In Old Love Letters / And The Cat Came Back The Very Next Day / Just Another Faded Love Song / Give Me Back My Fifteen Cents / Snowbird On The Ashbank / The Wandering Drummer / The Maple On The Hill / Headlight Reel |
| 06/2001 | CD SHANACHIE 6053 (US) |
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FLOWER FROM THE FIELDS OF ALABAMA - Salty Dog / Bonaparte's Grand March / The Slopes Of Beech Mountain / Sitting On Top Of The World / Radio Joe / Chadin' Rainbows / Flower From The Fields Of Alabama / Texas Gales / All Go Hungry Hash House / So Tired / The Gambler's Dying Words / Little Bunch Of Roses / Eastbound Freight Train / The Burial Of Wild Bill / T.A.G. Railroad Rag / If We Never Meet Again |
| 02/2002 | CD RED HOUSE 153 (US) |
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MEETING ON SOUTHERN SOIL - NORMAN BLAKE & PETER OSTROUSHKO - Blackberry Blossom / Rise When The Rooster Crows / President Richard Milhous Nixon's Hornpipe / Blake's Railroad Blues / Muddy Creek / Little Bessie / Chickamauga / Only A Bunch Of Violets / Oklahoma Redbird / I Cannot Call Her Mother / Marjorie's Waltz #3 / The Old Hickory Cane / Oh Death / Mandolin Medley : Caperton Ferry - Ruins Of Richmond - Valley Head / The Little Log Hut In The Lane / Christmas Eve Is Coming, Anna |
| 06/2002 | CD ROUNDER 611583 (US) |
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OLD TIES - Spanish Fandango / Church St. Blues / Sleepy Eyed Joe - Indian Creek / O'Malley's Tune / Fifty Miles Of Elbow Room / Down Home Summertime Blues / Blind Dog / Fiddler's Dram - Whiskey Before Breakfast / Old Ties / Lost Indian / Ginseng Sullivan / Obc, No. 3 / Prettiest Little Girl In The Country / Uncle / Bristol In The Bottle / Billy Gray / The Fields Of November / Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar / Randall Collins - Done Gone |
| 04/2004 | CD DUALTONE 1160 (US) |
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THE MORNING GLORY RAMBLERS - NORMAN & NANCY BLAKE - The Sunny Side Of Life / Dark & Stormy Weather / Precious Memories (Was A Song I Used To Hear) / The Little Log Hut In The Lane / All The Good Times Are Over / We Are Climbing / Going Down The Valley / I Loved You Better Than You Knew / When The Roses Blook In Dixieland / I Ain't Got Time / The Wayworn Traveler / Rise When The Rooster Crows / Short Life Of Trouble / Elijah's God / Fame Apart From God's Approval (Sweeping Thru The Gate) / Dry Bones / Men With Broken Hearts |
| 01/2006 | CD DUALTONE 1211 (US) |
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BACK HOME IN SULPHUR SPRINGS - NORMAN & NANCY BLAKE - More Good Women Gone Wrong / Columbus Stockade Blues / He's Coming To Us Dead / The Girl I Left In Sunny Tennessee / We Parted By The Riverside / Ella Ree / Happy Little Home In Arkansas / Back Home In Sulphur Springs / The Mermaid / Take Me Home Poor Julia / Seaboard Airline Rag / Star Spangled Banner / The Empress Of Ireland / Katy Cline |
| 01/2007 | CD DUALTONE 01256 (US) |
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SHACKTOWN ROAD - NORMAN BLAKE, NANCY BLAKE, TUT TAYLOR - Shacktown Road / Kindred Spirit / Guitar Rag / Not A Word From Home / The Old Dobro Man / Worried Blues / Tom Scala's Waltz / Lizzie Hubbard Blues / Going To Georgia / Ode To Bascom / On The Banks Of Lake Pontchatrain / It Must Be Jelly / The Tag Railroad Rag / Running Wild / Times Ain't Like They Used To Be / End Of The World / Steel Guitar Blues / The Buffalo Left Yesterday |
| 01/2009 | CD PLECTRAFONE 38 (US) |
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RISING FAWN GATHERING - The Sweet Sunny South / O'Connell's Trip To Parliament - The Twin Katies / Castleberry's March / Da Unst Bridal March / The Stockton & Redesdale Hornpipes / The El Paso Waltz / The Bonny Bunch Of Roses / Joe Bane's - The Gypsy Princess / The Teelin March / Eamon an Chnoic (Ned Of The Hill) / When The Band Is Playing Dixie / Derry So Fair |
| 09/2009 | CD ROUNDER 10642 (US) |
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SLEEPY EYED JOE - Ajimina / Billy Gray / Butterfly Weed / Sleepy Eyed Joe / Obc #3 / Fifty Miles Of Elbow Room / Bristol In The Bottle / Elzic's Farewell / Salty / The Fields Of November |
© Rocky Productions 1/05/2011
