Your Best Friend

Musical selection from Voyager List

BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BNj2BXW852g

Blind Willie Johnson-Dark Was The Night.
Born: January 22 1897 near Brenham, Texas….Died: September 18 1945 in Beaumont. He lived with his parents but his mother died when he was young. He preached and sing to people who would listen. He worked/made comercials for Columbia Records from 1927-1930

Blind Willie was left at street corners by his father to sing, his stepmother threw lye in his face at age 7, he had a daughter named Kelly, he had to sleep in the ruins of his burnt house, and his recording career ended in 1930 until his death. Great Depression dried up the demand for gospel and blues records. This occured during the World War and this is what sparked the great Depression.

Blind Willie hums his song, there is no repetition, its slow, and it lasted for 3 minutes and 32 seconds. His pitch was at a medium level. His timbre is the bottleneck guitar. Intensity of this song is with a low.

I think his music catches more attention by how he hums in this song. He hummed the song with some emotion and this might also attrack people to him. At that time his music was more popular and successful but not as much now as it was then. This is more of a gospel or religious culture and may be important to them.

This music is different to my musical selection because its more of blues or gospel, slow, old and its humming. If I was alloewed to change this to something i’d enjoy, I would change the humming, speed up the beat and also use different instruments. I think that if Blind Willie was here he would have change his music by using more interesting instruments and making his songs more fun and interesting of catchy to listen to, and also dance the same time anywhere you are.