I’ve been on a big blues and bluegrass kick lately. Mostly I’ve been trying to fill in some of my ignorance of the these genres by listening to work from artists from the 20’s and 30’s. By chance, Blind Willie Johnson’s “Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning” was the first song to come up this morning. I was struck dumb by the sheer beauty of this song and the interplay of Johnson’s voice with that the female vocalist (either his first wife, Willie B. Harris, or his second, a Angeline – It’s not readily clear) is haunting and sublime.

(Photo via Wikimedia Commons)