Blues Anthem ... and More...

#29 / Jan. 14 Podcast

New Orleans jazz pioneer Richard M. Jones wrote “Trouble in Mind” about a century ago, and singer Bertha “Chippie” Hill made it a hit with a 1926 recording that had Jones himself on piano and a youngster by the name of Louis Armstrong on cornet. Since then, of course, the song’s been recorded by everyone from Big Bill Broonzy to Dinah Washington and Nina Simone.

Music historians even call this tune the anthem of the classic blues genre, but actually its roots go even deeper. At least two different African American spirituals dating all the way back to the 1880s have similar themes in their lyrics.

Now, The Flood has been doing “Trouble in Mind” for decades now; recently, Veezy Coffman gave it a whole new feel by bringing her big beautiful bari sax to bear on it. Hey, click here to take a listen!

And if you’d like to hear more of Veezy’s baritone sax — which she has dubbed “Viper” because of its reptilian tubing — check out this take from her birthday do last October.

And While We’re At It…

We want to also do a shout-out to the other member of The Flood’s reed section, Sam St. Clair and his sweet array of harmonicas, which bring stomp and soul to so much of what we play. For a deeper dive into harmonication, click here to visit the Sam Channel on our free Radio Floodango music streaming feature.