Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue #25

Here we are with our 25th edition of one of Friday Blues Fix's favorite topics.  As we've said before, this theme is one of the blog's oldest, dating back to FBF's early days as a weekly email sent to co-workers.  It serves as a great way to introduce new and old tunes to new and old blues fans.  

For those unfamiliar with the format, we offer a song from the early days of the blues (Something Old), a song from a recent blues artist (Something New), a blues artist covering a rock song or vice versa (Something Borrowed), and finally, someone who epitomizes the blues.....usually a legendary artist (Something Blue).  Got it?  Great, here we go...... 

For Something Old, check out Otto Virgial.  There is next to nothing on the internet about Virgial's life, other than he was born in 1906 in Lowndes County, MS and he recorded a grand total of four songs for Bluebird Records in 1935.  There aren't even any pictures of him that can be found, no info about his performing career, when he passed away, or where he lived, although two of his songs have "Rome" in them, including the song we will hear today, "Little Girl in Rome."

Virgial had to have been singing about tiny Rome, MS, which is an unincorporated community in Sunflower County on US 49W.  It's about 3 miles north of the Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman) and 5 miles south of Tutwiler and there are less than 200 people who live there today...they do have a post office, according to Google Maps.  

Virgial was your basic Mississippi Delta blues guitarist and singer, playing standard tuning with solid vocals, no fancy guitar play here, covering traditional blues themes about receiving a letter from his girl in Rome (he recorded the song in Chicago).  I had never heard the song until Hudspeth and Taylor covered it for their album Ridin' the Blinds, releasing it as a single.  That version led me to track down the original version on YouTube.  All four Virgial tracks can be found on Mississippi Blues Volume 4 1935 - 1955 on Document Records (which also contains tracks by Robert Johnson and Robert Lockwood Jr.).  I found three of them on the massive JSP Records 4-CD box set When the Levee Breaks (Mississippi Blues) that can be found at a nice price and contains all the pre-war Delta blues that you will ever need to hear.

photo by JB Lawrence

For Something New, we have Amani Burnham.  This 20-year-old was born in Ethiopia and raised in Connecticut, he leads a trio in the tradition of SRV and Hendrix and his sound is influenced heavily by them.  He recently released his debut album on Blind Pig Records, Roots & Wings, and it's a powerhouse from start to finish.  This track, "The Last Thing I Remember," is a terrific slow blues which features some dynamite fretwork, along with Burnham's solid vocals.

Burnham started out on drums, but moved to guitar during the lockdown, writing most of his songs for the album during that period.  He also posted videos of his playing on Instagram, where his "Hoochie Coochie Man" video earned tons of views and the attention of Blind Pig Records, who signed him in the spring of 2025.  He's an excellent songwriter and, well, the guitar work speaks for itself, so be sure and dig deeper into the music of Amani Burnham.....get on board right here at the beginning!!

For Something Borrowed, we go back to 1980, when Eric Clapton released his live album, Just One Night, then on RSO Records but later on Polydor Records.  Clapton was pretty hot on the radio back in those days, so it sold pretty well.  The big hit on the album was the live version of J.J. Cale's "Cocaine."  It got a lot of radio play in east central Mississippi.....I can safely say that.  For awhile, every time you turned on the radio, that song was playing.

I actually didn't buy Just One Night until one summer a couple of years later.  It was a pretty long album and I could play it all the way to where I was attending college when I traveled from home.  I got to hear it plenty over a couple of years driving back and forth.  This was really before I started getting into the blues, so this album helped introduce me to the music, especially Clapton's terrific take on Otis Rush's "Double Trouble."

At the time, I didn't even know that every time I drove to college I was passing through Otis Rush's birthplace Philadelphia, MS on the way.  I really didn't discover Rush's music until a couple of years later and when I heard his harrowing version on Cobra Records several years later,  I was already sold as a fan, but those Cobra sides (discussed here a few weeks back), sealed the deal on one of my favorite blues guitarists (also, listen to Rush's masterful live version of "Double Trouble" recorded at Antone's 10 Anniversary Celebration).  I must give Eric Clapton a tip of the hat for introducing me to Otis Rush's music, and so many other blues artists' music as well.

For Something Blue, you just can't go wrong with Bobby "Blue" Bland.  I mean.....hey, he has "Blue" in his name, right?  Last fall, I read Charles Farley's biography of Bland, Soul of the Man, and I recommend it to anyone who digs his music.  Via Farley's book, I learned a lot about Bland and it encouraged me to dig deeper into his recordings.  I originally heard his Malaco catalog because that was his current music when I started listening to the blues, but I dug deep into his Duke recordings after hearing his album Two Steps from the Blues, which should be in every blues fans' album collection.  

That being said, I've been digging into his ABC/Dunhill/MCA Recordings from the 70's and early 80's and, while they may not be as consistent as his earlier Duke recordings (which, truthfully, had the occasional rough patches as well), there were some fantastic tunes delivered during this period.  "I Wouldn't Treat A Dog (The Way You Treated Me)," from his Dreamer album released in 1974 was one of the best tracks from this period.  The music and the production was a bit more updated and polished than his Duke sides, but that magnificent voice is still a force to be reckoned with......this one definitely belongs with the best sides in Bobby "Blue" Bland's musical catalog.

I was fortunate enough to see Bland in April of 1990 at the annual Zoo Blues festival that was held to benefit the Jackson Zoo in Jackson, MS.  It was a pretty big lineup that featured Denise LaSalle and Delbert McClinton, but Bland closed the show and drew a huge crowd.  It was amazing how he worked the crowd and delivered his set list.  His voice had deteriorated a bit by then....he had replaced his famous squall with a snort on some songs, but that delivery was still intact and the crowd just loved it! No question that Bobby "Blue" Bland fits the bill for Something Blue!!