Bill Morrissey in the 1980s, doing one of his standby routines and songs.

Bill Morrissey - Marie Osmond Rebounds (with intro)

A home recording of the Congolese acoustic guitarist Edouard Masengo, playing a song recorded in the 1960s by his cousin, Jean-Bosco Mwenda, as "Victoria Mpenzi." I recorded this at Masengo's sister's house outside Lubumbashi, in what was then Zaire, in 1990.

Masengo home tape

Victorina (Edouard Masengo Katiti)

An early taste of Dave Van Ronk, from 1958, this is also interesting because he borrowed several of its verses for his definitive version of "Cocaine Blues."

Folksingers Guild concert 6-27-58

Dave Van Ronk - Take a Whiff on Me

Back before Bill Morrissey became widely known as a singer-songwriter, he put in a lot of years playing the northern New England bar circuit. He mostly worked solo, but sometimes with backing players or half-assed bands, and he did a couple of recording sessions, producing his single, "Live Free or Die," and a never-released cassette with the Mental Retreads, which featured Trigger Cook on lead guitar, Matt Leavenworth on occasional fiddle, and various other denizens of Newmarket, NH. Their repertoire included some singer-songwritery things, a calypso version of "I've Been Working on the Railroad," and a handful of hip little numbers like this one, which was still a staple of Bill's shows into the early 1980s.

Bill Morrissey and the Mental Retreads -  Morrissey Takes a Dive

Another early Bill Morrissey song, from the tapes he made for me back in the early 1980s, when I was playing a lot of his songs and we were talking about starting our record company together.

Morrissey's Night On The Town

This was one of Bill Morrissey's few attempts to write a straight-up, Woody Guthrie-style socially conscious ballad. Apologies for the sound quality, but as far as I know this is the only surviving version.

Margie Walker

Bill Morrissey localizing an old tradition by writing a Maine lobstering outlaw ballad. This was recorded in 1982 or '83, and I think he wrote it a year or so earlier.

Ellis Roberts

One of Bill Morrissey's favorite examples of home-made "bluesification," as he calls it at the end... with his old buddy and frequent playing partner Ed Gerhard on slide.

Sweaty Woman

More early Bill Morrissey, circa mid-1970s...

I'll Keep Waiting

Bill Morrissey's satiric reaction to the Talking Heads and their ilk. Bill was himself a talented visual artist and had considered going to Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), so there was a degree of identification in this take-down, along with other more obvious feelings.

As a live performer on the bar circuit, Bill relied on comedy to get the audience's attention so he could hit them with the serious songs. Most of the comedy was spoken, but there were quite a few songs like this, which he would never have recorded on an album.

(I Wanna Go 2) Art School

Bill Morrissey with his band of Newmarket buddies, the Mental Retreads, circa mid-1970s. An alternate recording of this was released as the B side of Bill's single, "Live Free or Die." Ed Gerhard recalls the personnel as Grieg Westley on upright bass, Trigger Cooke on electric guitar, and Pete Leavenworth on Dobro, and suggests the female singer might be Janie Barnett(sp?), who sang in a band with Trigger, though Lisa Glines suggests it might be someone called "Ceecee."

Trailer Park

I spent a bit over a month studying guitar with Bosco at his home in Lubumbashi, and did this brief interview at one of the lessons. I've posted an English translation on my website (http://www.elijahwald.com/boscint.html) and written more about him, as well as performing some of his songs, in various posts of my Songobiography (http://www.elijahwald.com/songblog/)-- actually, just one post so far, but more to come shortly.

elijahwald

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