Dark was the night, cold was the ground

Blind Willie Johnson, the good lord and the music of the spheres over on Dogmatika.

"There’s no shortage of chills in the blues canon. A myriad variety of murder ballads, field hollers and dustbowl laments map the darker side of life in the South. Standards like Staggerlee and Crow Jane are based on true experiences, real flesh and blood characters that sent ripples through the zeitgeist by their wicked or remorseful deeds. Sometimes the scope is more abstract, existential, biblical but nonetheless just as disturbing; the apocalypse, the Depression, the Grim Reaper, the dangers befalling the working man or simple cold-blooded murder.

The term “Blues” doesn’t do these recordings any justice. These are spirituals, musical folk tales to rival the finest Southern Gothic novels, songs that lament, evangelise and liberate. Amongst them is a wordless dirge, a keening song that Ry Cooder has famously described as “the most soulful, transcendent piece of all American music.” It’s name is Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground, one of only 30 tracks captured on tape by Blind Willie Johnson in his short life and one of the most remarkable in recorded music."