Ollabelle: Soul Of A Man

First of all, allow me to apologize for my absence since last Tuesday. Contracting the computer virus last weekend put a cog in my plans for the blog. By spending a majority of last weekend trying to clear the virus from my machine and trying to save my data, I was not able to pre-write this week’s intended blog entries as I had planned a vacation out of state. While I hastily wrote Monday’s and Tuesday’s posts, I was not able to go beyond this due to limited access to broadband computer access while away.

Now that I am back, I have returned from the depths of the musical abyss to resume the task at hand. Hopefully, the likes of last week’s computer issues will not resurface. So let’s start this week afresh with a Spiritual Sunday tune written by Blind Willie Johnson and recorded in 2004 by Ollabelle – “Soul of a Man.”

Singing lead on this cut is Amy Helm, the daughter of Levon Helm – drummer of The Band. This cut comes from their self-titled debut album that was produced by T-Bone Burnett. Ollabelle was formed in late 2001 at a Sunday night jam session called “Sunday School for Sinners” at New York’s 9C. The song has a unique use of slide bass played by Byron Isaacs. This really makes the tune and the following live video shows his technique.

It's good to be back to zee grooves.