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The Man Was Burning

by Jake Blount

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about

The new single from roots master Jake Blount troubles the waters. Known for his incisive perspective on Black American folk music and powerhouse musicianship, Blount has unearthed a rare fire-and-brimstone spiritual from the 1930s and reworked the lyrics to speak to our current era of ultra-wealth and privilege. With “The Man Was Burning,” coming February 22, 2022 on Free Dirt Records, Blounts moves easily along the spectrum of Black roots music, from field recordings in penitentiaries, to the electric guitar of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, all the way up to an updated modern sound that incorporates looped production from hip-hop.

Having spent part of the pandemic at his family farm in Virginia, “just up the road from the plantation where our ancestors were kept,” he says, his own family history in the South was foremost in his mind when sourcing and recording the song. Blount found the song on an old Smithsonian Folkways LP, Virginia Work Songs. The singer, Joe Lee, was 71 years old and incarcerated at Virginia’s Powhatan State Farm when John Lomax recorded him in 1936. “It’s a spiritual that echoes with burning hellfire,” Blount says. “All of these supernatural, plagues of Egypt-type things are happening to this person ostensibly as punishment for his gambling. I don’t really mind people gambling, so I changed the verses to be about somebody who’s hoarding money and thinking too much of what it can do for him and is punished. This is kind of my “Eat the Rich” moment."

lyrics

People in the land of Georgia
Little they cared about God
When the news got in the land that
Man was burning on the log

That man was countin’ his money
Yeah he was grinnin’ mighty broad
He held a greenback dollar aloft, said
This money gonna make me a god!

I’ll tell you bout the man was burning
Way down yonder in the land of Georgia,
Yes a man was burning
For blasphemin’ the name of God

People in the land of Georgia
Prudent would not stay
So they sent for a saw
Just to try to get him away (get him away)

When that saw did come (hah, hah)
Began to sawin’ that log (hah, hah)
Well as the sawdust fell, (hah, hah)
It commenced a-drippin’ blood (blood will fall)

The people gathered to witness
His friends got frightened and scared
As flames of fire came out of his mouth,
Came through his nose and ears

I’ll tell you bout the man was burning
Way down yonder in the land of Georgia,
This-a man was burning
For blasphemin’ the name of God

I told you bout the man was burning
Way down yonder in the land of Georgia,
Yes, the man was burning
For blasphemin’ the name of God

I told you bout the man was burning
Way down yonder in the land of Georgia,
The man was burning
For blasphemin’ the name of God

I told you bout the man was burning
Way down yonder in the land of Georgia,
The man was burning
He threw his greed in the face of God

credits

released February 22, 2022
Vocals and all instruments except bass played and recorded by Jake Blount
Bass played and recorded by Joebass
Mixed by Joseph Dejarnette at Studio 808A
Mastered by Mike Monseur

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Jake Blount Providence, Rhode Island

Jake Blount is an award-winning banjoist, fiddler, singer and scholar. He has studied with modern masters of old-time music, including Bruce Molsky, Judy Hyman (of the Horse Flies), and Rhiannon Giddens and Hubby Jenkins (of the GRAMMY-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops). Although he is proficient in multiple old-time styles, he specializes in the music of Black and Native American communities. ... more

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