Joseph Spence - Good Morning Mr. Walker[Blues, jazz]

Joseph Spence (born August, 1910 in Andros, Bahamas - died March 18, 1984 in Nassau, Bahamas) was a Bahamian guitarist and singer. He is well known for his vocalizations and humming while performing on guitar. Several modern folk, blues and jazz musicians, including Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder, Woody Mann, Olu Dara, and John Renbourn were influenced by and have recorded variations of his arrangements of gospel and Bahamian songs.

The earliest recordings of Joseph Spence were made on Spence's porch by folk musicologist Samuel Charters. These were released by Folkways Records.
Spence played a steel-string acoustic guitar, and nearly all of his recorded songs employ guitar accompaniment in a Drop D tuning, where the sixth string is tuned to a D below the normal E, so that the guitar sounds, from sixth to first D A D G B E. The power of his playing derives from moving bass lines and interior voices and a driving beat that he emphasizes with foot tapping. To this mix he adds blues coloration and calypso rhythms to achieve a unique and easily identifiable sound. He has been called the folk guitarist's Thelonious Monk .

The Richard Thompson fan club produced a benefit tribute album to Joseph Spence and the Pinder Family, Out on the Rolling Sea. It featured a variety of artists covering songs from Spence's repertoire. His recording of "That Glad Reunion Day" was used in the 2004 film Open Water and also appears on its soundtrack CD.
His unique vocal stylings on Santa Claus Is Coming To Town may be the definitive version of that song, according to Tom Schnable of KCRW's ``Weekend Becomes Eclectic" show.WIKI





01 - Out on the Rolling Sea
02 - I See Mary and Joseph
03 - Oh, How I Love Jesus
04 - I Bid You Goodnight
05 - Comin' in on a Wing and a Prayer
06 - Good Morning Mr. Walker
07 - The Glory of Love
08 - Don't Let Nobody Burn Down Burma Road
09 - Bye and Bye
10 - If I Had the Wings of a Dove
11 - All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name
12 - Don't Take Everybody to Be Your Friend
13 - Brown Skin Gal
14 - Neighbor Gone Home
15 - He Walks with Me
16 - Will the Serpent Be Unbroken
17 - The Lord's My Shepherd
18 - Yellow Bird
19 - Sloop John B.
20 - Be a Friend to Jesus
21 - Mary Ann

Bahamian Guitarist