Listening to the different versions of Mary Don't You Weep, I am thinking about the conversation we had in class about You are My Sunshine, why the Dylan/Cash version seemed so much more performance oriented than felt, so unlike the Mississippi John Hurt version. Similarly, I am drawn more to the Spiritual versions of Mary Don't You Weep than the Gospels. It seems less of a style, less recognizable perhaps as a genre, but more honest.
We spoke about voice last week. I find that in the spirituals, especially the Leadbelly version, the voice is really prominent. This version is not very much like the Pete Seeger version, but in both I feel like I am listening to someone singing a song....and it is very much about what they are singing, how they feel the song, and how they are able to communicate it. I like how both Seeger and Leadbelly sung the song in a faster pace than I would have because it gave the words a different feel than when I first read the lyrics. The Leadbelly version is my favorite....and I think part of that has to do with the different voices that come into it, the second singer, and the fact that there is talking at the beginning of the recording.....it gives it a sense, once again, of someone singing a song in a place, with other people, and with their own story to tell with it.
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