Some songs seem to transcend style, fad and fashion and have endured in our collective imagination for a long time. Shortnin’ Bread has been a kind of cure-all for the soul, an Afro-American song dating back to the 1890s.

Three little children, lying in bed
Two was sick and the other ‘most dead
Send for the doctor and the doctor said
“feed them children on short’nin’ bread”

When those children, sick in bed,
heard that talk ’bout short’nin’ bread.
They popped up well, to dance and sing,
skipping around and cut the pigeon wing.

It seems that now in the time of Covid-19, a lot of us have turned to making bread – not so much to “cure” anything but to get back in touch with some basic life skills in a time when our world has been turned upside-down.

Mingus re-establishes context…(language not for the kiddies)

Chicken Train….this is one helluva old time outfit – featuring the hot clawhammer playing of John Herrmann. I’ve shared this one before, but I just know you want to hear it again.

The Cramps….sometimes folk music is just so damned adaptable

Fats Waller – ya! My dad introduced me to the music of Fats Waller when I was a kid

Sending this post out to Thom Hickey, who is responsible for the 388 fabulous posts on The Immortal Jukebox. I’m grateful that Thom is also a regular visitor to this little bus stop in the blog swamp. If you’re hanging out at home waiting out the virus, and you’re looking to listen to and read about a fantastic assortment of music, check it out.