1) Norman Blake (born … Read Full Bio ↴There is more than one artist with this name;
1) Norman Blake (born March 10, 1938) is a traditional American stringed instrument bluegrass artist and songwriter.
Blake was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and grew up in Sulphur Springs, Alabama. He listened to old-time and country music on the radio by the Carter Family, the Skillet Lickers, Roy Acuff, and the Monroe Brothers (Charlie and Bill Monroe). He learned guitar at age 11 or 12, then mandolin, dobro, and fiddle in his teens. When he was 16, he dropped out of school to play music professionally.
In the 1950s, Blake joined the Dixieland Drifters and performed on radio broadcasts, then joined the Lonesome Travelers. When he was drafted in 1961, he served as an Army radio operator in the Panama Canal Zone. He started a popular band known as the Kobbe Mountaineers. A year later, while he was on leave, he recorded the album Twelve Shades of Bluegrass with the Lonesome Travelers.
After being discharged from the Army, Blake moved to Nashville and became a studio musician. For ten years, he toured and recorded with country singer Johnny Cash and continued to play with Cash intermittently over the next thirty. He met Nancy Short, a cellist with a classical music background who was playing in a folk group. He was asked by Bob Dylan to play on the country-folk album Nashville Skyline, then became a member of the house band on Johnny Cash's TV show. Kris Kristofferson, one of the guests, hired Blake to tour with him. Blake recorded with folk singer Joan Baez and appeared on her hit song "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". In 1971, he became a member of the bluegrass group Aero-plain, led by multi-instrumentalist John Hartford with fiddler Vassar Clements, but the band didn't last long.
Blake also played dobro on the 1972 album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
In 1972, Blake recorded his first solo album, Home in Sulphur Springs (Rounder, 1972). Soon after his debut, he and Nancy recorded their first album, The Fields of November (Flying Fish, 1974), with Nancy on hillbilly cello. They married in 1975 and performed together for twenty years.
Most of the music that Norman Blake plays could be described as neo-traditionalist Americana folk and roots music (folk, bluegrass, country, blues), and many of the songs he plays are traditional, but he plays this acoustic type of music with a style, speed, and quality that has evolved and progressed in the modern age. Though probably best known for his fluid renditions of classic fiddle tunes transcribed for the guitar ("Fiddler's Dram/Whiskey Before Breakfast"), Blake has also written songs that have become bluegrass and folk standards, such as "Ginseng Sullivan", "Slow Train through Georgia", "Billy Gray", and "Church Street Blues".
Although known as one of the most prominent steel-string guitar flatpickers, Blake is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. Other instruments he plays include the mandolin, 6-string banjo, fiddle, dobro, banjo and viola. He is known for his loose, right-hand guitar technique, which arose out of his mandolin technique. Also well known is his devotion to 12-fret guitars, including Martin 00s, 000s, D18s, D28s, and Gibsons, like his 1929 12-fret Nick Lucas special.
Blake played on the album Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, which won five Grammy Awards, and on the soundtrack O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which won a Grammy for Album of the Year.
Norman and Nancy Blake received Grammy nominations in the Best Traditional Folk Recording category for Blind Dog, Just Gimme Somethin' I'm Used To, While Passing Along This Way, and The Hobo's Last Ride. In 1986 Norman Blake was chosen Best Multi-Instrumentalist by the readers of Frets magazine.
2) Norman Blake (born 20 October 1965 in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, Scotland) is a Scottish singer, instrumentalist and songwriter in the Glasgow-based band Teenage Fanclub. He has also recorded as Jad Fair & Norman Blake and been one-half of the duo Jonny.
Little Sadie
Norman Blake Lyrics
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I met Little Sadie and I blowed her down
Went back home, I jumped into bed
Forty-four smokeless under my head
Woke up next morning, quarter past nine
The hacks and the buggies all standin' in line
Gents and the gamblers standin' around
Well I got to thinking on the deed I'd done
I grabbed my hat and away I run
Made a good run, but a little too slow
They overtook me in Jericho
I was standing on the corner just reading the bill
Up come the sheriff from Thomasville
Said young man ain't your name Brown
Remember the night you blowed Sadie down
Well I said yes sir my name is Lee
I murdered Little Sadie in the first degree
First degree, and the second degree
Got any papers, better read them to me
Well they took me downtown dressed in black
Put me on the train, they carried me back
Throwed me back in that county jail
Had nobody for to go my bail
Well the judge and jury they took their stand
The judge had the papers in his right hand
Forty-one days, forty-one nights
Forty-one years to wear the ball and stripes
The lyrics to Norman Blake's Little Sadie tell the story of a man who murders a woman named Little Sadie and the events that follow. The song starts with the man going out at night and meeting Little Sadie, whom he proceeds to shoot and kill. He then goes back home and puts a gun under his pillow before going to sleep. The next morning, he wakes up to find that the authorities are after him, and they apprehend him in the town of Jericho. He is charged and sentenced to 41 years in prison.
The lyrics convey a sense of remorse and regret on the part of the man who killed Little Sadie. He knows what he did was wrong and tries to run away from the consequences, but eventually, he is caught and faces the full weight of the law. The song is a cautionary tale about the dangers of taking the law into one's own hands and the consequences of such actions.
The song has been covered by various artists, including Bob Dylan, who cited it as one of his early influences. The lyrics are based on a traditional folk song from Appalachia that dates back to the early 20th century. The song has been recorded by many different artists over the years, including Doc Watson, Jerry Garcia, and Levon Helm.
Line by Line Meaning
Went out last night to make a little round
I went out last night to wander around a bit
I met Little Sadie and I blowed her down
I met Little Sadie and I shot her dead
Went back home, I jumped into bed
I went back home and went straight to bed
Forty-four smokeless under my head
I had a .44 caliber gun under my pillow
Woke up next morning, quarter past nine
I woke up the next morning at 9:15am
The hacks and the buggies all standin' in line
The hearses and carriages were lined up
Gents and the gamblers standin' around
Gentlemen and gamblers were gathered nearby
Taking Little Saddie to the burying ground
They were taking Little Sadie to the cemetery
Well I got to thinking on the deed I'd done
I started thinking about the murder I'd committed
I grabbed my hat and away I run
I took my hat and ran away
Made a good run, but a little too slow
I made a decent escape, but not fast enough
They overtook me in Jericho
They caught up to me in Jericho
I was standing on the corner just reading the bill
I was standing on the corner reading a wanted poster
Up come the sheriff from Thomasville
The sheriff from Thomasville approached me
Said young man ain't your name Brown
He asked if my name was Brown
Remember the night you blowed Sadie down
He reminded me of the night I shot Sadie
Well I said yes sir my name is Lee
I told him my name was Lee
I murdered Little Sadie in the first degree
I confessed to murdering Little Sadie intentionally
First degree, and the second degree
I admitted to both first-degree and second-degree murder
Got any papers, better read them to me
I asked to see any legal papers they had
Well they took me downtown dressed in black
They took me to jail while wearing black clothing
Put me on the train, they carried me back
They put me on a train and took me back to the county jail
Throwed me back in that county jail
They put me back in the county jail
Had nobody for to go my bail
No one was available to pay my bail
Well the judge and jury they took their stand
The judge and jury convened
The judge had the papers in his right hand
The judge had legal papers in his hand
Forty-one days, forty-one nights
I was sentenced to spend 41 days and nights in jail
Forty-one years to wear the ball and stripes
I was sentenced to 41 years of hard labor in prison
Contributed by Kaelyn I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.