Don’t believe the rumors, the new Robbie Fulks album, Georgia Hard is really fantastic and features some of his strongest song writing to date. I’m not sure if he need to write Countrier Than Thou, as it’s going to be another Roots Rock Weirdos/Fuck This Town within 6 months, but It’s Always Raining Somewhere and If They Could Only See Me Now (featuring a great spoken part) are already on my shortlist of favorite Fulks songs of all time. This week marks Honey’s One Year Anniversary, On Friday we are having a big blow out at Honey HQ featuring birthday cake and puppies.

Today we are featuring two tracks from J.T “Funny Paper” Smith also known as his much better nickname “The Howling Wolf.” Smith like Blind Lemon Jefferson combines the different styles of Texas blues into something very unique - both funny and witty but also somber and dark. Like Jefferson, Smith is a very unique lyricist, nothing pulling from the usual bag of blues phrases each Smith song features a new take on the blues and are filled with verbal surprises. These two tracks, Fools Blues and Heart Bleeding Blues feature some of Smith’s strongest lyrics. Fool’s Blues in particular is one of the strongest written blues songs I’ve heard - lines like “This must of been the devil I’m servin’ it can’t be Jesus Christ/Cause I asked him to save me and it looks like he tryin’ to take my life” really strikes at the core of the blues and really rips out the safety net of the Lord as the savior of the blues - and Smith explores the possibility of dying noting saving him - rejecting the idea of death being the savior from the blues that many songs form. Heart Bleeding Blues likewise rejects the standard “my woman’s gone” blues songs - as he proceeds to hunt his cheatin’ woman down with a shotgun in the last part of the song.

J.T. “Funny Paper” Smith - Fool’s Blues
J.T. “Funny Paper” Smith - Heart Bleeding Blues

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