My recent request for help with my spam problem was a success, so I’m asking for some more tech help – Is anyone using WP- Mint – Popular Posts? I would like to track my downloads per file, something dreamhost doesn’t offer, and all the Mint plugins for download track use a php script that also prevents the songs from being saved – only streamed. If I could this mint popular post plugin working, at least I would know which posts people are reading the most, and hopefully also download the song the most, not ideal but at least I’d get some idea of what ya’ll are downloading. I have the plugin pointed at my Mint database – but I don’t know what to do from there. My WordPress theme isn’t widget aware is that the problem?

I recently discovered this Sara Martin track – Shipwrecked Blues and it’s unlike any Sara Martin song I’ve heard before. She sings in vaudeville pitch and the song has lots of strange pauses and breaks – and is only minimally backed up by a solo piano. The pace of the song is also really strange – it’s very rocky – side to side much like a ship making it hard to follow, not to mention Martin who is normally very clear mumbles and slurs her way through some of the stanzas and she also reaches for the higher notes (and does some awful rolling of them), something not typical of her style at all. It makes me wonder if this is her at all. Thoughts?

Sara Martin – Shipwrecked Blues (1926)

If anyone can help me out with my spam issue I’d love to know how to prevent it. I’m currently using Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam plugin for WordPress, but it doesn’t seem to work that well. Also it doesn’t seem to work with Safari.

I often search my archives to see what I’ve posted before – and upon searching Ida Cox, one of my favorite blues singers of all time – I noticed I’ve only posted her one other time. Of course in that post I expressed my outrange of that same fact. I’ve been listening to Ida sing Coffin Blues, quite possibly the saddest blues song I’ve heard this side of Lonnie Johnson’s Death Valley is Only Half Way To My Home. Backed by Jesse Crump on his beautiful and heartbreaking reed organ Ida sings about burying her man – without metaphor or happiness – this is the sadness of the blues at its most pure.

Ida Cox – Coffin Blues (1925)

Lizzie Miles was a New Orleans Singer who had a wide range of singing styles though I think she was only able to pull off jazz and blues – this track in particular is a fantastic blues performance and really shows why she was one of the biggest blues star of her time. She Is backed by Jelly Roll Morton on piano, and what a wonderful piano track this is – he almost steals the show from Miles who is at her somber and plaintive best.

Lizzie Miles – I Hate A Man Like You (1929)