Belton Sutherland: Blues #2 (1978)

Belton Sutherland (vocal and guitar) performs an improvised blues on Clyde Maxwell's porch. Shot by Alan Lomax, John Bishop, and Worth Long at Maxwell's farm near Canton, Mississippi, September 3, 1978. For more information about the American Patchwork filmwork, Alan Lomax, and his collections, visit culturalequity.org. [02.19.21]

[@shadowfest999]

Technology amazes me. This was shot before the internet was even a thing. This old fellow, hanging out on a porch and singing the blues, had absolutely no idea that almost forty years later people would be watching his performance around the world. It's kind of incredible, really.

[@jopephjohnson9000]

over 800k views that's consider a gold record. Too bad he is no longer with us.

[@CstormCity]

1.2 million now!

[@zoso1980]

Yup. Serving as a everlasting reminder what blues is AND isn't. This generation who thinks Fish, Clapton, SRV is blues - this serves to show them what blues really IS. And it's not guitar rock shredders.

[@Hyporama]

Add to this the consideration that this fellow is probably gone from this world and the weirdness grows exponentially

[@kevinhorsley5188]

Probably

[@duhcohtuh1500]

Fuckin' love that riff, so grimy, so raw, dipped in gold and dragged through mud.

[@MrOhjok]

Yes Dakota. You caught it man. I heard Hendrix here. The chord is just mean and steady.

[@PsychoticBedroomRecordings]

I can hear Jim Morrison, get the MOJO RISING" Da da da da da Da

[@PsychoticBedroomRecordings]

If you play it at 0.5 speed

[@-Pol-]

@duhcohtuh - No gold to be seen here mate. Blue lies at the opposite end of that particular spectrum.

[@noahjohnson3892]

Reminds me so fucking much of heavy metal

[@scottmckeen3908]

WOW! Can you get any more down to Earth than that? He's not looking for money and fame, just playing some deep-rooted blues with his whole heart and soul. And didn't even lose his cigarette while singing! And that rhythm with tapping his foot while playing. Just BEAUTIFUL!

[@mavjimbo]

Doesn't get any better than this

[@reillyflaherty9234]

Crickets in the background and a hand rolled cigarette in his mouth. Can't get more authentic than that.

[@kevqb5]

The crickets in the background just adds to it..

[@sccakb6]

Kevin Atkins heck yeah

[@epicoutdoorracin2010]

True Country Blues! Hell yeah!

[@toddcallison8087]

Those are cicadas not crickets..

[@DaBears08]

Todd Callison for sure crickets man. Also hilarious comment they do add to it

[@georgewashington6877]

I hear crickets and cicadas....ya'll must be city boys. Or just deaf...

[@sirosis7858]

Singing, playing, and tapping rhythm with his foot....all with a smoke glued to the corner of his mouth. So great! Reminds me of all the old guys in the 70s who would do everything from fix cars, repair houses, fish, do manual jobs...and still always have that smoke glued to the corner of their mouth.

[@antimon009]

This old man doesn't play blues. He IS blues.

[@jefersonvilaede]

therefore he plays himself

[@Humblemumble7]

No, he definitely plays blues.. Look right at the video up there

[@sonnyjones4399]

He said Blues. And so it was

[@SuperLuckao]

yes..u cannot play the blues if u don't have the blues..i think BB King said that.

[@tonydv9260]

@@SuperLuckao Howlin Wolf

[@TheDoosh79]

We owe a great debt to Alan Lomax.

[@Eastside54]

Matt Jarrett very true

[@mic982]

Priceless piece of footage ~ youngsters, take heed

[@phchoucri1]

Lomax father and sun, musical heroes ...

[@JamesSpeiser]

to Belton you owes baby

[@jackwrabbit9639]

As well as Belton Sutherland

[@MarceloZinato]

As a metal fan for more than 15 years, I must say that this is one of the purest and heaviest things I've ever seen

[@nate312]

Power the blues bro power of the blues🎵

[@bluesloverdelux5010]

As a blues fan,you have plenty of great blues artists and songs like this.Go check Skip James or Boyd Rivers,just to name a few.

[@ilkinq.8646]

that is real music man not shit like metal. wtf metal, noise sh*t

[@joshuadowling8778]

Amen.

[@shruggzdastr8-facedclown]

Metal is but two steps removed from the Blues with the latter begetting Rock & Roll which, in its turn, begat Metal

[@kstaggs87]

If I had a choice between having tickets to see my favorite band of all time, front row center, or a chance to go back in time and sit on the porch with one of these old blues players and listen to the raw, unfiltered, true blues they used to play....I’d choose the time machine.

[@Kowasi]

Uh huh… you could use that machine to see all the bands that you want.

[@Hollowsmith]

There's something so powerful about seeing these old bluesman out on deep south porches at night, steamy air, crickets and frogs filling the sound of the night, and they're playing for their own catharsis long before the internet, playing to the open fields. The authenticity is haunting.

[@KaNaTroX]

The fact that he is singing with his cigaret in his mouth

[@martysafterhours]

He had been smoking that cigarette since 1932. It never went out, not even once.

[@Freedomfighter76239]

People idolize pop stars, and all those kinds of people we think of as “great musicians” myself included. People who play on 15 foot stages and charge 200 dollars a ticket. And there are people like this man who are something entirely separate. Entirely closer to the soul

[@alihandemiral7049]

Out of all the videos in the Lomax Archive, this one astounds me the most. Everything about it is pure blues. The crickets in the background, the old porch, the dusty shoes, that guitar and Belton Sutherland as a figure. Simply blues.

[@randyroberts2301]

The hand rolled,, cigarette hanging from his mouth pure blues

[@islabee94]

Yes!! It feels essential..defining in a way. Like it encapsulates the genre perfectly. Even that beautiful blend of deep emotion and nonchalant chill.

[@rooseveltjones6241]

Check out burnside

[@rooseveltjones6241]

Burnside blues

[@rooseveltjones6241]

Robert Burnside blues

[@322kfunk]

This should 100% be put in the national archives

[@gettinnapkins]

THIS VIDEO IS SO FUCKING COOL ON SO MANY LEVELS

[@jimihd1]

+gettinnapkins Yeah, there are not too many people that can get that...

[@jimihd1]

***** but there are lots of things to understand on this video, not only about music..

[@gettinnapkins]

jimihd1 my thoughts exactly

[@jacobusbaker9285]

+gettinnapkins shut up fool youre fuckin the mojo

[@gettinnapkins]

riffraff riff i don't get it. are you trying to seem interesting by belittling my excitement? because i was VERY impressed by your use of bold font on a youtube comment. are you a hacker?

[@allaboutdatGDA]

That's some grown ass man stuff right there.

[@saltybildo4415]

Ya man

[@senecacolbert7377]

Grown folk music indeed.

[@gregarnold1696]

And you know this is true

[@ramsfire]

THIS Gentleman.....reminds me of my Grandfather.....who played guitar and sang The Blues exactly like this when I was 3 years old in 1960. He even looks a bit like him too. Nice Flashback.

[@richardsledgecock2110]

You are a lucky lucky man to have had a grandfather like him.lord knows the world sure could use them now..I tip my hat from tennessee

[@ramsfire]

@@richardsledgecock2110 Thank you for your Kind Words. I bear his name as a "3rd" and try to live up to what he taught us. Lost him too soon. He crammed a lot into 61 yrs.

[@richardsledgecock2110]

@@ramsfire I'm sure he'd be proud of ye.sounds like you learned alot.best wishes to you for the new year.god knows we could all use a little relief lol.all a fellow can do is what he can and let the rough end drag.

[@richardaston4752]

Alan Lomax was an extraordinary human, without him much of this treasure would have been lost. But it's here for us to enjoy. Massive

[@chrysalis12481]

I am so glad that Alan Lomax had a clue that this material was something to save. Music with substance!

[@lightnin7537]

The drone his thumb creates is addictive. This is as close as you can get to the source of all modern music.

[@DavidDorenfeld]

possibly the most badass thing I've ever heard in my life

[@NoelyRyan]

I agree. Quite possibly.

[@barristanselmy2758]

Noely Ryan It's a solid ringer that's for sure.

[@michaelbillie6466]

He is playing how he is feeling. Love the Mississippi Blues.

[@TeddyP213]

I got some serious goosebumps listening to this.

[@dmlevitt]

indeed what incredible playing nothing phony just soul

[@deanthemachine96]

I can’t even begin to imagine how many lost songs of the past there are like this that have been tapped out and played on so many porches

[@myprettydogshell226]

I can't count how many times watched this movie. I feel blues.

[@hamidmusik7691]

The cigarette doesn’t burn ...too much respect

[@bencoker4418]

"Cigarette"...

[@santosjerez1586]

He paused it ..until he was done jamming

[@F20ization]

Eli Malaga ,hhhhh

[@empats9176]

being that he n miss.... its prolly a jernt

[@wizardoffuzz223]

That’s for sure a joint

[@yovangluvacevic8950]

That’s real music ❤

[@James-xk8dy]

Belton Sutherland is one of my favorite musicians of all time. It's a shame he didn't lay down some more tracks on vinyl but we're lucky with what we have. Thanks to the Lomax team

[@Carlito1988]

Love how he gives the effect that he is playing guitar and bass at the same time! For an acoustic song, it comes off as very heavy!

[@andrewwabik5125]

I think it’s tuned down to open drone d or something. You get the effect from hitting the top (thickest) string in rhythm with the rest of the guitar. He’s playing guitar, vocals, bass, and drums. All by himself. What a performance. He had no idea we’d be enjoying it 😊

[@maximebernier4759]

I think it's standard tuning but down to C# more or less, pretty heavy

[@ponnywarcat3478]

That has to be one of the coolest sound guitar grooves ever, priceless. Something like this can not be duplicated or copied. It’s original Deep South American blues. It’s Boogie in one of it’s purest forms. It cannot be bought or sold and is difficult to learn. This song comes across as an authentic original masterpiece, yet the musician here probably did not gain or amass great wealth and riches money but he achieved something more important, he is a result of Freedom he is the Boogie in its pure musical state. He represents the True America at its foundations. He might or might not come from a poor background, it does not matter. What matters is his Spirit. He is very strong, very powerful, very dangerous, capable of anything, indestructible, and he is eternally forever. He will never die, he cannot, it’s impossible. He is simply a gift. A gift from God to anybody out there who wants it.-“Boogie Theory”

[@jamesmack7713]

As you watch and listen to this true old time blues talent, you may come to realize and recognize from whence the blues emulates. It comes from the heart, it comes from pain, it comes from love, it comes from despair, and often it emotes hope.

[@hobinabi]

Elvis as a poor child himself was sitting and listening to these old fellows. Whatever happened to him later, I can still feel this in his soul.

[@mrseaturtle8915]

AND PROBLY WHY eRIC cLAPTON shouldn't have been playing it.

[@jefersonvilaede]

pain and love are 2 connected polarities

[@JesusIsLove_John3-16]

@@jefersonvilaede very thin line between joy and suffering, god bless my friend

[@sccakb6]

Belton Sutherland...even the name is cool. Don't you guys wish we could've been there on that porch and witnessed that? I know I do. Take care everyone.

[@endocry]

Not really as I'd be a senior citizen or dead now.

[@michaelmccurry9947]

For about 3 or 4 hours with some good moonshine and ice water. (a little weed, and some wiggling women) hot damn !!!!

[@willeypoboy6052]

Blows me away what a man can do with 2 frets.... and a endless pit of a blue soul

[@sirkrutchbluesman3009]

I AGREE WHOLE HEARTEDLY 🎶🎸🎶

[@johnjeffire]

The driving intensity of this tune is simply relentless.

[@davisworth5114]

This drive, with simple melody is the central, hypnotic element of Delta Blues that separates it from the other two types of country blues, that are Texas Blues and Piedmont Blues.

[@ShuFFle2207]

i think he created being cool without even noticing it!

[@akermanian]

ShuFFle2207 that'd what cool is

[@heginschristianstrong7707]

i guess the unlit cigarette helps. there for looks i reckon

[@dadasha]

@@heginschristianstrong7707 it used be lit, look closely! That's even makes if cooler!

[@Zero_thehero]

Hegins christianstrong cigs used to go out that one looks to be hand rolled maybe not even a cig

[@alicebowen1018]

Hell yeah I like going home

[@caseyvollan8558]

true music real art pure heart they dont make em like they use to god bless them women that spurred the worlds last genuine blues soul singers

[@Thedecimator13]

Killer blues,raw and sloppy like it was meant to be. Love it.

[@azlannair4835]

Exactly.. just to mention the strings are a bit off in tune.. still in range though. Perfecto 👌

[@jmangji]

Props to Alan Lomax for preserving so many brilliant performances….

[@wherenextcolumbus666]

I'm not kidding when I say that that's one of the best song ever written.

[@ajrockinshockin2893]

Watching in June 2020. Thank you Alan.👍🙂😎

[@avalanche9026]

What I’m talking about. Rough life still like the blues ?? Not hard to get there you know. 2024. Almost there

[@Mr.Grumbdy]

Belton's guitar playing is a Birdseye view of the internal SOUL of the blues.

[@giangiakan9133]

JUST UNBELIEVABLE.........HE PLAYS...HE SMOKES...AND FUCK HE SINGS LIKE A BIRD

[@Rockenstein68]

Sitting on his porch, in the dark of night, no one but him and the crickets, almost like a pure release of emotion to the creator. Beautiful !

[@vb3rzm-yj2bk]

Listened to this song maybe since 7 years hours and hours and still there are tears pouring down as if i heard it for the first time

[@jamesebola1250]

All the electronics and technology of today can't surpass this...my mouth is still open... What a bad ass man, with a mother of all bad ass tunes. This is so good it hurts...

[@eduardozabala7281]

Belton Sutherland and the cricket´s band!

[@gleaveinjapan]

they later joined Buddy Holly

[@seandmoore6922]

Damn. Just beautiful.

[@saxonstephens7954]

Gotta love them crickets and good old sounds of nature to really bring the atmosphere alive its just like your out there sittin with him waiting on dinner to be ready

[@lesflotschantants551]

Blues will never die. This tune is very powerfull.

[@plo173]

I can´t even talk and play at the same time and this guy is holding magically his cig

[@jjRoxy]

@blksbbth d legendary

[@cstoneone]

Hard to believe that it could ever get any better than this. Raw, unpolished, unprocessed, and played straight from the gut the way it was meant to be. Sad that most of these players died dirt poor with no or very little recognition though they were the founding fathers of the blues. The blues are as American as American music can get...

[@mitchcigarboxguitar6447]

The real original blues. So good. Thanks for sharing.

[@81dsend]

Love the way he holds his smoke, sings his ballad, kicks his foot, never misses a beat....life will never be the same. Kids these days...wont appreciate the raw experience you get from living..

[@simplethunder]

It literally sounds like there's a bassplayer playing in the background.

[@veronique8748]

J aime ces personnes des usa! Du blues, sa vie dure dans les champs de cotons, ou bien un job dans un entrepôt d harengs ! Dans un champ de patates douces, son labeur, sa guitare c'est sa force avec l eglise du dimanche ! Le gospel, c'est du blues

[@OdySlim]

Oh my Goodness! Just when you think you have heard them all, another awesome guitarist comes along. I am going to look this guy up and learn all his tunes. I can feel the blues just pouring into and out of that old guitar from his soul. Whew!!

[@OdySlim]

+Unique96 I will never forget Belton Sutherland. Thank God for You Tube. Belton puts me into the mood to get into my car and drive as fast as it will take me. Total adrenaline rush man!

[@jacobusbaker9285]

Belton would shit on you thats for sure.

[@masterchiefer123]

A guitar and a man with soul, all that is needed for great music

[@vandykmail]

This is one bad-ass son of a bitch.

[@mindisaction]

You need a lot of class, tradition and autenticity to sing just holding the cigarette in your mouth!!. Pure sound

[@patarnababan6440]

His fingers didn't go anywhere, but my mind traveled so far far away...

[@gummy1188]

This man deserves vastly more credit than he gets. These few videos are the only info about him thst exists...

[@kimberlys.t.7206]

+Kurt Morrison I agree with you.

[@jacobusbaker9285]

No he doesn't, these are working man songs. For guys who roll their own and do hard labor into old age. And I bet you dont know shit about that.

[@Popeyeschicken433]

What the hell are you talking about +riffraff riff

[@tortadada7282]

I wrote the song.

[@revivalofthefittestonlythe2757]

@@jacobusbaker9285 you were having a bad day right?

[@barfboy2000]

That tone is special. I've been listening to old blues since I was a kid and never heard anything like that until today. Foot tapping is bananas.

[@pancake4425]

Haha, the singing cigarette. What blows me away is that pure authenticity of this. No bells and wistles. Just that cigarette and a guitar.

[@mikaelwiberg2938]

That riff!!!

[@deanthemachine96]

This cuts right to the soul. No fancy bs just music in its most human form

[@jaystretch01]

This gives me goosebumps without fail every time I hear it. What a tragedy that there aren't more recordings of this guy!

[@sirkrutchbluesman3009]

I AGREE WHOLE HEARTEDLY

[@scottconnors8419]

Give that man a light....

[@DementedDaveH]

This is one of the most rocking songs throughout these archives. I love it, the guitar and that bass beat kicked out with his heel on the wooden floor.

[@WestSeaSpirit]

I love how all these old blues songs have so much activity in the comment section! This is amazing!

[@CaminoRoyal]

Well, this is music ! no comments......Greetings from Germany

[@johnsarab4500]

Hard core life music! Gangsta rap is nothing but criminal excuses. Lomax was TRUE!

[@giacomopandiani6290]

Peak of class and style. As delta and blue as it can be. That is one of the many reasons I love the blues, when you think you already discovered all the hidden gems you stumble on another treasure. What a beautiful culture. Love this.

[@ConnorBurd]

not delta, Mississippi hill country blues

[@liljimitwofeatherz9735]

Bull not hill blues old blues...delta had the same way of playing I'm from the delta seen katts sound like him....he wasn't from the hills close to the delta

[@TheIchoose]

my god i have tears in my eyes, this is amazing, wonderful, it touches through my heart.

[@wulfsige14]

I don't think I've ever heard an acoustic being played like this before in my whole life! It's heavy and dark bad arse cool.

[@calebboombox]

Why can't I give him 209 billion likes

[@Dad-Gad]

If you've just found this , well done 👍 this is real music ☝

[@spazatron-uu4kb]

Love the crickets in the background...the light conversation...the hollow floor of porch tapping his hard soled shoe...sounds great...man those strings looked 20 years old...who knows how old that guitar was....

[@abraaoblues3669]

Eu aqui do Brasil que nunca pisei nos EUA sinto arrepios com um blues pesado destes, imagina vocês do Sul... muito bom... "Well, I feel like holl'in', don't wanta holler, Lord I got somethin' to tell you, girl, tell it to no crowd I want you to love me or leave me, anything you wanta do I want you to love me or leave me, anything you wanta do What a strange thing happenin', someday it might happen to you She's a brown-skin woman, dimples in her jaw She's a brown-skin woman, dimples in her jaw If you ever had the blues, know about how I feel If you ever had the blues, know about how I feel Feel just like a engine, ain't got no drivin' wheel"

[@markkennard861]

No better cure for the blues than the blues.

[@cjames3029]

Alan Lomax is a OG honoring America's great gift of Blues, it's Americans, God bless

[@__jco32]

youtube sometimes really hits the spot with its recomendations

[@diekrahe.]

Beautiful riff, you can really see that metal definitely came from the blues. I'm so glad of my roots.

[@schizodeltaman]

This guys knew what it was all about, as a musician this is what i aspire to, if you cant do what this guy is doing, you aint got shit, modern musicians need to remember that, protools etc are all well and good but you gotta have the raw talent first, i got a lot of work to do, but watching these guys in action inspires me to keep working at it.

[@Joseph-Colin-EXP]

2 years before i was born. God Bless this country. May this man rest in peace.

[@tanekg]

The coolest man that ever lived without a shadow of doubt!

[@flingflangflud]

He looks a tad like Lee Van Cleef

[@DrBlues76]

He looks like Quint from JAWS

[@takfam07]

That's what I noticed too.

[@michaelmccurry9947]

Wow your right !!

[@wreccen]

Spot on

[@strat458796]

John Holy crap he does

[@deanthemachine96]

Music is all about evoking or expressing emotion in my eyes. This is the pinnacle. And that riff is so dark and hits the soul in such a satisfying bluesy way. True musicianship.

[@gaugetherage5207]

Belton Sutherland lives forever. 2.1M views.

[@andrewwabik6185]

This is intense. It’s not overly noisy or trying to show off. It is what it is.

[@murattaner7384]

I used to play sax with a reefer in my mouth :)))

[@americanmutt2901]

Im here its 2020 worst year of my 46 years of life. This video is the best thing thats happened to me in 2020. Ive got the covid19 blues..

[@gleaveinjapan]

Aint nothing but the blues

[@epicoutdoorracin2010]

One man, one guitar, and a kick ass sound that is even almost absent from music today and even today's Blues. That driving hypnotic drone rhythm sounds like North Mississippi Hill Country Blues. Perhaps this was recorded in Oxford, Holly Springs, Water Valley, or even the other surrounding towns in the area. This sounds nothing like Delta Blues.

[@sayerma]

+Cody Moraga Agreed mate....not Delta or Southern Mississippi at all. This is Hill Country - RL Burnside, Fred McDowell, Junior Kimbrough territory.

[@xtc601x]

+sayerma this is basically central mississippi. this was filmed in canton mississippi. bordering our capitol jackson missisippi. im from mississippi.

[@codymoraga6784]

+leviticus ftw Cool, I'm all the way from Northern California, I have some family in Arkansas, but I've never been to Mississippi. North Mississippi Hill Country Blues is actually the name of the sub-genre within Blues. When I heard it the first time, I was hooked like a catfish! Wish I can visit Mississippi in the next few years and explore from Memphis, Tennessee, down to Clarksdale, MS, Oxford, and out east to Tupelo.

[@devonmoors]

Cody Moraga Blind Pig records stuff..Brilliant!

[@SapphicTwist]

@@codymoraga6784 I think this drone is the closest thing we have to an ancestral revolt--earmarks of both the hunter-gatherers exploited by the African Bantu, and slaves exploited by Europeans. Hill Country wasn't good for growing cotton, so this music flourished outside the old plantation and sharecropper systems...Delta Blues was created by black workers on the Mississippi, and seemed more preoccupied with seducing young ladies than rebelling...

[@jeffroberts_tunes]

there's some serious juju in that guitar work...primal and powerful

[@brandonfernandez1981]

I was just going to say I’ve never heard a guitar that sounds so raw, plain yet very captivating

[@raifteri]

The sound of a whole band from a voice, a guitar, and a tapping foot. Genius.

[@bsastarfire250]

This is truly wonderful.

[@DanTheman6004]

The fact he and other Delta blues musicians play claw hammer style is no detail it is proof of a continuous strain of African music. Amazingly it didn't matter what stringed instrument you had in Africa from a sophisticated Kora harp to a primitive one stringed lute, all were played using the thumb and forefinger in the exact same way as shown here. So claw hammer is essentially a mix of all those different lost playing styles. Hidden under those fingers are layers of experience from vastly different peoples, who played many different instruments, but who realized that they were all African and American. The tremendous fusion which came out of that realization is the music your hearing now. I can imagine the intricately deep complexity which went into the soul of the Blues. Even aside from Irish, English, French and Native American etc, influences it is fascinatingly hard to isolate. It formed where exiled Africans from both humble and proud backgrounds, Griots and Shepard's, Hunters and Kings all sat down on account of a memory and realized between two fingers and between two points they had more than enough in common.

[@draleighd]

Most of these bluesmen are if Indian background. Mostly chickasaw, choctaw, and some kitawah.

[@houseofaboriginal]

Thats not African music. Its American music

[@houseofaboriginal]

@@draleighd facts they are Indigenous people

[@dubbbkb]

American Indian music. We are not from Africa

[@dubbbkb]

@@draleighd truth!

[@barmizmus]

The real blues maker is unknown and far from the the world of celebrities, he lives in the sky of mist. His voice is the ungraspable whispering of the ancient spirit which can take your soul far far away if you listen carefully ;) So listen my friends, listen.

[@deltabluesdavidraye]

great outlook

[@WriterMikeMonson]

Huh?

[@deltabluesdavidraye]

makes absolutely perfect sense to me as once you have put your self out there and have to make compromises to satisfy the popular version of the Blues the essence of the art form suffers.

[@akermanian]

it's primal, raw, pure mathematics, the language of the universe perfectly vibrating its self to its self, some of us are just lucky to feel it

[@juanpolan1a]

Alan Lomax thanks for all.

[@bobareeniobobareenio2935]

Old Bluesman here giving this a Thumbs up !