Cocaine Blues - Live at the Yellow Door Hootenanny - Nov 2023 - Marc Nerenberg

"Cocaine Blues" is a song widely known in many different versions, with highly variable lyrics. It became quite popular during the 1960's, a sort of "standard" part of many a Folkie's repertoire. All of those many different versions basically traced their origins to the singing and playing of the blind blues singer, Reverend Gary Davis (1896 - 1972), who himself had learned the song in 1905 from a travelling carnival musician named Porter Irving.
Most of the time it has been treated as a light-hearted song, often with comical verses. Four years ago, in November 2019, I came up with a much more somber version of the song built from fragments of half-remembered stanzas that I had heard from diverse sources over the years.
For more than a week, I've had a wide deep cut on the tip of my left index finger that, in the last few days, seemed to be getting close enough to being healed that I thought I should try using that finger in fretting my banjo again. So I was noodling around on my banjo, not playing anything in particular, just to see if I could do it, when I thought that I recognized a song that my hands were playing spontaneously, though I was unclear what song it actually was.
It took a few moments of concentration before a line or two of lyrics popped into my head, and then I realized that I was actually playing Cocaine Blues, so I decided to perform it as the opening song of last night's Yellow Door Hootenanny, which I host.
Because of my only partially usable bandaged left index finger, I found myself playing a rather minimalist banjo accompaniment, which, it turns out, I actually prefer to the way I had played it four years ago - where I was trying to highlight the banjo playing and was putting in a lot of fairly unnecessary ornamentation high on the neck. I'm also playing it here in a different key and tuning than what I had done four years ago.
These days, I'm definitely finding myself increasingly drawn to these pared down arrangements of what are often the darker, less explored, side of songs. This arrangement continues those specific trends in my playing and singing.
The was recorded on a period appropriate 1910 Fairbanks "Electric" banjo strung with artificial gut strings. (It was called "Electric" because it was a trendy name at the time. The banjo is not actually "electrified" in any sense of the word, as is a modern electric guitar.) The banjo is tuned eAEAC# and is played using old-time thumb-lead two-finger picking. This performance was at the Yellow Door Friday Night Hootenanny of 10 November 2023, in downtown Montréal, Québec.

[@elizavetamixailova3848]

Nice we have Marc to remember the 80s.

[@marcnerenberg1]

And the sixties and seventies too! Thanks for the comment!

[@kiezersosay49]

What an OG...

[@marcnerenberg1]

I confess, I had to google "OG" to find out what it means, but now that I have done so, let me say "Why, thank you so much!"

[@chuckjj5493]

Right on,well done.

[@marcnerenberg1]

Thank you, Chuck, very much for that!

[@joebroome2019]

Excellent performance!

[@marcnerenberg1]

Thanks very much, Joe!

[@KenneyCmusic]

I came across your banjo origins presentation video, and noticed you were from Montreal. I’m from B.C. I love your style. I’m a folkie at heart, banjo picker and fiddler. Whenever I make it to Montreal, I’ll make sure to look this place up.

[@marcnerenberg1]

Thanks - you’ll be welcomed!-