I can’t think of any other single song that exploded in my head quite like Talking Blues. I didn’t think rationally about it at the time. I was only five or six the first time I played it. But if I could have put my feelings in words, I think I would have said, “So this is what music can do to you. This is how powerful it can be, and with tools no more complicated than a voice and a guitar.” It was my first encounter with the boogie disease, and the only cure was more.
Talking Blues – Chris Bouchillon
…It began with a nimbly fingerpicked guitar into, and then a man began talking, not singing, in a pleasant tenor voice over the music…
Church in the Wildwood – Carter Family
…On Wednesdays we sang “The Little Brown Church in the Wildwood” and “Bringing in the Sheaves.”
Battle of New Orleans
…She knew all the words to “The Battle of New Orleans,” the Jimmy Driftwood song that Johnny Horton had a number one hit with in 1959…