The Evening Sun

"Blue Yodel #3 (Evening Sun Yodel)" by Jimmie Rodgers  Throughout the course of the history of the blues, several artists have tackled "that evening sun" and what stands to happen when it drops below the horizon.  For Jimmie Rodgers, there is no question to what the evening sun represents.  Diagnosed at 24 with TB, he was in a race with the reaper and struggled to complete a life cut short by disease.  Much like his counterpart in Romantic poetry, John Keats, Rodgers used the specter of death to urge his prolificacy in his field.  A man of the traveling show,the railroad, the stage... Rodgers' life was lived well, for he knew that when that evening sun went down, he could very well be "on his last go 'round."

"St. Louis Blues" by Chuck Berry

The "Evening Sun" lyric was not created by Rodgers, however.  As was true to his wandering, hobo lifestyle, he adapted the line from works he had heard through his travels.  In fact, the first recording of the line "I hate to see the evening sun go down" is found in W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues," arguably one of the most famous jazz compositions of all time.  Recorded in 1914, the lyric predates Rodgers' "Blue Yodel #3" by nearly fifteen years.  In Handy's song, the singer hates "to see the evening sun go down /  because the woman I love has done left this town."  Handy's song has been covered by a Who's Who of  musicians, such as Emmett Miller, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and many, many more.  However, one of the more raucous renditions was (and still is) performed by St. Louis' native son, Chuck Berry.

"St. Louis Blues" by The Pine Hill Haints

We can thank Southern Alabama for many things -- Mardi Gras, keeping the SEC competitive, Brick Pit BBQ, etc. -- but the Pine Hill Haints should be at the top of that list.  Lead vocalist / songwriter Jamie  Barrier channels Rodgers with his opening lyric much like a medium would summon a specter in a séance.  But he "hates to see that evening sun go down" for much different reasons than Handy or the Brakeman.  The Haints, who describe themselves as "Alabama Ghost Music," are rounded out by Barrier's wife Kat, Matt Bakula, and a rotating set of hyper-talented musicians with skills on rustic instruments such as the washtub bass, saw, banjo and mandolin.  The music shrouds itself with hints of  horror, but without ever descending into camp or novelty.  It comes from a world shrouded in Spanish moss and Southern secrets, ghost stories put to music, keeping us afraid of the dark, after the evening sun has long gone down.

"When the Evening Sun Goes Down" by the Carter Family

If Jimmie Rodgers is revered by country musicians as "the man who started it all," then a significant place in music history should be reserved for the man who discovered him: Ralph Peer.  In the 1920s   Peer, who already had revolutionized music at OKeh Records by recording "race music," developed an affinity for what he termed "hillbilly music," a developing genre somewhere apart from gospel and blues.  He left OKeh and found himself at the Victor Talking Machine Company, where he found he could work with newer technology that had the ability to record softer music -- songs with guitar, dulcimer, mandolin, etc -- and facilitate his affinity for Appalachian music.  Knowing that much of the rural talent would be unable to afford to travel to New York City, he announced that Victor would set up a recording studio in Bristol, Tennessee.  Musicians came from every hill and hollow and Peer recorded 76 songs by        19 performers over 12 days.  Since this marked the professional recording debuts of both Jimmie Rodgers and southwest Virginia's Carter Family, the event is known as "The Big Bang of Country Music."
The moralistic and wholesome sound of A.P., Sara, and Maybelle Carter not only struck Peer, but the country as well.  For years they recorded soulful ballads culled straight from their region, thereby   preserving scores of compositions that otherwise would have been lost to time.  In the Carter Family's rendition of "When the Evening Sun Goes Down," they sing sweetly of when they "cross life's other side / [and] cross the great divide."  Peace, smiling faces, and starry crowns await them after their evening sun  goes down in a song that accurately reflects their values and temperaments.

"In the Evening When the Sun Goes Down" by Lead Belly

 Another invaluable figure in American music was John A. Lomax.  Born a Texan, Lomax learned cowboy work songs as a child and set about collecting them.  In the 1930s, he expanded his love of songs to encompass folk songs and American ballads, particularly those sung by African-Americans.  As the radio began to secure its place in the fabric of the nation, Lomax feared these songs would be lost.  He struck a deal with the Library of Congress' Archive of American Folk Songs and took to the road to collect these songs before they were lost.  Lomax understood that prisons and work farms preserved these songs best, and it was at Angola State Penitentiary that he met Hudie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, a three-time loser from Texas doing a stretch for killing a man in a knife fight.  In 1934, Lomax helped Lead Belly obtain a pardon by presenting the governor with a recording of "Goodnight Irene."  Lead Belly then chauffeured Lomax as they traveled the South collecting songs, sometimes camping at roadsides to save money. Eventually, Lomax began managing Lead Belly's career, bolstering attendance at his lectures with performances by the man known as the "King of the 12-String Guitar."  While helping preserve America's folk traditions, he also established a major star of the 30's as well.
Lead Belly's rendition of "The Evening Sun" features a man who knows that loneliness lies at the other    end of dusk, due to the departure of his woman for another man.  At the song's end, it is he who decides to leave for a better, happier life, when the sun goes down. 

"In the Evening the Sun is Going Down" by Lightnin' Hopkins

Just as the "howl" was an example of a variation of the yodel, the "moan" also serves as another interpretation of the popular refrain device.  A moan is a heartfelt and soulful refrain from the vocalist, often deep and basso with a crescendo often performed in place of a yodel.  This technique is most commonly associated with black country bluesmen from Texas, as elements of their style of "country blues" from the East Texas cotton fields are mingled with those of the Delta bluesmen.  This amalgamation of style becomes possible thanks to the area's recording center in Dallas, in an urban warehouse district known as Deep Ellum.  Many musicians recorded in Deep Ellum -- Blind Lemon  Jefferson ("Black Snake Moan"), Lead Belly ("Moanin'"), Bessie Smith ("Moan, You Moaners") and many, many more.  Lightnin' Hopkins was one of the more polished performers to come out of the East Texas farms, and his casual moan pairs nicely with his frantic fits of smooth guitar picking and soulful voice. 

"When the Evening Sun Goes Down" by Cliff Carlisle

In 1934, Jimmie Rodgers' evening sun finally went down.  Just as most of the artists featured here have  seen their evening sun set.  But as evidenced by the resurgence in their material, by the efforts of the men and women who run music Halls of Fame across our beautiful, sunny South, and by those carrying the torches that men like Ralph Peer and the Lomax's lit, the sun will rise again and with it shall arrive a new group of stars.