Ragged but Right!

         

Mick writes:

Here's a slice of early 20th Century Americana which has gone through a few re-writes over the years. First recorded by The Blue Harmony Boys in 1929, a kind of ragtime thing, and later a hit for country singer George Jones with a rather sanitized version.

I know the song from Riley Puckett, a blind country singer who recorded through the 30s and into the early 40s, dying in 1946 from sepsis. A tough life I imagine, which is reflected in his raucous rendering of 'Ragged but Right'.

So here's my re-write, taking the spirit of Riley's version with some of the less applicable references removed and replaced with something I can relate to. I really enjoyed recording the song over three days in February 2024, using my 'Oxfam' 9.99 acoustic, my ex-music school nylon strung Spanish and my 1930s Harmony archtop for the slide. Rhythm beaten out on the back of the Oxfam.

'Ragged but Right!' released Friday 22nd March 2024.