JACK O' DIAMOND BLUES

Created on 28/10/2003
Latest update on 19/04/2024

Artist: Blind Lemon Jefferson
Author: traditional
Label: Paramount
Year: 1926

The Jack O' Diamonds is a hard (unlucky) card to hold. Big Joe Williams used that expression in his Baby Please Don't Go.

Covers:

1927:

Riley Puckett & Clayton McMichen [as A Corn Licker Still In Georgia]

1927:

Da Costa Woltz's Southern Broadcasters

1928:

Jules Verne Allen [real Texan cowboy]

1936:

Tex Ritter [as Rye Whiskey in film Song Of The Gringo]

1949:

John Lee Hooker

1954:

Pete Seeger [as Whiskey Rye Whiskey]

1956:

Odetta

1957:

Lonnie Donegan

1959:

Ramblin' Jack Elliott

1960:

Mance Lipscomb [as Jack O' Diamonds Is A Hard Card To Play]

1962:

Eric Von Schmidt

1965:

Charlatans

1966:

Big Brother & The Holding Company [in Coo Coo]

1974:

Walkers [as Jack O' Diamond, hit NL]

1994:

Peter Rowan [as Rye Whiskey]

2000:

Tarbox Ramblers

2001:

Imperial Crowns

2001:

Blue Mountain [as Rye Whiskey]

2002:

Steve James

2005:

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

2008:

Waylon Jennings [posthumous; recorded in the mid 90s]

2009:

Dave Matthews Band [as Rye Whiskey]

2010:

Holly Golightly

2014:

Scott H. Biram

2021:

Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird

Gambler's song with deep English roots. Related to folk standard The Cuckoo and Irish ballad Bunclody. Also became an American fiddle warhorse as Drunken Hiccups, related to The Wagoner's Lad. Not to be confused, neither with Sippie Wallace's song for OKeh in '26 (with Louis Armstrong), nor with Ben Carruthers' Jack O' Diamonds (see there). Ruth Brown's Jack-o-Diamonds ('54) was a Leiber/Stoller composition first released on Jacki Fontaine (Forecast - '54).

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:

Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)

info@originals.be

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