Artist: Skip James
Author: Skip James
Label: Paramount
Year: 1931
During the same session as his Devil Got My Woman, 20-20 Blues and I'm So Glad (see there). Inspired by the endless row of homeless sharecropper families along Highway 61, destituted by the Great Depression, surviving on solid ground under shaggy tents, desperately seeking a way out of the Delta.
Covers:
Brendan Croker & The Five O'Clock Shadows [as Hard Times on A Close Shave]
Guy Davis [as Everything Is Gonna Be Alright]
R.L. Burnside [strongest version in years]
Chris Thomas King [casted as Tommy Johnson in Coen Brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou?]
Lucinda Williams [in Wim Wenders-film Soul Of A Man (part of Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues)]
Bobby Rush [as Hard Times]
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)