Mama, I´ll Be Long Gone

I´m not making a best of 2012 list this year (at least I haven´t made it yet!), so let me just recommend an album I have been listening to a lot this year; "Mama, I´ll Be Long Gone: The Complete Recordings Of Amédé Ardoin 1929-1934" (Tompkins Square 2011).

Christopher King is the one who has managed to collect all known records by the cajun accordionist and singer Amédé Ardoin, and transferred them to CD/mp3. Yes, it crackles, but it does not matter, because what you really will hear anyway, is Ardoin´s beautiful voice!
Almost all of his songs may be about the same girl, that is the one he loved and could not have.

Please read "Dragged through the forest: The long-gone sound of Amédé Ardoin" in Oxford American (Nov 2012), and watch "The death of Amédé Ardoin", narrated by Alan Lomax.
Strong tales from a hard life!