“I got myself a rockin’ chair to see if I could lose them thin dime, hard time, hell on Church Street blues”

Norman Blake, “Church Street Blues”

Do a search for “Church Street Blues” and you’ll find a lot of Tony Rice and good for you because I think of Tony Rice as one of the greatest guitarists to ever touch the instrument. However, “Church Street Blues” was a Norman Blake tune that Tony covered. Blake, another incredible guitarist, wrote the tune and debuted it on his fabulous 1976 Whiskey Before Breakfast on Starday/King Records.

Norman Blake is an appalachian fella have been born in Chattanooga, TN, raised in Sulphur Springs, AL and then returning to Chattanooga after time in the Army and Nashville. While in the Army Blake started the Kobbe Mountaineers and also recorded with the Lonesome Travelers. He headed for Nashville after the Army to work as a studio musician. He beacme a member of Johnny Cas’s band and worked for Cash solely for ten years and offf and on for thirty years. Bob DYlan brought him in to record on Nashville Skyline. THings heated up from there as Blake worked on the Johnny Cash TV show, toured with Kris Kristofferson, recorded “The Night THey Drove Old Dixie Down” with Joan Baez all before, in 1971 becoming a member of the Aero-plain bluegrass band with John Hartfor and Vassar Clements. It was Blake on dobro for the 1972 recording of Will The Circle Be Unbroken.

Norman Blake is a legend in the folk and acoustic music circle but he truly deserves to be known in larger circles and for far more than the Church Street Blues.

Below is a recording Norman Blake’s original version. I couldn’t find a video of him playing it. I did find a video of Tony Rice from the DVD “An Intimate Lesson With Tony Rice” (Source VHS) covering the tune. I’m including it as well as well as a Spotify playlist of as many versions of

Here are a handful of Norman Blake tunes.