Tishomingo Blues
Words & music: Spencer Williams (1917) – Arrangement: Brenda Wootton
Brenda at Newlyn Harbour © Sue Ellery-Hill
Brenda’s selection of material for her concerts very much depended on her singing songs with which she felt comfortable, which appealed to her, and hopefully, to her audiences. Fairly obviously, her choices were very popular with audiences around the world – and although her love of Cornwall shone through every programme, audiences could also expect to be regaled with an eclectic range of songs incorporating bawdy humour, sensitive love songs, powerful spirituals, ballsy blues and punchy rock numbers.
Brenda’s arrangement of Spencer William’s Tishomingo Blues
I’m goin’ to Tishomingo, because I’m sad today
I wish to linger way down old Dixie way
Oh, my weary heart cries out in pain
Oh, how I wish that I was back again
With a race, in a place
Where they make you welcome all the time
Way down in Mississippi, among the cypress trees
They get you dippy, with their strange melodies
To resist temptation, I just can’t refuse
In Tishomingo I wish to linger
Where they make the weary blues
Sue Ellery-Hill Aug 2020