Little Willie Eason and His Talking Gospel Guitar "Franklin D. Roosevelt, A Poor Man's Friend"
Documentary:
Little Willie Eason and His Talking Gospel Guitar - directed by Alan Govenar http://www.docarts.com/little_willie_eason.html As I type you can download an MP3 of the song on right side of the page here - you have to put in the provided 3 letter code (10 MB):
http://beemp3.com/download.php?file=251000&song=Franklin+D.+Roosevelt%2C+A+Poor+Man's+FriendA little about Willie Eason and Sacred Steel Guitar
http://www.sptimes.com/2002/04/21/Floridian/Soul_of_steel.shtmlBy TONY GREEN
St. Petersburg Times
published April 21, 2002 Some people look outside themselves for evidence of God's favor. Sitting in his Pinellas Point living room, surrounded by musical mementos, singing and coaxing heartfelt gospel sounds from his lap steel guitar, Willie Eason shows that the Almighty's blessings can exist deep within.
Halfway through his song I Never Heard a Man Speak Like This Man Before, he pauses to tell about the time a car fell on him, requiring surgeons to put a metal plate in his head. Then he tells the story of how, as a boy, he was playing in an elevator shaft when the elevator came down and crushed half his body, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. The doctors told him he would never walk or father children.
Now 81, he's still walking. (FYI: Eason passed away in 2005)<...>
To the part of the world that knows about it, Eason's brand of music is called "sacred steel" -- deep gospel played on a lap or pedal steel guitar. To Willie Eason, the father of the style, it's both his gift to the world and his expression of his personal blessings.
"People tell me all the time, 'All you been through, you are one lucky man,' " he said. "If you want to call God lucky, well go on ahead. I know who to thank." <...>
But, as Randolph and other players are quick to point out, the music's true function is to bring listeners closer to the Holy Spirit, not merely to entertain. That's why it's impossible to understand the music without knowledge of the church that spawned it. <...>
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